Lin and Vanessa declare that I have to take Sebastian trick-or-treating around the building. I'm thrilled. That way I don't have to suffer through another moment of Lin's homemade scarecrow outfit or the smell of Vanessa's mummified enchiladas.
I must be back before 6:30. I must have fun. I must wear a costume. That's what Lin says. I look out the kitchen window behind him for inspiration. A group of little characters is coming up the block. A princess, a dinosaur, two pirates and a vampire. A few feet behind them: the local mechanic heading out to get some dinner. I hear he's an ex-con. The outside world is dangerous for kids in costumes. This is Washington Heights we're talking about. There are worse things on those streets than ghosts and blood sucking monsters. Tall creatures with crackling cigarettes and pre-cracked knuckles lurk behind those children. Candy isn't the only thing they're giving out. Someone might see me with Sebastian and think he's my ransom, like I'm about to pawn him off to a bigger and badder steam engine in exchange for a lifetime supply of coal.
When I was a kid, my sister Radhika used to take my brother Nayim and I trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The year I was eight, the three of us stayed awake after our mother and father went to bed and told ghost stories. I remember Radhika told the story of a man whose corpse was frozen to preserve his remains. That would be a cool costume, but I don't have a portable freezer, or a dead body. I steal a bandanna from Lin's closet, tie it around my face, and mehndi three teardrops beneath my left eye. I don't have to change my clothes. I already look like the face of juvie's latest jumpsuit catalog.
After a ten minutes of warnings and goodbyes and stay safes, Lin sees us out the door and into the underworld. Sebastian is dressed as Thomas the Tank engine, with a blue foam box hanging by straps from his shoulders. Vanessa is ready at the kitchen table with a bowl of assorted wrapped chocolates. Lin catches the door when I go to slam it. "What are you supposed to be?"
"A gang leader." I stare real long at his straw hat and eyeliner stitched mouth, then point to my three mehdni teardrops. "Guess who."
After two floors of door to door, Sebastian's plastic jack o' lantern is three quarters full. At one point he drops his bucket and the penguin girl next to him grabs a handful of the spilt candy for herself. "This blows," Sebastian says when we climb the stairs back to the ninth floor.
"Not having fun?" I steal a tootsie roll from his bucket.
He doesn't answer, but he doesn't have to. He has this toddler face that makes everything he wants seem like an obligation. Halloween was never a big deal at Hope House, but there was one thing we did. "I have an idea."
We sit at the landing of the last flight of stairs. He passes me candies too hard for his teeth and we dream up the night's big scheme. That little rascal. I never knew he had the mental capacity to align his infant misery with my desire to dislodge any sort of suburban celebration.
After Lin and Vanessa go to bed, he meets me in my room with a blanket and his three-quarters full jack o' lantern. The room is pitch black when he shuts the door. I have a delicate setup in the middle of the room. Now, I'm no mathematician. I don't know how many degrees are in a right angle. But these three candles are placed in such a perfect triangle, it makes me think I might not completely flunk the visual portion of geometry. Sebastian sits across from me and sheepishly slides his jack o' lantern across the floor. Me and the Hope House girls performed a séance each Halloween within seven minutes of midnight-- seven minutes, because big strong Tiffany Wilson proctored the thing and seven was her lucky number. We didn't have to worry about covering up the smell of smoke. The staff had gone nose-blind to the stench of nicotine long before the dinosaurs conked out.
I use Vanessa's lighter to flame the wicks of the candle sticks. I dig up nine pieces of reject candy from the bottom of the jack o' lantern, the salt watered taffy and the dreaded expired peppermint, then place them gently in the middle. A food offering. The girls wanted to impress the spirits. They cut themselves with their nails and squeezed three drops of blood into the center of the candles. Poltergeists are a tough group to run with.
We grab each others hands so our arms circle the candles. It's more like an oval. There were so much more of us at Hope House, at least eleven or twelve girls. We had some on the floor, some on the windowsill, some on the beds. Sebastian stares wide eyed into the flames. "You ready to talk to some ghosts?" I ask.
He closes his eyes and gives a long, booming om.
"No, it goes like this." I exaggerate the highs and lows of the sentence to enhance the Halloween-ness. "Spirits of the past, move among us. Be guided by the light of this world and visit upon us."
We begin to chant. Sebastian puts a big dip in the first few words, then slides his voice upwards, the same way he said om. The candle wicks crackle. The girls never got any real response. We heard things outside the window that we interpreted as signs, like real loud traffic beeps or a pigeon perched on the windowsill. Deep down I hope something freaky happens. I want Sebastian to see that, the knowledge I have.
Halfway through the sixth repetition of the chant, Sebastian's voice begins to waver and his palms get sweaty. The wind picks up through the window and blows transparent storm clouds over the moon. Quiet enough not to interfere, strong enough to make us feel wicked and powerful. We keep a steady pace with the chant, a pair of invincible mediums. I actually think for a moment that we'll get a response, that we'll become BFFs with the lost spirits, and—
The door flings open and bangs against the wall. I scream. Sebastian shrieks at the top of his lungs and lunges into my arms and I cling to him for dear life and why the hell am I scared and-
No, it's not a lost spirit, it's Lin in his underwear and an old t-shirt. He looks like he saw two ghosts himself, one still shrieking in spider man pajamas and one bandanna-faced poltergeist fighting off the flailing smaller one.
He watches Sebastian shriek in intervals for a moment before doing something between a laugh and a scoff. "Vidya, what the hell are you doing?"
There is no better feeling of accomplishment than knowing you simultaneously surprised and pissed someone off. Happy Halloween.
YOU ARE READING
SHOUT - Adopted by Lin Manuel Miranda
Fanfiction"Sometimes I think the universe sets certain people out into the world like gifts meant for others, people whose purpose is to save someone else. That's how I think of families. And if the universe couldn't do me that favor, couldn't put someone on...
