I Swear You Will Be Fine

Dear Josh,

Today is Halloween, one of your favourite festivities.

Last year Shalini and you went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and you had a blast. You came home saying you had a great time and you had both decided it would be a yearly ritual.

From the time you were very little, our condo would have regular activities for Halloween. There would be an invitation to decorate the house for Halloween and list your house for children to visit for trick or treating at stipulated times. Every year we would say we should decorate and be on this list, but we never did it. But you and Jess would frequently be amongst the kids who visited the various houses.

I distinctly remember one of these events. I think you were just 6 years old. And it was one of your first Halloweens in which you thought you were so brave and could actually scare everyone else. So you came up with the idea of dressing up as a Mummy. I used multiple rolls of toilet paper and wrapped you up neatly, from head to toe. You were adorable, but you thought you were super scary.

Dad and I sent you off with Tun and Jess to visit the various homes, and we were sitting by the pool. After about an hour, you came running to us with Tun tailing behind. The toilet paper was partially destroyed. With bits of you revealed. And you were crying hysterically and gasping for breath.

Some of the houses at our condo take their tasks very seriously, and decorate their homes with much effort. They also sometimes have the members of their households dressed in costumes and attempt to scare their visitors. And that’s what happened to you. You had gone out thinking you would scare everyone else, but instead, you had been scared off. The Mummy had gotten scared.

You kept trying to tell us something about the home. That there was something or someone there and it was real etc. So Dad took you back to the home, and tried to prove to you that it wasn’t real. I can’t remember if you believed it, but I do remember you being traumatised for days.

This weekend, I presume a new set of kids will be dressed up, carrying their little pumpkin buckets, and going trick or treating to the various homes. It is a cute sight. But I always remember the little you, all in white toilet paper, excitedly holding Tun’s hands and walking a couple of steps ahead of Jess and her friends.

Happy Halloween my darling.

Love,

Mum