“What do you want to be for Halloween, Ben?” asks Mom.

“Mira and I decided to be a wolf and a lamb,” he says. Mira Goldstein is Ben’s best friend. She’s so nice that I can hardly believe her older sister is Alyssa.

“That’s cool! You’ll be the wolf,” I say, and start walking on all fours.

“Actually, I’m going to be the lamb,” Ben says. “That’s okay, right?”

“Of course it is!” Mom says.

“Mira is going to be the wolf that chases me,” Ben says.

“It will be a fun costume to make, Ben—we’ll use lots of cotton balls,” says Dad.

“You’re going to be a lamb?” I say. “The one that gets scared?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Mom asks. “When we dress up in costumes, we are playing pretend. It’s not real.”

“I know,” I say, “but it’s Halloween! Don’t you want to be scary?”

“We all get to choose how to celebrate Halloween,” Dad says. “If Ben wants to be a lamb, then that’s his choice.”

“We are all unique, and we sometimes like different things,” Mom says. “If we were exactly the same, it would be pretty boring.” I get it.

“Ben, you are going to be one cute lamb,” I say, and my dad smiles.

“Well,” Dad says, “we’ve got a lamb and a zombie for Halloween trick-or-treating.”

“Now, what about the Fall Festival parade?” asks Mom. “I know Lola is going as Marisol McDonald. Have you thought about a book character, Ben?”

“Not yet,” he says.

“Well, what are your favorite books?” I ask.

“I have lots of favorites!” he says.

“What book did you have me read last night, and the night before that, Ben?” Dad asks.

“Maria Had a Little Llama!” Ben answers. Ever since we got back from visiting our tía Lola in Peru, Ben has been obsessed with llamas. He even has a stuffed llama named Lorenzo that he carries around everywhere.

“You know, Ben,” I say, “you can be Maria or the llama.” This time I want to make sure he knows he can be whatever he wants to be.

“I want to be a llama!” he says. “Can we do that, Dad?”

“Of course!” says Dad.

“Maybe you can use cardboard,” Mom says.

“Yay!” says Ben. “I’m going to be a llama, Mama!”

“And we can dress Bean up like Maria!” I say.

“Yes!” says Ben, jumping up and down. “Bean will dress up for Halloween! He’ll be our Halloween Bean!” My brother sure does like to rhyme.

Mom and Dad decide that I should go to bed early, because of the field trip to Feliz Manzana Farm tomorrow. The problem is, talking about costumes made me so excited that I’m not even one bit sleepy! I decide to write in my diary.

Dear Diario,

Today I made a mouse out of leaves! I also went on a leaf walk and did some leaf collecting. I wanted to do some leaf jumping and throwing, but I didn’t. And I still had a lot of fun. I’m really, really excited to be a zombie. Do zombie’s talk? I wonder. Or do I just have to grunt? Since zombies are make-believe, I can be any kind of zombie I want. But a talking zombie doesn’t sound very scary.

Shalom,

Lola Levine