Page 60 of Danny Hall Gets a Lawyer
“No, but he might see the flashlight and think he’s in trouble, is all,” Wilder said in the same soothing tones he used when Gracie had skinned her knee or Cash had a nightmare. “If you go inside, he’ll come right back, I bet you anything.”
I held my breath.
Harlan’s gaze flicked over us and lingered on the twins, like he still couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Do you think so?”
I wasn’t sure who he was asking, but Cash gave a firm nod and said, “Squirrels.” Harlan looked at me and I nodded as well.Whatever was going on, humoring him seemed to be working, so I was just gonna go with it.
Harlan exhaled slowly. “I suppose. Goodnight, Joe.” He looked between the twins again and shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and let Wilder lead him across the yard to his front door.
Seeing my oil-and-glitter-covered roommate guiding my elderly neighbor home to wait for a nonexistent dog sure as hell hadn’t been on my bingo card, yet here we were.
So much for my improved mood.
“Who’s Joe?” Chase asked, and Cash shrugged.
“That was my grandpa’s name,” I said. There was a knot in my gut and I didn’t like it.
Wilder dropped Harlan at his door and when he came back, we all went inside. I slumped onto the couch and said, “That was super weird, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Chase said, taking the seat next to me. “Maybe he’s been drinking.”
That had been my first thought as well, but I shook my head. “He wasn’t acting drunk. More like he was confused.”
Cash’s mouth twisted into an unhappy line. He plopped down next to Chase, leaned over, and murmured something in his ear.
Chase’s brow furrowed. “The fuck is old timers?”
Cash rolled his eyes and huffed out a frustrated breath.
It took me a second to figure it out. “Are you talking about Alzheimer’s?”
Cash glared at me before finally speaking. “Yes!”
I didn’t want him to be right. But out of all of us, Cash would know, what with working at Sunny Fields. And Cash didn’t say shit lightly.
I considered Harlan’s sudden crankiness and how he’d cut down the tree with no warning. I thought about how he’d startedcoming to the door to complain and accusing us of playing music when we weren’t home. When you added in his new habit of wandering around at night, his confusion over the dog, and his failure to recognize the twins, it started to make a sick sort of sense. My stomach twisted into knots as I tried to imagine what it must be like living alone and slowly losing your grip on reality. Fucking terrifying, probably.
“That fucking sucks,” Wilder said from where he was perched on the arm of the sagging armchair. “So what do we do?”
I ran a hand over my face. I couldn’t face this tonight. “Harlan’s home safe for now, so we’ll worry about it tomorrow. I’m going to bed.”
But sleep didn’t come, and I spent a long time staring at my ceiling, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now and wishing I could call Miller and ask his opinion.
“He has two daughters,”Grandma said the next day when I’d finished filling her in on what had happened with Harlan. She was wearing the same expression she’d had when I’d explained to her about Chase and Cash being homeless—somewhere between heartbroken and determined—and I knew she’d do everything in her power to make this right. “One of the girls lives overseas, but I’ve got her sister’s number in case of emergencies.”
“I think this probably qualifies,” I said.
“Have you spoken to Harlan since?” Grandma asked.
“Nope. I saw him out front watering this morning, but I wasn’t in the mood to approach him, you know? And what was I gonna say? Hey Harlan, you know your dog is dead and you weresearching for a ghost last night, right? And also, Joe’s been dead for longer than I’ve been alive.”
Grandma snorted. “Fair point.” Her gaze tracked to the framed photograph of my grandfather she kept by the TV. He was kinda scruffy and had a bushy mustache, and he was dressed in some terrible 1970s fashion, but he had a crooked grin and a sparkle in his eye that made up for it.
“But yeah, I sort of waved to him and waited to see if he’d say anything about last night, but he didn’t notice, just kept staring into the distance and muttering under his breath. He didn’t even react when the plumber turned up.”
Because yes, we finally had hot water. The plumbers had been here first thing, and it hadn’t taken long to install the new system. As soon as they were gone, Cash had dived into the bathroom, clutching his towel to his chest and grinning like a little kid, and he’d been in there a good long time.
When he was done, I’d had my own shower, then headed over to Brodnax to see Grandma and fill her in on last night’s shitshow.
