Page 81 of Forget Me Not

“But you can’t. That’s what Cal says. Constant streams of information flying at you at all times because you live in a city. And more than that—youhaveto pay attention. Whatever the reason. To fit in or to make sure you aren’t missing something or to protect people like him. You pay attention as a wolf, sure, but also as a person interested in other people, even when you don’t want to. Useful, if solving things is your job. Less useful if there are things your bosses and coworkers don’t want you to solve, or see, or hear.”

Ray worked his jaw.

“They forgot and then they noticed again. Too late, I suspect.” Calvin lowered his voice but Ray doubted it mattered to their audience. “You had already seen or heard too much. You’ve learned to hide it better since I first met you, but you must have done something to make them worry. Although honestly that could be as simple as going home to Cal. When you were newer, taking exams left and right, trailing after Penelope, I decided to help you both. But it was after you made detective that I focused mostly on you.” Calvin sighed. “I’m not getting her the pastilles because any contact with her, even something like that, makes it harder to stay away, and that’s not fair to her. It’s all or nothing with someone as strong as Lis.”

“And Cal is Lis’s son.” Ray still didn’t know Calvin’s point.

“He very much is.” Calvin smiled for the smallest moment. “Some time after you made detective, you somehow, in a way I have never been clear on, caught my son’s attention, and he began to pester me. He was still barely speaking to me then, but he made the effort to see me in order to poke and prod me for information. About you.” Calvin’s cheeks grew a little darker, the air around him smelled like all the candy as well as tinglingdiscomfort, but he pressed on, embarrassed or not. “I decided I ought to know you better, perhaps prepare you, or warn you, because I forgot too. How sensitive you are. How smart. Do you remember any of that?” he paused for a moment of curiosity, but continued when Ray shook his head. “He kept at it, as he does, so I saidfine, and I thought… Well, I told you the imbecilic things I thought. But I gave him a reason to go see you himself and… I wonder now if I shouldn’t have done it.”

Ray flinched. “I didn’t do a good job with him. I know that. I didn’t take care of him the way I should have.”

“Ray,“ Calvin said sharply. “You barely know him now yet you’ve managed to pick out a candy he’ll enjoy.Breathe.”

Ray pulled in a breath. It smelled like popcorn. “I will protect him. Against anything, anyone.”

Calvin stared at him, eyes bright. “What I meant is that maybe I should have waited instead of hurrying along your introduction. I wonder if I should have left it to Cal’s fairy luck, and had you meet when you were supposed to.” He made a dismissive gesture, probably because Ray didn’t know what to say. “I’m not a seer and I’m not asking one. I’m just saying that maybe there was a reason it took you two years to admit what was obvious to most of the rest of us. Maybe he would have found you when you were ready. Or you would have found him. You always find him.”

“Always and ever,” Ray echoed Penn.

“Exactly,” Calvin said, as if that wasn’t a joke. “Maybe he would have had to wait longer, two years, five years, but he’s half-fairy; he would’ve been fine. But then again, maybe meeting him then spurred this along. Maybe you were the one who couldn’t wait. Our coffee order should be done soon.”

Cal didn’t get everything from his fairy half apparently. Abrupt subject changes were something Ray must have learned to deal with.

“How much energy do you put into trying not to pay attention to the world?” Calvin switched to their earlier conversation as he half-turned away.

Ray blinked, then glanced again to the watching girl at the counter.

“There are five people in this room, not including us and the employees. One of them is texting and playing Classical music with a single earbud in. At least one of them is listening to our conversation. So is the girl at the counter and possibly the boy at the door to the comics room. Someone tore open a package of candies here and tried them; the whole corner of the display smells like sticky fake cherry. You smelllight, like someone who eats a vegetarian or mostly vegetarian diet, and not like scotch, and barely like coffee. Not much salt, either. The person looking at the graphic novel with the werewolf in army gear on the front of it needs to check their blood sugar levels.“ Ray raised his voice for that and that person yelped. “At least two of the people in here own dogs. Someone outside is yelling at their boyfriend. The girl at the register has had at least three energy drinks today but her heart is steady. The air conditioning is off but the fans are circulating air, and a power strip somewhere nearby is humming. It’s annoying.”

Calvin turned back toward him. “That’s you tuning thingsout?”

“There’s more,” Ray said. “But I’m not thinking about it.”

Someone not far away laughed a tinkling laugh. It died when Ray added, “Grief has its own scent. So does anxiety.”

“So,” Calvin went on, slightly faint, “normally, any spare energy you have goes to that, keeping all that at bay, or processing it or whatever you do. But right now, your spare energy is going toward whatever it is that was done to you. It’s no wonder you’re tired. It’s no wonder you have a headache. We should up your caloric uptake beyond the usual werewolf levels. You’re not hungry, I know. Eat anyway. We’ll stop at a market and get you meat or something.”

Ray really didn’t want to eat.

Calvin observed him for another moment, then twisted to consider the girl blatantly watching them. “Anything else you want to look at before we head back?”

“Do you work with them at Rainbow Wings often?” The goblin at the reception desk had certainly seemed to know Calvin.

Calvin harrumphed a little. “It’s good work. And I have more free time than Cal thinks I do.” He turned his head toward a display on the end of one aisle and blew out a breath. He walked toward another row of books without looking back.

Ray turned to consider the display but didn’t see anything noteworthy about it, except that it possibly had books for or about being children on it. Children’s books, the kind that were a mix of words and drawings, for grade school readers. He saw a tiny elf or fairy, a much larger knight in armor, and a sparkling wizard, each on their own cover. They seemed fine, although Ray had no eye for art.

A slow-moving, small, slender, fragile human came around one of the bookshelves. Not a customer like Ray had guessed, but much too ancient to be a regular employee despite the feather duster in one delicate hand. Ray moved back, although he was nowhere near the elderly human, and in truth, the elderly human barely glanced at him except to look up at the size of him.

Ray kept his distance all the same, watching the figure in the long skirt and layers of shawls move gracefully around displays while he waited for Calvin to return.

Two customers entered the store, walking together. Ray considered the candy in his hand, if he ought to put it back. If this was meant to be, it wouldn’t matter, but Ray didn’t understand magic, much less seers and what they saw.

He put his free hand to his forehead but lowered it at the approach of a person, one of the two who had just entered. The other was staring at the candy rack. Humans, at first glance, and male, at least also at first glance, white and only in their twenties or thirties. They were in suits, nice ones, although not bespoke. But comics drew all types.

Ray was about to look away again when he caught the eye of the one nearest to him. They were both still some distance away, which seemed strange for people intent on eye contact and conversation.

“Detective Branigan?” the human asked. Ray must know him, or had known him, and the magic had made him forget, which meant the man must know Cal too.

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