Josie was silent. She had told Mary that her father was an accountant, that she grew up on the outskirts of Santa Barbara in a town full of strip malls and fast food joints.

“He was really into Halloween,” Josie said.

“That’s some serious dough,” Mary continued.

“Yeah … I don’t know….” She fiddled with the zipper on her sweatshirt.

Mary knew Josie was being evasive. Josie once told her she could only lie with her back to someone. Otherwise her palms sweated, she swallowed hard, and couldn’t stay focused.

“I don’t know,” Josie said, and bent down to tie her shoe. She could sense Mary’s hurt. “My dad owned some property,” Josie said. “We sometimes had a little extra money from that.”

“Oh,” Mary said, and paused. “What did your mom do?”

“She was a housewife.” Josie wondered how she had managed to avoid this conversation for over three months.

“And what does she do now?”

“Same,” she said.

They had walked along in silence, feeling the wind whip their hair against their shoulders until Tyler was ready to go home. Then they put the kids to bed, and Mary lit a fire and snuggled up with Josie. Josie thought she would like to be suspended in the moment forever, but it had, of course, been too tender to last.

A year later, whatever was pure and sweet between them was slowly being coated with a thin film of muck. Mary could ask Josie to address her as Dr. Griffin in public, tell her not to sign Tyler’s permission slips anymore, insist on taking Maddy to her doctor’s appointments, and Josie would still feel an invisible thread tied tightly around her heart and planted firmly in Mary’s hand. Mary could tug ever so slightly, and instantly Josie was five again, unable to escape her mother’s gripping hold.

Now Tyler put the helmet on the bed. “I want you to come trick-or-treating,” he said.

“I know you do,” she said, “but I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I have a lot of stuff to do.”

He looked up at her and then rolled his eyes. She had never seen him do this before, and she tried not to smile.

“Where did you get that?”

“What?”

She did it back to him, and he giggled. She did it again, and he laughed harder.

“You’re an eye roller,” she said.

“You are,” he said, laughing.

“No, you.”

“No, you.” He was giggling wildly, and Josie was rolling her whole head along with her eyes when Mary opened the front door.

Mary wasn’t supposed to be home until the evening, and Josie scrambled to sit up straight. Tyler bounded to the door and stopped in front of Mary.

“Make Josie come trick-or-treating with us,” he said.

Mary ignored him and set the mail down on the hallway table.

“Mommy, please.” Tyler tugged on her sleeve. “Pleeeease.”