2019-11-01 - Graveyard Playdate

Perhaps taking a young girl to the graveyard the day after Halloween would seem odd to most people, but, this is precisely what Nicole decides to do after the events of the previous evening.

After the sleepover, which was still had, despite one child 'going home'. It was just held at the Kelly's house instead, Nicole wakes up early enough to make Jesse breakfast, letting the others in the household sleep in (or go off to work, whichever they need). Pancakes. Can't go wrong with pancakes. Ever.

While talking at the table, Jesse asks, "The old guy took Superman home last night?"

"Yeah, he did," Nicole answers, dipping a bite of pancake in syrup on her plate.

"Will I see him again? He still has Lois."

Eating that bite, Nicole hums and swallows before answering. "Mmm. I'm not sure." Looking around the room. "His home is a little different than this, and a bit far away. He was lost last night, but now that he is home, you might not see him as often."

"Oh," the child answers, eating her breakfast with a sorrowful expression. Turns out, she has played with him before and knew Brandon quite well. "Can I go see him at his home?"

There is a deep breath taken and a slow sigh out as Nicole settles her fork on her plate. She regards the young girl for a moment, not knowing what to say. "Hang on," she says then leaves the table to confer with Joey in person or via text.

She returns and retakes her seat. "Your Unca Joey said I could take you... but, you have to understand that. Brandon, Superman... he was a ghost, hun. You know ghosts, right?" Joey said she did, but Nicole still feels a bit awkward and nervous telling Jesse her friend died some years ago. Her brows are lifted with worry, preparing for a barrage of questions that she might not be able to answer. Nicole herself isn't sure what to believe anymore, but ghosts... she's seen things.

"Oh," says Jesse, frowning and poking at her pancake. "So where did the old guy take him last night?"

Nicole twists her lips before answering and when she does, her voice is calming and quiet. "To... the cemetery.. to his grave." Again, Nicole waits for the reaction, bracing for it.

"So I have to go there to visit him?"

"Well, you may not see him there, Jesse. I am not really super sure if he will come back to play. He's not lost anymore...."

Silence hangs over them for a bit, pancakes getting cold either just sitting on Nicole's plate or being poked at by Jesse's fork. After a time, Nicole stands up to clear the dishes, talking to Jesse who still seems to be in part of her dragon dino costume. "Why don't we go through your candy and you can pick out your favorite things to keep, and we'll take the rest to the Graveyard. We can leave it for Brandon, and if we see other stones there that look like kids that might not be able to trick or treat anymore..." you know, cuz, they're dead. "People leave flowers on gravestones all the time, but, what kids want at Halloween is candy, right?"

Jesse looks absolutely horrified at Nicole, her lip starting to quiver. "But I want my candy," she pouts.

"I am not saying give it all away, just some. If you prefer, we can just take one nice thing for Brandon." She doesn't want to upset the girl at all.

Nodding, Jesse slips off her chair and pushes it in to the table with both hands. "Okay. I'll go get dressed." Seems that is Nicole's queue to get dressed as well.

It's chilly and there is a slight drizzle falling from the sky, giving the Graveyard an even more creepy feeling as tombstones and monuments can be seen through the foggy haze that surrounds them. Nicole and Jesse are both dressed for the weather though, Jesse complete with Alligator snout headband from the night before. The young girl apparently thought about it a bit more and brought some extra candy to leave upon the gravestones of children they might happen upon (granted, most of it is the stuff she would not eat anyway), but they are there for one young man in particular. Nicole stopped at the gate to get the directions to his plot before they headed in, and after stopping at two gravesites of others long enough to say hello and leave the candy (a smarties at one, a mystery dumdum at the other), they arrive at the gravestone of one Brandon Campbell, aged five, died on Halloween, 2014.

"Here he is," Nicole says to Jesse, the little girl's hand held in her own as they stop before it. Sure enough, there are the flowers Thewlis said he leaves here.

Immediately, Jesse lets go of Nicole's hand and kneels in the damp grass, getting her knees wet and possibly grass-stained. "Hi, Superman!" She says, waving to the stone. Nicole has to bite her lower lip to keep from getting choked up. Jesse on the other hand looks over her shoulder and says, "I thought maybe he'd leave Lois here for me."

Nicole is not good at not getting choked up sometimes. She has to swallow before she can speak. Even still, there is a slight crack in her voice. "Maybe he wanted to keep playing with her. I think it helped him feel better when you gave it to him." She stops then offers, "on our way home, we'll stop and I will get you a new Barbie, your pick, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!" Jesse smiles then turns back towards the gravestone. "I brought you this," she says, pulling out a full-sized candy bar (one she got from Rusty, no doubt) and sets it where stone meets grass. "I remember you saying you'd give old guy one, so I thought you might like another. It was fun playing with you last night, even if it was kind of spooky out. But it was Halloween, it's supposed to be spooky. We were safe though on Julia's porch. Did you get a sugar skull from her? They are so pretty. Maybe I will ask her for an extra one next year to bring you. Nicole says you might not be able to come visit anymore, since you found your way home. I hope you do though. It was always a lot of fun!"

If Nicole thought this would be a brief visit, she was wrong. Jesse chatters on with her youthful exuberance for quite awhile, eventually sitting in the grass, then complaining about feeling wet and cold. Nicole promised her a hot chocolate later. Not that Nicole spoils this adorable child or anything. There are times Nicole laughs at something she overhears, and times when she has to dab at the corner of her eye, but mostly, she just watches over Jesse as the playdate with a gravestone goes on. "And I am gonna make Nicole bring me to visit you, even if you can't come see me. Okay?" Jesse looks at Nicole, who smiles and nods, chuckling to herself when Jesse looks away again. She shows Brandon's gravestone how to use blades of grass to make a whistle. "Jaime showed me that. Neat, huh?"

Eventually, the youngest Kelly declares that it is time to go. She's really cold, and hungry, and wants to find the best Barbie doll and can Nicole take her to that place with the good donuts too? She slips her cold damp hand into Nicole's again as they start to walk away, Nicole giving one more glance back to the tombstone she will apparently come to know well if Jesse has her way. Lifting her free hand, she waves back and whispers, "until next time, Superman."