Happy Halloween, Elena

“¡¡¡Vamos, vamos, vamos!!! ¡Vamos! ¡Queremos salir antes de que oscurezca demasiado!” Elena yelled in Spanish. She wanted to get out of the house before it got too dark.

Elena was with her three friends, Valentina, Lucia, and María. It was Halloween night and they were all dressed up. Elena and Valentina were both wearing matching bear onesies. Lucia was wearing a cheetah costume with striped face paint. María was dressed as an angel. Her costume matched her personality. Sometimes.

As Lucia and María were scrambling to get ready, Valentina came up to “super-stressed” Elena.

“Calm down, mi amiga. It’s Halloween night. The night you get so much candy, you vomit.”

Elena gave Valentina a half smile. Valentina’s little sister, Paloma, is going trick-or-treating with them. Although Paloma was only eleven years old, three years younger than Elena and her friends, Elena had no problem with becoming friends with her.

“Okay. Ready to go!” Lucia and María were standing in front of Elena and Valentina and holding their trick-or-treat bags.

“Okay, we just need to get las hermanitas.” They all looked around for their younger sisters.

As Elena was helping Valentina look for Paloma, she was thinking about her younger brothers. All four of them.

Elena was the firstborn of five. She was the only girl, also. She had four younger brothers. Valentina wondered how she could possibly live in that house. Valentina only had Paloma as a sister. She was lucky she got a sister and not a brother. But as Elena thought about that, she disagreed with herself. With a sister, you had to share your clothes, whatever one sister got, the other had to get, and having to share a bedroom or closet.

Lucia and María also had sisters. María had one younger sister, but Lucia had one older and younger sister, so she was the middle child.

“¡Elena! Ahora tengo a Alba. ¡Ella está lista para conseguir dulces con nosotras ahora!” María found her sister, Alba and said she was ready to go trick-or-treating with us.

“¡Bien! ¡Busquemos a Paloma y Solana para que podamos ir!” Elena, Valentina, María and Alba started to look for Paloma and Solana so that they could start to get some candy. Because Alba was only four years old, María picked her up and she hung her little candy bag behind María’s neck.

Elena was looking all around the house to see if Lucia and her younger sister, Solana reunited to get ready. Valentina was able to find Paloma and get her to come along. Elena tried to yell out for Lucia and Solana but the racket of three of her brothers was almost making her ears bleed. Now, that was just her brother’s. They all had at least three friends over each. Now, because they were so loud, that woke up her other two brothers who were both under the age of three. Meaning, they were already in bed by the time of around seven thirty. It was almost eight.

Luckily, Lucia and Solana were already at the door. Elena did one more head count before getting outside.

* * *

Elena and her friends were halfway down the road, with her bag full of candy, and Paloma was holding a flashlight when Elena realized something.

‘Your parents have always taught you to never, ever, take candy from strangers, to never, ever talk to strangers in general, and to most definitely never, ever talk to strangers. But tonight? That’s all you did. You even walk on their doorstep!!!’ Elena had these weird thoughts. Her mother called it ADHD. She had no clue what that was, but her mother must have been correct because once she heard her doctor talk about it. Elena wasn't exactly paying attention at that appointment but all she could remember was her doctor saying some words like ADHD, behavior problems, focus, and bad grades. Elena had the faintest idea of what he was saying.

“Hey there, kids.” A massive van rolled up to them. A man wearing disreputable clothing was driving it. Immediately, Elena did not trust this man. His voice was deep but quiet.

Elena grabbed onto Valentina’s arm and made sure Valentina was behind her.

Elena didn’t want to give this man air to speak.

“Can we help you?” Elena was straightforward and a little mean.

“Calm down, little one. I was just offering some candy if you wan—”

“We’re fine, thanks.” Elena was incredibly suspicious about this man. She knew that having candy for Halloween was the whole deal, but she did not like this man. She had no clue why, but she called it a gut feeling.

“¡¡¡Quiero algunos dulces!!!” Alba started to walk toward the van. The guy opened the car door so that Alba could reach into his basket of candy. Elena swooped up Alba before she could take two steps closer to the car.

