Page 47 of Justice & Liberty

Gabby stared at me for a moment, as though trying to see something deeper, maybe some philosophical bent to the endeavor, then shrugged. “Okay. As long as I don’t have to go to church for it, I’m good.”

Ryan scoffed, turning to the enormous box the chicken coop parts were in and starting to open it. “Wish I didn’t have to go to church. Reverend Tim is fine and all, but it’s so boring.”

Reverend Tim, then. Not Father Tim. Good thing I hadn’t called him that.

Also, clearly Ryan also didn’t give much of a damn about witches or Wicca or whatever.

I elbowed Gabby in the ribs as we watched Ryan start pulling parts out. “If your mother wouldn’t disown me, I’d introduce you to Reverend Tim. It’s hard for me to judge, but I’m pretty sure he’s cute.”

Ryan turned the best “bitch please” face on me that I’d ever seen. “Reverend Tim is a fucking snack. I’d say too bad he’s straight, but he’s also way too old for me.”

“Is he?” Gabby purred. “Maybe I’ll have to convert.”

“Absolutely not. I’m going to try to get your mother’s flan recipe, and there’s no way she’ll give it to me if I’m introducing you to hot Protestants.” I stepped forward, holding out my hands and starting to take things as Ryan pulled them out of the box. They all had little stickers with part letters on them, so we arranged them on the garage floor in order, and then got started.

Putting the thing together wasn’t all that hard.

No, correction:with Ryan’s help, it wasn’t all that hard. He’d clearly been raised to know what he was doing with tools, and he’d brought a cordless electric drill that made short work of almost everything, Gabby and I mostly handing him parts and holding things in place for him.

“I thought that was going to be a much bigger disaster than it was,” Gabby said, almost pouted, as Ryan finished the last few touches. “I didn’t realize you’d brought in a ringer.”

Ryan smiled over at her, pulling up his shirt to wipe his sweaty face.

“Holy hottie, Batman,” came the all too familiar voice from the open door between the garage and the house.

I turned to frown at Dez. “Strangers in the house, Dez. You really think it’s a good idea to show yourself to everyone?”

He was still staring at Ryan’s bare chest, which...I mean, guy, and teenage guy at that, and I supposed since he’d been dating Miss Joyce in the nineties, bi or pan teenage guy. “Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry at all.

Ryan slowly dropped his shirt back into place, at first returning the favor and checking Dez out. Then he paused and looked closer. “Are you...is he see-through?”

I sighed and buried my face in my hands.

“Oh yeah,” Dez agreed. “I’m a ghost. Sort of. Maybe? We’re not sure? But Hunt says I really am dead, so there’s that. Car accident in January ninety-four.”

“Ninety...” Ryan trailed off, leaning forward, staring at Dez. “Holy shit, you’re Desmond Reilly. Your picture is still up in the big case in the high school. Baseball hero, blah blah blah.”

“Seriously?” Dez seemed dubious. “It’s been like, over thirty years.”

“You’re underestimating how much everyone who came after you sucked.”

Dez considered for a moment, then nodded. “Fair enough. I mean, the last time we’d won anything before my years was back in the seventies, so why not?”

I’d been about to agree that none of the boys had been any good at any sports during my stint at the local high school when a hand gripping my shoulder, hard, pulled my attention off the conversation at hand.

Shit, I’d forgotten Gabby.

I turned to see her staring at Dez, mouth open and eyeswide. She didn’t look terrified or angry, though. She looked fascinated. Excited even.

Suddenly, she started shaking my shoulder and turned to me. “Proof of the existence of the soul, Jaycie.Souls are real!” She was almost vibrating as she turned to me, and literally pushed up onto her toes once, like an excited kid. “And you weren’t screwing around. You’re actually a witch.”

Like that was an afterthought.

“I am. I hadn’t intended to use Dez as a show-and-tell because he’s a person, but, um, yeah. I’m a witch, here’s Dez. We actually had a debate last night about what he is. You know, whether he’s actually a human soul.”

And suddenly, we were revisiting that conversation. Ryan and Gabby agreed that clearly, Dez was a human soul, because what else would he be? Well, that was Ryan’s argument. Gabby’s was a little more involved, what with the years of training in debates on that very subject.

We only stopped long enough to order the pizza I had promised, and go out into the side yard to stake down the chicken coop, setting Laverne and Shirley inside, so they would know it was theirs now.

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