This is my entry for the 2019 Halloween contest. It's just a little thing that popped into my head, which I felt I could do justice to with the short time I had available to me. I hope you enjoy it.
"But Andrew..."
"I'm not talking about this anymore. We've argued for a week and I've told you, I'm not into it."
"Listen, I just..."
"I have to go to class, Alice. I'll see you tonight." Andrew Cunningham got up from the table and walked out the door of the coffee shop.
"Andrew!" But he was gone and Alice Marchant, his girlfriend, was left sitting alone. "Asshole," she muttered.
Alice was in her second year at Tulane University. She and Andrew had been dating for about a month. She didn't think it was going to last much longer.
"Trouble in paradise, chere?" Alice looked up to find Josette standing next to her table, coffee pot in hand.
Josette Chacere was the proprietor of the Voodoo Bean, the little coffee shop right off campus near Alice's dorm. Alice had often wondered, since meeting Josette her freshman year, how someone so young could own her own business. She couldn't have been much older than herself.
Josette was a slim, willowy woman, with skin the color of the café au laits her shop was famous for, and a mop of curly, caramel-colored hair. She would tell anyone who cared to listen that she was a descendant of Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen of New Orleans.
"Hey, Josette. No... I mean, yes. I mean, this thing I've got with Andrew isn't
anyone's idea of paradise. I just wanted to enter the couples costume contest in Jackson Square on Thursday. The winner gets the honeymoon suite at the Crowne Plaza for the night and I thought it'd be fun to try. But I guess I couldn't talk him into my idea for our costumes."
"Mm hmm. Halloween, mah favorite holiday." She warmed up Alice's coffee for her. Alice had always enjoyed Josette's Cajun accent. "So what was your idea for the contest, chere?"
"Nothing, it was stupid anyway."
"Don't let that boy drag you down with his negativity, sugar. What was your idea?"
"Well, the contest is fairy tale themed this year. I wanted to go as Alice in Wonderland, and have Andrew be the Mad Hatter."
Josette laughed. "Why, that'd be
perfect
for you, chere! Not sure about your boy though."
Alice knew why Josette said that. Her looks couldn't have been more perfect for the Lewis Carroll character. She was slim, with blue eyes and straight, pale blonde hair down past her shoulders.
"I know, right? Andrew wants to go as a zombie though. I still might enter the singles contest. The prize is only a two hundred dollar gift card for that. I was telling Andrew how nice it would have been to have a romantic night in a huge suite instead of always having to try to find some privacy in the dorms."
"Well, good luck to you sugar. If I see you, I'll cheer you on."
"Thanks, Josette, that's really kind of you. You're planning on being down on Bourbon Street on Halloween too?"
Josette smiled at her. "Chere, I
never
miss a Halloween down there. Most people prefer Mardi Gras, but I like the witching night better."
Her smile was definitely the most remarkable thing about her, Alice thought, as Josette went back behind her counter to take the orders of some students who had just walked in. Her smile was so broad and full of sunshine that it almost appeared she had way too many teeth when she flashed it at you.
Alice got up and bussed her table, leaving a couple of dollars in the tip jar on her way out. Josette nodded her thanks and called out to her, "Hope we run up against each other on Halloween, chere!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Andrew gave a low whistle when Alice opened the door to her dorm room. "Whoa babe, you look hot!" She rolled her eyes. Things hadn't gotten much better between them since their argument at the Voodoo Bean earlier in the week. The only reason she hadn't broken up with him already was that she didn't want to go to Bourbon Street alone, and her roommate was going to some sorority party. She was pretty sure this would be their last date.
"Thanks. You look... Like a zombie, I guess." Andrew had clearly not tried very hard. His zombie makeup looked like he'd gotten one of those cheap makeup kits from Wal-Mart and slapped the scabs and fake blood on his face about two minutes before he walked out the door. He was wearing a dirty white t-shirt covered in fake blood. He tried to kiss her, but she shied away.
"Hey! Don't get near me with all that blood, at least not until after the contest! I don't want to get messed up."
