The Costume
For the Batch boys, October 30th was just as fun and important a date as the 31st. As had been tradition for several years now, this was the day they got to show off the Halloween costumes they'd spent most of the month secretly making for themselves.
Beth was always so impressed by what they came up with, she wasn't sure how they did it. For one, it wasn't easy keeping a project under wraps in such a small, cramped house, especially when they were limited to what they could get with a ten dollar allowance or things they already owned. And for another, the amount of creativity and care they each put in often rivaled her own. She was grateful her inability to afford new trendy costumes like other parents didn't seem to matter, not when compared to the thrill of sneaking around and getting awed reactions from everyone.
This year promised to be another impressive showcase. They all had been practically bouncing with eagerness all week as they made finishing touches. So Beth sat eagerly on the couch, a Halloween playlist going in the background, and a bowl of candy in her lap to help pass the time while her sons got changed. They were each holed up in a different room of the house, and since Tech had said his would take the longest, he'd be the first to kick off the fashion show.
"Ready!" his excited shout eventually came. The other four echoed they were all set, too, and Beth held up her phone to start recording.
"Okay, Tech, let's see it!" she called for him.
Within seconds, Tech had made his way from the bathroom and struck a pose in front of her. Beth's face lit up with a wide smile. The boy had not only painted the jacket and hat he was wearing, but also his face. He held up an empty picture frame to complete the look.
"Ah, Van Gogh!" she laughed. "Tech, dear, that's so good!"
She motioned for him to come closer so she could further look over his handiwork, all the careful brushstrokes to make himself look like the self-portrait the artist was known for.
"We're learning about him in school," Tech beamed.
"And you look just like his painting." Beth gave him a little squeeze and then made room for him to join her on the couch.
"Okay, Wreck is next, right?" she called out.
Wrecker had insisted he needed to change outside. The slider to the back was already open, and she expected him to immediately come through, but apparently his journey had to be in character.
"Ooh, a zombie!" she smiled as Wrecker eventually made his way inside. He had his body contorted and was dragging one foot as he stumbled dramatically forward.
"Why are you covered in dirt?" Tech asked.
"Because," Wrecker slurred in what was seemingly his zombie voice, "I just crawled out of my grave..."
Beth tried not to wince at the dirt he was tracking in, or the clothes he had torn up.
"Well you definitely nailed the undead look." She raised a hand for him to high-five, and giggled as he swung a limp arm up to clap it. But she stopped him before he took a seat on the couch next to her and Tech. "I think maybe zombies shouldn't sit down."
Wrecker just shrugged and took to slowly pacing around the room instead.
"Alright. Echo? You ready?"
The third boy marched out from one of the bedrooms, decked out in a very dandy get-up. Fake buckles on his dress shoes, a ruffled napkin as a cravat, a wig repurposed from a previous costume, and a hat with a large feather. But perhaps the best part was the spray-painted hook that was duct-taped onto his stump of a right arm.
"Wow! Captain Hook!" Beth stood to get some better angles on the video she was taking. Even Wrecker stopped his method acting to admire Echo.
"Hey, that's pretty accurate," Tech agreed.
Echo blushed a little, trying to shrug off the compliments but still enjoying them. "I wanted to get that crocodile stuffed animal we saw at Target, but I spent everything on the quill instead."
"Yeah, good call. The hook, too, that's perfect...."
Beth reached out to inspect the hook on his arm, discovering it was the dough hook from her stand mixer that she'd been missing for the past week. Echo gave her a sheepish look, but she just made a teasing tsk-tsk and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"Okay, shall we call for Hunter now?"
They reconvened on the sofa as they waited for the next brother to make his way out.
Hunter usually went for some kind of adventurous hero, like an astronaut or army man, so it was no surprise to see him come out as Robin Hood. He had kept elements from his Indiana Jones costume from last year, and added a green vest and the signature green cap.
"Very nice," Beth clapped while the other boys gave him a thumbs up. Hunter posed with his slingshot, an old Christmas gift Beth could've sworn she'd tried to get rid of once.
"And look," he said, jiggling the pouches that hung at his hips, the sound of coins rustling through. "It's all the money I stole from the rich."
"Clever!"
"You can give it to me," Wrecker garbled, returning to character and starting to chase Hunter. "I'm poor. A poor, sad corpse..."
"Stand back, fearsome beast!" Hunter poised his slingshot in front of him. "You are no match for the merry men!"
