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minutes, Jason had an orange face, Vinnie was green, Calvin was blue, and Lamont had green and yellow stripes.
    “Let’s go get a spot,” Anthony said. “I don’t want to be behind a bunch of people.”
    They walked up and stood at the curb by the post office, about midway along the parade route. They could hear the high-school band in the distance, warming up.
    “Be sure to make a lot of noise for my brother,” Lamont said.
    “What’s he do?”
    “Cymbals. He has to walk backwards because he’s in charge of the percussionists.”
    “He walks backwards and plays the cymbals at the same time?” Anthony asked.
    “Yup.”
    Anthony shook his head slowly. “He must be a musical genius. How come you didn’t get none of that?”
    “I did,” Lamont said. “You never heard me sing?”
    “Not what I’d call singing.”
    “You don’t know talent when you hear it.”
    The parade had started with a line of Boy Scouts carrying a Troop 47 banner, then a fire engine. The boys whooped and waved when the Hornets’ junior cheerleading squad went by. That was followed by a couple of police officers on horseback, then some young girls twirling batons, and then the high-school band.
    “Go Omar!” Lamont shouted as his brother went past. Omar looked over and winked, then banged his cymbals together. The band was playing The Doors’ song “Light My Fire.” Omar was writhing in rhythm with the song.
    “Good band,” Anthony said.
    “Better than the football team,” Lamont replied. “This year, anyway.”
    Members of the city council and the mayor went by on a float, tossing candy to the crowd. Jason picked up a mini chocolate bar that landed by his feet and unwrapped it. He popped the whole thing into his mouth.
    The next group surprised them, not because it was a troop of Brownies, but because Wade was walking alongside them. He was holding hands with a tiny girl who looked a lot like him. The girl had trouble walking but was gamely marching on.
    “Did you join the Girl Scouts, Wade?” shouted Lamont.
    Wade gave an embarrassed grin. “My sister’s got a leg problem,” he said. “But she’s toughing it out.”
    “You earning a merit badge for helping her?” Calvin asked.
    Wade rolled his eyes. “Real funny.”
    Wade’s sister waved to the boys. She said something to Wade that Jason couldn’t hear, but he patted her head and smiled at her. They kept walking. Jason turned and watched them go. It was something to see Wade thinking outside of himself, helping his little sister like that.
    The parade only lasted about thirty minutes, trailed by hundreds of younger kids in costume. A party was to follow at the Y, and prizes would be given for the best attire. Jason had won third place once when he dressed up as a Ghostbuster. But they were kind of old for that now.
    They walked up and down the Boulevard a couple of times, getting free candy at some of the shops. Jason almost suggested that they walk up to the cemetery, but decided that he didn’t want a big rowdy group for that. So he hung out for an hour or so until most of the group had gone home. Only Vinnie and Anthony remained.
    “Ready?”
    Vinnie looked at his cast and frowned. “I don’t know if I can get over the fence,” he said.
    “We can squeeze in through the gate,” Jason said. “I’ve done it.”
    “Done what?” Anthony asked.
    “Snuck into the cemetery. Sound okay?”
    “Okay by me,” Anthony said. “The way we look, any goblins in there tonight will think we fit right in.”
    Hudson City is small, densely populated, and busy with foot traffic and automobiles. Many of the houses don’t even have yards, and the ones that do exist are small. It’s hard to find any place that isn’t at least partly lit by a streetlight. But if you walk up past St. Joseph’s Church and make your way over to Terrace Street, then past the high-school baseball field and head for the cliffs, you reach the darkest stretch of town.
    The boys walked past