I laughed when a little boy stuffed pieces of candy into his pockets and scrambled for more. We had brought about twenty pounds of assorted candy to hand out and I doubted we’d have any left by the time we were finished.
“Cute costume,” Christy said above the sirens and nodded to a teenaged girl dressed as a mermaid on the sidewalk. Her tail curled behind her and her blond wig sparkled in the morning sun.
“That’s cute. It would be hard to move in it, though.” Her legs were pressed together by the fabric of the tail, and she waddled when she walked. It wouldn’t work as a costume to wear at the candy store. I wouldn’t be able to get any work done in it.
“Yeah, I’d trip in it,” she said and tossed a handful of candy.
“There’s my mom,” Lisa said, pointing to the sidelines.
Gayle Anderson walked along the parade route nearby, taking pictures of the parade and the crowds. “I bet she gets some great pictures,” I said and waved when she turned in my direction.
“She will.” Lisa waved at her mother.
Gayle Anderson grinned and took pictures of us as we walked. Christy and I stopped, putting our arms around each other, and posed for a picture. Gayle laughed and took two quick shots. “Your mom will love these!” she called.
“I hope they turn out,” I said, and tossed a handful of candy to nearby kids.
There was a light breeze blowing, and it helped to keep us cool beneath the sun. Summer was gradually wearing away, and we’d have those cool fall temperatures before we knew it. I could hardly wait. There was nothing better than fall weather.
The float in front of us stopped, and we did the same. We waved at people on the sidewalk and tossed more candy until the float began to move again. I hadn’t been in a parade since high school. Our Senior class had had a float in the Christmas parade and everyone in the class had been invited to participate. I had walked behind Jessica Branson, almost hidden by her big red poofy dress, but I didn’t care. It was fun to get to be in the parade and have the attention while it lasted.
John was standing on the sidelines, but I ignored him. I glanced over at Christy, but she didn’t seem to see him. It was just as well. She said she didn’t want to see him anyway.
We waved and tossed candy the entire parade route, and I’ll admit it was a bit of a letdown as we approached the final block of the parade. The people were crowded together along the sidewalk and I thought things were shaping up to be a great opening weekend. If this continued throughout the entire Halloween season, we were all going to be very busy.
“I’m all out of candy,” Christy said as she tossed the last two pieces of saltwater taffy to a little girl.
“Just in time then. We’re all out of parade route, too.” I glanced over my shoulder as we hit the end of the block. We were leaving lots of happy people in our wake. Candy did that.
“I’ve got a mind to turn around and do it all again,” Linda said with a chuckle. “This was more fun than I imagined.”
“It’s all that sugar making everyone happy,” Christy said.
“We need a parade for the last day of the Halloween season,” Carrie said as she led her tired little sheep by the hands to make the turn onto the next block and off the parade route.
I looked at her. “That’s not a bad idea.”
She laughed. “If we can get the rest of the town signed up for it.”
“I doubt they’d go for one more event. We’ve got a lot going on this season.” We turned the corner, still following the junior high float and the police and fire department vehicles. I’d barely gotten a chance to talk to Ethan before the parade and I wondered what he was doing for lunch. We’d had dinner the night before, but we needed to spend more time together. The preparations for the Halloween season had taken more of my time than I had liked, and I missed him.
We headed to the sidewalk when we were off the parade route. My feet were getting tired, and I still had a full day at the candy store ahead of me.
“What’s going on?” Christy asked.
I looked ahead of us. The police cars had turned their lights on and pulled to the side of the street. “I don’t know. Let’s go see.”
We hurried ahead of the others. Ethan got out of the patrol car and headed to where someone was lying on the sidewalk. Christy and I glanced at each other and walked faster.
“Someone’s on the ground there,” Christy said just loud enough for me to hear.
“Maybe it’s a homeless person sleeping.” I doubted it. Not with the way Ethan had hurried over. He was crouched on the ground now and he looked up at the other nearby officer.
Two more officers joined them and then they turned in our direction. One began directing the floats to continue down the street without stopping and the other two officers walked down the sidewalk toward us.
“We’ll need you all to head back the other direction,” Officer Chu said when we got closer.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I looked past him, and I could see it was a woman on the sidewalk. Ethan was on the phone, still crouched down.
“Mia, we really need you all to go back in the other direction and stay away from this area.”
I
