Halloween

Halloween is the pivotal day on which Ethan Russell remembers letting Katie into the house and Anna Fox first met her. The day connects Ethan’s recollection of Katie’s visit with Anna’s memory of meeting a woman who presented herself as Jane Russell, making the holiday a point where their accounts converge and identity becomes uncertain.

Ethan’s recollection

Asked when the visit happened, Ethan first says he does not remember, then corrects himself: it was Halloween. He places the meeting during the day and says he let Katie in. He recalls that she told him she was “clean,” though he understood that she had not stopped using drugs. The exchange makes Halloween a specific point in Ethan’s account of Katie’s return and their contact.

Anna’s encounter that afternoon

Anna says she met Katie that afternoon. According to Ethan, Katie later went to her hotel to retrieve a photo album containing old pictures, including baby pictures. On her way back to the house, she saw Anna. Anna remembers Katie embracing her and introducing herself as Ethan’s mother—as Jane Russell. Ethan nods when Anna recounts the introduction, linking his own memory of the visit to Anna’s account of the encounter.

Place in the story

Halloween’s importance lies in the way the day gathers separate meetings into one sequence: Ethan lets Katie in, Anna meets her, and Katie’s trip for the album brings her back into Anna’s path. The daylight timing and the album’s baby pictures give the visit concrete circumstances, while the false introduction creates the central discrepancy between Katie’s identity and the name Anna hears. In retrospect, the date is not merely a marker for their first meetings; it anchors the mistaken recognition that shapes Anna’s understanding of the Russell family.