For Zoë, Halloween is just about as good as it gets. Not much in my daughter’s world beats candy; costumes, friends, make-up, and staying up late even on a school night. Life at age six can be gloriously simple.
But I don’t know much of what my son Max thought of Halloween. When he died at age two, he only had one real “trick-or-treat” to his credit. That year—1987—I dressed him in a pumpkin costume and we traipsed to a few neighbors. I took far too many pictures. Max was a fiend for sweets and with the candy ration lifted for the evening, he had to be living well
I imagine that year would have been his last dressed as a mommy-pleasing pumpkin. At three or four I knew he would demand Ninja or pirate costumes; I would have laughingly bought them and maybe even the plastic sword. I would have let him paint grotesque stitches across his nose and wear fangs that glowed in the dark.
Instead, this is Zoë’s year to cast aside the girly version of Max’s pumpkin cap. The beloved pink princess frills and red nail polish are being exchanged for a witch hat and black glue-on fingernails sharpened into talons. For the first time, she wants to be Scary and Ugly. With mahogany lipstick and smoky eyes, she will fly out the door in less than a month to cross one more threshold that her brother did not.
I can see the evening now. As I assemble face paints on the counter, I will take a deep breath —the same one I take every year at every holiday and milestone. With my unsteady hand I will design witchy warts and create wrinkles on Zoë’s perfect face. I will declare her the Scariest and Ugliest of All.
But as I help my little witch into her costume, I know my eyes will fill with tears. I will think about the years that were supposed to be: a young boy as Dracula, a 13 year-old teen in baggy clothes escorting his little witch-sister down the block. Who would he be now, the toddler we knew, the boy we lost? What would our life be like if the scary things were still just make-believe?
Zoë will see my tears, but she won’t be alarmed: in our family’s emotional lexicon, sad and happy often go together and crying is as OK as laughing. She will ask me why I’m sad and I will tell her the truth: I am thinking about Max and wishing he could be here. And although she is now the mean and fierce Witch Zoë, she will nod her head with understanding. Her plastic nails will lightly graze my arm as she reaches to pat me. Suddenly the frown on her face will disappear and she repeats what has become her annual Halloween revelation: “Mommy, it’s OK. Don’t forget that Max can go ‘trick-or-treat’ as an angel.” She describes a glittering figure, luminous wings aflutter, giant treat bag at the ready. I smile at the idea and the moment passes.
Later, I light the candle in the pumpkin and watch Zoë skip next door to show off her costume. She heads up the sidewalk, stopping halfway to turn and wave to me. She makes her scariest face and yells, “Mom—take my picture!” I raise my camera and look through the viewfinder. As the flash glows briefly in the dusk, I see a beautiful angel standing in the shadows beside her. But this angel doesn’t wear white and his wings have been clipped. I am sure he never had a golden halo. He is a small chubby boy with a jack-o-lantern face on his tummy and chocolate on his fingers. It is 1987 and he is having a really great Halloween. Just like his sister…
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