My fingers were pricked and prodded, accidentally stabbed with my sewing needles. My fingers were wrapped in bandages and sprinkled in ointment. My fingers were also kissed and looked after with tender care.
"What are you working on now?" Luca came through the bathroom door as I sat like a crazy lady with my sewing machine and different fabrics for the costumes. Every year, the kids picked costumes from the bin I had created from scraps and every year we've gotten donations to spruce up the costumes each.
Some kids wanted new costumes entirely, I had the very basic ones. I had the pirates, the angels, the fairies, the ninjas and so much more jumbled costumes I mixed and matched over the years. And so as the holiday neared, I set out to work sewing rapidly.
Each costume was made with love and each one we reused each year, and if we couldn't reuse it we would give it to a classmate down the hall or someone who just needed a costume. Most kids did need costumes, they didn't have the means to go out and purchase a costume. So I gave them their costume, so they didn't have to worry about the price, about not having enough money.
Most people used to ask me why I pulled all the stops out for Halloween, why for this one night I went crazy.
The kids needed a normal schedule, an experience that other kids had and I wanted to make this as normal as it is for them. So they brought out their siblings and their friends to trick or treat around some of the trucks the ladies from the community center had.
And every year they made donation boxes for our Christmas Fund, every year we get a couple hundred, our record amount was $400. This year I hoped for more, as the kids' lists grew longer and they knew they wouldn't get some of the things they wanted. But I wanted them to have a great Christmas this year.
These donation boxes could buy many presents the kids couldn't normally get, and that's what made them even more special. These kids deserve a happy loving home, and I just wanted to give them a good environment to have and to depend on when things got hard.
"Spider-Man", I said, as he peered over, as I rummaged through my boxes of scraps and costumes. He appeared behind me, stretching his arms down and wrapping them around me. His neck brushed against my own, as he layered kisses on my cheek.
"Let me help", he asked, picking through the fabrics. I looked at him strangely, wondering how he could help. He stood above me, smiling, his sweatpants clung onto his waist as he played with my hair, running his hands through its curls.
"How are you supposed to help?" I asked him, looking up, meeting his soulful eyes and his soaked hair.
"I know how to sew, let me finish this", he grabbed the costume, taking the needle in between his fingers. He had no idea how to sew, maybe he had a vague idea, but he looked like if I left him alone he would end up bleeding out.
"You know how to sew?" I asked him, watching as he played with the needle, trying to stop letting it fall on the floor. But he failed, and he picked it back up again each time.
He nodded his head, as he tried pushing the thread through the hole in the needle, but he kept missing.
"I learnt in 9th grade don't you remember, who could make the best star?" He asked me, bringing up a memory I had locked away, simply because I didn't win.
Somehow in some way Luca and I had gotten placed in the same skills for living class, at the time it was a credit for us to graduate. So I did it in 9th grade, knowing it was an easy class. And he did it too, the same as me, in the same class. It was as if our counselors wanted us to be in the same class, it did push us to get the best grades, to become the best we could be.
YOU ARE READING
A Flame From The Past
Romance"She was the only flame in his past, the only thing he loved about his past" 7 years fly by as Carina and Luca avoid the magical night they had, that left both of them speechless. But now that they meet in other circumstances, will they continue th...
