It was a really fun party. All the girls in her class came, even Janet Hartley and Marlene Hurst. Janet came dressed as a flapper: short skirt, her mother's high heels, even a long stemmed cigarette holder. Lipstick, rouge, stupid hairdo, and acting like she always did: sophisticated and condescending. She was not sophisticated and she had nothing to be condescending about but - she was in their class so she was not left out.
Actually, Marlene Hurst's costume was neat. She came as an old, old grandma. She even had a real grey wig. It was really a man's wig and had been in her family since the time when judges and people like that wore white, powered wigs. Millie guessed that they thought it made them look dignified. Millie thought it looked good on Marlene but would probably look dumb on a man.
Marlene even acted like a real old lady and she was funny. As the evening progressed, Millie saw things in Marlene that she could never have imagined. She was funny and she was really smart. Millie knew that Marlene got pretty good grades but she had never given her much thought. She still brought dolls to school and when you're in the sixth grade and still brought dolls to school, you had to be a bratty little kid.
Marlene had not been like most other girls in her class. Most of the other girls wanted to be Millie's friend and would fawn over her. Marlene never did. She was not unfriendly but she was somewhat like Freddy. She seemed to prefer her own society, or maybe she had enough confidence that she did not need to "grovel" to get friends. Millie would have to give this whole Marlene thing some more thought. Maybe she wasn't a bratty little kid. Maybe she brought dolls to school because she was more honest then the "young ladies." They all still played with dolls but would never admit it in school. Maybe Marlene was like Millie's mom. Maybe she marched to that other drummer. Maybe - she'd have to think more about that.
One thing Millie did not have to think about right now, however, was that she was really glad that Marlene had come to the party. She really added to the fun. She was making everyone laugh. Well, everyone but Janet. Janet was miffed. She had intended to be the focal point of the evening. Most of the other girls came as princesses or movie stars; one came as Lady Liberty and one as Rosie the Riveter. Millie had borrowed a sunbonnet from her grandmother and wore her feed sack dress. She had moved the "lace" at the color down and that at the sleeve up so the twine didn't scratch. To her surprise, most of the girls thought it was neat. Marilyn Frederick said she was going to get her mother to make her one. By the time the gushing over the dress was over, about half the girls there were going to ask their mothers to make them one. Janet Hartley said in an uppity tone of voice that she wouldn't be caught dead in one. Suzy Marrett said, "Well, I hope your mother never makes you one, Janet. We don't want you dead. We just want you to go away."
Suzy was OK but she had a quick temper and kind of a smart mouth. Millie quickly inserted herself into what could have become a party wrecker. "OK, both of you. Let's have fun; not fight." Both Janet and Suzy sulked for a while but it was still a party and not a catfight.
Millie and her mom had decorated the house the best they could. Black and orange crape paper was not high on manufacturer's priority list during wartime so none was available. They went through the barn and found old kerosene lanterns, a scythe and an old sickle. Millie's mom thought they might find something in the old woodshed that probably had not been entered for at least a year. They did. It was full of cobwebs. Irene figured out a way to harvest two of the largest webs by laying a stick along the top and having Millie delicately free the sides with a scissors. The problem was getting them from the wood shed into the house. It was a calm day but to be safe she had Freddy and Millie each hold cookie sheet on either side of the web while Irene held the stick. The children were not to let the cookie sheets touch the web. Freddy was sure it wouldn't work. It was another of his mother's strange ideas. But it did work. The web was shielded from the breeze and Irene let them adhere to windows in the dining room. The webs weren't perfect but looked kind of scary.
Many of his mom's ideas made Freddy skeptical but more of them worked than didn't. But from a common sense, mechanical point-of-view, they shouldn't have. Freddy was coming to the conclusion that his mom had a kind of uncommon sense and maybe President Roosevelt should get some of her ideas to help beat the japs and the krauts. He didn't say anything to Millie. She got mad if you called Germans, krauts, now.
Irene pronounced the dining room poetic and she and Millie went to the kitchen to start the cookies and cup cakes. With sugar rationed, she decided to use honey. The Fermans kept three hives in the orchard; enough to provide honey through the winter. Usually Jack fed the bees sugar water in the winter but since the war started and sugar had been rationed, to keep the bees alive, he only took about half the honey so they had to use even that sparingly. You could find special recipes that used honey instead of sugar in the newspaper. Someone was always coming up with good ideas for ways to get through the shortages during the war. The cupcakes and cookies were different but good.
Even candy was hard to get but Irene did find some black and orange jelly beans. They were kind of hard. Irene had come across them in June and thought if the children were going to have candy for Halloween, she better buy them then. They were hard but they were candy, something kids didn't get much of lately. Sometimes Millie thought she'd give her right arm for a stick of gum. She hadn't even seen one for two years.