"Did someone say beast? En garde!" Echo joined in, waving his hook about. Wrecker started hissing and growling while they pretended to fight each other. Beth snapped her fingers to get their attention.
"Timeout on the acting, boys. Let's not make Crosshair wait any longer."
The three of them rushed to the couch, including Wrecker, but at this point he'd deposited enough dirt around the living room that Beth gave up on trying to contain him.
"Okay, last but not least... Cross!"
The last of the brothers made his way from her bedroom at the end of the hall and proudly turned the corner to make his entrance for them. Unfortunately, Beth was only treated to his pleasant smile for a few seconds. As soon as he caught sight of Hunter, his face immediately contorted into a scowl.
"No," he whined in protest. "Whyyy?"
Hunter laughed as he stood up to stand by his brother. "No way, you picked Robin Hood too? That's hilarious."
Crosshair's rendition of the heroic outlaw wasn't as ostentatious as Hunter's, but perhaps more practical. He had a hooded cape and robes in more muted, woodsy colors. And strapped across his back was a quiver of homemade arrows, and a crude bow to match.
"Aw, Cross, I love it." Beth tried to give some reassurance before he could get too grumpy. Sadly, it was too late.
"No! It's not fair. We can't be the same thing."
"Why not?"
"Because," he said, as if that word alone was reason enough. He set his hands on his hips and glared at his brother. "Take it off, Hunter."
"What? No. You take yours off."
"I've been working on this for months." Crosshair held up his bow, which looked like some kind of stick he'd sanded down and painted. "You don't even have it right. Robin Hood doesn't use a slingshot."
"Says who?" Hunter retorted. "He can use whatever weapon he wants. There's no rules. Besides, you aren't wearing his hat."
"Mom, make him take it off!"
"Cross..." she said in an all-too-familiar tone. The one she used whenever any of them were being unreasonable.
"But he always gets his way!"
Beth stood up, setting her gaze sharply as another warning. "There's nothing wrong with you both wearing the same costume."
"Yeah," Echo said from beside her. "Maybe you could be one of the merry men?"
His suggestion was meant to be helpful, but the death glare Crosshair set on him made Echo immediately back off.
"If Hunter won't change, then I quit."
"Quit?" Tech asked.
"Halloween!" Crosshair practically growled before storming off down the hall.
"You can't quit Halloween," Tech scoffed, even though Cross wasn't there to hear him. But then Tech looked up their mom with a worried look. "Can he?"
Beth had her lips pursed in annoyance. It hadn't felt like that long ago that she'd had a serious talk with them all about their attitudes, how the teasing and arguments between them had to stop, how they needed to act like brothers who loved each other dammit. Maybe they'd been too young for the message to really settle in.
She started gathering up her candy wrappers, not looking at any of them as she calmly explained, "We're a family. We celebrate together. If one of you isn't going to participate, then no one does."
As expected, there were some very vocal reactions to that plan.
"Huh?"
"No..."
"That's not fair."
"Mom, please!"
She paused before heading into the kitchen to start dinner. "Then you'd all better figure out how to get along."
That was really the intent behind her decision. She never wanted to be the parent that "canceled" holidays or special events just because she got upset at her kids. That really wasn't fair, and it really wasn't about her own feelings. She wasn't oblivious to the tension that had been developing between Hunter and Crosshair lately. But it was something she knew the two of them would need to rectify between themselves. There was only so much coddling and lecturing she could do before it was up to them to decide how to treat each other. Perhaps this was finally the moment they needed.
* * *
Crosshair sat on the edge of his bed, willing himself not to cry. Crying was stupid, and the situation was already stupid enough. His bow and quiver and cloak lay abandoned in the far corner of the room, thrown there in a huff as soon as he'd locked himself in. He looked over at the heap forlorn. All that hard work... for nothing.
Echo, Tech, and Wrecker all pounded on the door, calling out different reasons why he needed to stop being ridiculous. Ha, Crosshair frowned, so he was the ridiculous one? Figured. They always took Hunter's side. They agreed with Hunter's ideas and backed him up in disagreements and never gave Crosshair the benefit of any doubt. He was tired of not getting his way for once.
A noise came from behind him, and he turned to find Hunter jimmying open the window from the outside. Only the two of them knew how to get that window to open from the outside, not even their other roommate Echo knew about it. Crosshair turned back to continue sulking as Hunter clambered through.
