Episode 2 #5
Ash wandered over and looked past Ellisandre’s arm. He pointed to a silver torc with flat chunky links and a rune cut into the link that would hang between the wearer’s collarbones at the center of their neck. “What’s that?”
“That’s a Norse rune. Daeg. It means day or dawn. Mythologically, it’s associated with the god Baldr.” Ellisandre picked up the piece. It matched the cuffs. And their mood.
Where are you, Sevastyan?
Ash watched as Ellisandre fastened the necklace around their neck. It was technically a necklace but it had the weight and almost the shape of a torc. Ellisandre checked themselves in the mirror and ran their fingers over the rune. It was time for a daybreak, for clarity. For balance.
They lowered their hand.
Ash was staring at them. Something in his eyes said he’d seen more than he understood, and he knew it. “Why do you have that one?”
“I bought it from a craftswoman in Minnesota.”
“Yeah, but why that one?”
Ellisandre raised a warning eyebrow at the redheaded imp.
Ash scrunched up his face. “Fine. Fine!” He threw up his hands. “Let’s go upstairs. Dana wants to play Mario Kart and Alice doesn’t want to.”
“Big brother duties?” Ellisandre let amusement creep into their tone.
Ash narrowed his eyes. “Hey, I’m being nice. You can’t make fun of me when I’m being nice.”
“Then be honest about liking it.”
Ash’s face wrinkled up in outrage.
Ellisandre swept past him toward the front door. “Coming?”
He dragged himself after them, still sputtering.
Ellisandre
Linda’s living room was full now. Only three months ago it had been a silent oasis of muted colors and perfectly styled furniture in soft white and pastel beige.
Now it was quickly exploding in color and unsorted items, from a child’s coat over the back of the couch to a pile of textbooks on the kitchen table and the boxes of markers on the counter.
Ellisandre let themselves and Ash in with their key.
No one greeted them right away. Alice, her hair just starting to curl over her ears after being chopped off scant months before, was in the kitchen.
It smelled like spaghetti and meatballs.
Dana lay on the floor, dressed in bright green overalls and a pink long-sleeved shirt.
Her hair was in two pigtails secured with bright cloth flowers.
She saw Ellisandre and Ash first. All of her nine-year-old energy returned to her the instant her eyes fastened on Ash and his neon-red hair.
She bounded up and flung her entire body at him. “Mario. Mario. Mario.”
Ash bent his knees, catching her. “What if I don’t want to?”
“You want to, you want to!” She pounded her fists on his chest. Maribel, the German Shepherd, heard the smacks and came racing out of one of the bedrooms. She woofed once.
“You’re making Maribel worried,” Ellisandre said.
Dana stopped smacking Ash and looked over her shoulder. She didn’t seem to realize that Ash was now holding her off the floor. “Sorry, Maribel.”
“What about me?” Ash said.
“You’re lying!” Dana said. “You like Mario.”
“Are you sure?” Ash carried the child toward the living room where the game controllers were laid out and ready for them.
“Yes!”
Ellisandre left them to it and entered the kitchen.
Alice greeted Ellisandre. She had a smear of tomato sauce on one cheek and sprinkles of red across the front of her ragged brown shirt.
There were cheap polyester flannel pants on her legs and floppy socks on her feet.
She was a mess. The most cheerful one Ellisandre had seen in a while.
Bare face, barely dressed, and disheveled, she was beautiful down to the freckles scattered across her nose and under her eyes.
In this moment, she looked like a younger, edgier version of her brother Collin.
“Ellisandre!” She grinned widely. “You’re maybe a little early. I’ve never made meatballs before. But they’re made.”
Ellisandre peered into the various pots on the stove. There were noodles draining through a strainer, meatballs sitting by themselves on a tray, and a cast iron caldron full of herbs with hints of red sauce. “Your spaghetti is green.”
“Yeah!” Alice’s grin moved sideways on her face and she lifted one shoulder. “Ash eats vegetables if they’re in something and don’t taste like vegetables. So does Dana.”
