She made up for it, though, by    
laughing at everything that Beth said  
about me. Occasionally, after catching 
her breath, she’d add, “What a dumb-   
ass,” and that would get everyone going
again. I even chuckled sometimes,      
because her timing, and the way she    
said it, was funny.                    
     Mostly, I was just so relieved,   
and happy, that Beth liked my friends, 
and they also liked her.               
     I could see that these annual     
patrols, now that she was officially   
part of the team, were never going to  
be the same, and that was definitely a 
good thing.                            
     I looked at the clock, and it was 
now only a few minutes away from mid-  
night. Halloween would soon be here.   
     Even though Christmas was my      
* favorite holiday, Halloween was pretty   
damn close.                            
     That was mostly because of all the
scary movie marathons, but also because
of the new ones that came out.         
     The only thing I didn’t like about
Halloween was the animal abuse, and    
that reminded me of that fateful day in
the library.                           
     I consider it our first secret    
meeting, even though, at the time, it  
really wasn't secret, because this was 
a year before I met Beth.              
     This one wasn't even planned. It  
was more like a surprise reunion       
between Pee Wee and I.                 



CHAPTER 12: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30th
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