Trick or Treat

Milo washed the dishes while Camus was upstairs getting the kids dressed up for the day. They didn't have any plans for the weekend, but Milo was thinking about a little trip to Flisvos beach. Being late October, it was already too cold to swim, but Isaac enjoyed watching the yachts that anchored in the marina and Hyoga loved the cheesy souvenir stores in the area. They could have a nice lunch before going back home to watch the classic Clash of the Titans movie for the 19th time. Milo smiled half-heartedly. If he had known his four year old would become obsessed with that movie, he wouldn't have showed it to him in the first place. Who would've thought he would ever miss Trolls World Tour? At least that one had cool music.

The doorbell rang and Milo dried his hands with a paper towel before opening the door. He didn't expect any visitors but he chose to answer the call because Camus might have ordered something online without giving him a heads up.

Milo glimpsed through the peephole of the door and, as expected, the solicitor was none other than the DHL guy: an always welcome presence in his household. Milo opened the door and received a narrow cardboard box meant for Camus. He tipped the courier and closed the door as he wondered what could be inside the light little box.

"Camus! There's a parcel for you!"

Ten seconds later, Isaac hurried to his side while Camus helped Hyoga, their two year old, down the stairs.

"What is it? Is it for me? Is it toys?" asked Isaac with unfounded enthusiasm.

"I don't know," Milo winked at Camus. "Perhaps they're toys for me…"

Camus didn't appreciate his joke, so he ignored Milo for sake of the parcel.

"It's the kids' costumes I ordered last Wednesday."

The man took the box and walked towards the living room with Milo, Isaac and Hyoga tailing after him.

"You already bought their costumes? Isn't it too early for that?"

"Early? Halloween is next weekend!" Camus opened the box and showed him a couple of plastic bags that contained different outfits. One was a duckling costume and the other one was the creature from the black lagoon.

"Halloween?" Milo was baffled. What on earth was Camus thinking when he ordered those costumes?

"I know I should've mentioned it before, but the moment I saw this one" he shook the bag with the green costume. "I knew I had to order it."

"What's so special about the creature from the black lagoon?"

"That's no black lagoon creature!" declared Isaac as he reached his hands for the costume bag. "That's the kraken!"

Camus allowed the children to hold their respective costumes.

"That's no kraken, Camus," whispered Milo, "that's the goddamned creature from the black lagoon."

"With some make-up no one will know the difference."

"Okay, fine. It's a great plan for the carnival, but we cannot take the kids trick or treating."

Milo should have known better, but he spoke those words way louder than he intended.

"Why?" Isaac whined "I wanna go trick or treating! Baba promised!"

Hyoga didn't quite understand what was going on, but Camus held him just in time to avoid a tantrum chain reaction.

"Shh... it's alright," said Camus. "We are going trick or treating. Aren't we, Milo?"

Milo almost winced when he heard Camus' authoritarian tone. Nevertheless, he had to be honest with him.

"I know you celebrated Halloween back in France, Camus, but this is Greece. People here don't think twice about that holiday. The costumes and the candies will have to wait until the carnival," as in cue, Isaac's drama escalated. "That's just four months from now!"

Four months sounded much closer on his mind than on his mouth.

"Last year was meant to be their first trick or treating and we had to cancel it because of COVID-19, Milo. We're going to celebrate Halloween and that's final."

Camus took the children upstairs, leaving Milo behind. He felt like the worst dad ever, but he knew that he had to do something or their trick or treating will be a complete disaster. No one would open their doors to complete strangers on Halloween night; and even if they did, they wouldn't have any candy to spare.

Hoping to avoid further drama, Milo did the only thing he could think of.

He took his cellphone out and prayed that Google would give him a solution.

"There you are." said Camus. "Aren't you the cutest little duckling in the entire world, Hyoga?"

Hyoga giggled and quacked as he extended his arms so Camus could get him down the changing table. His father obliged and then turned his attention to the other part of the room where Milo was adding the final touches to Isaac's face paint.

"You did a great job with that."

"Of course I did! I practiced all week!"

"Isaac balloon! Isaac balloon! Balloon!"

Hyoga giggled as he moved his wings up and down. Milo made the mental note not to practice face painting on balloons ever again. It would take weeks for Hyoga to stop calling Isaac a balloon.

"I'm not a balloon!" Isaac said. "I'm the kraken!"

"That you are," Milo agreed. "And we're about to release you."

Isaac growled enthusiastically and Hyoga imitated him.

"Whoa! Calm down, kiddos. You don't want to scare me away, do you?"

"I'm not scary, papa, I'm cute!" Hyoga asserted with much more confidence than Milo ever had at his age.

"Yes you are, darling. Let us take some pictures so we can always remember how cute and scary you looked today, shall we?"

"But I want candy now!"

Milo was about to concede Isaac's demand. After all, he had been waiting for trick or treating for an entire week. He was usually much more polite, but Camus hyped the holiday for him. Unfortunately, Camus was not about to give up on a Halloween photoshoot.

"We'll go trick or treating in a minute, Isaac," the kid knew he had no hope once he heard Camus' strict tone. "Papa and baba want to remember this day forever."

To be fair, Camus kept the photographs to a minimum and they got into the van five minutes later. The sun was setting and Milo sat their destination to the National University of Athens.

