Jordan didn't have what he could call 'friends' not in Baleria. He was still in touch with friends from Rova but Rova was another case. He had acquaintances and contacts but that was the extent of it.
He had tried the friend route once after he resigned and that was how he earned the badge of his puckered flesh close to where his heart was. Very close. He rubbed at it absently as he could still remember the pain like it was yesterday.
"It is getting worse, Chi," he said as his cousin squirted a generous amount of honey on the pancake he had met her eaten when he got home in a tiff.
"You would figure something out," she said with her mouth full "Many more like you would figure something out. You have started already. That is what you should focus on" she chewed her food "Aaaaand I might join you in your…."
"Don't even think about it" Jordan snapped.
It had been an ongoing debate between them for a while. After she had wanted to come back with him to Baleria three years ago, he had tried to convince her without much success.
He mistakenly let it drop at dinner.
Jordan's aunt had taken it up immediately. Nubia had threatened suicide if Chione dared to go back to that "criminal country"
Though none of them had believed her threat, even Henley and Fukayna had laughed out loud. Uncle law had joined his wife to forbade their daughter from following Jordan to Baleria. His cousin had accused him of being a tattletale but she had stayed put.
After her stint at the police academy in Selon this time, she came straight to Baleria. After some huffing and feigned anger, Jordan had called his uncle to inform him.
He had intended to inform his uncle not to inform Aunt Nubia but as it played out, uncle Law had shouted "What? She is there in Baleria?"
The squeak-like utterance he had heard next to his uncle had affirmed that there was no going back now. It did sound like a squeak.
So when he heard his aunt's voice on the phone "Jordan, is this your idea?"
He only smiled and said "Hello, aunt. How are you doing?"
"Don't you, hello aunt me. Did you tell that obstinate girl to come there?"
"Weeell, not really"
"Not really? What is not really? You did or not?"
He had not been able to reply immediately as her daughter was busy making a kind of gesture in front of Jordan at that moment that Jordan had been confused about.
He had no idea if she was saying he should tell her that she had fainted or she had run out of the country.
"Answer me, Jordan!" Jordan winced and took the phone farther from his ear before his eardrum would suffer a permanent damage.
"You see aunt" Chione sighed and gestured for him to give her the phone. Jordan gladly did.
Jordan had never liked being caught between the mother and daughter duo. Capable Sheriff, formidable Sheriff or not. Jordan had never been able to get the better of Aunt Nubia. As far as he could remember, uncle Law had almost always conceded to her as well. It is funny that a petite woman like his aunt could handle the men in her household but that was the truth of the matter. Her daughter seemed to be right on her heels on that front too.
He knew that Chione would be able to calm her mother down. Well, she did. She stayed. Not a day lesser than she intended.
Jordan sighed as he looked back at the tv screen where the newscaster had finished her gloomy news and a soccer match was going on now.
"That was it. Life moves on. No matter who leave, no matter who else would be snuffed out next. People would play soccer, laugh and hoot as if their family member could not be the next pregnant woman left in a pool of her own blood to die in the street" he thought bitterly as he picked the paper clip on his desk and thumped it absentmindedly as he got engulfed with his thoughts again.
Chione had gone back to Rova the week before. She was to resume as a rookie in the same precinct where Jordan had become a Sheriff before resigning.
How time flies.
Jordan's head jerked up when he heard the doorbell pealed. He expected that Molly would open the door as he wondered who it could be. He was not expecting any package nor was he expecting anyone.
He frowned when the bell pealed again.
"Why was…oh" he stood up to go open the door as he remembered that he had given Molly the day off. The woman had refused when he suggested that she stopped work.
"Whatever will I be doing at home, Master Alaick? My children are all married now and they are not in Baleria. The closest of them is my youngest who is at Mayan. Scott is also no more. A bit of work is good for this old soul, you know" had been her reply.
Jordan smiled to himself as he came down the stairs as remembered her statement "Moreover, if I am not here, who would take care of you, Master Alarick?"
Alarick had informed her that he did not need much tending to but he had given in and let her stay. He couldn't help but shook his head when he come across her with her ever-present whisking cloth as she flicked at the non-existent dust on the furniture.
"A clean home makes a happy home" she would say with a smile when he tried to make her stop. He remembered that had been her mantra even when his mother was alive.
He needed to put much thought into getting new help. Maybe that would make her relax. His smile widened as he remembered that he had almost threatened to bodily carry her out the door before she left even though she had been trying to hide the facts that her limbs ache from him.
Yes, a new housekeeper would do.
With the smile still on his face, he opened the door.
And blinked.
His voice seemed to have deserted him as he stared.
And stared.