Little girl in a stroller. She’s in a neon green bodysuit covered with shiny bits and sparkles. Head to toe green princess and loving life. Sitting in her stroller like it is a throne. Her mother and father push her down the block.

“Honey, you can’t have more candy or you might get sick,” her mother intones.

“But mom,” the little girl says, turning her head to look up at her mother with a perfectly serious stare, “if I don’t get sick how will I learn from my mistakes?”

————–

A couple sitting on the stoop of a brownstone. Children run by in costume, yelling happily. Both of them look at the kids, she breaks a huge smile but he just watches in silence before speaking.

“You can’t just not go,” he says.

“Why not?”

“You can’t just not show up to work, not even call them…” he tries to explain, but she’s having none of it.

“Halloween is a National Holiday,” she tells him simply.

“No it isn’t,” he says with a laugh.

“Well it should be, and that’ll be good enough,” she tells him, settling the matter.