Settling In, part 22

I had heard some buzz around the American School about Halloween. Halloween isn’t a holiday in Spain, but our little Americans could not be left without a trick-or-treating opportunity. So, the buzz went, if you could get yourself a map indicating the houses involved, you could take your kid trick-or-treating in Húmera.

The fancy neighborhood I’d seen when house-hunting had enough Americans in it to make a critical mass for Halloween. And I had an in: Huibrecht Kruger lived in Húmera.

“How’s this thing work?” I asked her one day in Spanish class.

“Well, you bring a couple bags of American candy over to one of the people on the map,” she said, “and you get a copy of the map, and you take your children around between about four o’clock and six o’clock.”

“But how do you find out who’s on the map?” I asked.

She sighed. “I’m on the map. I’m South African, but I’m on the map.”

American candy was hard to come by in Spain, but it was the undisputed favorite of American kids, who didn’t like the unfamiliar Spanish candy nearly as much. So I had placed an order with my parents before their visit, and they had brought me several bags of Milky Ways and Snickers. Julie and Lisa and I cobbled together some costumes—Julie was a pirate and Lisa a ballerina—and we drove over to Huibrecht’s house at 4 p.m. in broad daylight.

We buzzed at the gate and were let into the yard of the big villa, white stucco with a red tile roof. Huibrecht opened the door, holding a huge basket full of candy. “Here’s my contribution,” I said, handing over my bags.

Julie had already taken off with Huibrecht’s daughter Rosanne, and I had no idea how I would ever find her again, so I was anxious. Huibrecht handed me a photocopy of a hand-drawn map with about twenty house numbers marked on it. These were the houses that would have candy for the kids.

Just as I was about to set out with Lisa, Clarice Scarritt walked up with her second-grader, Gaby. “Natalie’s already gone with Rosanne and Julie,” she said, and at this moment it dawned on me that we both had two daughters and they were the same ages. I have to get to know these people better, I told myself immediately.

The four of us walked along the pleasant, sunny streets together, and we stopped at the designated houses. The kids rang the bells and got the candy pretty much the same way they would have done at home, except that every house had a wall around it and there was often a long hike from the front gate to the front door. Lisa and Gaby were getting along well and seemed happy to be together, and Clarice and I were having fun watching them.

Eventually we came to a house that Clarice said was the Fishers’. This was the family of Amy Fisher, the friend who had come to sleep over with Lisa and had made fun of the older girls’ Spanish. Lisa and Gaby went up to the door, and Amy gave them candy and asked them to wait. A moment later she came flying out of the house, dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast—she had on a long yellow dress and matching plastic high heels. “My mom said I can go trick-or-treating with you guys!” she said, tapping her way down the driveway on the sandals.

Clarice and I took one look at those shoes and exchanged a knowing glance. “That kid’s not going to last twenty minutes on those things,” I said.

“Well, maybe John will come along with the car,” Clarice replied. “He said he would try to get home early.”

We walked along with the girls to a couple of houses, and sure enough, the bellyaching began. “My feet hurt,” Amy started to whine.

“Those shoes are not good for walking,” Clarice said. “Do you want to go home and get something more comfortable?”

“No! It’s part of my costume! I have to have them!” Amy protested.

She limped along to another house, but by the time the kids had come back with their candy, our chauffeur had arrived. John pulled up in his spiffy silver Jaguar. “You ladies need a ride?” he asked.

We were all extremely grateful for this luxury. “Sure!” Clarice said. “We’ll squeeze in somehow.” And the five of us did jam ourselves into the car, so we had a posh ride around the neighborhood with only occasional pauses for candy acquisition. When we’d hit all the houses on the map, John dropped Lisa and me back at the Krugers’, ending the most elegant Halloween ever. Julie was there on the front porch waiting for us, happy and with a bag full of candy.