29. Henley #2
“We can make a detour. The chances of anything happening tonight are astronomical.” It couldn’t take that long to buy a few toys.
I was going to explain that but he started to moan and groan again. “I can’t believe you said that. We’re going to end up in some kind of alien invasion. Like that movie. Or the weird one with the plant that says something about some man named Seymour needing to feed him.”
His algorithm was a strange place.
“I’m not watching some weird pornographic movie about a plant with teeth.”
Huh?
“It’s not porn.” Right? “I don’t think it is.”
I’d never actually seen it, though.
Maybe I needed to do a bit of googling on that one.
Blaine sighed and shook his head. “I saw the way that plant was focused on him. It was sexual.”
We didn’t reach a consensus as we reached Bladenboro, but it kept him distracted as I drove up to the old hospital. Thankfully, I’d driven by it before so I hadn’t needed to interrupt our lively conversation with something practical like the GPS.
I was thoroughly prepared to go through another round of alien versus monster and love versus food source—we’d gotten slightly off topic—but he went quiet as soon as I pulled into the parking lot.
“My father was always very…formal…my mother’s death hit him hard.
He was a good parent but he was never the same after she passed. ”
That seemed to have been a generational thing too based on the stories I’d heard. “But you had Ida?”
He nodded, swallowing hard. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have her in my life. I…I feel terrible about this, but her death…it’s…it’s harder than his.”
“Grief is never simple or linear.” I knew that much even if I was just going to wing the rest. “This is how you’re feeling right now. That’s all we have to focus on. We’re going to deal with one emotion at a time.”
Everything that I’d read said that he’d go through cycles as he processed his feelings, so I just did my best to help him where he was at currently. “Right now, you’re getting to say goodbye to someone incredibly important to you and that’s where your emotions are focused.”
Swallowing hard, he nodded slowly. “One thing at a time. I’m glad my father passed completely so he could be with my mother. It’s time for Miss Ida to do the same.”
“She had to make sure you were safe first.” She sounded stubborn based on the few things I’d heard. “You’re going to show her that you’re fine and brag about having a mate and…what else would she want to know?”
He barked out a laugh. “She’s going to do nothing but lecture me about letting myself get hit with that kind of spell to begin with. She told me I should be focused on work and making a home for my mate when I found him and I didn’t listen.”
Blaine hadn’t been looking for trouble. “You just need to make sure she knows this wasn’t your fault. It’s a wrong time, wrong place, wrong nutjob situation.”
That had him chuckling as he shook his head. “Oh, she’s going to blame this on me and I’m never going to hear the end of it.”
When he paused, I knew what he was thinking. “You’re going to make her very happy and then she’ll decide what to do next.”
Crossing over made the most sense but I didn’t know enough about ghosts to be confident about that part.
“One step at a time.” Nodding to himself, he reached for the handle. “Will you come with me? Even if you can’t see her, I still want to…well…introduce you to her.”
“Yes.” Kissing his cheek, I released his hand. “Just don’t let me do something rude inadvertently. I want her to like me.”
Manners had changed a lot since he’d been, well, a physical person and I didn’t want to piss off his second mother.
Blaine gave me a wide smile without understanding the situation. “She’s going to love you.”
Famous last words.
“It’ll be fine.”
Ugh.
Another round of them.
We were doomed.
But not being able to actually see ghosts would work in my favor because I wasn’t going to be able to see the chaos coming.
Most monsters either blended in so well they could pass for human or stood out like sore thumbs.
There was no in between which was how my family stayed so busy.
But ghosts weren’t something I could pick out, so I mostly just stood in the parking lot with Blaine while it looked like he talked to himself.
“Good evening, would you be willing to find Miss Ida and let her know she has a visitor?” He was polite even if he looked nuts, but his smile said he liked what he was hearing. “It’s good to see you. Yes. I was over there last week. It was incredibly busy.”
I couldn’t decide what business they were talking about but as Blaine chatted with the air in front of him, it seemed like whoever was invisible to me was bragging about their granddaughter and her success in something.
There was nothing I could contribute to the conversation for a variety of reasons, so I just tried to keep a pleasant expression on my face and waited patiently.
I felt ridiculous but Blaine was clearly having a good time.
He was animated in a way I hadn’t seen before. Whoever he was talking with didn’t carry the same baggage of hunting him or having helped hurt him to begin with, and he was simply enjoying reminiscing.
It was cute.
But it seemed like his new friend was going to be helpful when Blaine went quiet and turned back to me. “Mr. Artis is going to find her. He says she’s usually playing cards in the old cafeteria in the evenings but he’s going to check.”
That was…weird.
“I’ve heard your people talk about ghosts but I’ve never actually seen one.” Well. “Okay, maybe I’ve seen something that could’ve been a ghost but there’s been nothing concrete I could document.”
And if you couldn’t document it then it didn’t count.
So for my family, they didn’t exist…which really was strange but I wasn’t going to argue with crazy people about invisible people.