“Oh no,” said Mr. Brightside, covering his face with his hands in extreme mortification.
Oh yessss,thought Onny, turning her attention far, far away from whatever that exchange was with Byron.
Every Halloween, Mayor Grimjoy dressed up as the “Lady of Moon Ridge.” Sometimes he would pop into the high school classrooms, and if someone correctly told the “Founders’ Fable,” they’d all be let out early. This year, the mayor had stepped up his costume. And entrance.
When the smoke cleared, he stood before Mr. Brightside’s desk, his arms stretched wide. He wore a brilliant, deep-purple cloak that had been superglued all over with golden oak leaves, a wedding dress the color of moonlight, and a crown of roses and tiny pumpkins around his head.
“’Tis I, the benevolent spirit, the Lady of Moon Ridge!”
Mr. Brightside’s expression looked caught between actual amusement and genuine horror at his husband. He mouthed something under his breath that looked a lot likeI love you, but why?
“I have come bearing good tidings of luck and joy on the eve of tomorrow’s celebrations!” said the mayor. “I fully expect to see everyone in your best Halloween costume, and if you come with a water bottle, Iwillopen it and make sure it’s water! So! Don’t! Be! That! Person!”
“Can you go now?” whispered Mr. Brightside.
“Oh ho! Who’s this, but a fine educator of bright young minds!” Mayor Grimjoy winked. “Very fine indeed.”
Mr. Brightside blushed. “I hate this.”
“Tell me, young man—”
“We’re the same age.”
“Dost thou know the tale of our great founding?”
“Can we not do this…?”
“Shouldst thou not answer, the spirit shall follow you home!”
“We live together.”
The mayor waved his hand, then turned to the others. “What about you, young pumpkins? Who can tell the tale?”
Almost everyone—except Byron—raised their hand.
“Yes, you there! Tell the tale!”
Onny turned around in her seat and saw Alexander the Great-Looking beaming around at his classmates. His eyes went to Onny’s, and the corner of his lips twitched up in a smile. Onny’s pulse kicked up a notch.
“Once upon a time—” said Alexander.
“Excellent beginning!” said the mayor, practically bouncing from foot to foot.
“There was a young couple who fell in love, and whose parents forbade them to be together, and so they decided to run away.”
“Ah yes; the course of true love never did run smooth,” said the mayor, swiveling to his husband.
Mr. Brightside huffed, but the smallest smile touched his face.
“But before they could depart, the girl fell sick and passed away exactly at midnight on Halloween.”
Onny’s heart squeezed a bit, the way it always did when she thought of the sad tale.
“But Moon Ridge is a place of magic”—Alexander paused to make quotation marks with his fingers—“and the girl turned into the Lady of Moon Ridge. Her beloved waited for Halloween every year. On that day, she’d supposedly come out of the forests and spend the day with him,” said Alexander, before winking. “And night, if the poor man was lucky.”
The class laughed, and the mayor dramatically dabbed at his face with his wedding veil. “’Tis true! And when the boy died, he joined her in the stars and they became known as the Lovers of Moon Ridge, a celestial pair best glimpsed on Halloween.Tomorrowmarks the four-hundred-year anniversary of our town’s founding! As you know, every hundred years, magic comes alive in our town on Halloween”—the Mayor paused to waggle his fingers—“and mischief and madness shall be afoot! Tomorrow, perhaps theLady of Moon Ridge will walk alongside us! Romance shall perfume the air! Autumn shall unleash her golden splendor and—”
Mr. Brightside coughed loudly, then looked pointedly at the clock.