They parked the car not next to the university grounds, but in the surrounding area with the run down apartments usually rented by the international students. Just before leaving the car, Camus put on his own costume: a black cape and a ruffled shirt. Earlier that day he tried putting on a pair of fake fangs, but he gave up on the idea when he realized how uncomfortable they were. Milo's disguise was even less enthusiastic (the only costumes he enjoyed were the ones he could use at his and Camus' bedroom), and he was content enough with a pair of werewolf ears.

They walked through the street leading to the university main campus and, as expected, many of the buildings had Halloween decorations on their doors. In some, groups of dressed up students with huge bowls of candy on their hands were already waiting for the children.

Their first stop was on the white, shaggy porch of a four story building. Sitting on the stairs was a couple of young boys. One was pale and beautiful and wore a cute black and purple witch costume. The other one wore an inappropriately graphic trash metal t-shirt and a bored face which made it very clear he was only there because he was forced to (maybe the witch had something to do with it?). Milo wondered if the boy's attire was usual on him or if he had chosen to look particularly bleak that night.

As soon as they were close enough, Isaac took Hyoga's hand and together they walked toward the students.

"Trick or trick!" yelled Isaac while Hyoga ogled the nougat stuffed chocolates on the witch's bowl.

"How adorable!" the pale student screamed with delight. "You're such a lovely duckling I want to eat you," Hyoga quacked in response. "And you are the scariest creature from the black lagoon I've ever seen!"

Before Isaac or Milo would correct the witch, the other student barked an annoyed growl and leaned his body toward the kids.

"You're so ignorant, Dite! This is clearly a reference to the 1981 Clash of the Titans movie, starting Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, and with the masterful puppeteering of the stop motion king: Ray Harryhausen," the metal head had a raspy voice and a very distinct Italian accent. "Kudos, kid. That's one of my favorite movies," he fist bumped Isaac.

"Gosh, you're such a nerd…" the witch dismissed his friend with a dramatic hand wave before focusing once more on the children. "Here you have, darlings. Happy Halloween!"

Isaac and Hyoga took a handful of party sized chocolates and put them on their little pumpkin buckets.

"What do we say to the nice young men, kids?" Camus asked.

"Thank you!" babbled Hyoga.

Isaac, on the other hand, was much more eloquent and wasn't afraid to show it.

"Thank you, miss witchy and mister zombie!"

"What?!" the witch burst out laughing while the metal head crossed his arms and tried to keep a straight face. "I'm not a stupid zombie."

Camus apologized to the Italian and bid them goodbye while Isaac and Hyoga sung the Plants vs. Zombie theme song.

Similar scenes repeated throughout the entire evening.

In the end, the children looted a decent amount of candy. Of course, it wasn't as much as they would get during the carnival, but Milo wasn't stupid enough to mention it. The important thing was that the children were overjoyed and that Camus was satisfied.

By the time they reached the university campus, Hyoga was already asleep on his stroller, but Isaac was energetic enough to enjoy the kiddie rides and games organized by the student council. His favorite ride, by far, was the bouncy Dracula's castle, and he returned to it over and over again.

"This was a wonderful idea, Milo," said Camus as they watched their oldest son playing on the castle. "Thank you for bringing us here."

Camus kissed Milo on the cheek, but the former wasn't sure he deserved it.

"The only good idea I had was to google a way to celebrate Halloween in Athens. I've lived here my entire life and I never knew the international students did this for the kids."

"Either way, I'm glad we came. This is going to be a wonderful memory for our children."

Milo sighed as he caught a glimpse of Isaac jumping up and down the bouncy castle.

"I sure hope so. They are growing up so fast…"

"I know," Camus laughed halfheartedly. "One day we were finally out of quarantine and the next one we were celebrating Halloween. We'll be decorating for Christmas in no time."

Milo nodded.

"I know! We missed it last year, but this time we're going to decorate the prettiest ship in the entire city!"

Slowly, very slowly, Camus turned his head to stare directly into Milo's eyes.

"Ship?"

Milo panicked for a couple of seconds until he remembered that in France they didn't decorate Christmas ships.

"And tree, of course!" he blurted out in panic. "We should have both! It'll be good for the kids to grow up in a multicultural environment."

Camus' lips curved up in a conceited smile before kissing Milo on the mouth.

"I agree."

An awkward silence fell upon them. Milo wondered if he had managed to anger Camus once again, but when he looked at him in search for a frown or a scowl, he found a deep red blush instead.

"Camus?"

He cleared his throat as he made sure Hyoga was still asleep.

"You know… I bought another costume for tonight, but I can only wear it in our bedroom."

Milo felt the heat rise from his gut, but he tried his best not to look too excited. They were in public, after all.

"Did you, now?" he nuzzled Camus' soft, lovely hair with his nose. "In that case we should go back soon."

Camus contained a chuckle as he nodded toward the bouncy castle.

"I give him fifteen minutes. You better be ready to carry him all the way back to the car."

"Are you kidding? I'll carry him all the way back home if he promises to sleep throughout the entire night."

Camus chuckled and kissed him once more. Milo wondered if he should ask him to wear the fake fangs later that night. Would they match his special costume?

"Papa," a tired voice interrupted Milo's deep thoughts. "I'm sleepy. I jumped too much and now I wanna go home."

Milo smiled and cradled Isaac against his chest.

"Let's go home, then."

Together, the family began their trip back to the van. The children were exhausted and soundly asleep, which meant their first trick or treating was a big success.

Milo could barely wait to get his own tasty treat.