Eager Beaver

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Trick or Treating

I sat in a kitchen chair at the Diaz's while Mom sat in one in front of me. I had already seen Laurie's face paint, an intricate image of a cartoon squirrel face with big teeth painted on, and now I guess it was my turn. "We haven't painted your face in a long time, have we Coopy?" She asked as she carefully painted the individual strands of fur. The brush was pretty ticklish, and I had to concentrate pretty hard so that I didn't squirm around in my seat like a restless little kid.

"No mom." I told her, trying to sit still. "It's been a while." I still fidgeted a little but Mom placed an authoritative hand on my lap, instructing me to calm down.

"Just a few more colours, then you can play with the others." She soothed me in a gentle voice, but it felt like I had been sitting there for an hour. It hadn't actually been nearly that long, but the unfamiliar feeling of the paintbrush on my face was making me restless, and there wasn't even a mirror or anything so I could watch Mom work. It was a little boring.

"Is Rascal almost ready Mrs Young?" Charlie chirped, stepping in from the back yard through the sliding glass door. He was still wearing his own mask and cloak - no face paint required. He looked so cool and fierce and grown-up, his outfit almost as good as those proper scary costumes I remembered the teenagers used to wear for this haunted house event at the highschool back in California. It made me kind of envious. I thought about all the other animals in Friends of the Forest. Why couldn't I have been Rusty the Fox or something?

"Not yet Char- Hawkeye!" My Mom replied, playing along to Alex's game. As soon as she'd seen us when we all met up in the playground after school, she'd decreed that none of us were allowed to use our regular names for the whole rest of the night. I thought it was really silly at first, but it was actually kind of fun - like we were undercover secret agents or something. I actually still had my friendship bracelet with my Beaver name on under the sleeve of the costume. It was the only thing I was wearing - other than my underwear.

Mom had unzipped the front chest of my costume a little to avoid getting paint on it. She'd gone a little overboard, painting all over my neck and even slathering my ears in a brown shaded color to look like fur. "How much longer?" I whined as Mom picked out yet another colour to daub all over my face.

"Just about done." She said, precisely dabbing on the last few finishing touches with the tip of the paint brush. She prodded my bare neck with her finger a couple of times to make sure it was dry, then zipped the front of my outfit back up tight to my chin. "Go look in the hallway mirror."

I slid off the chair, eager to see the finished product. I let out a little gasp as I stepped in front of the full length mirror, both surprised and impressed. The top half of my face was beautifully painted multiple shades of brown, each meticulously drawn to look like individual strands of fur. Meanwhile, she'd painted the bottom half with equally intricate brush strokes to look like poofy snowy white fluff with long gray whiskers dropping down my chin. It was a lot more detailed than just the nose and basic bristles I'd had for school. My nose was now painted with a properly shaped black oval, and when I closed one eye even my eyelids were painted black!

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed, taking in the complete look. With the detailed costume and face paint put together, I looked just like some kind of weird half otter half boy! "Thanks Mom!" I told her genuinely. I touched the face paint with my uncovered fingertips, and nothing smudged. It was really well done.

"You're welcome, sweetie." Mom told me with a smile, getting up from her seat and putting her hands gently on my shoulders. She patted me on the head. "Why don't you go and find your friends? It'll be time to head out and get some candy soon."

I nodded excitedly, padding through the door into the hallway and then along to the living room. Charlie, Leo, Alex, Laurie and Zach were all waiting for me inside, the hawk boy and the raccoon girl playing some kind of silly pretend game as their respective animals jumping up and down on the couch in their costumes. Leo was cheering them on with a delighted look on his face from a big comfy chair in the corner, dressed nearly identically to his big brother - albeit in miniature.