"Hey," Hunter said as he awkwardly sat on the bed opposite him. "So... Mom said if you're not celebrating Halloween, then none of us are."
Crosshair remained silent, though he was surprised. Their mom didn't usually do such things. He wondered if she was serious or would change her mind later. He knew how much she loved seeing their costumes and taking them trick-or-treating, how she beamed whenever they got compliments.
"So..." Hunter tried again. "I was thinking... you can be Robin Hood. And I'll be Little John."
Crosshair finally looked up at his brother. "No one will know the difference."
"Sure they will. You have the bow and everything. You can even have my hat."
Hunter took off the cap and tried to hand it over.
"I don't want your hat."
"Come on, Cross. I'm trying to help. You know Mom doesn't like it when we fight."
Crosshair returned to staring at the floor.
"And the others have such good costumes. They worked so hard. It's not fair if they can't wear them, either."
"I worked hard on mine too," Crosshair said quietly, feeling that lump return to his throat and forcing it back down. "But it doesn't matter because you did the exact same thing so it's not special."
"Well it's not like I copied you." Hunter couldn't help but get defensive. It was frustrating how stubborn his brother could be. "So we had the same idea. So what. That just means we're the cool ones."
Crosshair rolled his eyes, though he supposed he did feel a little better about Hunter admitting he was cool. And the idea of him being the sidekick to his Robin Hood was starting to grow on him....
"Fine," he finally rasped out. "But you have to make sure everyone knows you're Little John and I'm Robin Hood."
It was Hunter's turn to give an eye roll, but he did it with a playful smirk. "Okay, sure. I'll wear a name tag, how's that?"
Crosshair chuckled with him. He watched as Hunter went to the corner to help pick up the cape and arrows. He was glad he was getting to wear his costume, but he did feel a little embarrassed about the scene he had made. It didn't quite feel as good, like he hadn't really earned it. And there were still all those unspoken things between him and Hunter.
But in the true nature of a juvenile boy, those deeper things were pushed aside in favor of moving on with the moment. Crosshair quickly reassembled his ensemble and led Hunter out of their room to be met with cheers from the other brothers in the hall.
"Yes!" Wrecker hollered. "Mom! Halloween's back on!"
"Thank god..." Echo muttered, while eyeing Crosshair and Hunter suspiciously.
"That wasn't cool," Tech stated plainly before picking up his picture frame and walking away.
Crosshair ignored them all and sought out his mom, who was filing a pot with water at the kitchen sink. He noticed her shoulders were sunken and the frown lines at her mouth more prominent. He quickly wrapped his arms around her just as she looked over at him with questioning eyes.
"I'm sorry, Momma," he whispered into her shoulder.
She sighed and slung her free arm around him in return, awkwardly tapping the quiver of arrows on his back.
"Please stop fighting with your brothers, sweetheart," she whispered back to him, knowing he didn't like the others to hear her nickname for him. "You know not everything is a competition, right?"
He pulled away and nodded up at her. "Yeah...."
She looked at him for a moment, knowing there was more that could be said but not asking for it. Eventually she just smiled before booping his nose and turning back to turn off the faucet.
And then a sudden pair of hands grasped her from behind, causing her to jump with a shriek and almost spill the pot of water. Crosshair was laughing beside her, not the culprit. She spun to find Wrecker was the one who had snuck up.
"Must... eat... your brains..." he droned, holding his arms in front of him in classic zombie fashion.
"Have no fear, fair maiden!" Hunter exclaimed as he jumped into the room. He handed Crosshair his bow. "We will rescue you!"
"Not so fast, Robin Hood," came Echo from behind. He held himself like a fencer, only with his hooked arm held out instead of a sword. "You and your merry men stole one of my precious paintings. Release the Van Gogh back to me, thieves!"
There was a faint objection from Tech in the next room about how he didn't want to be stolen, but the others didn't seem to hear. Crosshair knocked an arrow onto the string of his bow; Beth was relieved to see that he couldn't actually draw it back, but she did make a mental note to have the arrow tips flattened a bit more before they went trick-or-treating the next night.
"Never! That art belongs to the people!" Crosshair declared as he and Hunter chased Echo out of the kitchen, and Wrecker slowly followed after them groaning and gurgling.
Beth merely shook her head, glad that things were as they ought to be between her boys once more.
At least for now. Who knew what petty squabbles would start up during their other Halloween tradition, the Great Candy Exchange....