Pirates Are People Too
by Nico Grey
Chapter 10
Jake was disappointed as Ish greeted him for their morning walk to the school bus stop. They walked together, side-by-side. They shared the most animated conversation they had in more than a week. But there was no physical contact. That frustrated Jake. He considered it a very bad omen.
Mr. Harding was lurking in the lobby when they arrived at school.
"Mr. Warren and Mr. Abraham! The very two gentlemen I was hoping to see this morning."
That announcement filled Jake with dread. He couldn't think of any reason he might be in trouble, but dealing with trouble was Mr. Harding's principal responsibility, so. . .
Jake's heart started beating again when he realized that he wasn't in trouble with Mr. Harding. He was still concerned to discover that he might be in some trouble.
"The sheriff's office contacted me this morning, gentlemen. They received a report of some sort of disturbance involving high-school-aged boys near Oak Street yesterday afternoon. You wouldn't know anything about it, would you?" The vice principal had a notepad open in front of him, his pen poised.
It sounded to Jake like the vice principal might be on a fishing expedition. But his basic nature didn't allow him to lie.
"Yes, sir," Jake admitted.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" the vice principal looked at him expectantly.
"Not really, sir," Jake said. "But I was walking home from the bus stop with a friend. . ."
"Me," Ish interjected.
"I was walking home with Ish," Jake amended. "Three older guys got in our way. They said they were going to hurt us."
"Older guys?" Mr. Harding questioned. "From the Senior Center?"
"Oh," Jake realized his mistake. "No. Just older than us. They're still in high school, or at least I see them around here. I think one of them is Daniel Hartnett's brother," he added, for clarification.
"I see," the vice principal said. "So did they try to hurt you?"
Jake squirmed. "They had Ish surrounded. They were closing in on him. So I head-butted one of them," he admitted.
"And. . ."
"And I stomped his knee," Jake felt ashamed of that admission.
"No," Mr. Harding clarified. "What happened with the other two?"
"Oh!" Jake was having trouble keeping up with the questions. "Uh, Ish took care of them?"
"Did they attack you, Mr. Abraham?" the vice principal asked.
"No, sir," Ish said. "They had stated an intention to hurt Jake and me. They were closing in on me. But when they were distracted by Jake, I made sure they wouldn't hurt him. . .both of us," he clarified.
"So they never struck either of you?" Mr. Harding shifted his gaze between them.
Jake and Ish consulted silently. "No, sir," they admitted, in stereo.
"Have you had any previous trouble with these three boys at school?" the vice principal asked.
"Some, sir," Jake admitted. "They harassed us and threatened us a few times. They said something about getting even with us because Daniel is going to prison."
Mr. Harding nodded. "Had they previously threatened to harm you outside of school?"
"Um, we never saw them outside of school before yesterday," Jake said.
Mr. Harding rolled his eyes. "When they harassed you here at school, did that harassment ever include threats to hurt you away from school property?"
"Oh!" The light dawned on Jake. "Yes. At least once. But twice, I think. They made a lot of threats," he tried to justify his uncertainty.
"So they had already threatened to harm both of you somewhere off school property?" Mr. Harding waited for them to confirm his assumption. "Well, that does support an allegation that I have here in a discipline report." He glanced at a folder open in front of him.
"And although you both acknowledge that you struck them first, they had harassed and threatened you. They had made several specific threats of physical violence against you, including their threats yesterday afternoon. And you both were in reasonable fear of being harmed." It was a statement, but his vocal inflection suggested that they still should answer.
"Yes, sir," Jake said. The questioning sounded friendly, but he was still worried that he might end up serving time in prison with Daniel.
Mr. Harding nodded thoughtfully. "Well, unless the police receive a criminal complaint from any of your three, uh, three, I guess bullies, and as long as there are no reports filed by local hospitals, if they call me about this matter again, I can assure them that I have no documents reporting such an incident." He ripped the page off his notepad, tore it into small pieces, and dropped it in a wastebasket.
"But, boys," he eyed them both seriously, "There could still be trouble for you if the police receive more information. Especially if any of those boys needed medical attention. You should warn your parents.
"And I hope that you report it to me immediately if you have these sorts of confrontations with other students in the future. I know that young guys like you don't like people like me to fight your battles. But some battles can get out of hand very easily, and the consequences for you could be quite serious."
