Page 5 of Etched in Stone
“Because she didn't want it. It was a pain just to get her to let me put in the grab bars.”
Jesse eyed the bars next to the toilet and the tub. There were definitely the newest fixtures in the place.
“You offered to get the place redone?”
“Yup.”
“You offering now?”
“Yup.”
“What kind of renovation are we talking about?”
“You're the artist. Draw me a picture.” With that, Ray turned and left the bathroom. “Until then you can use my shower. Back door's always unlocked.”
With that, Ray left and closed the door behind him.
“Well.”
2
FR E L INR AY
This was never going to work. Not in a million years. Frelinray swooped out to the garden, took his normal spot, and let his body relax into a stone sleep. He did not slip into a deep sleep. He needed to think.
She was the image of her great aunt. She even shared her name, Jessenia. Every time he saw her, he froze, somehow expecting to flash that same smile, that knowing glance, to reach out with her finger and trace the ridges of his brow to the point on the top of his head. It was the main feature, besides his wings that marked him as an alien to this world. Even now, after eighteen month of seeing Jesse, watching her, caring for her, Ray, as she called him, could not stop that gut reaction.
As a child, she had stroked his wings, and he had found comfort in it. When she did it now, he felt like breaking his sleep and howling out his desire for her.
But this wasn't his Jessenia. This was Jesse. Nonetheless, he'd promised Olivia, just as he'd promised her so many years before. The worlds still echoed in his head.
“She's all that I have left, Ray,” Olivia had said, only days away from her impending death.
“I know. But it has to be her choice.” Her grandmother, Margaret, had fled from his care as fast as she could, got married young, died young. She'd been a blink on the surface of the world. Olivia had weathered the ages.
“She's more like me than Midge. She'll get you.”
“You haven't told her yet?”
“No. I haven't quite found the words for...” Olivia turned away at that moment, lost for the right phrase.
Ray supplied it. “My almost-brother-in-law is a gargoyle space alien and he's going to watch over you when I croak?”
“You see my point?”
“Then put it in a letter,” he suggested.
“She's going to think her dear old Aunt Olivia went bonkers in the end.”
“Her dear old Aunt Olivia has gone bonkers if she thinks me telling her is going to work any better.”
Olivia smiled and nodded, waving him away.
“Fine, fine. I'll write a letter,” she conceded.
Olivia had died in her sleep three days later. She still hadn't written the letter.
There were so many things Ray had not explained to Jesse. Every time he saw her, his mind flashed back to her great aunt, the love of his life, and his words were stolen from him.
