A Green Knight and a Hot Night (2 page)

Callie
'
s next discreet inquiry
dealt with
Green
'
s occupation…if he had one. Since he had so much free time, she reasoned, he might be unemployed. Once again, the answer reassur
ed her
,
"
I
'
m on the tech crew of the Sunnyside Theatre. I have so much free time by day because the bulk of my work is done in the evenings. Yes, we have rehearsals and other work during some daytime hours, but most of my working hours are put in after dark.
"

The correspondence flew thick and fast now, although they still mostly talked about Pro Dog matters. Callie did tell Green that she managed a floral warehouse, and Green did admit to an overwhelming fondness for chicken-fried steak, but mostly they didn
'
t talk about themselves except in relationship to the organization. The more passionate Green became about their cause, the more Callie respected him. The more creative Green became in dreaming up ways to advance their agenda, the more Callie admired him.
Although
halfway enamored of him already
, however,
she still didn
'
t know his name or what he looked like.

Maybe it
'
s best if I never meet him,
she thought to herself more than once.
This way I can
'
t get hurt or disappointed.
She certainly didn
'
t want a repeat of what had happened with Barry. Then again, she
did
want a boyfriend. She did want to fall in love again…if only she could have some kind of guarantee that this time she wouldn
'
t get hurt. She knew she couldn
'
t go through life forever shying away from relationships for fear of getting her heart broken, yet she couldn
'
t help being gun-shy after this last bad experience.

Green wrote to her one day early in October, asking her
if she had
plans for Halloween.
"
Are you the type who loves to stay home and give out candy to the little ghouls and goblins, or do you throw a party, or do you have a friend who always invites you over to her (or his) party?
"

Callie wondered if the
"
or his
"
was a veiled attempt to find out if she had a boyfriend. She
was inclined to believe
it was a straightforward question, but she wasn
'
t sure.
"
I don
'
t have a set routine for Halloween,
"
she wrote back.
"
I only gave a Halloween party myself one time, about six years ago. I like staying home and giving out goodies, but I
'
m not a fanatic about it. If I get invited to a party, I go. What about you?
"

In Green
'
s next letter, he answered her question with,
"
We don
'
t get many trick-or-treaters around here. I usually wind up eating more than half the candy myself. Since I like to stay trim, that
'
s not a good idea. :-(  I
'
m not a raving rah-rah Halloween type, but if I
'
m invited to a party, I
'
ll go, and if not, I do answer the doorbell on Halloween…unlike some of my neighbors. Well, some of them are fogeys…or at least, they seem that way to a guy my age. :-) I might get invited to a party this year, though. One of the owners of the theatre I work at said something about inviting the whole crew to his mansion, though that could be all talk. So far
,
there
'
s been no actual invitation. If I do get invited, though, wanna go with me?
"

The note
intrigued
her on a number of levels. First, his comments, his use of
"
wanna
"
for
"
want to,
"
his describing his older neighbors as fogeys, and his use of emoticons bore out his earlier assertion
regarding his age
.
Never having met him, she had wondered
about the veracity of
f his self-described age
,
or if he was, like so many other people on the internet, fudging his age or even lying grossly.)
Then,
she considered
the fact that he was now proposing a face-to-face meeting. This excited her tremendously. At last
,
she might get to meet GreenKnight and see if he
might be
her
"
white knight.
"

"
I
'
d be pleased to go to the party with you if you
'
re invited,
"
she wrote back.
"
Will you be wearing a green knight costume?
"

"
No, but I will be in some kind of a costume. From what I hear—and, again, so far it
'
s all been just rumor. There
'
s been no official invitation yet—it
'
s going to be a costume party. What about you? Do you have a suitable costume to wear if I do get an invitation?
"

She puzzled over that one a bit before replying,
"
I don
'
t have a costume but will make one, rent one, or improvise one. I
'
m not one of those party poopers who shows up at a costume party in street clothes or in something lame.
"

"
That
'
s good to know,
"
he wrote back.
"
I still have my dog costume from the demonstration, but I don
'
t favor wearing it to the party. Not because it
'
s not Halloween themed. I don
'
t think Halloween costumes all have to be scary. But for one thing, the costume is terribly hot, and for another, I can
'
t eat or drink anything with the dog head in place. The guy who
'
s supposedly giving the party is rich, rich, rich, so I certainly want to be able to avail myself of the food at the party.
"