Jake and Ish breathed a sigh of relief as they left the assistant principal's office. It felt like they had barely avoided serious trouble. The realization that their encounter could have easily spiraled out of control, with consequences that had never even anticipated, was sobering.
Jake was still pondering the consequences of his encounter with Donnie Hartnett and his friends when he sat down for lunch. The demands of his four morning classes hadn't distracted him from considerations of just how badly things could have gone wrong, just because he and Ish had to defend themselves from some bullies.
Josiah was waiting for him, along with Darius and Mercury.
"So have you put your leprechaun costume together yet?" Josiah teased him gently.
Jake shook his head. "I have most of what I need. But I still need to get a few things after school." He considered for a moment. "I think I will dye my hair. Do you have any idea how long that will take?"
"Ask Ian. He's the creative one," Josiah suggested.
"Yeah," Darius cut in. "Maybe you can get him to share some of those phony red pubes he keeps boasting about."
"Hey! Where is Ian?" Jake wondered.
"I'm not sure," Darius shrugged. "He told us that he had to see a man about a horse."
"Oh my god!" Jake had known Ian to do some wild things, but he didn't think he would really. . . He gulped.
"Relax, Jake," Josiah reassured him. "He meant something else."
He realized that Mercury had a very confused expression on his face.
"Ian told Jake and me about his plans for a Halloween costume. Jake thought it had something to do with that."
That didn't settle the matter. Both Mercury and Darius had questions, so Josiah threw it back on them.
"So what are you guys doing tonight?"
"Mercury and I are probably going out."
"Trick or treating?" Jake was surprised.
"No," Mercury corrected. "Just going out."
"We had plans," Darius explained. "We asked Zombie to come with us. But he didn't take it very well when somebody," he fixed Mercury with a very pointed glare, "told him that I was going to dress up as Rick Grimes."
Josiah almost choked on a mouthful of possibly-lasagna. "I don't blame him! Jason only puts up with that for the soccer team."
It was Jake's turn to be confused. But he didn't dwell on it.
"So are you going as Daryl?" Jake asked Mercury.
Mercury turned a deep shade of pink and muttered something into his bottle of Powerade.
Darius was happy to explain. "He's going as Carl! I'm going to be a proud papa!"
"What happened?" Ian found a seat and set his lunch tray down. "Did you finally knock up Mercury?"
"Ian. . ." Josiah groaned.
Jake apologized to Ish and got off the bus at its first stop in the East Grange village. He had things he had to accomplish before kids started knocking on the Warren's door in three or four hours.
He stopped at his regular hair stylist for some advice about dying his hair, but she had already left for the day. He didn't recognize the young woman still working there, but waited for her to finish with her customer.
Jake explained his Halloween plans and what he needed.
"You're in luck, cutie," the woman told him. "Unless you really want to change your hair color permanently, I just happen to have some temporary colors and a few minutes before my next customer."
Jake felt strange walking through East Grange with red hair. He thought the stylist had done a good job making the temporary color look natural, and she hadn't charged him anything. 'Just save some of that candy for me when you're older,' she had winked at him.
Jake hadn't been entirely sure what she meant, but he thought he had a clue. His blush almost matched his new hair color.
A couple of doors down from Maureen's Bakery stood Ye Auld Tyme Thryft Shoppe. Jake had never been inside before, but he was hopeful. He already had a green jacket and some green pants that he thought might look a bit like a leprechaun's. He had figured out how he would turn the family's candy bowl into his pot of gold. But he really needed some sort of green hat to create a passable ensemble.
The inside of the store was stocked with more things than Jake could imagine. It wasn't as big as a WalMart or Target, he realized. But the sheer volume and variety of items stacked around the store amazed him.
Jake didn't know the older man behind the counter. In a small community like East Grange, he could at least recognize most of the inhabitants when he saw them. But both the hair stylist and the shop owner were complete strangers. He didn't dwell on the oddity. He had a mission to complete.
Like the hair stylist, the shop owner was inspired by Jake's enthusiasm for his mission. And like the hair stylist, the shop owner had everything that Jake was looking for. . . and a bit more.
After almost an hour of the man searching through display racks and storage rooms, handing Jake one item after another to try on for proper fit, Jake was shocked by his appearance in the mirror. He barely recognized himself!
He had knee-length green trousers, waistcoat, bow tie, authentic green tailcoat and wool stockings. The shop owner found a green top hat with a shamrock that fit Jake almost perfectly. He even managed to round up what he described as an authentic Irish shillelagh.
