4:10 PM, Friday, October 31st, 1952

France, Oregon

Murray was in his bedroom, preparing some final touches on his costume, when his older brother, Alex, came in… and stuck his wet finger in Murray’s ear.

“Gross!” Murray shouted, smacking Alex’s hand away.

“Trick or treat, you little twerp!” Alex snickered, pulling the younger boy into an aggressive nookie.

Murray grabbed Alex’s arm, and threw him to the floor, pinning him down underneath him.

“I hate you!” Murray shouted.

“Get off of me!” Alex growled.

“DAAAAD!” They both hollered.

General Michael Newman, a decorated WWII hero and respected local businessman, came into the room, pulling Murray off of Alex.

“Alexander, for God’s sake, leave your brother alone, ” he said.

Alex got up to retort, but Gen. Newman gave him the stink-eye. The older boy sulked out.

“That kid,” said Gen. Newman, “I don’t know what to do with him.”

“You know he’s just going to fly off to Jill’s house again,” said Murray.

“Over my dead body. That girl is bad news.”

“Don’t say that to him, it’ll just send him there faster.”

Gen. Newman chuckled dryly. “Ain’t that the the truth?”

Meanwhile, Justin had come over to Fred’s house to get ready for the Halloween party.

“Hey,” said Justin, coming into the living room. “You home alone?”

“You surprised?” Fred asked back.

Fred’s parents were barely home, with work and their social life taking up a lot of time, and his siblings were all away at college, so Fred was often home alone.

“Well, that just means more privacy for us,” Justin remarked.

Justin followed Fred into his room, and laid his costume bag out on the bed.

“So,” Justin continued. “Why aren’t you getting ready with Murray? I would’ve thought you’d like to watch him-”

“He’s not coming,” Fred interrupted. “I know, you’re going to make the jokes, but I’m taking what you said seriously. I told him to get ready at his place, and that we’d meet out front at five to go to the party.”

“Well! You are moving on. I know it’s not easy, but it has to be done, my friend.”

“Of course it’s not easy. Murray is so cute!”

Justin pulled Fred’s face in his direction.

“That may be,” Justin stated, “but stay focused.”

“Ow,” Fred moaned, with Justin’s hand still squishing his face.

“Sorry,” Justin said as he let go. “But don’t let him turn you into a goof tonight. It’s our senior year. We earned this party.”

“Yup.”

Justin looked back at Fred.

“Hey Fred, can I ask you something?”

4:45 PM, Tuesday, January 24th, 2023

Patty and Tess had left Fred a couple of hours prior so they could work on the house a little more, but later the afternoon, Patty returned to the retirement village. Fred wanted her to meet an old friend.

She knocked on room 303, Building C. After a few seconds, Fred answered the door.

“Patty!” he greeted. “Welcome back!”

“Thank you, Mr. Stavridis. may I come in?”

“I told you, call me Fred; and yes you may.”

She walked into the living room, where a rerun of Dragnet was playing on the TV. Some discarded newspapers lay on the coffee table, and two half-full mugs of coffee sat on a side table, next to a recliner where Justin Allison sat, an oxygen tube in his nose.

“Justin!” shouted Fred. “She’s here!”

Justin looked over and smiled.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Peppermint Patty! Look at you, all grown up.”

Patty held her hand out for a handshake. “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Allison.”

“This one! So formal!” he exclaimed as he pushed her hand aside. “Call me Justin, and give me a damn hug!”

Patty pulled the elderly man into a hug.

“Alright, J, let her breathe,” Fred joked, going into the kitchen.

Justin let go of Patty, who turned to sit down on the couch.

“So, Peppermint Patty,” Justin began. “What’s going on? How’s that wife of yours?”

Patty blushed. That nickname had been given to her by her grandfather, although it was years before she came out. He called her that because she played for many sports teams, and wore green all the time.

“Tess? She’s doing all right. Started her own firm last year- in France, not Astoria.”

“Yes, I heard that. Good for her. She’s earned it. She’ll do great.”

“I’ll let her know you said that.”

“And what about the girls? How are they doing?”

“Still in school, off drugs, not smoking.”

“Check, check, and check,” Justin laughed. “Glad to hear it!”

Fred poked his head out of the kitchen.

“Coffee, Pat?” he asked.

“No, water’s fine. If I have coffee now, I’ll be up all night.”

Fred went back into the kitchen.

“All right, enough small talk,” said Justin. “Let’s see the book.”

Patty opened her purse, and pulled out Murray’s old diary, with a blue bookmark sticking out.

“Wow,” Justin remarked as he was handed the diary. “This has aged well. If I didn’t know what is was, I would’ve guessed it was from the eighties at the earliest.”

“Murray was total neat freak,” said Fred, coming out of the kitchen. “He probably- here’s your water, hon- dipped that darn thing in preservative.”

“Let’s see,” said Justin, “where did you leave off?”

He thumbed through the diary until he got to the bookmark. His face went pale when he saw where it was.

“Oh,” he whispered.

Fred looked over Justin’s shoulder.

“Oh.”

“Yep,” said Patty. “Halloween 1952.”

7:23 PM, Friday, October 31st, 1952.

