He had promised to help out a friend with the jack-o’-lantern auction fundraiser, though that wasn’t until later in the night. He was going to serve as the auctioneer. I wondered if the friend was Courtney, the girl Lauren had mentioned, whom Ben still hadn’t told me about. We parked on Main and walked down to the riverfront. The street was lined with hundreds of flickering jack-o’-lanterns, and the moon loomed over the water, the color of bone. I hadn’t been to the pumpkin festival since I was ten, when Grammy drove to Illinois to bring me back for a long weekend visit. I had worn the Halloween costume she’d made for me that year: Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, with long underwear underneath to keep me warm. My ruby slippers were old rain boots she had painted red and dusted with glitter. Grammy let me march in the costume parade with Ben and Lauren, though she’d followed right behind, not comfortable letting me out of her sight. I had wanted to ride the Himalayan, a mini-coaster with sparkly snowcapped mountains painted on the side, but I wasn’t tall enough.
