Page 10 of Against the Odds
I looked at the three wrapped cookies on the saucer, put one in front of Grandpa, set one aside for Koda, and picked up the last for myself. Despite not being done with my dinner, I opened the wrapper and snapped mine in half so I could get the slip of paper out. My fortune read,“Your life is about to change. Be prepared.”
Grandpa gestured at me. “Huh,” he said when I obediently read it out loud. “Maybe that means you’re about to be called up to the Dragons.”
“I wish. Or maybe it means Sully is moving out and I’m about to invite a drunken trombone player to room with me, murder him in a fit of homicidal rage, and end up incarcerated for life.”
Grandpa’s eyebrows rose. “Should I be impressed or worried that’s where your mind goes?”
I laughed despite an odd chill that ran down my spine, crumpled the paper into my pocket, and ate the cookie in two bites. “I’ll cross my fingers for your version.”
CHAPTER 4
ZEKE
I heard raised voices upstairs and was deeply tempted to pretend I didn’t. Josiah had gone from shell-shocked silence to arguing with all of the Thompsons at the drop of a hat. With me too, truthfully, but I didn’t fight back. His grandmother had told me, before hustling out to catch her cab to the airport, that I should let Heidi take Josiah. She would “teach that child how to behave.”Over my dead body.
Heidi was the last Thompson still around, and she’d come over to pick through Krystal’s room for family mementos. I’d told her she had to clear anything she took with Josiah first, but personally I didn’t care if she walked off with Krystal’s earrings or a picture off the wall. Josiah had originally said he didn’t care either, but the yelling suggested otherwise.
Setting aside the file of bills I was looking over, I left Dad’s study and took the stairs two at a time.
Josiah stood in front of Krystal and Dad’s bedroom, arms spread to block the doorway. “I changed my mind!” he shouted. “I don’t want you going in there.” I peered at him, seeing damp eyes and reddened cheeks.
“Now listen to me, young man,” Heidi began, at equal volume.
“Enough.” I strode down the hall toward them. “What’s the problem?”
Josiah turned his strained gaze to me. “I don’t want her to go in there. She said Mom was too soft on me and stuff. I don’t want her in Mom’s room.”
“Okay.”Grieving twelve-year-old wins this one.I turned to Heidi. “Sorry, I guess you won’t get to do this today.”
“What? But my plane leaves tomorrow. You can’t keep me away from my sister’s things.”
I pinched my nose and reminded myself she was grieving too. “Technically, Josiah inherited all of it. If he’s not ready to share, he doesn’t have to.”
“You’re worse than Krystal.” Heidi glared at me, then gestured to Josiah. “Look at him! Look at those dirty, ragged sweats he’s wearing. Even Krystal would never have let him walk around like that.”
“I like these, and I’ll wash them later,” Josiah snapped.
Heidi flicked him a frown, then turned back to me. “Krystal’s only been gone a week, and the child is falling apart. He needs his whole family around him, and some steady, consistent discipline. He doesn’t get to stand there and tell adults what to do.”
“In this case, he does.” I sighed. “Look, if there is some particular item you think would be a comfort to your family, let me know what it is. Perhaps Josiah will let me go in and get it for you.”
“Well, how would I know if I don’t look?”
“If it’s a family memento…?” I let my voice trail off.
“I don’t expect you to understand,” Heidi huffed. “Krystal was my mother’s last child, my younger sister. We should never have had to bury her, not like this, so soon. We’re all grieving.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I recited mechanically, then tried to infuse more warmth into my words. I’d faked affection, whileundercover, for human traffickers who locked people in trucks and shipping containers. I could fake it for my annoying aunt-in-law. “I imagine it was a shock, a blow, to hear that she had passed. And so suddenly.” Krystal had always seemed healthy as a horse, but getting T-boned while making an illegal driving move could kill anyone. “I know mementos can be a comfort in difficult times. But you have to understand that Josiah’s not ready to have people in his parents’ private room.”
“I’m Krystal’s sister. I’m notpeople.”
Josiah stirred as if to speak and I held up my hand, hoping to prevent more sparks. “Anyone, even family. I haven’t even been in there yet.” Josiah had asked to choose his mother’s clothes for the funeral, and I’d been happy to let him.
“Well, you can’t coddle him forever.”
“Ten days are not forever. You’re still grieving Krystal too.”
“I—” She frowned. “Krystal had a pendant, a cameo, that was our grandmother’s. And a gold locket with photos in it, and a bracelet that our grandfather gave Grandmother that had a gem for each of their children. Six of them. Those mean more to me and my family than to a child who never met either of my grandparents.”