The strange thing was you could get ice cream. Getting a sundae at that little ice cream parlor on the corner of the Elkton road and that road that went to Pigeon and Bad Ax was a regular Saturday thing to do all year long. Why didn't ice cream wreck the war and candy did?
While Millie and her mom were preparing the house and the food for the party, Freddy and Dallas were in the shop busily preparing the tools necessary for the trick portion of the evening. Actually, the trick possibilities open to them were lame compared to what had been available to Grandpa Ferman. Freddy asked for Grandpa's Halloween stories every year. There was the tipping over of outhouses. Freddy always giggled at the one where Old Jake Eicher was in his when they tipped his over. And there was the taking apart of the buggy and reassembling it on the roof of a barn and the one where they pulled a cow into a haymow with a hay sling. They tied her up there so she wouldn't fall out but those were tricks. All Freddy seemed to have available to him was the door slamming string trick and the notched spool trick. He got those ideas from his dad.
Freddy kind of thought that his dad wasn't being completely honest when he said that was all kids did when he was Freddy's age but he knew his dad well enough to know that was all he was going to get. Grandpa Freeman said as far as he knew, that's all Jack had done on Halloween.
Freddy could tell there was more. Did his dad do stuff that would get Freddy in trouble if he did it now? Was it a lie if his dad and his grandpa didn't tell him everything like maybe stuff that might get him hurt or in some kind of trouble? Freddy thought a lot about that kind of thing. In church, Lyle's dad made it seem so simple. It was either a sin or it wasn't. Freddy, even at eleven, knew that real life wasn't simple.
In the fifth grade he sometimes asked questions that made the teacher mad. She'd say things like, "You're ten years old. You just think about your workbook. If you'd pay more attention to your homework and not be such a show-off about all you think you know, you'd be a better student. Millie had said, "He gets all As. How can he be a better student?"
Millie got sent to Mr. Hood for sassing the teacher. Mr. Hood didn't do anything. Millie said that she thought Mrs. Gabbler got mad because she didn't know the answers to what Freddy wanted to know. Millie thought Mrs. Gabbler was dumb. Freddy didn't think it was right to think a teacher was dumb. You should respect teachers. Grandma said that. Millie said that she thought it was dumb to respect dumb teachers. Millie thought if you did, you'd end up as dumb as the teacher. Millie was sure that Mr. Hood thought that Mrs. Gabbler was dumb too.
Millie didn't respect Mrs. Gabbler but she was never rude to the teacher. Oh, as usual, Millie was forthright with her questions and comments but there was never a hint of disrespect. Mrs. Gabbler frequently took some question as disrespect and a lot of kids got sent to the office but Mr. Hood never did anything about it. Was it a lie not to respect someone and act like you did?
Well, that question would have to wait. Right now Freddy and Dallas had some trick material to prepare. Anyway, Mrs. Whitby wasn't at all like Mrs. Gabbler. When Freddy or anyone asked a hard question, Mrs. Whitby would say, "Let's think about that and discuss it tomorrow." Freddy liked that. He liked discussing things. So did Millie. Dallas was pretty smart too. He could ask good questions. That's why Dallas was his best friend. You could talk sense to Dallas and still have a lot of fun. All Lyle wanted to do was tell bathroom jokes.
You had to be careful with the spools. When you cut the notches you had to be sure your knife was sharp or you'd break off the pointed ridges on the flanges of the spool. The idea was to leave ridges all around both flanges on the spool, fasten a string about three feet long to the body of the spool with a carpet tack and put a ten penny nail through the hole. When you wound the string around the spool, held on to the pointed end of the nail, then put the spool against a window and pulled the string, it made a real scary noise. The boys found it was best to put the carpet tack in before cutting the notches because the ridges often broke off. Freddy was glad he'd had his mom save him a whole bunch of spools. Then messed up three before they figured out the best way to do it. You had to use the big ones. The small ones didn't give your fingers enough room when you held them against the window.
Freddy's mom complained that it was hard to get good cloth during the war but she could get all the thread she wanted and feed and seed sacks gave her something to sew on. She had made Freddy some shirts out of feed sacks - no twine lace, just shirts.
It was dark by the time the boys finished their window rattlers. Armed with a spool of carpet warp they headed for Lyle's house. They knew that Lyle had gone to Milton Young's house in Elkton so it would be just his dad, mom and his little sister.
They got the desired reaction at the Craig house. Peggy screamed when they rattled the windows with their notched spools and when they tied the string to the storm door, hid in the bushes and by pulling and releasing the string, repeatedly slammed the door. Rev. Craig came out, tore the string off the door handle and said, "Have fun, boys. I used to do that one myself."
