All Hallow's Eve

I didn't want to sound too excited so I stopped for a second as though pondering my answer. "Yes."

"I suspected as much."

With nothing else to say, she was going to hang up but she must have sensed my apprehension.

"Did you tell them . . . what I was planning to wear?" I stammered.

"Of course I told them. I tell them everything!" she replied, knowing she was just getting me fired up.

When I didn't reply, she let me off the hook.

"Don't worry about it. Just bring your costume and assorted accessories and be here promptly at 4 p.m. I know you're never late for anything, but if you're not here promptly at 4 p.m., the bus is leaving without you."

"Bus?"

"Figure of speech. Just bring your stuff and be here at four."

She hung up without another word. I dropped the phone back in the cradle and did my happy dance in the kitchen, relieved that my plans were set and that they were with a group of people with whom I liked to party. I reached up, unplugged the phone, set the deadbolt, switched off the light and called it a night.

I had managed to keep my heat in the game as the week wound down towards the weekend, but my heart wasn't really in it. It was especially bad as Saturday ticked away and I was forced to blow off my studies and just crash out in front of the television. I tried to sleep in Sunday morning as late as possible but the butterflies in my stomach sprang to life the minute I came away and there would be not more rest today. I got up, ate leftover pizza around noon and wiled away the hours as they passed excruciating slow. Three o'clock finally came and I got ready and packed a large shopping bag with everything I would need tonight for my costume. As was often my habit, I climbed into my car ten minutes earlier than necessary and found myself parked in front of the sorority house fifteen minutes before my appointed time.

"Strange." I commented to myself.