Jasper rolled her eyes. “Be real, Leah,” she said. “It will not be awesome. It’s almost certain to be awkward. But I miss her, and I was thinking how it’s strange you haven’t met her yet. So I thought . . . maybe it was a good time. And the kids will have a blast. If it’s like you say, a festival?”

The truth was that sometimes I managed to forget all about Jasper’s family. She’d slid so neatly into our house that it was easy to avoid thinking about all the hard stuff. The same way I could sometimes now, for a little while, avoid thinking about Sam. My brain got full of homework and chores and other things. I’d laugh and talk and be distracted for hours at a time. And then, in bed at night, Sam would come back with a whoosh. Like he was sitting there on the foot of my bed, waiting for me when the lights went out. Sometimes at night I still cried, alone. But I knew how to play the sad game now. And my therapist said that was a fine thing to do. I wondered if Jasper cried too, when she was alone. Maybe in the shower, where we couldn’t hear her over the water.

Anyway, of course Jasper’s sister should come over for Halloween. And maybe her mom too. I knew she talked to them both, and that things were a little better. But she hadn’t really told me much about any of that. And I didn’t ask. I figured Mom and Dad were involved. Some days the three of them got into the car and were gone for a few hours, and I knew that was how it should be. I trusted that things were okay. Or at least they were better. It was nice, after a summer of carrying secrets, to let someone else guard them for a while. To trust. I felt lighter.

Jasper started messing around with her phone then, texting someone really fast, so I took a sip of my soda and turned my attention back to Shady McPumpkinhead. Nobody said anything for a few minutes. I finished carving his mouth and decided to give him some ears.

But suddenly I heard Jasper say, “Ew, gross!” and I looked up from my jack-o’-lantern, to see that Mr. Face had silently joined us on the porch. He was sitting politely on the mat, a mouse between his teeth.

“Oh!” I said.

He held the creature delicately, like always. Only this time, since I was sitting on the ground, he was basically at eye level. After a moment, he turned his head, to look at Jasper the same way. Then, ever so gently, he laid his precious bundle on the mat, turned, and ran off.