#bipolarmasterpiece

Dani helped Charles into his costume, and stood him in front of the mirror for his declaration on their help. He looked at himself, crossed his arms, uncrossed them, turned himself around and looked at his back. He then faced forwards again, adjusted his large, round glasses one more time, nodded, and looked up to his mother and gave them the thumbs up.

    “Thanks Mommy. It looks awesome,” he said with a smile.

    Dani smiled and said, “Glad I could help. How do you think Trevor and Mom are doing?”

    Charles looked upstairs and shrugged. “Let’s go see,” he answered, reaching for the barrister and climbing the stairs to go check on Trevor and Mom.

    Jamie fit the top bit of Trevor’s costume on his head as Charles and Dani reached the top of the stairs. Trevor looked through the door leading to the landing at his brother.

    “You look just like Burnie Sanders,” he said.

    Charles grinned. “And you’re a darn good ‘military-industbunny complex’.”

    “Industrial,” his brother corrected him. “Let’s get our shoes.” The house was filled with the thumping of two pairs of seven year old legs on the stairs. Dani grinned at Jamie.

    “Seems like we’re in for an active night.”

    Jamie laughed. “Just wait until they have candy.”

    They followed their sons down to the bottom of the stairs, where the boys sat, diligently putting their feet into their shoes and then devoting a great deal of concentration to tying their laces properly. Dani would walk to the kitchen and grab the pillow cases that the boys had brought down hours earlier - they had a difficult time convincing the boys it wasn’t very fair to ‘get a head start’ on trick or treating before people started walking around (or people in their neighborhood had set their candy out).

    Jamie wore a heavy, woolen sweater, and took off a jacket that was about two sizes larger than him from the hook where they hung their coats. “Do you want to get a coat, Dani?”

    Dani nodded, and got their coat and wrapped a scarf around their neck. “Thanks for reminding me. We should probably bring coats for them,” they said, and grabbed the two smaller coats, one orange and one blue. Jamie smiled.

    “Ready to go, kiddos?” they asked.

    The boys smiled and nodded.

    They walked down their block and to the several houses, with both Charles and Trevor opening their bags and saying “Trick or treat!” One man who answered the door smiled at the two of them and bend over, inspecting their costumes, and ask, “Oh! What are your costumes?”

    “I’m Bernard Sanders, the senator,” Charles answered.

    Trevor looked him in the eye and said, “I’m the military-industrial complex.”

    The man paused for a moment, and then looked on the steps of his porch where Dani and Jamie stood, his eyes asking for an explanation.

    They shrugged. “It’s what they are.”

    He nodded, in a slow, confused fashion, and took two handfuls of candy and gave one to Trevor and one to Charles. They both said, “Thank you!” and walked back to their mothers and continued on to the next house. Charles looked up at Jamie and asked, “Can I have my coat Mommy?”

    “Sure thing,” Jamie answered, handing it to him. He put it on and blew into his hands and rubbed them.

    “Can this be the last house?” he asked as they started down the path to the front door.

    Dani and Jamie looked to Trevor. “Is that okay?”

    Trevor nodded. “Sure. We’ve had a good haul, and it’s really cold,” he said.

    Jamie handed his coat to him and rang the doorbell for them. Jamie and Dani smiled.

    A old person opened the door and squinted through their glasses down at the two boys.

    “Trick or treat!” they started, and then looked more closely. “Granddad!” They’d hug Ai.

    Ai would smile. “How’re you kiddos doing? Having a fun night?”

    “It’s been pretty good,” Charles said, lifting his bag to show his spoils. “We got a lot of candy.”

    “But we’re going to head home after your house,” Trevor said. “It’s cold and we’re tired.”

    Ai nodded, and reached into a bowl and dumped about half into Charles’ bag and the other half into Trevor’s. “Well, hopefully that’ll tide you kids over. Now you get your little asses home and get warm,” zie said and patted them on their heads and hugged Dani and Jamie. “Hope you all can get warm and snuggly at home.”

    Jamie laughed and hugged Ai back. “Well, they might have some more trouble since you gave them the equivalent candy of every house we went to tonight.”

    Ai looked down and saw Charles attempting to swing his now rather heavy bag over his shoulder for easier carrying - he stumbled, a little unsteady, once he got it over his shoulder.

    Ai shrugged. “Eh. They’ll probably be fine.”

    Jamie, slouching from fatigue, made their way to the room they shared with Dani, and half-sat, half-fell onto the bed. Down the hall, near the boys’ room, the door shut, and Jamie heard the heavy footfalls of Dani. God, were they exhausted.

    Dani came into the room and plopped down on the couch beside Jamie, and then lay down onto her lap, and groaned a little. Jamie idly played with their hair and lay back on the bed too, their bodies together making an ‘L’ shape.

“How did they have so much energy? We took the candy bags from them when we got home,” Jamie asked.

“I think Trevor had a few handfuls in his pockets,” Dani replied wearily. “And Charles put some down his shirt.”

    “Ah. That would explain it,” Jamie sighed, and they continued playing with Dani’s hair. “Are you feeling okay?”

    “You mean other than the exhaustion?”

    “Yeah. Do you hurt at all?”

    Jamie felt Dani shaking their head on his leg. “No, somehow. I just feel so tired.”

    Jamie blinked wearily, and then sat herself up and patted Dani’s arm. “Let’s go to bed.”

    Dani slowly rolled off Jamie’s leg and descended, face down, onto the floor. Jamie got into their pajamas and adjusted the blankets that covered the couple’s bed. Dani raised themselves to their knees and rested their head on the edge of the bed.

    “We are the best moms ever,” they said into the top blanket.