I think I am finally getting used to the skunk. He still makes me jump when he's shows up out of nowhere, but I've gotten used to him coming in to sleep with me on occasion. And I don't mind that so much because every time he does, I dream of Jude which just solidifies my theory of him being Gram's familiar. Every dream of him takes place in the hospital room like the first time. Each time he tells me more of what was going on at home with his dad. The more I learn, the madder I get but the easier it is for me to forgive him for what he did to me. Not that I want to be with him, I don't, but I don't hate him and I'm no longer angry. Pregnancy hormones probably have more to do with my change of heart, than the skunk or the dreams, but those make a better story.
Gram was gone all day yesterday for some reason. She's been a bit off since the kitchen incident last week and Mom's visit didn't seem to help the situation. I've been staying at May's until Gram gets back so I've gotten to get to know her kids better. Her son, Backus does most of the cooking because he wants to. He said he was going to be a chef one day. I still can't make toast. Their dog Bruno and I finally came to a truce. He doesn't come near me and I don't freak out. He's called an English Mastiff which basically means 'a horse that barks.' He 's crazy huge and they let him in the house. And on the couch. He has his own bed even that I'm pretty sure it's bigger than mine.
But then, everything in their house is huge. They are all really, really tall people, so the house was built to accommodate them. Have I mentioned how small I feel here? Even Alexa, their fourteen-year-old daughter is almost six foot already. Backus is as tall as his dad who isn't much shorter than May. I'm 5'8" but next to them I'm a five-foot-midget. It's no wonder they have a moose for a dog. And a large dog for a cat. Well, two cats. I didn't know they had cats until one of them jumped in my lap. Sitting on my legs, that cat's face was level with mine. I was on the verge of freaking out when May took the cat from my lap and snuggled it. "This is my little Beanie Baby." She cooed. It purred.
"Little? That's your definition of little?"
"He's a Maine Coon. Just a big sack-a-taters. Milly over there is his littermate. She's a bit shy." I looked at the cat across the room. It seemed disinterested but it looked like it could kill a person without even trying. "Oh, speaking of littermates, I owe you the twin tale, don't I?"
"Oh, yes. I've been wanting to hear that one. Especially since it seemed to annoy Mom so much."
"Oh?"
"Don't worry. She told Gram that I could hear it."
"Well, I was hoping to have Gram's help because there's parts of it I don't know, but I'll tell you what I do know and let Gram fill in the rest another time."
"Okay."
"You already know that your mother spent a year here when she wasn't much older than you are now. What you don't know is why." She grabbed a photo album from the shelf and sat by me on the couch. She flipped to a picture of two girls standing side by side, all smiles. "Her mom, Stormie and my mom, Windy; not Wendy, Windy and yes, there is clearly a story there, but I don't know it. Anyway Stormie and Windy were identical twins and were very close. While Windy married my dad, Stormie remained unattached and lived with my parents until your mom was born. Now my dad was your mom's favorite uncle and it seemed that she was his favorite niece. Now, he died of cancer when I was twenty-two; she was sixteen."
She flipped through the pages showing me my mother's childhood along with her own. They all looked so happy I couldn't understand why Mom never talked about them. "Just before he died, when he knew he didn't have much time left, he called all of us kids into his room. Me and my five siblings along with your mom which we found odd because, as you can see in this picture, we had a lot of cousins, not just Sarah. Dad was one of seven and Mom was one of four and they all had kids. There was over forty of us by the time he passed. He told the seven of us that day that he was your mom's father."
"What? No way."
"I know, right? Well, according to him, his wife, his sister-in-law, and him had drank a little too much one New Year's Eve and the girls thought it's be funny to play a prank on him to see if he could still tell them apart. He woke up with the wrong twin and no clear memory of what happened." She turned the page to a picture of Gramma with my mom as a baby. "Of course, when your Gramma Stormie turned up pregnant some months later, she lied about who the father was and never told your mom or her sister the truth and she made my dad promise never to tell. He agreed at the time because he didn't want to hurt my mom or lose his kids in a divorce. His death bed confession drove such a wedge between the sisters that they both died without reconciling. Your mom took the news so badly that she rebelled hard against her mom and ended up here with Gram just so she could finish school on time."
"Wow. Mom never said anything. But then she's never even said anything about dad either. You know, there are no pictures of him at home. She's not once mentioned him, his family or her family. Hell, I didn't even know Gramma Stormie was dead until I asked to go there instead of here."
"That's unfortunate. It was actually right here, at this very farm, that she met your dad. They only knew each a few months before they decided to marry. Gram wasn't okay with it at first but she came around when she saw how happy they were together with you."
"Gram didn't like my mom?"
"Oh, it wasn't that. She loves your mom. She didn't think Jeremy was ready. He had just come home to recover from an addiction to prescription pain killers. She thought he needed more time to heal from the cause of the addiction before having a family."
"So, my dad was an addict?"
"Unfortunately, yes, he was. It's ultimately what took him out. We all thought he was clean. He did a good job keeping it hidden."
"He died of an overdose?"
"No, no. Sarah found out and told him she'd leave him if he didn't get some help and so he did. Oddly enough, he was killed by a drunk driver on his way home from an N.A. meeting. I think she still blames herself for that."
Well, this explains a lot. I studied the pictures of my parents in May's album closely. Both blonde. Both tall. Both have blue eyes. Something just doesn't add up. I know May probably wouldn't tell me anything even if she knew but I had to ask. "Why don't I look like my parents? Am I adopted or something?"
"Now, that is something you'll need to ask your mother. We don't tell..."
"...each other's story. Yeah, I know." Mom and I definitely have some things to chat about when next we meet.
