Sigh.
Kentaro, here, once again watching my old man make a complete and utter fool of himself.
That said, and especially in light of all the stuff happening lately over the years, it was shocking that they hadn’t got together to do this kind of thing before now. It felt like years since the last time!
Kenji Hiroshi and his friends certainly knew how to have a good time, after all.
“Kentaro, stop being such a party pooper!” Kenji called.
“Party pooper, party pooper,” chanted Van. “Oh, come on! Loosen up a little!”
“... I’ve got Anna on speed-dial,” and I wasn’t joking. “Bugger off.”
Nothing made Kenji and Van scarper quicker than the threat of Van’s wife.
“You sure he’s your kid?” I heard Van inquire.
“Meh, I may have dropped him a time or two. He was the first, I think. I was still figuring things out.”
“YOU THINK!?” I heard Van exclaim.
“Count to ten, Kentaro, count to ten,”
As usual, Van and Kenji were nothing if not eccentric. They left the house dressed in full gentlemen attire -- from the black suits to the top hats, they were every inch the stereotypical English gentlemen. So, what had they come to the party as, if I told you it wasn’t as undertakers?
Jekyll and Hyde. What else?
Kei, meanwhile, joined us from our garden bench, where he had sat sipping my mother’s expensive wine. He sported white face paint, a pair of fake vampire teeth, and was splattered in fake blood. This was coupled with an expensive black cape over an equally expensive dinner jacket and full dress trousers.
And he was holding the candy bag.
“Good lord, here we go again,”
The speaker, of course, was me, and it was all I could do not to facepalm! As usual, I was tasked with the job of a chaperone. I neither wore makeup nor a costume, opting instead to watch proceedings from the marquee my old man had erected in the front yard of his London home with help from Van. It was a bloody miracle that the thing was still standing! They’d been soused long before they started erecting it.
“You have my apologies. Kei handled the invitations,”
“That’s quite alright,”
My companion, meanwhile, didn’t need to dress up as a vampire -- for she was one!
Myst Kagekyo, purple hair styled into a ponytail that rested over her right shoulder, dressed in a regal gown of dark red it may as well have been dyed the colour of blood, sipped what I was fairly sure was a glass of blood to boot. I suspected that she had accepted Kei’s invitation on the assumption she wouldn’t be dealing with fully grown men playing trick or treat. Which is exactly what was happening.
Kenji and Van, going from door to door, asked for sweets. When they didn’t get any, suffice to say that there was more than one full moon on display. Kei, being a little more polite, had better luck. But even still, the takings were meagre.
“Well, I’m off to join them!”
Myst practically skipped down the street. She took Kei’s arm in her own and proceeded to knock on doors.
The screams, quickly muffled, only made me shake my head.
To this day, I don’t know what she said or did. I don’t want to. But the pile of sweets she came back with dwarfed everyone!
“Sorry, got held up. What did I miss?” Haruki asked.
“Halloween volume 2,” I answered.
“Oh, good lord,” Haruki echoed. “I’ve got a bottle of whiskey on hand. Want some?”
“Please!”