Nanny Undercover

Chapter 9: Happy Halloween

For Halloween, Goldie got the girls little costumes. Genie was a pumpkin, Pippa was candy corn, and Jemma was a ghost. The three girls looked absolutely adorable, and even made scary "woo" sounds when they saw Jemma's costume. Goldie surreptitiously took a photograph of them and sent it to the Velasquezes, knowing it would make the old couple happy.

"Ready to go trick or treating!" she sent with the picture.

Goldie was upstairs putting on a sweatshirt in preparation for heading out when she heard Jeff calling her from the living room. He didn't sound upset, merely excited, so she pulled her shirt, which had a haunted house on the front, over her head, and quickly headed downstairs.

"What? What?" she called with a smile as she entered the room.

Jeff was on the floor with the girls, who were all ready to head out.

"Listen, listen," Jeff said. He turned to Genie. "Darling, who's that? Who's that?" He pointed to Goldie. "Is that Goldie?"

Genie, too, pointed. "GO-DIE!" she announced proudly. "Go-die, Go-die."

Jemma, hearing her sister, looked over at Goldie. "Go-die," she repeated, smiling at her nanny.

Goldie gasped and looked at Jeff, who grinned back at her in delight. "I didn't even know Jemma would say it as well!" He looked over at Pippa, who was busy trying to pull Genie's pumpkin stem hat off of her head. "Now we just need Pips to say it, don't we?"

"I'll take two, that's wonderful," Goldie declared, rushing over to kiss the girls where they sat. "Are we ready to go trick or treating?"

They were really just going for a walk in the brisk evening to look at the decorations, and taking the girls to a couple of Jeff's friends' houses more than anything, but it was their first Halloween, and Jeff had wanted to celebrate it somehow.

They got the babies into their stroller and headed out, enjoying the girls' reactions to the lights and Jack-o-lanterns that lit up the streets of lower Manhattan. Their little fingers pointed, and their mouths made round Os of amazement and delight as they looked at the witches and spiderwebs that festooned the various brownstones and businesses that they passed. Jeff and Goldie, too, were having a good time just being with each other and the triplets.

Eventually, they went to Dean and Bobby's. Dean Parker was a photographer who'd done artwork for a couple of Jeff's albums, and they lived a few blocks away. They had no children, but loved Halloween, and went crazy every year decorating their house and dressing up.

"Ready, girls?" Goldie asked as she rang the bell.

"Trick or treat!" she and Jeff chorused when the door opened.

Dean, dressed as Elphaba, smiled widely when he saw who was at the door. Bobby was right behind him, dressed as the most beautiful Glinda Goldie had ever seen.

"Wow, look at you guys," Jeff said admiringly. "You look smashing!"

There was hugging and kissing all around.

"Oh my goodness, look at you little munchkins," Bobby responded, bending down to get a closer look at Jemma, Pippa and Genie. "You are the cutest little things I've seen all night, and that's saying something, because it's pretty much been a never ending parade of cute around here, hasn't it, Dean?"
Dean had grabbed Pippa out of the stroller and was holding her, beaming and nodding.

Pippa, who normally loved being held by Dean, was tonight staring at him in alarm. She leaned away from him, shaking her head, reaching for Goldie. She burst into tears, her triangular white hat shaking as she cried.