Jake had entered the store hoping to find enough basic bits of costume to allow him to pass for a leprechaun. Looking in the mirror, he thought that he almost looked like the real deal!
But when Jake considered all of his cast-off finery, he groaned. It was used clothing, to be sure, to be sure. But Jake couldn't imagine that all of it, taken together, would be something that he could afford.
The shop owner appeared to anticipate his dilemma.
"Unless you're planning on a career as a leprechaun, I assume you'll probably be renting those items," he suggested. "I've known your mother and her family for years, so I trust you. Promise to have them back here before noon tomorrow, and in the same condition they're in now, and you can rent the lot for ten pieces of gold.
"Those are dollars," he whispered, when he noticed Jake's confusion.
Jake couldn't believe his good fortune— and it was only his first day as a leprechaun!— but he handed over the cash eagerly and scampered out the front door.
Out on the street, Jake felt a bit foolish. It was Halloween, but he was still a high school sophomore dressed as a figure out of Irish folklore, sauntering through an ordinary American town. And it wasn't yet four o'clock in the afternoon.
He started to hope that he didn't run into Donnie Hartnett or any of his friends. Even if he managed to win the fight, the humiliation of being seen by them would turn any encounter into a loss.
He was almost as embarrassed when he finally strolled through the front door of his home.
His father dropped his cup of tea. "Saints presarve us!" He peered closer. "Be that you, Jakey?"
It took Jake almost a minute to realize that his father had probably noticed him walking up the street.
And this one
The embarrassment didn't end when his mother arrived home from work. She just had to take some pictures. Lots of them. Jake was about ready to use the shillelagh on someone by the time his mother finally took the last shot and his father exclaimed, "Faith and begorrah!" for the final time. He was sure that those photographs would make for a family bonding experience someday in the future. But he was just as sure that it would be a day far, far into the future.
As they discussed their plans for the evening, his mother was pleased to hear that he had met the owner of Ye Auld Tyme Thryft Shoppe. He had once been a teacher of hers. After years as an educator he had retired. But he remained in the area and found another way to contribute to their community.
Jake set up the Halloween candy bowl, disguised as a pot of gold, and barely had time to take a breath before the doorbell started ringing. The little trick-or-treaters were rather in awe of the leprechaun, the grade schoolers were amused, and Jake just hoped that their visitors that were closer to his own age had completely forgotten their visit before they returned to school Monday morning.
When he first conceived the Halloween costume, he thought it would be fun and a way of gently teasing Ian. But greeting his peers in that outlandish get-up, however authentic it looked, made him feel ridiculous. He plied the older visitors with extra candy, hoping that an intense sugar high might help induce memory loss.
Outside, it had been full dark for more than an hour. Jake's parents had already retired to the living room to experience the very best of American culture on the boob tube. The trick-or-treaters were fewer and farther between.
Jake was considering turning off the porch light and returning his 'pot of gold' to the pantry. He thought it might be a good idea to close up for the night before the pranksters came out in force. He could already hear the sounds of raucous laughter in the distance.
But when the doorbell rang, Jake was still hoping to see at least one more young face thrilled by the magic of the holiday. He prepared his best Irish brogue and decided that if the visitor was young, he'd play the Lucky Charms leprechaun. But if it was an older visitor, it might be fun to try to channel the Warwick Davis version of a leprechaun.
Occupied with his own thoughts, Jake was surprised to open the door and find a pirate standing on the front porch. He looked completely authentic from his knee-high leather boots, snug black trousers, the sash and cutlass at his waist, open white shirt, gold hoop earrings, braid plaited down his back, and the knotted red bandana on his head.
' Is that sword real?' Jake wondered. "Ish?" he asked aloud.
"Aaaarghh!" That also sounded completely authentic. "I be here to plunder yer booty!"
"Not in this house, you won't!" Ed Warren growled from behind Jake.
Jake was shocked. He wanted to burst out laughing at Ish's costume and accent. He wanted to die of shame at his father's rude interruption. He settled for a compromise.
"Always after me lucky charms!" he giggled. He thought for a moment. "Well, you caught me. I guess you deserve a reward."
His father started to clear his throat.
"Just let me get my pot of gold."
"I'm not here for candy," Ish explained. "I just wanted you to see my costume."
