Page 13 of Collin: Episodes 10-12
The Samhain ceremony was beautiful and moving, as it always had been for the ten years Dr. Ryker had been leading it. Right before it started, three women, a young man, and an older man arrived. Collin recognized three of them as people who had come for previous years, but the other two were new. Names were exchanged quietly, and then everyone filtered out into the backyard. One of the women moved to help Dr. Ryker, and with a few words of explanation for those who were new, Dr. Ryker started the ceremony by invoking the four directions and raising the Circle. The older man settled in and started drumming.
As always, Collin felt a tingle and a sense of awe as his mother spoke. When she was like this, he couldn’t see the woman who sometimes struggled and who could be abrasive in public. It was always like stepping into a mythical world where the shadows were alive and one could speak across the veil and be heard. The fire in the center was lit as well as the various candles. They stood in a circle, looking into the flames, and when the time came, Collin found it easy to close his eyes and invoke the image of his father. All year long, the man seemed far away and gone, but each year here, standing around the fire pit feeling the drumming running through him, his father felt near, almost close enough to touch.
I met someone, two someones, Dad.
It was as close as he was going to come to introducing Mr. Reevesworth and Mr. Moreau to his father. They didn’t have a grave to visit. There had never been a body to retrieve. This was what they had, once a year, when the veil grew thin.
He closed his eyes and let the drum and the fire take him into the darkness and said everything that needed to be said.
And if it was his imagination that a soft tenor voice drifted back to him saying I’m glad, it didn’t matter, because for one evening a year, his mother opened the doorway and gave her children back their father.
Collin wiped tears away discreetly and gave himself a moment to say the names of his other departed loved ones: Grandpa, a friend from high school, and a teacher from middle school. And then, in time, the drumming ran out, the fire burned down, and his mother was speaking the words to open the Circle, letting back in normal time and normal laws.
Collin and Mr. Reevesworth slept on one of the pull-out beds on the plane. It was surprising to see, but by the time they made it on the plane at two a.m., Collin was happy just to lie down behind the privacy curtain and rest against his master.
At the airport, Mr. Reevesworth introduced Collin to the wonders of traveling privately, namely a shower and a changing room in the airport itself, not far from the terminal. They cleaned up together and waited for their security personnel to take turns freshening up themselves. It was only a few minutes. The two men who had traveled with them would trade out with two others and take time off once they made it into the city.
Mr. Reevesworth checked his watch. “I’d rather keep you with me, Collin. Do you feel up to coming into the office? I’ll have breakfast delivered.”
Collin smothered a yawn. Five hours was not enough sleep, but it was still more than his body was accustomed to getting, and he would not be falling back to sleep now that he had showered, dressed, and seen the sun.
“I’m good, sir.”
“Let’s do your eye drops now. It’s almost time, and doing it in the car will be hard.”
“What about your hand, sir?”
“You can check it in the car. Everything is in my briefcase.”
The office was quiet. Collin patted his own face and shook himself as they walked past the empty desks of the outer office into the inner office. The silence of an office building on a weekend was eerie. Mr. Reevesworth set his briefcase on his desk and opened it. Their bags had been sent back to The Residency, so Collin only had his own personal carry-on item, a computer bag with a long strap.
“You can sit in on the call if you like, Collin.”
“If it’s all right, sir, I’d like to check on Ash.”
Mr. Reevesworth nodded. “There’s a third breakfast for him. Feel free to eat with him if you like.”
There was no answer at Ash’s door. Collin tried the handle and found it locked. He was about to give up when shuffling sounds came from the other side. Someone tripped, hit something, cursed, and then opened the door. Ash stood there, the room dark behind him except for a few glowing screens, holding his head in one hand and the door in the other.
“Offerings?” Collin held the take-out bag up in front of him. “There’s hot chocolate.”
Ash blinked at him stupidly. “What day is it?”
“Saturday.”
“Then how are you here?”
“We flew back early.”
“Fuck, you scared me.” Ash pressed a hand against his head and leaned over, dragging in air. “I thought I’d slept through a whole day. I’ve never done that. Came close but never actually did it.”
“No, no, we just came back early. And I brought breakfast. Are you okay? Sounds like you fell. Why’d you even answer the door?”
“’Cause it was you.”
“How’d you know?”
Ash gave him a look that clearly implied Collin was stupid. “It was your knock, dude. No one else knocks like you. You know, like how you know people based on the way they walk.” Ash flipped on some low lights.