The man looked at Elena in confusion.

“We said,” Elena was gritting through her teeth, “that we were fine, thank you.”

There was a long pause in between her announcement and his. He slammed the car door but left the window rolled down to talk to Elena.

“I’m sorry, you might have misheard me,” in the corner of Elena’s eye, she saw Lucia pick up Solana even though she was heavy. She was incredibly happy that Lucia was playing smart too. Solana was seven years old, but Lucia knew that she would have been too slow in case they needed to pack up and run, “I said, take the candy.”

“¡¡¡Corre!!!” Elena yelled. They were all on their feet, running.

“¡En el bosque! ¡En el bosque!” If they were to run in one direction it had to be the forest, this way the man couldn’t drive into the forest.

“Slow down now, slow down!” Elena looked around, Valentina, María holding Alba, and Lucia putting down Solana. But where was Paloma?

Slowly, Paloma was following behind them and gave Elena the flashlight. Valentina gave her a hug and Paloma placed herself in Valentina’s chest, worried.

“Elena?”

“Yes, Paloma?”

“Are we going to be alright?”

Elena thought about this question. She knew the comprehensive answer, but you can’t do that to a kid. In this case you have to be… optimistic.

“Of course we are. The only thing I want you to worry about right now is to follow me. Can you do that for me? Just tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Then that’s all you need to focus on. Valentina, María and Lucia, I need you pay attention to where I am, and where your sisters are. If you lose sight of them, stop instantly. So, I only need you to worry about two things. You can do that, right?”

They all agreed so Elena went to talk to Solana. She was old enough to pay attention a little.

“Hey, Solana.”

“Hi, Elena!” Knowing that Solana said Elena’s name like that, Elena made the accusation that Solana had no clue what was going on.

“Hey! So, I just need you to do one thing for me, I need you to follow me, and the group, okay? If you start to slow down, yell stop alright? Can you try to do that?”

“Yup!”

“Perfect! Just remember that alright?”

Elena started to walk to the front of the group and said one last thing to them. It seemed Elena was the only one who knew that the van was parked right outside the center of the forest, or where he could see the flashlight shining. He was like a waiting puppy, excited for his owner to wake up on a Saturday morning to get his food. Except, one of them you were excited to see.

“Okay, I have a plan. You just need to follow me, please. And it's going to be a little difficult because I’m turning the flashlight off.” Elena clicked the button and yelled out to see if everyone could still see her.

“¿Listo? ¡Empieza a correr conmigo!” Elena took off and everyone ran after. There have only been a few times where she’s felt unsafe without her parents around. This was one of them.

She ran through the forest and got out on the other side of where the van was. She knew exactly where she was. She slowed down and got to a stop. She turned around and everyone was there.

“Is everyone alright now?”

Paloma started crying. She was scared too.

“Hey, hey. Come here.” She held out her arms and Paloma hugged her. “Listen, I know you’re scared,” Elena whispered into her ear, “to be honest,” Paloma let go and looked at Elena, “I’m scared too.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. For sure.” Elena gave Paloma a smile and luckily, she delivered one back. Paloma walked over to Valentina and held her hand. María walked over to Elena and asked her a similar question.

“Are you sure we’re safe, Elena?”

“Absolutely. I promise you, I will get you home, safe, and secure.”

“Thank you, Elena.”

“Okay. Is everyone ready for step two?” Everyone nodded in agreement and Elena started thinking. She would walk down the street and pretend they were just average trick-or-treaters. The only thing… where were the trick-or-treaters?

Elena looked down the street and back. There were no kids around, just Halloween baskets spilled on the road. They must have already known that there was a creepy man going around town. Elena started to walk down the road but as soon as she heard the engine start that was so loud it could most possibly wake up her two youngest brothers, she started to run.

“Let’s go! Run!” Everyone was behind Elena and she quickly got a plan. She would go down to Old Guy Antonio’s house. Old Guy Antonio was a friendly neighbor and would always help her family. Thankfully, the lights were on in his house.

