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“Would you please sit still?” Moria asked, holding Perona’s head like a claw machine picking a toy at the arcade. He made her face him, his hand steady as he applied the finishing touches around her brow with eyeliner and eyeshadow.
“Are you done yet?” Perona asked impatiently, frowning. Moria poked her between the eyes to force her to stop and relax, sticking a little peel-out gemstone on her forehead.
“Almost there. Beauty and horror take time, kid, be patient.”
“This is boring, I wanna go out already!” she pouted.
“Yeah, we’re going to the hospital if I poke your eye out. Stay… still… just… one… more… sec… there, you’re done.”
He turned her seat around for Perona to face the mirror so she could take a good look at herself. She smiled widely and stood with a little jump, then twirled around to make her dress puff up. Thankfully he had decided to fix her hair beforehand, or she would become unbearable if she needed to sit down for another minute. As she spun on her heels for the third time in a row and abruptly stopped to keep herself from toppling to the floor, Moria took the diadem he’d styled for an entire week and placed it atop of Perona’s head.
“How do I look?” Perona asked excitedly.
“Positively horrendous, baby.”
“You too, papa!”
Moria smiled at her compliment. Whilst he prided himself on his makeup skills and the level of production he had for his Halloween decorations, his daughter’s joy was the only recognition he needed. Even though he had to get in costume and fix his looks in record time just so that he could get Perona to be the creepiest and cutest Sugar-Skull Catrina in town, he’d done the best job he could do on himself.
In retrospect, he could be wearing a knife prop around his head and Perona would still praise his outfit.
“Ready to go out?”
“Sure! Just let me get my calaverita!” she said and went upstairs in a hurry to pick her skull-shaped bucket, ready to receive as many candies as it could fit.
Moria headed to the kitchen and took a tote bag from the rack so that Perona could empty her bucket and continue on her trick-or-treating rampage later on. As he returned to their living room to wait for her to come back down, he noticed the water of their flowers at the ofrenda was starting to turn murky. He’d been so busy setting the decorations in their front yard he had forgotten to change it earlier that week.
“Perona! Could you help me before we head out?” Moria said out loud. The girl came rushing down the stairs in a hurry, bucket in hand.
“What is it?”
“Would you help me change the water?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure mom and your buddies wouldn’t like their flowers rotting!”
Perona took a wicker basket from their kitchen and helped him remove the flowers from every flower vase, so that Moria could change the murky water. She then took the flowers, putting them back into place before setting them back into the ofrenda. She carefully arranged them around the various portraits of their dearly departed.
“We’re going out, mom. I hope we get a lot of candy tonight! I’ll save you all the gummy worms!” Perona said, caressing the edge of her mother’s portrait.
Perona’s mom had a bright and youthful face, framed by pink locks of hair in a rockabilly up-do, and a leather jacket wrapped around her shoulders to match her rebellious, yet glamorous look. Moria had snapped that picture years ago, back in the day when things were simpler. Some days he missed her and those dear friends smiling back at them from the other picture frames, those he’d lost due to his reckless behavior. Other days he remembered he was responsible for the child she’d left behind and he simply carried on. He had to, for her, for Perona and himself.
As Perona squeezed his hand and pulled from his arm, he remembered he had better stuff to worry about rather than moping around his house on Halloween. He smiled at her and followed along, hurrying to fetch his keys before Perona left him behind.
No matter how many times he told her not to run or she’d fall flat on her face, Perona would never listen. Moria sighed, trying to follow behind as fast as he could before losing her amongst the crowd of trick-or-treaters. Thankfully, Perona was always easy to pinpoint, with her loud voice, peculiar laughter and bright cotton candy colored hair. People would often chastise him for being too lax with his daughter’s discipline, but Moria wouldn’t hear a thing. Perona was a kid and she needed to behave as such. He’d worry once she hit puberty. For now, he’d let her enjoy her childhood as much as possible. With one earphone in place, he strolled behind his little pink-haired menace as she ran around the neighborhood asking for candy at each door open before her.
Moria tried not to be judgmental of other people’s decorations, but given that Halloween was his bread and butter, he couldn’t help but critically eye the haunted mazes, campy decor or raunchy zombie infested lawns around the block. Whenever Perona rushed back to empty her bucket of candy on the tote bag he carried over his shoulder, they regrouped for a second to chit chat and gossip about the neighbor’s bad choice in aesthetics. The only worthy contender was Mrs. Charlotte, who had a big house decorated with creepy candy motifs from floor to ceiling. She was also a hot spot for trick-or-treaters, since she was the only one around the neighborhood who gave handmade full-sized chocolate bars all night.
