Since the pretty orange paper fell out of his Pa's jacket in a tight wrinkled ball, Boy heard the call of the universe.

The rule was anything in Pa's pocket that wasn't money went in the can, but he knew from the throbbing pulse in his throat and the flutter in his stomach, this was different. When Pa left again to the grocery store, he fished the paper out of his shirt and pressed it flat against the only part of the wall where the sun shone through.

He saw that giant mask pushing right between the letter of a word he'd only read once in a dictionary Pa kept in the lock box, "masquerade," and his heart nearly beat right out of his chest. The universe heard his every prayer whispered in the darkness and answered. He got the foil from on his nightstand and tried to pretend he was a window to cover, but it split right on his mouth the first few tries and the paper mask only showed two holes for two eyes. If he was going to go, and he had to go now, he had to do it right.

He frowned at the window and remembered what Pa said to him once about layering the window to keep the foil from cracking too much, to keep the sun, and people's big noses from poking in unwanted, you hear me boy? He took the hint and peeled the foil off the roll and put one on top of the other. Measuring each eye hole by feel alone, which worked well enough. It only turned out kind of crooked when he rolled it all together.

Now, Pa was the problem but one easily fixed. If the crushed little pink pills tasted funny in Pa's coffee, he didn't comment, just stirred a little more. And about an hour later, when Pa was snoring away in his recliner chair, he reached for the outside keys.

Outside wasn't alien to him, he'd felt the sun's heat and the night's chill through the cracked foil on his window and heard the wind whimper in the walls when storms pounded along the roof. Sometimes he spotted things through the crack too, like tiny people walking along the sidewalk or pushing around leaves and wondered if their noses were really big like Pa said.

But it wasn't the same on the other side of the window, there was too much he didn't expect. Like how small his house looked on the other side, the roaring calls of birds in the sky and trees creaking in the wind, a hundred times his size. Right in the middle of it all, there he was, shaking like one of the leaves underfoot before it hit the ground to wither.

The orange paper wrinkled more under the weight of his thumbs as he stared at a little square map in the corner of the page. A star where he was supposed to be going was a little down the line from the star that said "you're here", but how long did this line go if the world was this big? He was ready to turn back in, universe be damned, when a blab of white rushed passed the corner of his eye. His head whipped around so fast, he feared the masked had split a little and pushed his fingers around to check, but all was well.

Ahead was a person, a real person, a he like him, not a baby and not a man. His white suit didn't drag the leaves at his heels like Pa's on Boy, and didn't sag around the middle. The tips of his mask peeked out from behind a mass of thick dark curls and glimmered in the falling sun. This was the universe too, saying you don't need no fuddy-duddy map, that one is going to show you where to go. And he listened, he followed the other person down two more houses and off the sidewalk into what Pa called the road, where people drive, but don't ever use their blinkers,which Boy imagined had something to do with eyes. The sidewalk came up again and he saw more people waiting around in masks and clothes of every color he'd ever seen.

They were entering a building titled Gymnasium in plain black letters on the front, and as Boy got closer, he noticed something odd. The doors had no knobs, people were just pushing up against them and going on in, it was the oddest thing he'd ever seen. He knew other places existed, places like the grocery store, where everyone got together, but he didn't realize these doors existed.

When he reached the doors almost everyone was inside and anyone who wasn't didn't pay him any mind. He push a large metal bar on the door and to his amazement, it eased on open with barely any touch like a button. The door next to it had a button just like it on the inside too and he tried it out,again and again in a circle, going in and out of the building between the occasional entering person until a booming voice commanded he "stop that!"

Pa said it all the time. But Boy had learned to listen or else.

He obeyed and looked up to find what he thought must have been the Queen from the big crown on top of her head, she was a woman too, one like his Mom used to be but she'd died a long time ago, "Get inside." She commanded and he wandered on in, wondering where the universe went, and really paid attention for the first time. This place was nothing like home, home had rooms, this was a really big room. Everyone was slow dancing or standing around, talking to each other, smiling, laughing, grabbing bright red plates off a large table in front of him filled with food.

