[She remembers things that Ben never would, walking the dark between houses illuminated by yellow light through the scraped-orange walls of pumpkin flesh, skittering closer to decipher their meaning. They couldn't do something like that here, she knows. They could never make it dark enough, at least physically. But there was some strange camaraderie in being shadowed shapes passing in the night, faces covered, tripping over rocks and roots and weeds.]
[There was always someone to guide her, back then. Now she reaches her hand out to Ben, and he is always there.]
I think . . . a couple of things reminded me. [She pushes her hair behind her ears, settling the bear against her knee so that she can make little fluttering gestures with both hands.] I wear - faces that aren't mine. Not so much since we got back from there. It's mostly just been me. But mostly, I do, and I was thinking about that and I thought of Halloween and dressing up and . . .
But mostly, I think it's just that I missed you. And I like doing things with you, because you're my warden and my friend. And I don't . . . think that my mom would mind, if I did something with you that used to be our tradition, hers and mine. She'd like you.
[She would worry, maybe. But she would love Ben in the end.]
[ Private ]
[She remembers things that Ben never would, walking the dark between houses illuminated by yellow light through the scraped-orange walls of pumpkin flesh, skittering closer to decipher their meaning. They couldn't do something like that here, she knows. They could never make it dark enough, at least physically. But there was some strange camaraderie in being shadowed shapes passing in the night, faces covered, tripping over rocks and roots and weeds.]
[There was always someone to guide her, back then. Now she reaches her hand out to Ben, and he is always there.]
I think . . . a couple of things reminded me. [She pushes her hair behind her ears, settling the bear against her knee so that she can make little fluttering gestures with both hands.] I wear - faces that aren't mine. Not so much since we got back from there. It's mostly just been me. But mostly, I do, and I was thinking about that and I thought of Halloween and dressing up and . . .
But mostly, I think it's just that I missed you. And I like doing things with you, because you're my warden and my friend. And I don't . . . think that my mom would mind, if I did something with you that used to be our tradition, hers and mine. She'd like you.
[She would worry, maybe. But she would love Ben in the end.]