Speaking of the devil, Mrs. Charlotte’s —Big Mom, as the kids of the cul-de-sac called her due to her large size— house was not only crowded, but swarming with children and teens reading themselves to receive a large piece of candy from the woman. She had just opened the door and carried a large basket of chocolates in hand. She was dressed as a witch in pastel tones this year, and was being helped by her eldest son, dressed as a famous chocolatier with a top hat, candy cane and all. Together, they began handing out the chocolate bars.
“FULL SIZE CHOCOLATE BARS!” Perona screeched and lunged ahead towards the crowd, elbowing several older kids to make her way to the front.
Moria smiled, watching her disappear amongst the children. He checked his phone, scrolling down on social media while he waited for her to return. After a few minutes, he began to worry. He’d seen several children come and go, but Perona hadn’t returned. He looked around, stretching his neck to see if he caught a glimpse of her, but he couldn’t find her in the dark. Anxiety began to brew in his gut until he saw her, identifying her by the bright pink hair. She was skipping happily and quickly towards the next house on the block. Slightly worried, Moria trotted behind until he caught up with her. Catching the girl by the shoulder, he spun her around to warn her not to run around without giving him any notice.
The girl was, unfortunately, not his daughter. Startled by the sudden contact with a stranger, she began to wail. Loudly. Moria gulped, trying to help her calm down as he looked around for her parents. The girl had bright pink hair just as Perona, but she was younger, shorter, and was not wearing a Catrina dress, but a honey bee costume instead.
“Hey, girlie, calm down… where is your mum or dad?” he muttered in his best attempt at sounding soothing. The girl only cried louder, blabbering incomprehensibly.
Moria grunted, feeling his eye twitch with stress, as not only had he made the girl cry, but his own daughter was nowhere to be seen. With one hand still hovering above the little honey bee, he craned his head to search for Perona. It didn’t take long to find her, as she was currently brawling with a green-haired kid dressed as a samurai only two houses away from Big Mom’s front yard. She was attempting to take a full-sized chocolate bar from the kid, who had apparently taken it from her in some sort of misunderstanding.
Right before he could call her out to leave it be and get in line again, he was suddenly tackled to the ground in the most unceremonious manner possible. The man who had run him down was large as a barrel and comically dressed as a grizzly bear. He had to be the honeybee’s dad, no doubt about it. Before Moria could pick himself from the floor, the man had gotten off of him, picked up the girl and patted her softly until she became calm again. She started thrashing and laughing when her father began smooching her face. . He dropped her to the ground and leaned down to speak with her.
“…No, he didn’t hurt me, he was trying to help me find you,” he heard the little girl tell the man. He snuggled her and kissed her forehead, then proceeded to shower her with yet more kisses. “I’m fine, daddy, really!”
“Fine then. Don’t run off like that, Bonney, it’s dangerous.”
Without waiting for another word of advice, the girl ran off into the crowd of children, trying to find her way into the chaotic queue. Moria sat down and rested his arms on his knees, feeling his back grow stiff.
“Hey, man. Sorry I did that. I kinda freaked out.” The man said, offering a hand to help him get on his feet.
“Don’t worry, I’d have done the same. Speaking of… ah, seems like my little gremlin won her chocolate bar back!” Moria said as Perona stuck her tongue out at him and raised her chocolate in the air, victorious. Moria cheered her on, sticking his tongue out as well and raising his fist in the air, making horns with his fingers.
“That’s your kid?” The bear-clad man asked, pointing at Perona with his thumb.
“Yeah… well, my best friend’s kid, but she’s now my… never mind, yeah, she’s my kid.”
“Strange coincidence.” The man said, tilting his head and smiling kindly.
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing…” the man said, shaking his head. Moria could see, however, that his eyes had teared up a little. “My name’s Kuma, by the way.”
“I’m Moria. I’ve never seen you two before. Are you new to the neighborhood?”
“Not quite. It’s our first time trick-or-treating, though. Bonney had been sick as a toddler and we couldn’t go out until she got better.”
“Ah, that explains the helicopter parent.” Moria chuckled. “Let her be, these streets are quite safe.”
Perhaps by a strange twist of fate, the two girls had found each other in the middle of the crowd. Bonney, given her age and size, had not been able to move forward at all, and Perona had decided to stay on the sidelines to avoid conflict this time, until she could make her way back to the front of the line. Noticing their similar and unusual hair color, they gravitate to one another immediately. Perona leaned closer first, grabbing a hold of Bonney’s space buns to check if they were dyed or natural. The younger girl stared at her makeup in awe, then began toying around the ribbons of Perona’s dress.
The older girl noticed the young honeybee had no candy on her bucket, so she leaned down, gifted her some of her own sweets, and grabbed her hand to lead her towards a less-crowded house where they could ask for a treat. Though Moria and Kuma could not hear their conversation from a distance, both of them smiled as Perona took out her chocolate bar from her bucket, unwrapped it, and gave Bonney half of it. Hand in hand they rang the bell to the house next door, with their fathers one step behind them.