Mama-Come-Lately

Two days before Halloween, the Boo (actual nickname) decided he no longer wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

This was the first year I had bought him a costume, and I had mixed feelings about that. Yes, it was easy and convenient, and that’s how I like to do most of my non-grocery shopping. Three or four clicks in my pajamas, and on to the next task. But it was cheap polyester garbage with built-in obsolescence and I already have visions of it ending up in a landfill. And yet, he loved it, or more accurately, he loved being Luke Skywalker, stepping into those brave Jedi shoes for a while and forgetting about spelling tests and riding the bus.

And then a few weekends ago we decided he was ready to watch the first Harry Potter movie. It scared him a bit, and he had questions, mostly about why the Dursleys are so mean to Harry and how Voldemort gets around. But he liked it enough that he wanted to watch it again, and start reading the book (which means me reading the book to him). And so, his fickle movie-based affections moved the Halloween needle to Harry Potter.

The Boo has dark, unruly hair. He wears glasses, and though they are not round, they are dark enough to pass as black. A kind work friend, hearing my last-minute tale of woe, offered to bring in the Griffindor cloak her kids had worn when they had been Harry Potter/Hermione Granger. I sent the Boo outside to find a straight stick, dug out the silver spray paint, and we made a wand. The kids are not allowed to apply makeup when they change into their costumes at school, so as we waited for the bus I drew a lightning-bolt scar on the Boo’s forehead. (Lucky I had a black pen in my purse!)

My husband took the Boo trick-or-treating this year, and reported that the teenage girls were agog at his costume. A mom friend texted me to say how cute he looked. My family cracked up at the video of his Halloween spell: “Expectium Candium Pleasium!”

All this to say, it’s the costume he was meant to wear all along.