By the time the boys had started their route to town, the party was in full swing. Freddy knew where to throw the master switch and shut off the electricity. When he got to the switch, however, his dad was there and had already thrown the switch. "It's a Black-out (air-raid drill), son. You guys be careful walking to town. Cars aren't supposed to be on the roads but if they are, they will have their lights off. Everett Kuhn seems to think being the Air-Raid Warden makes him king of the township. Guess he knew he'd get a lot of attention by holding a Black-out on Halloween night. Sure did mess it up for you kids, didn't he? Wonder how many people will answer their doors?
"Maybe you'll be OK. The drill should be over by the time you get to Elkton."
The suddenly dark house, the rattling of the windows, the slamming of the screen door - it made an especially loud noise since Jack had already replaced the screen with the storm insert. It made the door heavier so it slammed harder and made more noise - all had an effect. The boys were more than rewarded by the shrieks and screams they had hoped for.
It took Jack and Irene a while to quiet the girls enough to explain what was happening. When he got them quieted down, he concluded the screams were much more drama then fear. When you're a sixth grade girl, you're supposed to scream.
"Girls, it's just a blackout. Listen for the fire siren in Elkton. When it goes off, we can turn the lights back on.
"I'm not sure why ole Everett had to hold an air raid drill tonight. We just had one last week. Looks like being an Air Raid Warden has kind of gone to his head."
Jack was a very kind man. He was not the sort to belittle Everett but Everett's gall at making trick or treating more difficult for the kids annoyed him.
The girls did quiet down. Suzy suggested they tell ghost stories. That idea didn't go over too well. They may have been "young ladies" but the rattling windows and the slamming doors and the sudden complete darkness caused all the trepidation they needed in one night.
For some reason, the girls seemed to think they needed to whisper in the darkness. When things had quieted down, they could hear soft sobbing and labored breathing. It sounded as if someone was in distress.
Jack went for a flashlight. Janet had obviously hyperventilated. She had lost all her color, was trembling and was in near panic.
Jack handed the light to Irene and picked the girl up. "Let's take her into the kitchen."
Just as they entered the kitchen door, the fire siren sounded the end of the blackout. Jack went out and threw the switch. When he reentered the house, Irene had Janet cuddled in her arms and it appeared that the child was relaxing some but still in deep distress. Jack walked back into the dining room just in time to hear Suzy say, "She's such a snob and show-off and now we know that she's a cry-baby. Why did you invite her?"
"Same reason I invited you. She's part of our class."
It was not said unkindly but the message was clear. Suzy wasn't that pleasant to be around and if she had not been part of the class, she wouldn't have been invited. Millie could see that Suzy understood her meaning but doubted that any lesson had been learned.
Jack spoke to everyone. "Girls, I don't know if Janet will calm down enough to come back to the party but if she does and there's any teasing or meanness, the party's over and we'll call your parents to come and get you."
"But, Mr. Ferman, it's only quarter after seven. The party's supposed to last until nine o'clock."
"It can last until nine, but that's up to you, Suzy, and to the rest of you girls. Janet was very frightened. I know kids well enough that all of you have some things about you that you try to hide. Janet just happened to get caught and I don't want to hear any more about it."
There was sternness in Jack's voice that surprised even Millie. That kind of voice, when it came from her mother, Millie called yelling. Had it been her mother speaking, Millie would have known her mom was upset but coming from Jack, Millie knew he meant every word he'd said.
Jack went back into the kitchen. "She's such a baby and I'm not going to let her forget it. Your dad won't make us go home."
"Suzy, you don't know my dad. He almost never talks sternly (yelling' just didn't seem like the right word for Millie to use for her laconic father) like that and he never says anything he doesn't mean. And if you wreck my party, Otis won't be the only one in our class with a bloody nose."
Suzy got that message too.
Irene was still holding, caressing and speaking tenderly to Janet. The eleven-year-old was cuddled into Irene like a two year old. Her eyes were wide open and darted around as if watching for some specter. Her breathing was still shallow and quick but some better than when Jack and Irene first realized the girl's panic. Jack walked over and stroked the girl's hair. He too spoke gently. Slowly Janet's breathing deepened and slowed and Jack left the room.
"I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry. You were very frightened."
"I wrecked the party."
"I don't think you did. You can hear the girls laughing in the dining room."
"Where did Mr. Ferman go?"
"I think he went to sit in the living room. We thought it best that one of us keep an eye on things."
After more cuddling and a long pause, Janet said "My mom doesn't hug me."
"I'm sorry. If you were my daughter, you'd get a lot of hugs."
"Do you hug Millie?"
"Yes."
