Page 43 of The Spirit Key
Now? So much bullshit.
“You should have seen your face. It was priceless.”
Mom snorted. “You know, I would have paid money for a picture of that.”
Ryan took out his phone, and a moment later, hers chimed.
She glanced at it, then up at him. “Oh, that’s awesome.”
“That’ll be five bucks.”
“I hate you so much, I hope you know that.” I grinned. “They’re beautiful. Thank goodness they look like her.”
“No shit.” Ryan reached up and touched his forehead. “I was terrified they’d end up with my receding hairline and fucked-up nose.”
“Hey! That’s your grandpa’s nose. It’s very… uh….” Mom shrugged. “Yeah, it isn’t the cutest one.”
The laughter came easily, for which I was grateful. “Why don’t we have a seat?”
As we moved into the living room, Ryan glanced over his shoulder. “You living here now?”
Before I could answer, Tim piped up. “Yep, and if I have to tie him down to keep him here, that’s what I’m going to do.”
“You kinky bastard.”
My fifty-two-year-old mother, talking about kink. I might have thrown up in my mouth just a little.
“Look how green he’s gotten.” She chuckled. “It’s so easy to work him up.”
“You don’t know the half of it, Andrea.” Tim winked at her, and this timeshelooked a wee bit green.
Tim sat next to me on the couch, with Ryan and Mom taking the chairs flanking it. My palms were sweating as they watched me expectantly.
“Okay, so….” God, this was hard.
“Scotty sees ghosts.”
Apparently it wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought it would be.
“Yeah, what he said.”
I expected laughter or something, but instead they both sat there quietly for a moment.
Ryan’s gaze snapped to Mom. “I told you he talked to himself too much. Didn’t I say it was like he was having conversations with someone? Why the hell do you think I moved out?”
Mom sighed. “I know. I want to say it’s not possible or that you had a lot of imaginary friends, but….” She ran a hand over her hair. “God, logically I want to say this is crap, but it answers so many questions I had when you were growing up.”
That made no sense. The only ghost I ever saw at home was Jeff. “I only saw one ghost when I was at home.”
Mom shrugged. “You used to sit at the dinner table and talk. I always thought it was to yourself, but when I listened, you were answering questions.”
That was freakingmeout. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a ghost in our house other than the one. “Do you remember what I said?”
Mom bit her lip, but then her eyes opened wide. “We were at dinner one night. Ryan had gone over to stay with a friend, and we were having macaroni and cheese with hot dogs in it. I had to keep telling you to eat, and you wouldn’t answer me. Then you started saying something about…. Damn. What was it?”
Really? She could remember we had macaroni and cheese with weenies, but not the conversation? Ugh!
“Oh! You were saying that you understood, and you promised when you were older, you and Tim would help people.”
