Back to the drawing board...
WHO: Yao and Kim.
WHEN: Monday afternoon (October 5th).
WHERE: ONE OF THOSE GHETTO HALLOWEEN SHOPS THAT MYSTERIOUSLY APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE IN THE FALL.
WHAT: We need costumes. Stat.
Halloween did not interest Yao in the slightest. It was so strange and crude in his own eyes: people layering greasy paint on their faces, splashing themselves with fake blood, dusting their skin - from head to toe it seemed - in white flour. Gaudy colours he could deal with but... orange and black? Children stuffing their mouths full of candy, sweets from complete strangers? It was often around this time of year that he was reminded of when he was a boy; and in those first few years in America learning that Teng Chieh was often called the "Chinese Halloween."
Which, frankly, didn't even compare, just because one day happened to contain ghosts and spirits, because one of those days happened to be stupid.
Halloween: Starbursts, candy corn, violent costumes, haunted houses...
Teng Chieh: burning incense, burning joss paper, lanterns and paper boats on the water...
Everything began to change when he was actually invited to a party this year. At first he had passed it off with a simple "I'll think about it", and went off on his merry little way, scowling at the flimsy pumpkin decorations being stuck up everywhere and shaking his head every time he spotted a patch of cheap fake spider web strung up in a shop or across someone's lawn.
But within the span of a few short days he had found himself thinking more and more about it. And it didn't seem so bad after all... No doubt the children in his classes already excitedly discussing their plans had something to do with it: he didn't want to feel like a loser. Perhaps a party would be nice! Provided men and women alike didn't show up scantily clad and acting shameless. And it would certainly preoccupy his time... not thinking about Yong Soo. Because he didn't. Ever. The Korean's name, he was poorly convinced, was nothing more than a fleeting memory. Im Yong who?
The trouble was starting. For a man his age nevermind that he looked like a teenage girl, he had to be careful with all this Halloween business: on one hand, he might end up looking like a fool; on the other, he might look as if he didn't "act his own age", since so many people bizarrely viewed Halloween as a children's holiday; and if he had a third hand, that would be reserved for the slightest, remotest hint of everything going perfectly well.
The few "young" people he knew consisted of his own brother, meimei, and... well, Kim. And no matter how he looked at it, it was going to be awkward. But to spare him the obvious complete and utter embarrassment he knew would result if he went to Zhi or Mei with his "problem", he went straight to Kim to explain his predicament: he was going to try to celebrate Halloween, the American way. And first, he needed a costume. But this had to be a SECRET...
A secret.
The word made his stomach give a nasty flop. Just being in the kitschy Halloween shop, bathed in the cool bright fluorescent light, wrinkling his nose at the strange odour of stale sweat and feet that permeated the air, made him highly self-conscious and uncomfortable: should he really be here? Should he really be doing something this stupid? He stood on the tips of his toes, trying to peer discreetly over a shelf littered with hats for any sign of the Vietnamese girl.