**
May took me back to Gram's house just after dinner. I walked into the house in my usual manner, head down, watching my feet, not the path. Naturally, I bump into Jimmy as I cross the threshold and naturally growls something like "Geez! Watch it!" as he puts his hands on my shoulder and moves me out of his way. I apologize, he huffs and walks out. Maybe I'd pay better attention if he wasn't such a pain. I sure hope he gets that cocklebur out of his butt soon because I don't know how long I can hold my tongue. I saw Gram sitting on the couch looking out the window rather solemnly. "You okay?" I ask timidly.
She turns her misty blue eyes in my direction and pats the space next to her. "Come. I owe you a bit of an apology." She says with a rough voice. "I know I've been out of sorts and that you may be concerned as to why." I was, but I wasn't going to admit it just yet. "It's okay. Truth is, a not so unexpected death has occurred in the family and I haven't been handling the vultures well."
I quirked an eyebrow. "Vultures?"
"Figure of speech. You know how vultures will circle a body until they know it's dead and ready to devour and then they pick the bones clean in a matter of minutes?" I nod. "Well, my mother at the ripe old age of eighty-two, has passed and her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and siblings are now all fighting over her stuff. Dad is still very much alive and grieving; he doesn't need to deal with these greedy ass hats. So, I have stepped in to handle things. Last week, my eldest sister, Clarise has informed me that she has retained a lawyer and plans to sue for what she thinks is her fare share."
"I take it that is the day you rearranged the kitchen?"
"Believe me, I'd rather rearrange her..." She looked over at me, tears on the edge of her lashes. "...attitude." She sucked a breath. "I just don't understand how they can be so cold. You know? Mom was a good woman. A good mother to all of us. She left specific instructions for whatever Dad wouldn't want. I just don't see why her wishes aren't acceptable to her heirs."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too. I should have behaved like I knew the Lord instead of one of the asshats. Speaking of which. Clarise and her go awful granddaughter will here tomorrow. Fair warning, she's a bit of a..."
"...an asshat?" I finished for her.
She snickered a bit. "I was going to say she's a bit arrogant, but that works too. Please behave yourself while she's here."
"Of course." I agreed. Unless she says something snide in which case, I may have to say something or if she is anything like...
"I'm serious, Magpie. Even if she's begging for trouble. And at least try to get along with Jimmy," She added. Of course, she can hear my thoughts. How silly of me to forget.
"I'll do my best, Gram. I promise." I meant that sincerely. "So," she said changing the subject, looking at me with het soft violet eyes. I am never going to get used to that. "Tell me about your friend. Jude, is it?"
"Yes, it's Jude. Mom said he is in the hospital and that his dad put him there."
"Yes, I know that. Tell me what I don't know."
"Well. I met him in kindergarten and we've friends since then. His mom left a couple of years ago and he and his dad kinda went downhill after that."
"I doubt she went too far. Tell me about your dreams."
"How do you know I've had dreams?"
"I've told you before, Magpie. I know what I need to know..."
"When you need to know it. I don't get it, but yeah, I know." I took a deep breath and let it slowly and told her every detail of every dream. I could recall each one like I had lived it. "The last dream I had, he asked me to call Detective Michael Harrington, who was the guy he had been talking to before the accident. He told me that he kept four journals where he recorded everything he and his father were doing. He kept four just in case his dad stumble across one or two, he'd have back up. So, he asked me to call this detective guy and tell him about the journals and where to look for them. He even gave me the guy's cellphone number."
She glanced at the clock and then walked into her bedroom without saying anything. I wasn't sure if I should stay and wait for her return or leave. Were we done talking? I just fiddled my fingers together for a minute trying to decide. As I was about to get up and go, she came back with a cellphone in her hand. "I think you should try the number. If the detective he mentioned answers the phone, give him the information Jude supplied. Don't tell him it came from a dream, just tell him Jude told you in case anything should happen to him. If the person who answers is not said detective, apologize for dialing the wrong number or if it's a bad number just forget about the dreams. Fair?"
I nodded nervously and took the phone. I dialed the number from my memory, hoping for a wrong number. To my surprise, "Detective Harrington speaking." Answered the phone. I almost dropped the phone. "Hello," the man said with an irritated tone.
I swallowed and chirped, "Hi," a little higher pitch than intended. I cleared my throat. "Hello, this is Melissa Gabbard. I'm a friend Jude Hipkins. I understand you are assigned to his case?"
"Yes, ma'am. How can I help?"
"Well, he told me awhile back, that if anything happened to him that I was to tell the police about some journals he kept. He was afraid of his dad, so he kept these journals of what they did hidden from him in four different places."
"What kind of things are these journals?"
"I don't know. I've never seen them. He said one was in the treehouse in his backyard, in the truck he has up there. He said there's one in his bedroom under the floorboards beneath his nightstand on the east wall. Then I think he said there was one in the passenger door panel of his truck and the fourth one he hid in locker at school. He said he wrote down everything his dad did and everything he did for his dad. But he never showed to me, he just told me tell the cops where they were."
"This number came up as unknown, may a number to reach you at?"
"You can call my mom, Sarah Gabbard. She works down at Johnny Rocket's." I gave him her cell number and ended the call. I look at Gram with wide eyes. "What just happened? That was hella creepy."
She smiled that knowing smile that I'm always tempted to slap and simply stated. "You knew what you needed to know, when you needed to know it." And stalked out of the room with her phone in hand.
So, great! Does that make me a witch too? I went to the restroom to freshen up for dinner and found Jackie, the skunk standing in the doorway of my room. I ignored him and went about my business. When I came out of the bathroom he was still there. "It's not bedtime, Jack. Gotta eat first. Got babies to feed, you know." He stared at for a long minute before waddling into my room. I guess I'll be seeing Jude later.