Page 135 of We Drank the Dawn

“Uncle Peter, isn’t my dress pretty?” Nora chirped as we meandered down the sidewalk.

“Stop asking him stuff like that. He can’t see it, Nors.” Izzy reminded her with a whisper.

A smile toyed at my lips as I enjoyed how the two of them bantered. Nora exasperated Izzy with her sugar-hyped energy and endless chatter. And Izzy wouldn’t dream of missing an opportunity to correct her little sister. We walked through downtown Comfort—if you could call it a downtown. It was the only area where shops were pushed together, their storefronts facing the sidewalk. The community was tiny compared to the big city back home, but the people were friendly and loved the fact that the one and only Meadowbrook Ranch called Comfort their home.

It was the Saturday before Halloween and Comfort’s annual Scarecrow Invasion where the businesses set up scarecrows all over town and provided a community trick-or-treat. The kids kept laughing and pointing them out, entertained by the funny scenes the shopkeepers put the scarecrows in. We went inside each store so the kids could get candy and every person we met along the way had something to say about Meadowbrook making the pros.

It was nice, being together without working for once. Tag, Jesse, and Cody were out of town, but my sisters, their children, Cooper, and I were doing Halloween festivities with the kids tonight since actual Halloween fell on a school night.

Nora pushed closer to me, her layers of tulle brushing over the side of my jeans. By the way her voice directed up at me, I could tell she was looking in my face. “Touch it,” she said.

I reached down and rubbed the back of my hand over the tulle that Nora was holding up. It was bristly and couldn’t be comfortable. “It feels pretty.” I said.

“It’s hot pink.” She informed me.

“I love that color.”

“Do you really?!”

Chuckling, I smiled down at her. “I really do.”

“Can you remember what it looks like?”

“Yeah. I can.”

“Uncle Peter, what’s your favorite type of candy?”

I hummed. “That’s a tough one. I like chocolate. Probably Twix.”

“We are twins!” Nora exploded.

“No way. Is that your favorite too?”

She monologued about heavenly Twix for a solid two minutes, so I took that as a yes. The girls were dressed up as princesses and Cade just wore his cowboy hat, saying that kids all over the US dressed up as cowboys on Halloween so he’d just arrive as himself and say it counted. Wren had wire fairy wings over a little lace dress and she woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the bed, grumping and whining every few minutes. Bea pushed her in her stroller, placating her with apple juice.

“There’s the playground.” Nora said, probably pointing. “Across the street.”

“Does that mean we’re at the end?” I asked her.

“Yep. We only have two more shops.”

Just before we entered the final shop, a lady stopped us with coos of admiration.

Hollie and Bea got sucked into conversation. The kids, still discussing their favorite candies, debated about the superiority of Starburst over all other fruit-flavored candy, trying to convert Cooper out of the Skittles camp.

But Wren was angry that we had stopped moving. Her little shoes made a tacky thap-thap-thap sound as she stomped on the foot rest. Bea had moved away from the stroller and Wren wasn’t too happy about being ignored. Crouching down next to her, I said, “What’s wrong, Wren?”

She whimpered and shoved something in front of my face. Thinking she was handing me something, I reached out and found her pointer finger extended in the general direction of the playground across the street. “Oh,” I said, “You want to go play?”

“Pay!” She said, confirming.

My awareness pulled down the road, taking note of an engine humming, accelerating. The traffic had been so light and infrequent that every passing car had stolen a bit of my attention.

“We’ll play really soon.” I reassured her. “We’re almost done.”

“Pay!” She whined louder, kicking harder.

It was almost dinner time, so maybe a snack would help. Bea had snacks somewhere in her diaper bag—surely I could find them. Propping my cane against the back of the stroller, I found the bag’s strap over the handle and unzipped it, gently rifling through the contents.