It took Jake a moment to understand. He smiled hesitantly. "Does it make you happy?"
"Very happy," Ish looked directly into Jake's eyes and smiled.
Then he cast a wary eye over Jake's shoulder.
"What made you decide that?" Jake wondered.
"I figured out that I had a choice of being happy— even if it meant exposing myself to the risk of feeling miserable— or I would not be happy. I decided that I want to be happy. It's worth the risk." Ish took a deep breath. "You make it worth the risk."
Jake's father cleared his throat irritably.
"I'll see you soon?" Ish cast a glance toward the door.
"No matter what," Jake assured him firmly.
With another anxious look over Jake's shoulder, the Dread Pirate Ishmael scampered hurriedly away.
"Why did you do that?" Jake turned on his father.
"Jakey," his father raised his hands defensively. "I'm just trying to protect you."
"Protect me from what, Dad? From someone who is becoming a very good friend? From someone who saved my butt when three assholes were going to hurt us yesterday afternoon?" Belatedly, Jake recalled Mr. Harding's advice to tell his parents about that encounter. "From someone who gets upset every time I do something that he thinks might hurt me? Why, exactly, would I need protection from that?"
His father was surprised by Jake's outburst, but he focused on the argument that made his case.
"If you weren't hanging around with that little fruitcake, no one would have bothered you yesterday."
"Yes they would, Dad!" Jake insisted. "They weren't after Ish. They were after me because Daniel Hartnett is going to jail for hitting me. One of them is his brother. And if Ish hadn't been there, maybe they'd be going to jail for killing me! Is that what you want?" Jake could sense that he was starting to lose control of his emotions.
"No, Jakey. No. I only want what's best for you."
"Ish is my friend. I like him. I can rely on him. And he protects me." That final assertion felt a little weak and shameful to Jake. But he had to admit that it was true.
"Dad," Jake tried to restore some calm to his voice, "I know things about Ish's life before he moved here. I know I can depend on him. He's someone that sacrifices himself for his friends."
"Jake. But the hair. The earrings. . ."
"What about them, Dad? Who cares?"
"That boy has to be a fanny pirate, Jacob. That's just not right."
"And that's why you hate him?" Jake could feel his internal temperature rising again.
"Jakey. I don't hate him," Ed Warren insisted. "But he's not normal."
"Because you think he's gay," Jake accused bitterly. "I know a lot of people who are gay. They're all good people. Every single one of them!
"All the really bad people that I know are straight. So what does that say?"
Jake stopped to consider what needed to be said. His father was looking frustrated, but not angry. And Jake was equally frustrated that he just couldn't seem to get through to the man. He really wasn't sure it was a good idea, but it felt like something that might break their impasse, one way or the other.
"Dad?" Jake waited until he had his father's full attention. "What are you going to do if I decide to become a fanny pirate? Are you going to hate me? Are you going to throw me out of the house?"
Jake paused. He felt like he had just presented his chin for another right hook and he was already starting to have second thoughts. He really didn't have time to consider any other possibility.
"Are you, Jacob?" his father whispered.
"I don't know, Dad," Jake realized that it was a little too late to backtrack. "I'm thinking about it."
"Did that, that, Ick do anything to you?"
Jake really couldn't read his father's reaction.
"Ish hasn't done anything to me," Jake said. He decided that a brief kiss and some visual inspection in the showers really shouldn't count. "But I don't think I'd mind if he did."
'Ouch!' Jake realized too late that he had stepped on another landmine.
Instead of exploding, his father turned away from him.
"Oh, Jakey. That's a hard life. So many people will be against you. I don't want that for you."
Jake thought he detected a tremor in his father's voice.
"But what about what I want for me?" he demanded. "When do I get to decide about my own life?"
Jake was self-aware enough to recognize that probably sounded silly coming from a fifteen-year-old leprechaun.
His father turned back to face Jake.
"Please, Jake. Please be patient. Listen to your mother and me. I promise we'll listen to you, too."
His father spent several moments with his thoughts.
"I'll do better. I promise."
Jake was emotionally exhausted. It was the most meaningful conversation he'd had with his father in years. It had worn him out.
He pulled off pieces of his leprechaun costume, brushed them carefully, folded them neatly, and set them in a pile on top of his dresser. He didn't want to disappoint the owner of the thrift shop or give him any reason to think less of the Crandall or Warren families.