She'd worked hard on her costume. Her mother had spent years teaching both her and her sister to sew, like good Southern girls, and Alice had her own portable sewing machine she'd brought with her to college. She'd made the powder blue crinoline dress herself. It ended just below her knees, with puffy, gathered sleeves ending halfway to her elbows, and had a white linen smock that covered the front. Under the multiple petticoats she wore to give the dress the proper volume, she'd added white stockings and patent leather shoes. She'd considered going with white tights, but had decided to wear actual stockings and a garter belt. It made her feel sexier. She was pretty sure that she wasn't going to let Andrew to enjoy her efforts in that area tonight, and she was amused by the thought that he wouldn't get to see what was under her dress.
"I'm being really petty tonight," she thought to herself as they left the dorms to head out to the streetcar that would take them down to the French Quarter.
The French Quarter was in full swing when they arrived in Jackson Square right at sundown. Hundreds of people in costumes were wandering around, most carrying alcohol from the nearby bars and walk-up daiquiri shops.
Andrew was soon carrying a huge Hurricane himself, courtesy of his fake ID. She'd declined his offer to get her one. Public drunkenness as a twenty year old is not something she wanted on her record.
He ditched her to go looking for some friends while she stood in the long line to register for the costume contest. She was halfway to the front and thinking about giving up on the idea. She turned to walk away from the line and ran full force into someone and almost fell. Josette caught her by the arms and kept her from going down.
"Chere, when I said I hope we run up against each other, I didn't mean it literally," she laughed.
Alice barely recognized her. She was dressed as a cat, wearing a deep purple body suit with black tiger stripes and a three-foot long furry tail attached just above her butt. The pattern on the body suit made it look like fur at first glance, but a closer look revealed it was skin tight Lycra. She looked like she'd been dipped in paint. Her natural hair was teased out into a full Afro, and it surrounded her face like a lion's mane, with a pair of fuzzy black cat ears sticking up out of her hair. Apparently, she'd invested in a really expensive pair of special effects contacts, because her irises were twice their normal size, and a brilliant green instead of her normal brown. Her eyes had feline pupils to go with the whiskers she'd painted on her cheeks. When Josette had laughed, she had exposed her canine teeth, which looked much longer and sharper to Alice than normal. She must have glued fake fangs to her teeth.
"Wow, Josette. Sorry to almost run over you like that. You look amazing! You could be in the Broadway cast of Cats!"
"Why, thank you sugar! You look adorable yourself. You might have a shot up there tonight."
Alice frowned. "I was just getting ready to give up on the line and try and find Andrew. I don't think I want to do the solo contest anymore."
"No? How about the couples contest then?"
"Andrew doesn't want to. Besides he wouldn't wear the Mad Hatter costume I was making."
"I wasn't talking 'bout ya boy, chere. The Hatter ain't the only one Alice ran into through the looking glass you know." Josette grinned as wide as she could, and Alice suddenly realized that Josette would be a perfect Cheshire Cat.
"Wow, okay, I guess if you want to, that would be cool! Wait, did you wear that hoping you'd run into me?"
"Chere, I've had this look together for a while now. It's just a fortuitous circumstance. Watch out now, the line's moving without us."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She and Josette had made it through the first few rounds of voting and were one of the final three pairs.
Couple number one had dressed as Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. Not technically a fairy tale, but close enough to get them in the finals, apparently. Couple two was a little cleverer; a gender bent Rapunzel, with the Princess played by a man in drag and the Prince played by a butched up woman. Alice felt somewhat optimistic. They all went up on stage together and the emcee called for applause from the crowd for each couple.
The first two couples did fairly well, making Alice nervous, but Josette whispered to her "Just play along with me, chere."
When the emcee pointed to the two of them, Josette dropped to all fours and began to prowl menacingly around Alice's legs. She looked almost inhuman, the way she moved, lithe and graceful. She crawled around Alice grinning ear to ear, exposing her fangs, and making clawing motions at her dress. Alice acted the part of a scared girl, making her mouth into a big "O" and covering it with her hand, and lifting one foot up away from the scary Cheshire cat. The crowd ate it up and the emcee pronounced them the winner, handing Alice an envelope. The girls hugged to celebrate, and then Alice opened the envelope to find a hotel key to the suite at the Crowne Plaza and a two hundred dollar gift card.
"We're totally splitting this Josette! That was so much fun!"
Andrew walked up to the pair, ignoring Josette. "Babe! That was awesome! Great job, should we go check out our suite? Maybe we could invite a bunch of guys from the dorms to party."
