Fiona Finely Saves Halloween
By, Gina Meyers
Fiona Finely was in the 3rd grade at Jefferson Elementary School in San Francisco, California.
Her teacher Ms. Benson had an awesome bellowing laugh and was a friendly woman or at least Fiona got that impression during their daily zoom meetings from 8:00 in the morning, till 2:00 pm in the afternoons.
Fiona had a higher than average vocabulary as her older sister Kenna was a spelling bee champion. Often Kenna would practice spelling words and saying their meaning out loud. Words such as phantasmagoric were often spelled out on their car rides to dance class, though these days, dance class was via the screen-- like everything else!
Fiona was a very active 3rd grader, her many interests including reading were being cherished and enjoyed these days as she spent more time indoors with her close-knit family. She was a planner and quite detail oriented for a little girl. There was one thing about Fiona that everyone knew and that was this....
Fiona Finely loved Halloween. She absolutely, categorically LOVED Halloween. She breathed in pumpkin spice everything. She made her mother buy her white, and orange pumpkins. She decorated her bedroom with the warty looking gourds and the dried, colored corn with the husks on them. Kenna gave her a pumpkin scented candle that she kept in her bedroom not lite of course as Fiona was not allowed to light candles. Fiona convinced her dad to pick up some scented cones with cinnamon scent from the local hardware store. Father enjoyed the fact he could pick up the cones amid the pandemic but everyone got the impression that he was a bit perturbed as the local gym remained closed next to the hardware store. And father enjoyed his time at the gym. A disturbing reminder that this year felt different. Each year, Fiona saved all of her money from her lemonade stand to help decorate the Finely house in a different Halloween theme each year, mainly harvest orientated in nature. This past June, Fiona’s Virtual Lemonade Stand brought in $50.00 and this would go towards the new decorations. She loved decorating with her big sister Kenna, she loved planning her costume with her mother, often times Fiona and her mother would start planning in July.
The leaves were changing color now that it was late September, fall was in the air. Apple Cider was on the menu for after class including Green Apple Slices with caramel sauce.
Awww, Halloween memories....
Fiona’s favorite colors were black and orange. Her little brother Ian was in Kindergarten and he was excited too! Their mother made them a special meal on Halloween, they were allowed to stay up late on Halloween, even if it landed on a weeknight.
They carved pumpkins with their father. Their Cousin Sean lived a few blocks away from the Finely residence.
He was the same age as Kenna and they attended youth group together. Often the teenagers would come up with really awesome Harvest parties that weren’t scary, but were a heck of a lot of fun! All of that was changing. Fiona heard that at Kenna and Cousin Sean’s Church that the teenagers had to tell the local SF police that they were only on the church’s grounds due to the food truck that was selling churros.
The teenagers would not let the pandemic stop them from sitting six feet apart outdoors with their masks on as they brainstormed on the Harvest Celebration 2020!
Bobbing for apples, tying string around donuts and having the elementary aged children try to nibble on the donuts, all fun things including the pony rides and the hay that the children would sit on in place of benches as they roasted Smores with graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars with teenage and adult supervision of course.
“All of the carnival style rides will need to be modified”, said Sean. Kenna stated to the group, “we will also need to figure out a way to serve the children their snacks, such as Cotton Candy.”
The group of teenagers, all fifteen or so of them did a collective grumble, but their church youth group leader Pastor Liz said, “you guys are on the right track, keep the ideas coming.”
Back at home, Fiona had visions of trick or treat dancing in her head, memories from Halloween yesteryear came creeping back with a happy, pleasant vengeance, “hey Kenna, shouted Fiona from her bedroom on the second floor, is pleasant vengeance an oxymoron?” Kenna didn’t hear Fiona, she probably had her air pods in and was listening to some random music like, Eddie Money’s “I Wanna Go Back”. https://youtu.be/NxqHEgzBr1M
Making Monster hands, out of popcorn and candy corns. Buying dry ice with mother at the local supermarket and filling a punch bowl full of blood red punch and placing dry ice in the punch bowl on Halloween to give the Finely Family a fright and the local neighborhood children some tricks.
Fiona’s mother even made a Halloween Candy Counter so the children in the Finely household could sort and use their math skills on Halloween evening. It was also a way for father to quickly scan the candy to make sure it was safe to eat.
Kenna and Cousin Sean were starting to take on more responsibility as mother and father prepared for the pumpkin carving and the pumpkin seeds roasting.
