Seal’s Grandpa let her hold the party in the basement, another new addition. He decorated it after his favorite decade: the 70s. One wall had faux wood paneling, and the floor had burned orange deep pile shag carpet. There was a disco ball and a pink couch with horizontal orange, gold and brown stripes centered in the room. He even found an old box stereo system and turntable. Currently, it played silly Halloween songs. ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ played on a modern TV. Behitha’s friends ran around the TV and up the stairs, chasing one another.
Seal’s close friends and classmates stood around, acting cool. They drank green punch, ate popcorn and picked candy from a bowl. Seal dressed up as an 80s workout girl, wearing a bright blue leotard with the words ‘Let’s get physical’ printed across the front. Her silver leggings matched the headband. Her closest friend, Danielle, also Lakota, dressed in a Pokémon Snorlax onesie. It was odd to think she knew Danielle for both only this day and six years since first grade, at the same time. Seal had to reconcile the differences between her old and new life nearly every second. It became confusing.
Ellie and Hadley, were also close friends. Her former bullies were now school friends. Jenn was still around, and Seal had thoughts of them not treating her well. Was her new self a bully? It seemed the tables had been turned in this new world. She would change that.
Ellie and Hadley were dressed as the big bad wolf and Little Red Riding hood. Seal’s father thought Hadley’s Little Red Riding Hood was a little too adult.
“It will be okay, dad.” Seal told him. Then she pushed him back up the stairs so he wouldn’t ruin the party. Ellie’s Big Bad Wolf made Seal shake her head. If they could only know that Seal had her own little adventure with a wolf man. But they wouldn’t understand.
Boys came to the party too. One of them, Byron, had a crush on Hadley and Seal and Danielle teased her. “Go talk to him.”
“No…” Hadley said, blushing.
“He likes you. Just say hi.” They pushed her in his direction and they exchanged some quiet, nervous words before she came back giggling.
“You should add him on your Gram,” Seal said. At first, she felt like she was in a play, acting in a role, but with time her words came more naturally, like this had always been her life. As the night progressed, the music changed to popular music of the day, a mix of pop from across the world and bands from Dakota, too. Yankton Spirit, Seal’s favorite, played now. She had seen them three times with Danielle at the Wakpáby Arena.
“Let’s dance!” She dragged Danielle to the middle of the floor and Ellie and Hadley followed. They danced together and soon the boys joined them, although they didn’t really dance so much as rock back and forth. Through it all, Behitha and her wild band continued to run up and down the stairs until they knocked into the stereo, causing it to skip.
Seal went easy on her, only saying, “be careful,” rather than yelling.
Behitha smiled a wide smile at her, “Okay, Seal!” Her troupe ran back up the stairs and could be heard running out the back door as it slammed behind them multiple times. They all heard her mom yelling upstairs, and they laughed.
“Parents are all the same,” Byron said. That seemed to loosen everyone up. Soon, more of Seal’s friends showed up. A few had to leave early so they could go to a haunted house. They asked Seal, but she declined. She didn’t think they’d be scary and, although she couldn’t say it, they reminded her of the night that now hadn’t happened a year ago.
Seal had to go to the bathroom and went upstairs. “I’m going to get more cookies,” she announced. “Does anyone want anything?”
“Have any soda,” someone called out. Seal pointed to the fridge in the corner of the basement, which was filled with cans.
“Anything else?”
“We’re good,” called Hadley.
The first floor remained empty. Her father hid himself from all the crazy tweens dancing and the untamed kindergartners running around. He probably went outside to feed the goats and ducks. Her mom made sure her younger sister didn’t cause too much trouble or get lost in the sunflower fields. As Seal washed her hands, she heard a knock. It rapped in a rhythm of one knock, pause, four knocks, followed by three more. She hurried to answer it and yelled, “hold on.”
Another series of knocks began, and she heard a woman’s voice
“…you to be patient,” the voice finished as she opened the door. A wild rainbow wigged boy with red shoes and a big smile greeted her.
“Hi, I’m Javin,” he said.
“I know who you are,” Seal said. “Do you remember me?”
“I think I do. Your name is Cecile.”
“You’ve always called me Seal,” she replied.
“Oh.” He grinned. “Nice to meet you again, Seal. I am Javin.” He reached out with his hand, and they shook. He turned around and waved at his mom, “It’s okay, Mom, you can go!”
“When should I come back?” Javin’s mom asked. Javin looked at Cecile.
“People will be here for at least another couple of hours,” she told him.
He yelled out to his mom, “Come back in three hours!”
“Okay, Javin. Now you do what I told you and behave!”
“I know, Mom.” As she drove away, he pulled out a small gift from his oversized pocket. “For you.” She took it and looked at him. He looked ridiculous. Everything on him appeared twice over too big. Maybe he stayed the same Javin.
He blushed. “Short notice,” he said. “It’s my father’s old clown costume.”
“Is he… is he…” Cecile wasn’t sure how to ask.
“No, he’s still dead.”
“I’m sorry,” Seal said. “There is something you should know.” But what she was going to say didn’t need to be said. Instead, Behitha ran around the house and back in through the front door, nearly knocking Javin over.
His eyes went wide. “She’s alive! Hi Beth!”
Behitha turned towards him. “You’re the second weirdo that has called me Beth in a day!” She pointed at her sister. “My name is Behitha.”
“Behave Behitha, he’s a guest. His name is Javin. Javin, meet Behitha.”
“Hi Javin!” Behitha said. She looked at his clown costume and whispered, so that everyone could still hear, “I think he is a silly boy.”
Seal shook her head. “Javin is an amazing boy.” +
Behitha shrugged it off and ran to the back of the house. The kitchen door once again slammed behind her.
“A lot has changed,” she said. “We changed.”
“I don’t remember all of it,” he said. “But more comes back when I see familiar faces. And yours is an awfully familiar face. Please, open my gift.”
“You really didn’t have to,” she said. She slowly unwrapped and revealed a plain shoe box. She opened it. Inside was her old companion, Paintchip.
“Where did you find this?” she asked.
“I found it on the ground when we were looking for the ball. I think. Still hazy. My mom helped me fix her leg. We had to watch a video 20 times before she finally figured out how to sew it right. That annoyed her, but I knew it was important.” Javin laughed, nervously.
“And look,” he pulled the beaded bear claw necklace he had been given out from under the polka dot clown suit. “I have this. I wasn’t sure what was dream and what was real when I woke up yesterday, but it’s all real, isn’t it?”
Seal nodded. “Yes. It was all real.”
Javin cried, “I’ve really missed you!”
“I’ve really missed you too,” Seal said.
They hugged in the doorway, and they did not let go for a long time.