He held out his hiking watch. “Look at that….Fifteen minutes before curfew and I’m not even going to try to kiss you.”

“Sean.”

That beautiful smile. “I just wanted you to have fun tonight. Look, here’s all the space….” He backed down the stairs and to the road. “I understand. But I’m also not giving up hope.” He waved the hat, walked into the trees, and was gone.

I stood for a while, watching the bats swoop and flit in the moonlight.

“Good Halloween?” Francine asked from the sofa when I got in the house. I sat beside her, and Terry Johnson yawned, stretched, and cinnamon-rolled right into my lap.

“Not bad,” I said.

On the TV a woman on Antiques Roadshow described the origins of an old clock to a man who broke down in tears when she told him it would fetch, at auction, at least fifty thousand dollars.

“I had no idea,” the man sobbed. “It’s been in my carport getting rained on all this time; we thought it was worthless. I would have taken better care of it if I’d known it was so valuable!”

“If you’d been more careful with it,” the woman scolded, “it would have been worth twice as much.”

“People are ridiculous,” Francine said. “Priceless treasures right there in the house with them their whole lives and they never bother to notice.”

“You’re a treasure,” I told Terry Johnson, smooshing my face into his neck. “We notice you!” He growled at me and curled up again.

I lay awake that night for hours, the moon refusing to let me sleep, until I gave in, pulled my blackbird treasure bag from my suitcase, and took out Bread and Jam for Frances and The Wilderness World of John Muir, and I put them together, beside my new clothes, on top of the dresser with the Rachel Carson book. A neat row of three.

I could hear Joellen’s voice. Two is a pair; three is a collection.

I carry with me a paper Dixie cup.

My third-grade teacher let us eat candy in class and watch Mary Poppins for Halloween. She was super into it. In the morning she had us make hats from construction paper. Girls made flat boaters and decorated them with red tissue paper poppies; the boys made top hats, like in the bank scene. I was psyched, movies in school always felt so special, and I had never seen this one.