The candy shop lady looked over her reading glasses at Virginia. "Can I help you find something?" It was an odd little shop on a shaded backstreet in a neighborhood of boutiques and quaint apartments.
Virginia swept her blue-tinted hair behind her ear. "I think I have it." She held up bags of taffy, toffee, and hard candies. "I'm not sure how much I need."
The shop lady let her glasses dangle around her neck and stepped from behind the counter. "What are you buying for?" She had an ornate name tag pinned to her blouse that read "Hortense." The whole shop seemed a little antique, just like the lady.
"A Halloween party—like for maybe a dozen kids from five to eleven."
Hortense counted Virginia's bags and her eyes traveled up her body. She had a meticulous way of speaking. "None are your kids, I would guess."
Virginia laughed. "They're kids I babysat while I was in high school and some of their friends. Really, the party is so their parents can go out for a party of their own."
"You might have enough there. If you buy too much, then there will always be someone to eat it." She cocked her head at Virginia. "You know, most kids would be perfectly happy with fun-size candy bars from the supermarket."
"At least two of the kids are allergic to chocolate," Virginia said. "Besides, these are cooler and the parents are paying for it, not me." She smiled at Hortense's pale eyes. "I'll look around a little more, and see if I get any new ideas."
There were aisles of truffles, petit fours, and caramels to wander through and, when Virginia looked up, she noticed a doorway she hadn't seen before. There was a sign over it that read "Must Be Eighteen To Enter."
Virginia was more than a year past eighteen, so she let her curiosity get the best of her. She stepped through the doorway into a back room filled with adult candies—pink penis pops, boob-shaped bonbons, and more.
Hortense caught up with her. "Nothing back here is appropriate for your party."
"You mean I shouldn't give chocolate naked ladies to eight-year-olds?" Virginia laughed at the lewd display, and Hortense relaxed. She explained to Virginia how each erotic candy came about and what they might be good for.
Hortense stopped at a bowl of plainly-wrapped hard candies. Some were in blue wrappers and some were in pink wrappers. She pointed out the picture over the bowl. "Each is a little, anatomically correct figure. They're both male and female, and you can tell which is which by the color." She smiled at Virginia. "They help you express your sexual fantasies. The more you eat, the deeper you go into your own psyche."
"So, they're some kind of drug?" Virginia asked.
Hortense shook her head. "They're just herbal treats."
Virginia was intrigued. She picked out a handful of candies equally divided between blue and pink, and she had Hortense ring them up apart from the party candy. "I'll share them with my boyfriend," Virginia said. "We'll see what happens."
The old lady watched over the top of her glasses. "Be careful. They also make you tell the truth, and that isn't always what you want."
Virginia was barely listening. She checked the time on her phone. "My boyfriend's supposed to meet me at the party store pretty soon." She paused to look at the candy she was buying for the party. "You know, maybe this won't be enough." She extended her hand to the shop lady. "I might see you again. My name is Virginia. People usually call me Ginny."
A little smile curled the corners of Hortense's lips as she touched Virginia's hand, and then a little bell over the door jingled as she left.
The party store was a short drive from the candy shop and, since it was still two weeks to Halloween, it was still fully stocked. There were giant talking spiders, bubbling cauldrons, and just about everything else Virginia could think of.
Her arms were already full when a shop girl met her at the masks and costumes, "Can I help you with those?" she asked. "We'll keep them at the counter, and you can shop hands-free."
"My boyfriend should already be here to help." Virginia glanced around the shop as she handed things to the shop girl. "I don't see him yet."
She checked her phone once her hands were free and found a message from Brian. "Something came up. I can't meet you at the party store."
Virginia scowled at her phone but talked to the shop girl. "It's always something with that guy."
Virginia sent a message to Paul while the girl wound her way back through the crowded aisles with her arms full of decorations. "I'm at the party store on Sheridan. Can you help me get things home?"
Paul's answer came without a flourish and without strings attached. Virginia liked that about her brother. "I can be there in a half hour or so," he replied.
She was still deciding between a baggy witch costume and a sexy cat costume when Paul found her. She held them up to get his opinion, and he frowned. "Don't they have something in-between? Maybe a cute witch costume?"
"I don't need to be sexy for a bunch of kids." She shoved the baggy witch costume at her brother and turned back to the rack to put the cat costume away. Something caught her eye, and she turned around again with a third costume in hand. "I don't know why I didn't see this before." It was the cute witch costume that Paul wanted.
Virginia held the costume up for size, and Paul changed the subject. "Are you done with mid-terms?"
"Finished this morning." Virginia took the baggy costume out of Paul's hands. "That's why I'm shopping now." She handed him the cute costume and turned to the rack again. "I wanted to relax. How about you?"
"Done yesterday, and no classes this afternoon, and I don't even have to work tonight. That's why I had time. Where's Brian?"
Virginia hung the baggy costume where it came from and made air quotes. "Something came up." She shrugged and let her shoulders sag. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Follow me."
She added a life-sized glow-in-the-dark skeleton and bags of spider webs to the load in Paul's arms, and he piled everything on the counter with the rest of her things. "How are you paying for all this?"
Virginia pulled a credit card from her back pocket and flashed it at Paul before she gave it to the girl behind the register. "The McMann's are paying for it."
The shop girl helped them pile the decorations into the covered back of Paul's pickup, and he met Virginia at the house where they grew up. Paul leaned back against the truck and studied the old place by the light of the setting sun. It needed paint. "How long are you going to keep living here?"
Virginia looked up from the back of the truck. "Why would I leave? The whole upstairs is mine now, and Mom and Dad don't bother me. Like now? I'm not even sure where they are. Austin maybe?" She stood up and pushed boxes into Paul's hands. "These go into your old bedroom."
It took two trips for both of them. They stashed everything upstairs before Paul followed his sister to the kitchen. "It's almost time for dinner. What's there to eat around this place?"
Virginia poked around the refrigerator and came up with cold meatloaf and a doubtful look on her face. "I don't know how long this has been in there. Let's order pizza."
They argued over every topping except sausage and mushrooms, and when it got there Virginia poured iced tea for both of them. "Why do we always argue about pizza toppings?" she asked. "We always end up getting the same thing."