Seemingly waiting for him at the end, was the boy in white. His full mask was in view this time, cut right over his nose and framing two deep brown eyes in a yellow just a shade brighter than brass. "Hey, I saw you earlier, you uh, well I wanted to say I like your mask." His stomach flipped at the friendly smile, "Look, uh, if I ask you for a dance are you going to get all weird on me?"

"No." The word slid right off his tongue, "But I don't know how to dance. I mean, just seen pictures."

"Don't worry, they always start slow." He laughed, and led the way into the crowd. A pocket of space opened up in the mass of people just for them, and he placed his hands like he thought he saw in the picture. He raised an eyebrow at him, "My name's Terry, you should know my name if you're reaching that low."

Terry moved his hand up some more until it was gripping around his jacket in the middle, Boy  stepped on something bulgy, he looked down and saw his tennis shoes squashing Terry's shiny ones, "Sorry,"

"No, no, don't be." He shook his head and grinned, "It's kind of sweet actually, you know, besides the groping."

He didn't know what that word meant, so he just nodded and peeked his head around at everyone dancing, quite a few more were peeking back and he ducked down a little more to hide his mask. Was he doing it all wrong? "They're staring."

"Yeah well, people like to stare at things they don't understand, ain't nothing new about it." Terry rolled his eyes, the lights shut off and he was half afraid Pa was gonna grip the back of the neck and holler in my ear, "What'd I tell you, boy?!" and drag him away.

"Hey, you alright? It's just the real music starting." Terry's hand squeezed his as he was pulled closer into his warmth and, with a laugh in his voice barely heard over the new louder music, said, "You jumped so hard I thought you were going to fall over, it's alright."

He nodded, looking at the hand still squeezing his, but without pain. "What're you doing?"

Terry cocked his head, and it was like he was really poking past his mask. "Nobody's ever squeezed your hand?"

He shook his head.

"Ever have a hug?" Boy nodded that he had, and Terry smiled real slow, so slow, and it was like a match sparked right in the middle of his eyes in the middle of all the flashing pink and yellow lights, "Well, it's like a tiny hug, for hands." 

Boy smiled back but remembered the mask covered his face. He leaned in and said, "I like it." Right next to Terry's ear, so it would be heard, and there was a sudden flutter in his chest he couldn't explain. All around them people weren't dancing like in the pictures anymore, they were jumping or something similar. Terry laughed some more, and showed him want to do, and it wasn't long before he was laughing too.

They kept on until the music slowed, and a light shone down on the Queen from earlier standing on a stage high above the rest. She held a microphone to her lips and said, "Is everyone excited to start our Halloween countdown?" There were shouts of "Yes" mixed in with a few reluctant groans. Her smile widened, "When we reach ten, everyone take off your masks and shout Happy Halloween."

A buzz burned through his body that he'd never known, he was in a field of people and it was like Boy belonged.  

"One."  

"Two."

"Three."

"Four."

"Five."

"Six." Terry hollered right in his ear, it made him giggle.

"Seven."

"Eight."

"Nine."

"Ten." There was a roar, masks went flying in the air with great shouts of, "Happy Halloween!"

He didn't know what happened. One moment, he was standing hand in hand with Terry watching his foil mask flashing in the stage lights as it came back down towards him and the next a scream pierced his bubble. He met eyes with a girl in blue to his left and froze, she covered her mouth, running to another girl who took one look at him and exclaimed, "Oh God, his eyes!" but he was thinking the same thing, they only had two eyes and naked flesh where the rest should be.

A loud shout of "Monster" got everyone running out of the doors. Boy felt like someone swallowed his insides whole, as he watched them shoving each other to be first out the doors, all just to be away from him. The universe had gone, left him in the middle of the large empty room surrounded by abandoned masks, but Terry was there, looking at him with two wide brown eyes and a gaping mouth.

Terry's hand trembled in his, but he squeezed it just a little, like when the lights all gone, like a tiny hug.

He asked, "What is monster?"

Terry squeezed back.