Page 40 of The Mare Rider of Cornwall Cove
“Pfft, you’re too quick to belittle yourself. Your powers are impressive. For a young man who just recently began to open himself to the gifts of your lineage, your abilities are truly admirable. Imagine what you’ll be able to do with some age and more experience!” She gave my leg a pat. “Papa Legba would not have visited you if he was not curious. The Kee seeing eye is a marvelous talent. Hone it and nurture it. You’ll be able to do great things with it.”
“I’m going to try to keep helping the spirits instead of destroying them right off.”
“Good, good. Positive energy sent out into the world always comes back tenfold. Now, you should go to bed.”
A yawn escaped unbidden. We both chuckled. “Yeah, I’m heading to bed. So, uh, that doll in your satchel, that wasn’t Detective Kubo, was it?”
She blinked up at me innocently through her tiny glasses. “Doll, what doll? I’m making kid-sized scarecrows for next Halloween’s craft fair at the senior center.”
Okay, that was how it was going. I’d read enough over the years to know that vodou dolls, contrary to what Hollywood said, were not always fashioned or used with evil intent. Most times the moppets were used for healing, attracting positive energy to a person, or for protection. Sometimes they’re used to aid in communicating with the deceased. Perhaps she had whispered something in Detective Kubo’s ear to help him open up his spiritual side a bit more. She wasn’t talking, so we’d probably never know.
I bent down to kiss her soft cheeks and then hauled my weary ass to bed. Phil was spread out like a starfish, but I managed to wriggle in under one beefy arm after dropping my glasses on the nightstand. I slung a leg over his thigh and slipped my hand up under his tee. Phil sighed in his sleep. He was hot as an oven. I snuggled closer, my eyes growing heavy as my breathing began to match his. With weighty eyelids, I lay there staring at his hair as a flash of memory danced before my sleepy eyes. Phil, me, and a little guy wearing a jersey and a bright grin.
Was that our future I had glimpsed?
As I drifted off, I found that the possibility of Phil and me having that kind of future, one that included a kid, didn’t seem nearly as scary as the twins across the alley. Actually, it seemed pretty okay. For the future. Waaaaaay in the future.
Like at least two years after graduation.
Epilogue
February
I’d never cleaned so much in my entire…well, since last year at this time.
The store and our little apartment above it were spotless. Red lanterns, couplets, and scarlet paper cutouts of horses. It’s believed that cleaning your house sweeps away bad fortune to make way for incoming good luck. Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as Grandpa and I called it, marks the end of winter and the onset of spring. Outside, it looked nothing like spring, but it was the middle of February in Massachusetts. Lingering snow was on the ground, but we knew that the earth was slowly preparing for spring, so we celebrated.
The four of us—Grandpa, Monique, Phil, and me—had taken a train to Boston’s Chinatown last weekend to take part in the massive annual celebration. Phil had never attended andwas blown away by the lion dancers, drums and cymbals, firecrackers, and amazing food booths. We got to enjoy the unleashing of a giant gold dragon that had to be two hundred feet long and required several dozen people to carry and dance beneath it. I’d been to the big celebration several times but never with a boyfriend to share it with. Watching Phil reveling in my heritage made it ten times more meaningful. He was so open to our people, ways, and philosophies that even Grandpa commented on it. I fell in love with him even more deeply on that day, and that was something I wasn’t sure was even possible.
Tonight it was our little celebration at the store. We’d closed early after a very busy day and were enjoying a shared party. While the decorations and food were Chinese, the music was not traditional instruments or even a chorus of “Gong Xi, Gong Xi,” which translates in English to best wishes. Nope, there was none of that bouncing off the walls and freshly dusted books.
We were rocking out to a mishmash of tunes ranging from Three Dog Night to Jethro Tull with some disco tossed in to honor it being Lunar New Year as well as Eloise’s birthday. She would have been in her sixties now if she’d not died. So she got to pick all the music for our little rave.
The partygoers were slim in number but large in shaking their groove things. Reggie was trying to teach Caleb how to waltz in between taking Eloise out for spins around the non-fiction section. Seemed our pleasant milkman had two left feet. Roxie and Tray were outside at the moment, setting off fireworks, while Grandpa and Monique were chatting with Detective Kubo and his girlfriend, Penny, over by the cookbooks.
I was taking a turn dancing with Eloise. Both of us were doing our best to get a line dance going to “Le Freak” by Chic but not having much success. It was hard to line dance with only two people.
“Let me grab Phil and the others upstairs on the fire escape,” I told the silent blonde with the Farrah flip. She gave me a thumbs up and a timid smile. I wiggled my fanny over to the plum sofa under the stairs where Phil was sitting hunched over on himself as if he had a stomachache.
“Hey, handsome,” I said as I flopped down beside him. “Did you eat too many of the spring rolls?”
He lifted sad blue eyes from the cell cradled in his hand. “No, it’s not the food. I loved the fish and the sweet rice balls and the dish of dirty rice Monique brought, even if it did make my eyeballs sweat.”
Yeah, we liked things hot in this house. “Then what’s up?” He’d been in such good spirits of late. School was going well, the Lions had won the state championship, and our relationship was stronger than ever. The owners of Cornwall Cove had not pressed charges. Halleloo, to quote Shangela ofDrag Racefame. There had been many, many bodies found on the grounds. Forensics and special teams from multiple governmental agencies were now trying to identify the jumbled remains. It would take years probably. Detective Kobu had kept us well informed during everything, and we’d formed a sort of friendship. Enough so, that we’d invited him to our little party, and he accepted without hesitation. Maybe he just enjoyed being with other Asian people, or perhaps he was just curious to see what the house of a seer looked like.
I’d thought of venturing out to see what I could do to help, but the site was off-limits to civilians. Someday perhaps I’d return with Phil and walk the grounds, just the two of us, to see if all the unfortunate souls had finally found their peace.
“It’s dumb.”
“Nope, nothing you do is dumb. Tell me.” I nudged his shoulder with mine. With a mighty sigh, he flipped his phoneover on the coffee table that was filled with empty soda cans, paper plates, and a soggy red paper horse.
“My parents…” he began with and I fought the urge to snarl.
“What did they do now?” I asked.
“Nothing, well, I mean…” He huffed out a breath as he stared down at the soggy red horse. Guess that wet nag wasn’t going to bring success, energy, and good fortune to anyone until he dried out a bit. “They had a news conference where they explained how they were opening a camp upstate for kids. And how they wanted it to be a camp with good family values.”
I bit my tongue. Seeing him so upset over the snubs and jabs from his parents always got me mad. I did my best not to rake them over the coals too much, but it was hard. No matter what, they were his parents, and it was obvious he loved them. Pity the heartless couple couldn’t love their son as deeply as he cared for them.
