Archee’s Halloween Evening

October 31st, 1985.

 The town of Seymour doesn’t have any particular halloween practices outside of the norm. Teenagers gather, get drunk, get wild. Just another excuse for them to congregate and trash their house for the night. Seymour High has its share of wild teenagers and the queen of the school Archee Harmon never misses one. She never misses anything, if you want to be admired by an entire school you’ve got to make your name known. She’s used to spending her time at the parties glued to the hip of her boyfriend, Silas Caddell. Mean, daring, reckless, Silas is always the one to carry the activities. And all Archee does is stand next to him and go along with it. This year however has a different factor, Heather McArthur. The apple of Archee’s eye.  She doesn’t realize what it is but Heather unknowingly has Archee struck with cupid’s arrow. And for once Archee doesn’t feel up to being Silas’ accessory. Heather's friends spend every halloween together watching horror movies and doing girly things like gossiping and painting their nails. Archee hates admitting she’d love to get in with them and spend the night prank calling the local pizza place with Heather, Becky and Jeane than to get wasted with Silas and his biker gang. Although she finally had the guts to make her own decision, Archee still didn’t have the guts to tell Silas she wouldn’t show up. She was going to Heather’s halloween slumber party. 

Arriving home, her small house was once again taken over by her brother, Jacob Harmon. Jacob spends all day with the Atari system set up on the living room TV. Archee practically trips over him. Archee’s mother is in the dining room on the phone. “Oh Arch, I’ll be out in a minute”. She says with the phone cord wrapped around her hand. Archee’s mom sits on the phone so much that she has a stool right under where the phone is positioned. At this point they need to just buy a table phone for the living room. As she’s just about to take a step, Archee is stopped by her mom. “Do you know who was on the phone?” Archee rolls her eyes. “No ma.” She groans. “It was Mrs. Roman. The mother of Jacob’s friend in Beachview.” Jacob spends every Halloween with his friend in Beachview, the seaside town just a few minutes away from Seymour. “Whole family has the flu. Probably from all this cold weather. Her daughter, the lifeguard, hasn’t been on duty for two days.” Her mother stands hands on her hips waiting for a response. “And.. I’m uh sorry to hear that?” Archee says flatly. “That means that Jacob has no plans.” Archee rolls her eyes again. “Ma he’s 13 he doesn’t even need to still trick or treat.” She tries to pass her mom up the stairs but is stopped by her mom’s arm blocking the way. “Archee. Your brother needs a chaperone. I know you want to do your teenager things but I am asking you, please be a sister for the night.” Archee drops her shoulders in anger “Mom! I have plans! Where the hell is dad? Make him do it.” She pushes past her mother’s arm. “Arch. You know your father works late. And I have a work party. I can’t drive him, it’s out of the way.” Her ma was partly making excuses just trying to get her angsty 18 year old daughter to be a good sibling and acknowledge her brother’s existence for once. She knew Jacob could fit in perfectly and just hang out with the neighborhood kids, but she wanted Archee to spend some time with him. “Besides, he is so excited about his costume. He’s dressing as the kid from that new movie we saw in July, what was it.. Going to The Future? Back to The past?” Archee groaned at her mother’s complete lack of pop culture knowledge. “He can dress as Marty McFly at school. What, do you want me to drive him to Beachview?”  Archee is in her room before her mother can continue. 

Archee immediately grabs the phone in her room. What was Heather’s number again? She kept it in the pocket of her black leather jacket. Not that she ever had the courage to reach out. She twirled the phone cord around her sharp black nails as she waited for the phone to pick up. “Hey Heather? It’s Archee Harmon. Yeah I know you were already hesitant to invite me. I promise Silas isn’t coming.” She looks up at the ceiling. “I didn’t tell him I wasn’t coming.” She cuts to the chase bluntly “So I won’t bring Silas, but is there perhaps a rule against siblings? I unfortunately have a little burden tonight. And his name is Jacob Harmon. Don’t suppose the girls’ halloween hangout would be too boring for my 13 year old brother would it?” Heather couldn’t see it, but Archee was grinning the most embarrassed smile.