Chapter 31 #2
“You gave the devil Ryan’s face.”
“I did.”
I expect more questions then, the ones she must be asking herself—about when we started our relationship and how and why and what reason I had to make her brother-in-law into a fallen angel for the world to see—and I know the answers we’re going to give everyone.
That we kissed at Evelyn the week of his graduation and were caught by administration, that we lost touch after.
That he found me after the statue appeared and confessed that he still thought of me and then we agreed to try a relationship.
I’m ready to tell her our half-truths and have it over with.
But she doesn’t ask the questions. Instead, she laughs as she starts stretching her other shoulder. “Good for you.”
Aiden appears on the patio to bring the good news of Popsicles to the kids, and Zenny stalls the stampede long enough to make everyone empty their squirt guns and drop them in a bin of outdoor toys.
She goes upstairs to change, and once I’m alone, anxiety chews through my thoughts about what to do, where to go.
I feel shy about going into the house and being perceived, but I’m also aware that it’s silly to be hiding here on the patio.
I’m extraneous to this family, an unnecessary presence, but I’m welcome here too, and I wish Bell would come out and steer me somewhere, herd me like a bossy collie to wherever I should be.
I close my eyes, sending up a wordless prayer, and then open them.
Caro’s iPad. That’s something I can do that won’t be obtrusive or worthy of notice. I’ll take the iPad in and then find Lilith and start gathering up the cat things. Useful and still out of the way.
I grab the tablet and then slip inside, deciding I’ll try the living room for Caro first. But then I hear voices in the kitchen. And…my name.
I go still, barely breathing, trying to listen from across the hallway while not being seen.
“Of course you can take Birdie as your plus-one,” Sean is saying. “Zenny will be with me, and obviously Elijah will be there wearing those shoes I hate—”
“Thanks, Sean,” Elijah remarks dryly.
“—but I think the gala is our best chance before the vote. We make our final moves there.”
“The city manager is not going to be happy.” Bell sounds amused. A little sly.
Sean makes a noise—a derisive sort of exhale. “He should have thought of that before he got in our way.”
“Jordan Brady will be there. He’ll help too if we ask him,” offers Aiden.
Jordan Brady. I know him. He bought a carved crucifix from me once, a smaller copy of the one at Mount Sergius monastery.
“I say this as his loyal parishioner,” replies Sean, “but Father Brady isn’t built for this. He’s too good of a person.”
“I’m a good person!” Elijah and Aiden say in indignant stereo.
Bell, however, doesn’t bother protesting.
“Sure, sure,” Sean allows. “What matters is that you are using your powers for good on the night of the gala. Whatever those powers may be. Wearing attractive footwear, in my case.”
I hear Elijah heave a put-upon sigh.
“I hope you’re ready for the blowback, Ryan,” Aiden says after a minute. “This might make you mayor one day, but it might also make you jobless now. You know how your bosses are eternally fellating the city manager to keep him on the right side of their project approvals. If we piss the CM off…”
I decide it’s time to creep away before I’m caught eavesdropping. I go into the living room and try to offload this iPad.
The living room is empty, but I follow the giggles and shouts downstairs to a finished basement that’s a lived-in nest of toys and old furniture that’s been demoted from upstairs. The kids are eating Popsicles while Lilith tries to exenterate a Barbie with her back claws.
I must have left the kitchen just in time, because Aiden appears with a plastic plate and a matching plastic fork. “Waffle up!” he booms like a short order cook, and Josie scampers over to claim what’s apparently meant to be the chaser for his Popsicle.
The waffle is made with peanut butter and honey and cut into wedges.
I smile at Aiden as he comes back to the foot of the stairs, daring myself to speak.
Of everyone, Aiden is the kindest and easiest to talk to, so this shouldn’t be so hard.
But my voice is still painfully quiet when I say, “Ry makes waffles exactly like that.”
Creases emerge around Aiden’s eyes as he smiles back at me. “Magic waffles.”
“Magic waffles?”
“Lizzy used to make them that way for us, especially Ryan. Whenever he was having trouble falling asleep, which was basically always because he was afraid of the dark, he’d sneak into her room.
Lizzy would take him downstairs and feed him waffles, and she told him that the waffles were magic and would make him brave enough to face the dark.
I mean, the real magic was loading the kid up with peanut butter and ‘forgetting’ to turn off his lamp when you tucked him in.
But the name stuck anyway. Magic waffles. ”
I think of Bell making waffles for me, of his midnight snacks, the way he always cut them into wedges like they weren’t done until they were quartered and quartered again. Like that’s the way someone who loved him used to do it for him.
“Sounds like magic to me,” I murmur.
“See? You get it.”
Caro runs over, now finished with her Popsicle, and reclaims her iPad. “Can we make a movie of Lilith before you go?”
Amani is right behind her. “It’s going to be a scary movie and she’s the monster.”
“A fun monster!” Josie interjects around a mouthful of magic waffle.
“But you have to help,” Amani says, not giving me a chance to say no before she takes me by the hand and pulls me over to the kitten.
Aiden just shrugs in an uncle sort of way, a best of luck kind of shrug.
But after I’m sat down and directed to entice the monster with new toys, and then Lali comes to tuck himself into my lap, nestling his head under my chin, a child who’s only known love and comfort from everyone he’s ever met, I feel something much sweeter than luck.
Coziness and safety and warmth. Like I’ve just eaten a plate full of magic waffles.