This year Fiona told her mother that she wanted to be the Little Mermaid from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
One day, mother feeling especially ambitious, said, “Fiona darling, let’s go to the thrift store.” They put on their masks, packed their hand sanitizer, put an extra pair of gloves in mothers’ purse, and they were off to the thrift store. “Mommy, Fiona sang, like Arelle from the Little Mermaid”, “I want to be where the people are, I want to see, what to see them dancing. Walking around on what do you call them, oh yeah feet.” More humming, as Fiona held her mothers’ hand tightly as they parked their car at the garage on Harrison & 4th Street and were making their way to the local thrift store. Fiona saw a bum... and without skipping a beat, pretended to be The Little Mermaid, and took a shiny silver quarter out of her coat pocket, a gently tossed it in his ragged looking hat next to his “will work for food sign.”
Fiona now taking after Ms. Benson, bellowed, “up where they run, up where they play all day in the sun, wish I could be part of that world!”
Kenna babysat Ian while father was at work in the den and mother was with Fiona. Kenna was helping Ian make a Spock from Star Trek Costume and they were cutting out black felt in a V shape like from the vintage television show that their father loved and it obviously had rubbed off on the children too.
Mother was glad that she just had Fiona with her, because she was beginning to realize that the pandemic was bringing all of them down, and mother didn’t mean downtown, she meant “melancholy”. For instance, Fiona hadn’t been allowed to see her best-friend Chloe in six months and the cyber hugs weren’t exactly cutting it in the satisfaction department.
It was mid-September, it was late in the game for Fiona and her mother who usually already had the costumes figured out. But, honestly, they were scared to go to the thrift store without their Personal protective equipment and it was so confusing the new hours that “braving this new normal” left a lot to be desired.
While at the thrift store, they quickly found a green colored thermal long underwear set. “If I cut and sew the legs together I can create a fin for you Fiona.
Satisfied with their outing, they retired for the evening.
And then like magic, the first day of Fall was upon them. Tuesday, September 22, 2020. This got Fiona’s juices flowing. She woke up early for her Zoom Class, 7:15 am without the alarm clock, “today is going to be the best day of my life she exclaimed. Father being a bit confused as he was getting ready to go to the den for his government job now relegated to the “den” where he kept his Xerox copier that no one was allowed to touch but him. “Pumpkin”, father’s nickname for Fiona, what are you so excited about?” “Awww, Phil, let Fiona have her fun, she’s happy, let her be”, mother said. Father gave Fiona a quirky sideways smile and walked into the den as Mother made oatmeal for the children and topped Fiona’s with pumpkin ice cream, her favorite. Ian and Kenna both preferred their oatmeal with whipped cream and mother liked hers with brown sugar and cinnamon. Her enthusiasm was infectious and contagious. Kenna, and Ian both too woke up early and seemed ready for their day indoors for their homeschooling. They ran downstairs to eat their breakfast and as soon as they did, Fiona was getting ready to go up the stairs.
“Mom”, I’ve decided I’m going to the sunroom to do my Zoom Class today. Happy as can be, Fiona practically skipped up the steps to their very precious secret garden of sorts, “the sun room” on the top floor of their San Francisco flat, their very own magical place.
Ms. Benson did roll. She called out 20 names in alphabetical order. “Amanda Abbott,” present... the names kept coming, Fiona Finely, “Here”, Trey Thompson, yeah, I’m here, Chad Zoloff, “good day, he said trying to sound English/British”, her class was a unique bunch as Ms. Benson said, “I’m just glad I now know how to pronounce Heven correctly she mumbled.”
Next, she had the children stand and say The Pledge of Allegiance, she did today’s date and asked the children what day it was. Fiona, muted herself and chimed in, “Today, Ms. Benson and class is the first day of Fall, also known as Autumn. “That is correct said Ms. Benson, thank you for your participation Fiona.” The day went smoothly art class was fun, they made mosaic elephants out of colored tissue paper, glue, and white paper that they teacher had fed exed to each students homes. Art, history, English, lunch, afternoon recess, the day was almost done. And then it was time for afternoon recess. This new routine meant that the children in Ms. Benson’s 3rd grade class, could walk away from their computers for 15 minutes and get a snack or do some stretching, or even play a game on their I Phones. And, then after the afternoon recess, it was as if a black cloud entered the sun room. Clouds metaphorically looming overhead and inside Fiona’s heart as Trey, obviously hyped up on sugar, after his afternoon recess mutes himself
Trey, hyped on sugar, right after morning recess, yells out as Ms. Benson forgot to mute the mutant. “He yelled, they’ve cancelled Halloween!”
I didn’t even know that Trey knew a word that big. “Cancel Halloween.” Tears started to well up in Fiona’s eyes. Fiona muted herself and in the chat box quickly wrote to Ms. Benson, “bathroom break”. Mother was in the kitchen stirring a pot of beef stew .
(To be continued)