Clad in boxers and a t-shirt, he lay back on his bed to think.
His father had been a lot more open-minded as their conversation developed, Jake acknowledged. Nowhere near open-minded enough for what Jake wanted, but it really felt like his father had taken another step. He just needed to figure out how to accelerate the process and convince him that Jake was ready to start making his own decisions about the important things in his life.
He was surprised by the silence in the house below him. Fox News wasn't on, but his father usually maintained a running dialogue with whatever he happened to be watching on television. Maybe he was feeling tired, too, Jake concluded.
He hoped that he hadn't upset his father too much. He would have to be at work in less than three hours. Jake didn't want to add any more stress to what was always a stressful situation for his father.
As he lay thinking, Jake was surprised to notice how quiet it had also become outside the house, too. There were always kids out making mischief on Halloween in the village. But Jake couldn't hear anything at all.
That puzzled him. But it wasn't enough to distract him from his thoughts. Eventually, his thoughts weren't enough to distract Jake from his exhaustion. He drifted off to sleep.
Jake sat bolt upright in his bed!
Something had startled him awake. He glanced at his alarm clock. It read 10:30. Jake decided that he must have heard his father leaving for work a few minutes early.
He heard the strange noise again. A loud pop, then a hissing sound coming from the front of the house. Outside the house, he thought. It didn't sound like anything he had ever heard before.
When Jake heard the third pop and hiss, followed by muffled laughter, it started to make sense. Halloween pranksters, he realized.
He padded to the window to see what was happening. Outside in the driveway, Jake could see several shadowy figures moving around his father's car. A moment later, he heard another loud pop, followed by more rushing sibilance.
Jake was considering going downstairs to warn his parents that something was happening in the driveway when the exterior of the house lit up. A moment later, he heard the front door thrown open and the sound of his father's voice.
"Get away from that car, you sons of bitches!"
Jake expected the vandals to flee. Instead, they just drifted back into the shadows of the surrounding trees and shrubs.
Jake also hadn't expected his father to move out into the driveway. Overcome by his annoyance, he was investigating what had been done to his car.
"You miserable little bastards!"
It had been years since Jake heard his father bellow like that! He was bent over and appeared to be inspecting a tire. He didn't appear to notice when five shapes gradually emerged from the surrounding shadows. Jake was barely aware that one of them was walking with a distinct limp.
He didn't wait for anything more to happen. He dashed out of his bedroom and down the stairs.
Jake noticed his mother in the living room. "Call the police!"
"It's the sheriff, dear," she corrected him.
Jake fleetingly wondered if his mother hadn't already been celebrating the end of her work week.
"Just call, please! I think dad's in trouble!"
Jake paused when he got to the door. He wished he had thought to slip on some sneakers, and maybe bring the shillelagh with him. But he noticed his baseball bat propped in a corner next to umbrellas and some foul weather gear. Since the weather outside seemed likely to be foul, he grabbed the bat.
Jake threw open the front door and immediately noticed that one of the vandals was already on the ground and writhing in pain. His father had his back to the car and was standing in a defensive crouch next to a short pirate. For a moment, Jake felt a thrill of relief!
But there were still four assailants. And each of them was bigger than his father and Ish.
Jake panicked when he noticed one of the vandals— he thought it was probably Donnie Hartnett— eyeing Ish carefully. Moonlight glinted off the knife he held in his hand! He appeared to be waiting for an opportunity. Jake was terrified that Ish might be too distracted by the knife, or by one of the other attackers, to defend himself properly.
As the knife drew back menacingly, Jake acted. He was pretty sure he knew precisely where to locate a person's kidneys. He focused on the left side of the assailant's lower back, just below the ribcage, hoping that might help throw the knife thrust off course. He leapt off the porch, accelerated sharply as he ran, and launched himself, driving his shoulder into his target.
It was like hitting a brick wall! Jake rebounded. He hit his head on the pavement when he fell to the ground. He didn't even have the opportunity to appreciate the agonized shriek that the wall emitted as it spun around and collapsed.
Jake cautiously inspected his surroundings as his head began to clear. No, definitely not a hospital, he decided.
He could hear the sounds of combat around him. His father still had his back to the car. But apparently he had picked up Jake's bat, because he was flailing it about with abandon.
Jake noticed two black-clad shapes crawling around on the ground nearby. Both sounded like they were in severe pain. But three of the attackers were still on their feet.
