Devil's Knight

For 364 days Jasper has been talking about Halloween. What does he want to be for Halloween? What will everyone else be for Halloween? The Costume du Jour has had a rapid but fairly consistant rotation between Batman, Spiderman and some other random character from his reading each week. Peter and I would bubble with excitement when he would mention someone cool like St. George or Theseus, nearly rushing out to get supplies for our own dragon or minotaur costumes. But then the next day he would jump back to the good old Marvel stand bys.  At least those could be purchased at Target for 12 dollars last minute. So I have been patiently waiting. And waiting. Batman. Spiderman. Spiderman. A gorgon. Spiderman. A spider. Batman. Batman. Batman. After three solid days of Batman last week, I confidently purchased a Batman mask on sale at Rite Aid (no time for crafting). 

Then two days ago, Jasper was adamant that he was going to be Spiderman. Any suggestion of Batman evoked tears. He woke up talking about it. He came home from preschool asking about it. So today after I picked him up we rushed off to Target. I was going to indulge my darling boy in the costume of his dreams. In the far back corner of the store I found a mangled pile of over-priced polyester costumes from China. Princesses, animals, Transformers, about a dozen Supermans, ninja costumes... no Spiderman. I found one of the red-shirted customer service reps who was putting up a Christmas ornament display, and she swore she saw a Spiderman costume on the rack just a few hours ago. No where to be found. So I said, "Jasper, there's no Spiderman costume left. Does anything else look like a good one?" It took less than ten seconds to find his second place favorite. "Whoaaa! I want THIS one!!" It was a generic super-hero-jedi-warrior looking thing. Relieved it was such a quick decision, I said, "Great," threw the costume in the cart and headed for checkout. "What's it called, Mama?" Jasper asked en route, gazing at the shimmering synthetic with lust. I read the cardboard label: "The Evil Knight."Oh, evil. Oops. Whatever. Evil is just synonymous with spooky in his mind. It wasn't until I was swiping my card that I realized why he loved the costume so much.  The Evil Knight happens to come with a full-on adult sized silver sword. Jasper was salivating. I let him fondle the costume through the plastic on the way home. Half way there I hear, "Mama, the Evil Knight eats people." "What?" "He kills people. He eat's their heads off." Shit. I guess Peter's nightly readings of Greek Myths has had an impact (somehow if he were actually dressed as a cyclops it would be ok). So tomorrow night when we're walking down Main Street  and run into all his preschool buddies who are benign super heroes, construction equipment and farm animals, I will hear my child explain that he is an evil black knight that slices off heads and eats people. My judgment will be seriously questioned.  "Jasper, let's call it the Mid Evil Knight. The Medieval Knight is awesome." Another pause.  "The Evil Knight shoots guns." "Darlin' you can't be a halloween costume that hurts people and shoots guns. The MEDIEVAL Knight fights ghosts and witches with his sword... ok?" A dreamy, "Yeah..." tells me I'm in trouble.