Murray, Fred, and Justin were at Kevin’s house, where the party was already in full swing. Murray had dressed as the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, while Fred was the Mad Hatter, and Justin was the Cheshire Cat.

Murray peeled off to chat with some of his classmates from the junior class.

“Okay,” said Murray, “Bianca, truth or dare?”

Murray’s lab partner, and Kevin’s sister, Bianca Souza, thought on this for a minute.

“Well,” she responded, “I have to go with truth. Dares get me in trouble.”

The group chuckled.

“If you had to pick between me and James,” said Murray, “who would you rather go out with?”

James and the others ‘oohed.’

“I should’ve seen that coming,” Bianca laughed. “Well, Murray, I’m sorry. You’re really sweet, but if I had to pick, I’d pick James. He’s fun.”

“Better luck next time, twig,” said James, who had some heavy beer breath already.

“Hey, that’s her choice,” Murray replied nonchalantly.

Kevin came into the room.

“Irmão!”Bianca shouted, pulling his arm into the circle.

“No, no,” he protested. “Absolutely not!”

“Please-please-please?” James begged. “We want you to embarrass yourself!”

“What a selling point!”

“Kev, come on!” Murray said. “Just one round, and we’ll leave you alone!”

Kevin looked Murray right in the eye with a glare, but softened his expression in defeat just a few seconds later.

“All right!” said Kevin, to a cacophony of cheers from the group. “Just cool it already, will ya’?”

Kevin sat down next to Murray.

“Gee whiz, such enthusiasm!” Murray teased.

“Yeah, yeah, come on now,” said James, wiping the smile off his face and giving a serious stare at Kevin. “Pick your poison, Kev. Truth? Or dare?”

“Dare,” he responded.

“All right…” James said, leaning back on the couch, rubbing his chin. “Let me think.”

“I already regret this.”

“Oh, hush!” Murray chided.

“I’ve got it!” James said, before getting up, and dragging Kevin by the arm upstairs.

The rest of the group followed, intrigued as to what James had planned. James continued towards the back of the house, where less partygoers had congregated.

“What is he doing?” someone wondered aloud.

He finally stopped at the end of the hallway.

“Where is this going?” asked Kevin, suspiciously.

James opened the door to the closet, and pushed Kevin in.

“You,” James said. “Must spend five minutes in there with someone of my choosing. You can do whatever you you want, but you must stay in there for five minutes.”

“Where did you come up with this?!” asked Bianca.

“I just made it up,” bragged James. “I call it ‘Five Minutes to Thrive^1.’”

James saw the funny looks people were giving him, and clarified: “It’s a placeholder name.”

“Fine!” Kevin shouted. “Just push someone in here!”

“Ooh, who to chose? Who to send?”

James looked over the group, trying to find the perfect target.

“Which girl, James?” Bianca asked.

“Ooh, that gives me an idea.”

James suddenly yanked Murray into the closet and shut the door. moving a chair under the knob.

“HEY!” Murray shouted, pounding on the door.

“Five minutes, boys!” laughed James, as he ushered everyone downstairs.

“Come back! Hello?”

“Forget it, Murr,” said Kevin. “They’re gone. They think this is funny.”

“Well, at least turn the light on!” said Murray.

“Fine.”

Kevin flipped a switch, illuminating the tiny closet. There wasn’t anything in there except a bookshelf lined with cleaning supplies. Still, there were barely two inches between Kevin and Murray.

“This is cozy,” Kevin murmured.

“It really isn’t,” Murray said. “I doubt we even have room to sit down.”

“We can try.”

Kevin put his hands on Murray’s shoulders and lowered the both of them down until they were sitting facing each other, knees pressed against their chests.

“A little tight,” said Kevin. “But I guess we’ll just sit here and wait them out.”

“I guess.”

Kevin gave Murray a gentle look.

“Come on, I’m not horrible, am I, Murr?”

“I guess not,” Murray mumble in response.

“Come on, let me see that smile.”

Murray couldn’t help it. He smiled. After Fred, Kevin was a second-best friend for Murray, despite their differences. But then again, that’s what made Murray and Fred’s friendship work, so why wouldn’t it work a second time?

“If you’ll accept my compliments, Murr,” Kevin began, “You surprised me.”

“How do you mean?”

“When I first met you, I thought you were kind of a loser.”

“Gosh, you flatter me.”

“Let me finish. I thought Fred was crazy for hanging out with you. You’re polar opposites. But you surprised me that day Murray.”

“Which day?”

“You know which day. The day you got the team. If you asking me the day before whether I thought you had a shot in hell, I would’ve said no. But then, you came along, and saved our team. You’ve brought us up these last few seasons. I… saw you differently. You’re cooler than I thought you were. I definitely feel closer to you (no pun intended). I…” he blushed. “I like you, Murray.”

“Oh,” Murray playfully punched Kevin in the shoulder, “I like you, too, you big softie.”

Kevin let out a tiny smiling gasp, and get shifted onto his knees.

Apparently, there was an error in communication here. Because the next thing Murray knew…

…Kevin’s lips were pressed against his.

^1  According to Wikipedia, the earliest recorded instance of Seven Minutes in Heaven was in 1953, in an article from the magazine Jet.