Jake looked up. He found a pirate standing over him and fending off two of the attackers. He wasn't sure whether he should try to stand up. He didn't want to distract Ish.
He almost froze when he looked around and noticed that one of Ish's assailants was also holding a knife, maybe the one Donnie Hartnett had been carrying. Jake didn't know whether to shout out a warning, remain completely still, or try to interfere with the knife-wielder's footwork.
Fortunately, he didn't have to decide. The baseball bat descended on the arm holding that knife with a satisfying crack. The attacker screamed and grabbed at his fractured arm. Jake took the opportunity to stagger to his feet.
The two remaining vandals decided that was enough for them. A ninja pirate, a baseball bat wielding lunatic, and Lazarus were more than they cared to take on. Lights around the neighborhood started to come on as the two sprinted away.
"Let them go," Ish ordered, when Jake's father tried to detain the stragglers. "We know who they are. They won't get away with this."
Ed Warren looked relieved. "Are you sure that you know them?" he demanded. "Because somebody is going to pay for what they did tonight."
Ed turned his attention to Jake and examined him carefully. He played twenty questions, medical style, and checked out the lump on his head before deciding that there was probably no need to rush to the Emergency Room.
Jake was pretty sure that he was going to be alright. He felt slightly euphoric. He was enjoying the feeling of Ish's arm wrapped around his shoulder again.
Ish eyed Jake skeptically.
"I'm okay. I just hit him too hard, I think," Jake assured him.
Ed Warren cleared his throat. Jake rolled his eyes internally and leaned deliberately into Ish.
"Um, I just want to thank you," Ed started.
"Ish," Jake supplied.
"Yes. Ish. I'm sorry. That just feels like such a strange thing to call a person," Ed apologized.
"Call me Ishmael," Ish suggested.
Ed smiled wearily. "Thank you, Ishmael. Thank you for helping me. And I especially want to thank you for protecting my son."
Ish held Jake tighter. "I had to. He's my friend. If anything ever happened to him, I don't think I could forgive myself."
"Well," Ed seemed uncertain, "Thank you for helping Jake, Ishmael. And thank you for being his friend."
Jake heard the uneasiness in his father's voice. But he appreciated the words. Jake smiled gratefully at his father.
"Oh, Ed!" Jake's mother had appeared in the driveway and was inspecting the damage. "I guess you'll have to take my car to work tonight."
Jake's father surveyed the scene doubtfully.
"I think I'll have to miss work. You'll need your car to bring Jake to see Dr. Walter in the morning. And I want to be here when the sheriff arrives. I want to be damn sure his report is thorough. If I have anything to say about it, that Hartnett bastard's friends will end up serving a stretch in BuFu U right along with him."
"Ed!" Mrs. Warren was shocked. "The boys!"
"Oh, it isn't anything they haven't heard before," he assured her. "I imagine they may even find out more about it someday. Not that there's anything wrong with that," he added hastily.
Brenda Warren examined her husband with a curious smile.
"Uh, unless you've changed your mind," Ed looked at Jake hopefully.
Jake didn't have any second thoughts. He pulled a very surprised— but equally gratified— pirate into his arms and kissed him firmly on the lips.
"No. I didn't imagine that you had," Ed conceded gracefully.
"Come in," Jake invited Ish. "I want my parents to get to know you. You can tell my father about your past."
"You want me to show him my scar?" Ish teased.
"Your scar is mine!" Jake growled. "But I want him to get to know who you are. He's not a bad person. You're a good person. You just need to understand each other better."
"We do have to wait for the sheriff," Ed allowed. He gestured toward the house.
"It might be better for you to rest now, Jake," his mother suggested. "You're going to the doctor in the morning. And one of us should probably stay up with him." She cast a worried glance at her husband.
"Ish can stay with me," Jake pleaded with his eyes.
"Could you?" Ed asked.
Jake was tempted to kiss his father.
"I will ask. My mother is still awake. They visited our house first," Ish explained.
"Perhaps you should get some clothes when you ask her," Mrs. Warren suggested. The pirate costume was very realistic, but Halloween would end in less than an hour.
"He can wear some of my clothes," Jake insisted. "We're almost the same size. I'd really like you to get to know Ish now."
They followed Jake's parents. Jake leaned on Ish and let his pirate guide him into the house.
—The End—
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