I slowly backed away from the couch and started taking pictures of my happy, adorable twins. They couldn't possibly be any cuter in their Halloween costumes.

"Look at my two little crayons!" I said. "This way! Look at Mommy!"

Both babies looked my way and cooed. Jaxlyn was already starting to smile. Jaxson was reaching his arm out to hold his sister. At six weeks old, they still hated being apart.

I turned when I saw my mom behind me. She mouthed the words, "It's Faye." I quickly took the phone from her.

"Hi Faye! How are you?" I asked.

"Uh...okay," she said. She still sounded dazed and out of it, like she did every other time they put her on a cocktail of new meds.

"Yeah? Are you feeling okay? I can't wait for you to come home next week."

"Me too. I hate this place."

"I know you do. Are they doing any fun Halloween stuff for you guys?"

"Yeah. I think we're gonna watch a movie."

"Oh, that sounds fun!"

"They're telling me I have to get off the phone."

"Alright. Alright. Remember to let the doctors know if you really don't feel good, okay?"

"Yeah I know."

"Okay. Love you, Faye."

"I know. Love you too. Bye."

She hung up and I handed the phone back to my mom.

"Can you watch them for a sec? I need to go put my costume on," I said.

"That's why I'm here," Mom said.

I ran upstairs, threw my costume on, and then ran back downstairs. Mom took a few pictures of me with the babies. Having them around really seemed to soften her up as a person. I really liked her this way. All we needed now was for Vanessa to start talking to them again so we could be an actual family.

I brought out the big bag of snacks I prepared, plus all the extra candy, and set it up at the base camp Mom and I created in the garage. We had a table, multiple camping chairs, and a small TV with my Switch dock hooked up to it. Jen and Karly were ripping my head off because I never beat the master sword challenge in Breath of the Wild, so if I wasn't too distracted by the twins, they'd be cheering me on while I worked on that.

With a lot of begging and pleading, I convinced my parents to have Jen and Karly come over for Halloween. The conditions were that masks would be on at all times, only one person could eat at a time, we'd have to be spaced out, and that we'd have to have the air purifiers going all night.

"I think you had a good idea with the clothesline," Mom said, sitting down in a free camping chair. She was holding Jaxson and I had Jaxlyn on my lap.

"Thanks. Good thing Dad was around this morning to hammer the stakes into the ground and drill the holes," I said, chucking.

I admired my "candy clothesline" idea. This year there were so many different restrictions with the virus and Halloween. There were even places that were banning trick-or-treating. Before Faye had to get sent to Spring Meadows again, my parents absolutely forbid her from trick-or-treating, and of course, she threw a fit.

Companies were going at it from all different angles. I saw a WalMart ad with a little girl going to Trunk or Treat dressed as Elsa and wearing a sparkle mask to match her costume. I saw another ad for Oriental Trading, where they were selling "treat table kits," where the idea was to decorate a table and have kids line up to get goodie bags. I also saw suggestions for making a "candy chute." The idea was to get a plastic pipe and slide the candy down into it.

Because of our situation, we knew that none of those ideas would work for us. We were along the bus line, making us the closest safe neighborhood for all the inner-city kids to come. Each year we got thousands and thousands of kids. We ordered special bulk candy online to accommodate all of them. It was nuts.

So anyway, I thought of this clothesline idea. Mom, Faye, and I decorated five-hundred paper bags with all kinds of stickers and other Halloween designs. We made a multi-level clothesline with stakes and string. We even put lights around it. It could hold about fifty bags at a time, so I had a big storage tote next to me full of all the extra bags, ready to go. The rest of the driveway was cordoned off with caution tape. As far as we knew, there was no way that anyone could reach us in the garage.

I was honestly surprised that we were hanging out candy at all, but ever since I was a baby, Mom and Dad were in a competition with the Eisernhowers across the street over who could last the longest—because with this many kids, there was never enough candy. Every year, the Eisenhowers hung out in their garage with their friends, and they always made it later into the night than my Mom and Dad. They were already out there, and they were trying the "treat table" idea.

"They're gonna be refilling that thing every five minutes," Mom said.

"Yeah. I know," I said, chuckling. "I don't mean to brag, but I think my idea is gonna work the best."

"I don't think it's considered bragging if you're right." I watched as she picked up Jaxson and smelled his backside. "Uh oh, we've got a stinky one!"

"Oh. I got it," I said.

"No, Grammy will take care of it!" she said, getting up right away.

I looked out past the clothesline and I could see two bright-colored figures coming my way. I placed Jaxlyn down in her carrier and undid one of the strings so Jen and Karly could get through.

"The crayon crew is here!" Jen said, her voice muffled by her orange mask.

Ever since last Halloween, Jaxson wanted to do a group costume with our friend group. We were out trick-or-treating and he saw a big group dressed as M&Ms. He was totally jealous.

"We have to do a group thing next year!" he said.

He went on and on about it all night, and somehow we decided on being different colored crayons. We decided to stick with the theme in his honor. Jen was red, Karly was orange, I was purple, and I got super cute outfits for the twins. Jaxlyn was pink and Jaxson was light blue.

"I can't believe this is the first time we're seeing your babies in person!" Karly said, taking a quick picture of Jaxlyn.

"Where's your other one?" Jen asked.

"Inside, getting his diaper changed," I said, just as the door opened.

"Hi girls," Mom said to Jen and Karly with her mask on. They nervously waved back.

I took Jaxson back and held him in my lap. Mom shut the door and went back inside.

"What was that all about?" Jen asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your mom is always kind of a bitch," Karly said.

"For the record, she put that in the worst way possible," Jen said.

"It's okay. I think she's just really happy to be a grandma. She really loves them. It softened her up a little," I said.

"A lot," Karly said.

"So anyway, I believe we have a master sword to obtain?" Jen said.

"Let's do it." I sighed. "I've become a master of holding a baby and a controller at the same time."

I hit "load game" and started from my last save. A few minutes later, I heard the screeching of the bus brakes, then the hissing of air from it lowering itself to the ground. About a minute later, I looked down the street. A big group of twenty people was coming. I took one last bite of my chocolate bar and pulled my mask up.

"Get ready. Here comes the first round!" I said.

I thought with the pandemic going on, we wouldn't be getting a ton of trick-or-treaters, but something told me that this group was going to be one of many.