"Aw, Mom."
"It's almost obscene, Jamie. It's not that warm out. If you're going out, at least put on a sweater or something."
"Yeah, right, Mom," Jamie said, rolling his eyes at his sidekick, Keith, all decked out in a pirate costume, "every Roman gladiator wore a sweater when he went out to the lions."
"Cougars," Keith muttered and then flashed a broad smile at Jamie.
"Shhh," Jamie hissed, giving Keith a nasty warning glance.
"I'm sure Roman gladiators wore more than short skirts and sandals and leather straps across their chests," Peg countered, with a pursing of lips. Then she was jostled a bit by her passing husband, and turned, "Going so soon?"
Burton Winston had almost brushed past the trio standing at the open front door when his wife noticed spoke to him, "I shouldn't be more than a couple of hours, Peg. They've screwed up the Johnson contract. I should only be gone long enough to get that back on track. The proposal is due in tomorrow."
His voice trailed off as he focused on his son for the first time. "You are not going out half naked, James. And what do you think you're doing anyway? And if you think you're getting your mom's carโ"
"Burtโ" Peg started, but as her husband gave her the evil eye, she went silent. They'd had this discussion several times in the past few months since Jamie had come of age. When to hold them and when to let them go. Burt too often was too protective and restrictiveโsometimes a regular Puritan.
Burton turned back to his son. "You're much too old to be going out trick or treating, anyway."
"Just the treating part," Jamie's friend Keith piped up.
For a second time, Jamie shushed his friend and gave him a venomous stare down.
"Geez," Jamie said. "You'd think when I turned eighteen you guys would stop scrutinizing my every move. Keith and me are going out partying for a while. And Keith is driving. Everything's cool."
"Eleven o'clock," Burton said sternly. "Back home by eleven or we lock the doors on you."
"Will you be home by then?" Jamie's mom, Peg, interjected into Burton's control play on his son.
"Sure, I should be. No later than 10:30, I hope." And then Burton was gone, on the way to his car and pulling out of the driveway without a look back.
"What about Craig?" Peg said to her son now that the three of them were alone by the open front door again. "He's not going out partying with you too, is he?"
"Naw, Mom. We're not really palling around with him anymore," Jamie answered. "Since Keith and I started at City College, we don't have much in common with Craig anymore."
"Good," Peg said with a tone of finality in her voice and a little smile she tried to hide from her son. "I feel safer with you out on a Halloween night like this if you aren't with Craig. He's much too old for you, and I think he's into some things you should be avoiding."
"He's only nineteen, Mom," Jamie countered. "Not even a year older then me. But, yeah, I think he's into some serious shit too. Rumor has it he has some old bag punch and is spendin' his time with her."
Peg gave her son a shocked look and turned from him. When she turned back, he was hanging his head. He knew she didn't like to hear her fair-haired boy using curse words or coarse images.
"Anyway, we're off, Mom," Jamie said as he tugged on Keith's sleeve and nudged through the door.
"Eleven o'clock. You heard your father," Peg said. "Do you think you'll be much earlier?"