"And Freddy?"
"Yes."
"Don't they think it's baby stuff."
"I don't think so. They never have said anything but even if they did, they'd still get hugged."
"Does Mr. Ferman hug them?"
"Yes he does."
"When my mom screams at me or hits me, Larry hugs me. My mom yells at him. She says he's trying to do bad stuff to me. He's not. He's just trying to make me feel better when my mom is being mean. I like it when he hugs me."
Another period of silence.
"My mom hates Larry."
"She does? Why?"
"She only married him because she thought he had lots of money. She married two other guys and divorced them and got half their money. She hates Larry 'cause she can't get any money from him. She thought he owned the farm. He doesn't. His dad does.
"I think we're going back to Detroit. I don't want to go but I know my mom is going to Bad Ax to see Karl. Karl always shows up just before we have to move."
"Who's Karl?"
"He's mom's boyfriend. He's the one who finds guys for mom to marry."
"I'm sorry, honey." Irene didn't want to pry further. Everyone in the Elkton area had been shocked when Larry Waverly married. Everyone thought he was a confirmed bachelor. He was forty years old, the type who liked to hunt and fish and was such a free spirit that no one thought he would ever allow himself to be tied down. But they were more surprised at whom he had married. Folks had never gotten to know her. She was aloof and condescending and if spoken to would respond with sarcasm. Irene finally understood the woman.
Janet had not spoken for several minutes so Irene asked, "Are you ready to go back to the party?"
"I don't want to go back. They all hate me."
"I'm sure they don't hate you. You do some things differently than they are used to and you wear clothes that are not like most girls around here wear. And, honey, sometimes you're not very kind in some of the things you say."
"I ask my mom for dresses like the other girls wear but she says she's not going to have me dressing like a country hick. When I have to move, I know the kids will hate me because of the clothes I wear so I get nasty with them before they can get nasty with me. I know that's dumb but I'm afraid to be made fun of. I'm afraid all the time. I'm afraid of everything but if other kids know that, it just gets worse."
"Are you afraid right now?"
"Yes, but I really like you hugging me."
"What are you afraid of?"
"Right now mostly that my mom is going to take me away from here. I think Larry is the only person who ever really loved me. He's just like a real dad.
"Do I have to go back? Can't I stay here in your lap?"
"As long as you like, honey."
Jack had stayed in the living room so he could keep an eye on the party going on in the dining room. He thought that Janet might come back and he was not going to allow any harassment. When it became obvious that she was not rejoining the party, he went to the kitchen. Suzy said, "Don't your dad trust you? Why was he sitting there watching us?"
"He was making sure that if Janet came back he'd be right there so he could send you home."
"Me? Why me? Janet's the cry baby."
"She was scared. She might have cried but you're the moron."
That comment by Millie led to a series of moron jokes, jokes that were the current vogue.
It was a fun party. They played the telephone game where someone whispered something in the ear of the girl beside her. That girl then whispered to the girl next to her and when it got to the last girl everyone giggled at how much it had changed. They played a game where the girls sat in a circle and ran a string around so that every girl had her hands on the string. A ring was placed on the string and the idea was for the girls to keep moving their hands back and forth on the string and surreptitiously pass the ring to the next girl. Someone was chosen to be in the middle and try to guess who had the ring. If the ring was found, the person who had it went to the middle.
It was fun for a while. Those were about the only inside party games the kids knew. All had heard of spin the bottle but you had to have boys for that and "young ladies" or not, eleven-year-olds were not about to kiss a boy in front of other girls. They knew that girls liked to gossip.
They did bob for apples and tried to take a bite off an apple hanging on a string and, of course, they ate the cookies and drank cider. After the food, the party kind of died until Lucy Farver started talking about boys. Girls that age would never kiss a boy in "public" but they sure liked to talk about them.
For the next half hour before their parents started coming to pick them up, almost every boy in the fifth, sixth and seventh grade was graded, so to speak. Everyone thought that Dallas Snyder was cute and it was generally agreed that Lyle Craig was a brat. Otis Bailey wasn't even mentioned. The appearance, demeanor and general attributes of all the boys were discussed and categorized from cute to brat.
Some girls relied strictly on appearance and others would comment on intelligence, wit, apparel or behavior. When they had run out of boys to critique they realized that way over half of the boys fell into the less than acceptable category. Eleven-year-olds had a nascent interest in boys but they still had the prepubescent aversion to the opposite sex.
Millie had not participated in the discussion. She was speechless. The first boy mentioned was Freddy Ferman. All the girls thought he was the cutest thing alive. They couldn't get finished reciting all his positive traits and his charm. Millie was shocked. Freddy was a brother not a boy. Well, he was a boy but not a BOY.