He
'
s well spoken.
"
Avail myself of.
"
That
'
s not some undereducated ignoramus talking,
Callie thought. She wrote back,
"
Maybe there will be caviar? I haven
'
t had good caviar in years, just the cheap stuff you can buy at the supermarket.
"

"
If there isn
'
t caviar at the party—or if there
'
s no party to begin with—I hereby pledge to personally deliver a jar of caviar to you. Of course, you
'
ll have to provide me with your address. I have no idea where you live.
"

And I
'
m comfortable leaving it that way for the time being,
Callie thought. Green still didn
'
t know her right name, either. She
continued to
sign her emails to him as
"
Furbaby
"
and
felt
more comfortable that way. She had heard too many stories of weirdos prowling the internet, trawling for victims. She didn
'
t think Green was one of those. In fact, she
found herself
growing quite fond of him through their ongoing and ever more intense and voluminous correspondence. But still, it didn
'
t hurt not to take chances. The big reveal would come when they met at the costume party…if it happened.

And if it didn
'
t? Well, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she
felt more
comfortable remaining
"
Furbaby
"
to him and not giving out her address…just in case. Even if it meant giving up a shot at some caviar.

"
I wonder if any of the city council members will be at the party
.
"
Green wrote next.
"
If this guy giving the party—his name is Alan—moves in lofty circles, he might have local
'
movers and shakers
'
among his guests. Perhaps I could collar one of them and plead Pro Dog
'
s case face to face?
"

Bless him,
Callie thought.
Always has Pro Dog
'
s best interests at heart and close to the top of his head.

Indeed his next letter made no mention of the party, or of any personal matters, but was entirely about Pro Dog.
"
When the legal fight is over about the lakeshore, win or lose, it would be a shame to see the group disband. We
'
ve coalesced for the good of dog-owners throughout the city, and we ought to keep it together and look for other dog-related issues we need to address. Your thoughts?
"

"
I think we ought to police ourselves,
"
Callie wrote back.
"
There are entirely too many owners who don
'
t clean up after their dogs. Sometimes I feel great sympathy for those who oppose us when I see stinking piles of poop on the sidewalk. And maybe if the anti-dog forces saw us taking positive action to ameliorate the situation, they
'
d be more sympathetic toward us.
"

"
You have a point,
"
Green wrote in reply.
"
But how about taking on the puppy mills?
"

"
Agreed, but what about people who chain dogs in hot yards with no shade in the summer? That needs to be addressed, too.
"
She was in full
"
crusade
"
mode now, and when Green wrote back in firm agreement, it strengthened her positive feelings toward him.

Then came the letter about the party. By now
,
it was less than two weeks until Halloween.
"
Hooray!
"
he wrote.
"
We
'
re officially invited. Well, I am, and you
'
re coming with me. The party starts at seven and includes drinks and hors d
'
oeuvres. It won
'
t be chips and dips, I can guarantee you. I can
'
t promise caviar. I
haven
'
t been
told what the menu is. But I
'
m sure it will be quite a spread. Now we have to think about costumes and arrangements. I can pick you up, or if you
'
re more comfortable having your own car and picking me up, I
'
m modern enough to go along with that. Or we could meet at the party. I
'
m amenable to whatever arrangement works best for you. Just let me know. Have you looked into a costume yet?
"

Callie hadn
'
t. She
'
d meant to go window-shopping for a possible costume but hadn
'
t gotten around to it so far. She wasn
'
t a procrastinator. She
'
d been genuinely busy. Now she had to move fast. She
felt
sure most of the good costumes available for sale or rent were gone already. She wasn
'
t going to buy a cheap kiddie costume in a teenager
'
s size. And she didn
'
t want to just dress as a vampire, a ghost, a Goth, or a witch. She wanted to be more clever than that.

Finally, she had an idea. In a shop window, she saw a fly costume, complete with head, wings, and body. She bought it. At a yarn shop, she bought skeins of white yarn and some Velcro, and at a hardware superstore, she bought thin, lightweight wood dowels. From the wood and the yarn, she fashioned an elaborate and quite large spiderweb and attached the Velcro to it and to the fly costume in such a way that she would be able to stick the s
pider
web to the back of the fly costume and make it look like she
had gotten
caught in the web.