Things Are Really Looking Up

Veronica brought the dogs back from the park thoroughly frustrated by the pressures put upon the human race by organized holidays. Mary was set up in front of the little TV getting ingredients together for dinner. That was a relief since the Morgan family had had Chinese three times this week and it was only Wednesday.

Veronica sighed loudly.

“I thought candy and trick-or-treating were good things,” Mary said. “Why the long face? Help me with these beans.”

“I have no one to go trick-or-treating with.”

“I thought the Athena person asked you.”

“She did,” Veronica said.

Mary looked at her, clearly exasperated. “Open windows. How many times I have to say that? Open windows.”

“Mary, when my glass is full, I will carry it through the first open window I see. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“But since I have nothing to wear, my glass is not full. And therefore, I cannot go through any windows,” Veronica declared.

“Mien Gott, there are nine days till Halloween. We have nothing but time! It is not like you are stuck between a rock and the deep blue sea.” Mary could make mincemeat out of the English language while expressing herself perfectly. But Veronica had her heart set on having a miserable Halloween and she wasn’t budging.

She snapped her beans and put the little ends in a pile for her mother’s bag of vegetable trimmings in the freezer. Mrs. Morgan brought this bag of garbage to the compost stall at the farmers’ market on Saturdays. It was so embarrassing.

“Maybe I can be a bucket of compost,” Veronica said absently.

“Two months, two months,” Mary said just as absently.

“What are you muttering about?” Veronica said.

“Two months I give this hillbilly Hollywood couple,” Mary said. She scoffed into her string beans.

“What Hollywood couple? What do you mean?”

“It is crazy the way these people with more money than God pretend to be humble and poor. Ach. I wash my hands. Two months till the divorce.”

Veronica looked up at the little white TV. Mary was very attached to shows about celebrities. The bride Mary was upset about today was a blond judge from a reality singing show. Her wedding outfit was cutoff shorts and a ponytail. The groom wore a top hat and no shirt. They were in Las Vegas at a fake chapel getting married by an Elvis Presley impersonator.

Mary slid the bowl of beans closer to Veronica, who took a new handful. “So,” Mary continued, “what are your friends going as for Halloween?”

“I don’t have any friends,” Veronica said.

“What about the Melody person and the Athena person?”

“They aren’t real friends.”

“Wait. Let me get my little violin and play you a sad song. You know why you have no friends? Cadbury. He is a real-life friend but he is a dog. You should also have real-life friends who are girls, who are at least humans. Melody doesn’t seem so terrible. Maybe a little boring, but not the worst person in the world. What is your complaint against the other one?”

“Nothing’s wrong with Athena. Except that she doesn’t need anyone whose name isn’t Sarah-Lisa.”

“Look! Again they show that crazy marriage. Look, look, look, they get married like on a shtetl even though they live in Beverly Hills. I bet that Elvis Presley isn’t even certified. What is so wrong with a priest? Or a rabbi or a justice of the peace? Nothing is sacred.”

When Veronica had imagined Cadbury and Fitzy’s wedding it was very old-fashioned. It would be something Mary would approve of. She looked up from her beans. “Mary, you’re a genius! I’m going to marry Fitzy and Cadbury for Halloween,” Veronica said. “I’ll be the priest.”

“Now you’re talking, my baby.” Mary kissed Veronica on the head three times.

They spent the rest of the afternoon gathering what they could find to make Veronica’s costume. Mary pulled an old black shirt from the donation pile.

“You wear this buttoned in the back and we make a white collar?”

“Yes!” Veronica said. They cut a collar out of the cardboard from one of Mr. Morgan’s freshly laundered shirts. Mary found an old white mesh sack she used for washing delicates.

“A veil,” she said. “For Fitzy!”

Mary claimed to be scared of dogs, but she sure seemed to care a lot about Fitzy’s costume and Veronica had caught her cooking chicken livers for Cadbury more than once. In the rag bin under the sink, Veronica found an old black T-shirt.

“Mary, could we turn this into a jacket for Cadbury? Like, we cut it down the middle maybe and put some buttons or something on it to make it fancy?”

“Perfect,” Mary said. “Come, let’s look in the button box.”

Mary’s cardboard button box was a wondrous thing. It was long and thin and instead of having flaps for a top, it slid open. Inside were hundreds of buttons of all different sizes, shapes, and colors. Mary had been collecting them her whole life. When Veronica was little they had spent hours playing games with the buttons. The gold ones had always been Veronica’s favorite.

Mary sifted through the contents and handed Veronica five very special gold buttons with raised towers embossed on them.

“Here, my baby, will these work?”

Veronica threw her arms around Mary. “Yes!” she said.