Chapter Two–Philadelphia, October 1975

Melvin Porter stood at the sink in the surgical unit scrubbing before surgery, when he was joined by Helen Montrose.

“Good morning, Dr. Porter.”

“Good morning, Nurse Montrose.”  We have an interesting patient today.”

“Indeed.  The team enjoys challenges, though.”

Although most of the surgical nurses did their best to avoid assignment to Dr. Porter’s surgical team, Helen Montrose enjoyed meeting his exacting standards.

“Nurse Montrose, are your daughters looking forward to Halloween?”

Stunned at the personal inquiry, Helen quickly recovered.  “They can’t stop talking about it.  My oldest is going to her first boy-girl party and we argued for days before we agreed that she could wear a cat costume.  I suspect that her catsuit will be tighter than I would like, but you have to let them grow up, right?”

“She is a teenager?”

“Fourteen.  My little one is going to be an angel–she’s so easy.  The middle girl is so indecisive but she seems to have finally settled on being a genie.”

“How are you able to assemble a costume for your middle daughter when the holiday is so close?”

“Thank God for Woolworth’s!”

Melvin nodded.  “How old are your other girls?”

“Six and ten.”

“I hope all three of your daughters have a pleasurable Halloween.”  Melvin had finished scrubbing and exited the room into the operating theater.

As Helen Montrose watched Dr. Porter depart, it dawned on her that that one conversation with Dr. Porter had been longer than all of their previous personal conversations combined.

Several hours later, Melvin Porter stood in the aisle of a local Woolworth’s, sorting through the haphazard piles of costumes that were still available for sale the day before Halloween.  He rejected the Indian maiden costume as disrespectful, and he thought many others were tasteless or even blasphemous.  The genie costume that Nurse Montrose’s daughter was wearing was, in fact, that of a harem girl and he thought it highly inappropriate. 

Melvin narrowed his selection by determining what was still available in Bette’s size and made a quick decision.

That night, Bette returned to her bedroom after rinsing the dishes to find a small box on her bed with the words “Halloween Costume” blazoned on its side.  She was, in rapid succession, surprised, delighted, curious, disappointed, confused, guilty, and fearful as she inspected the package’s contents.  She was placing it on her desk, wondering what she should say to her father, when she heard raised voices downstairs.