“Elena! Where are we going!?!” Was a voice from behind her.

“Old Guy Antonio’s! Follow me!”

Elena had a plan. A smart one too. When the van caught up to Elena, she would run as fast as she could and then suddenly, stop. The man would have not seen her stop from going at such a high speed, so he would have continued driving. For the few seconds that Elena and her friends have time without that man following them, she would run into Old Guy Antonio’s house and get everyone in safely. The chances of outsmarting him were low, and even lower for them to run into Old Guy Antonio’s house in time. And she only had one attempt at this. If she screwed up, she was screwed.

Elena ran as fast as she could. The headlights were making her shadow tall. Then, she stopped, spun around to catch Valentina, knowing that she would crash into her. Then, she ran. Luckily, Old Guy Antonio was holding the door open for them. Elena ran inside and then pulled her arms out to make sure everyone gets inside safely. She did a head count, and everyone was there. As soon as all the doors and windows were locked, she would check up on everyone.

“Just sit in the living room for right now!” She told all her friends and ran through the house to make sure that man couldn't get in. When that was done, she looked through the window and saw red and blue lights flashing and that man getting put in a police car. When she was done looking through the house, Old Guy Antonio called the police. She was so happy she was able to memorize his license plate.

Elena went to the living room to all her worried friends. She went through each of them and asked if they were feeling alright and if they got hurt or not. They were all okay. That meant she was too.

“Elena?” Lucia whispered quietly in her ear.

“Yeah?”

“Are we safe now?”

“Yes, Lucia. We’re perfectly safe now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. And if you still don’t believe me, come over here.” Lucia followed Elena to the front door and looked through the slim window. A smile grew on Lucia’s face. Solana followed her older sister and asked what had happened. Elena thought it was best if she didn’t say anything. They all walked back to the living room and sat down.

Elena thought she should show Paloma so she could be a little less stressed about the whole situation. So, she waved Paloma to come over to the window. Instead of a smile, she just hugged Elena.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Gracias por salvarme.”

“Por supuesto, Paloma.” They walked back to the living room and sat for a little while. All parents were called except for Elena’s. The police would take her back home because her house was so close.

Over time, Lucia and María’s parents came and Valentina’s were still left.

“Elena Xiomara Miguel?” An unknown voice came from the doorway. It was a police officer.

“Yes?” Elena was a little scared. A police officer had never directly spoken to her before.

“We just want to thank you for helping your friends tonight and the neighbors from something catastrophic.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you ready to go home now?”

“Umm… one more minute if that’s alright?”

“Of course!”

Elena walked over to Valentina and Paloma and said goodbyes.

“Now, I’m not going to be here to say goodbye to you two, but I promise, you are safe right now. And your mother and father are likely not far away. Valentina, call me as soon as you get home, alright? Paloma, you were very brave tonight, okay? Fantastic job. Both of you. And thank you for listening to me.” Elena gave them both one last hug and walked home with the police officer.

* * *

Elena got home and her mother hugged her so tightly that she could barely breathe. Her father was talking to the officer and when she walked into her house just a bit more, she saw her brother, Xaviel, who was twelve years old, the oldest boy, was watching television.

He was watching a scary movie, definitely something R-rated. Suddenly the

movie was paused.

“Oye, ¿por qué lo pausaste?” Elena looked at her younger brother and noticed he was not even there! Elena felt something cold around her torso. It was Xaviel’s hands wrapped around her. Xaviel, whose heart is as cold as his arms, was hugging his older sister. Tonight, definitely changed some lives.

“¿Qué pasa, Xaviel?”

“Pensamos que te habíamos perdido, hermana.” Xaviel was worried about Elena.

“Thank you, Xaviel. Now should you go to bed?”

“De acuerdo.” Xaviel started to walk up the stairs to get to bed.

Elena sat in her favorite spot on the couch and exhaled. She was sitting in silence for a little while and the thing that broke the quiet was her phone. It was a phone call with Valentina’s name there. She was safe. That’s all that matters to Elena.

Happy Halloween, Elena. Happy Halloween.