“So the salad is in the spaghetti.”
“Something like that. Don’t tell them.
Ellisandre shook their head. Alice was trying too hard. But it was a beautiful thing to watch. “I’ll set the table.”
Linda appeared ten minutes later, just as Alice was plating the food. She was also dressed down, in khaki slacks and a turtleneck sweater and had her gym bag in her hand.
Ellisandre took it from her. “You look tired.”
Linda smothered a yawn. “Dana had nightmares last night. Alice was up with her Thursday, so I took a turn, since I didn’t work today.”
“The new meds didn’t help?”
Linda shook her head. “We have something else to try tonight. The doctor suggested giving her new experiences. We went to the Shedd Aquarium this morning, but she spent twenty minutes staring at that Japanese spider monster they have in the tank by the show area. Now I’m going to have nightmares.”
Ellisandre offered Linda their arm and Linda leaned into them, stifling yet another yawn.
“What about taking Dana and Alice up to the Estate?” Then you won’t ask why I want to go up there.
“Jun and his friends are up there.”
“There’s enough room. Dana and Alice got along with them at New Years.”
Linda looked toward the living room where Ash was screaming with Dana, both of them running their characters across the screen, creating havoc.
Linda turned to Alice. “How would you like to go up to the Estate, get out of the city for a bit?”
Alice raised an eyebrow. It was a disturbingly good imitation of Ellisandre. “I’m not leaving Dana.”
“Both of you would go. Actually, if you’re both gone for a few days, we could give some of the security team down time and also get a large desk for your room. I don’t think the designers picked a suitable one when they redid it.”
“Honest! My room is perfect.” Alice set the plate she’d been fixing on the table and grabbed the last one. “You don’t need to change anything.”
“You absolutely need more closet space.” Ellisandre spoke for Linda. “If you’re going to be shadowing Linda, you need clothes to dress the part. And if you’re training with me, you need space for your tools. A safe, for one, to keep them away from Dana.”
Alice flushed. “Uh, yeah. Sure. I just . . . it’s just . . . the room’s already a lot, and you just redid them. Collin and I grew up sharing an unfinished attic and it was great. This is like…” She motioned at the luxury condo around them. “I’m still scared I’m going to break something.”
Linda reached out for Alice’s hand. “You could break the entire apartment and I could replace it tomorrow. But we couldn’t replace you and we couldn’t replace Dana.
They’re just things, and things are things that I can replace.
Easily. Time is something I can’t make more of.
So anything I can do to make the time of those around me better, that’s what I want to do.
That first remodel was just an emergency one to get you started.
It wasn’t even a remodel, just some furniture.
Now we have a better idea of what you need. ”
Alice’s flush deepened but she squeezed Linda’s hand back. “Okay. In that case, a bigger desk would really help.”
The three of them finished putting the food on the table, Linda’s gym bag abandoned against the wall. Ellisandre grabbed it and walked into the living room. “All right, you two. Wash your hands. It’s time to eat.”
Dana dropped her controller and ran for the kitchen.
Ash sat up more slowly and rolled his eyes, picking up what Dana had discarded and putting the game away properly.
Ellisandre hid their smile and continued to Linda’s room to put the bag away.
Ash was a good kid, even if he didn’t want anyone to know it.
There was a little of a younger Sevastyan in him. Not a lot. But a bit.
Dana started to crash in the middle of dinner.
Linda took her away to help her get ready for bed.
She came back to say that Dana wanted Ash to read her bed time stories.
Ash shoved the last of his green spaghetti into his mouth and headed off to the bedroom.
Linda activated the camera in Dana’s room with her phone and smiled at the screen. Ellisandre leaned in to see.
Ash had seated himself on the floor with his back against the bed frame and Dana was lying crossways on the bed, her chin on his shoulder, looking at the page he was reading from. He had his fingers moving under the words and she was mouthing along with him as he read.
“He’s really good with her,” Linda said.
“He gets her,” Alice responded. “He knows what it’s like.” She stood up and started clearing dishes away.