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After a while, Quentin finally pulled back and told me he couldn’t get on the cable car. He couldn’t go home.
“Is it the girl?” I asked him.
A look of surprise flashed across his face, but it didn’t last. He knew who I was, what I was, and that we had a lot in common. He nodded.
“I saw her, too,” I signed. “She was scared and lost.”
He gaped at me. “
She
was scared and lost?”
“Yes, she crossed through me. She didn’t want to at first, but I … convinced her. She was very hurt by her family.”
“They abused her?” he asked.
I nodded. “Bad.”
“Like hit her?”
“And worse. She was so scared.”
He looked down. “I could feel that, too. I could feel how dark her world was. How empty. It made my stomach hurt.”
“Mine, too, but how did you feel that?” I was begi
“I didn’t tell you.”
“So, tell me now,” I said. I reached over and ruffled his hair.
That got his attention. He smoothed it into place, peeking at Amber, then did the same to mine, ruffling my chocolaty locks while wearing a mischievous glint in his eyes. My hair was a mess anyway, so I just left it.
“If the spirit touches me, I can see how it feels,” he said.
“Wow. That’s crazy.”
“It’s messed up. I don’t like it.” He shrank back when he thought about it.
“I’m sorry. Sometimes the departed carry a lot of baggage.”
“Like suitcases?” he asked, confused.
I chuckled. “Sorry, hearing idiom. Like they have a lot of problems weighing them down.”
“Oh, yeah. Just like people, I guess.”
“Yeah, but that’s super cool that you can do that.” When he stabbed me with a dubious stare, I said, “Try it on Angel.”
“Screw that,
pendeja
.” Angel jumped up, but I took his arm before he could vanish on me and jerked him back down. “This is Angel.”
Angel graced him with the ever-popular head nod, then stuck out his hand to shake. Quentin shook his hand, then asked him, “Do you know ASL?”
Angel shrugged, so I interpreted.
“No, man, I’m sorry. I wish I did.”
I relayed that message but added, “He will learn.”
Angel’s brows shot up, and he nodded in agreement. “That’d be cool.”
“Okay, now that that’s settled, did you feel anything when you touched him?”
Quentin shrugged. “He’s pretty happy. It’s nice.”
“It’s because he has me,” I said, then winked at them both.
“I want to learn that stuff,” Angel said, now very into the idea. “You have to teach me.”
“I ain’t teaching you anything,” I said, speaking and signing at the same time. “Go hang with him at the school in Santa Fe. You’ll learn all kinds of signs.”
“That’s true,” Quentin said; then he looked up at Amber. The minute he did, she fell to her knees in front of us. “I’m so sorry,” he said to her.
“Please, don’t be,” she signed. I was so proud of her. She’d learned a lot in the last two weeks since meeting him. Kids. Freaking little sponges. “I understand. You see things I can’t. I want—” She struggled with the next words, then added, “—I want me and you to be the same. I want to see what you see.”
He frowned. “No, you don’t. It’s not fun.”
“I know it’s not easy. I’ve known Charley for a long time. She always tries to help dead people and gets in trouble. I wish,” she voiced but didn’t know the sign, so she started that sentence again. “I want I could help her.”
I made sure to put it into my next sentence so she’d pick it up. “I wish we were off this mountain. Your mother is going to kill me about fifteen minutes after the nuns trample me to death trying to get to you. They are all worried sick.”
Their guilt hit me in one rock-solid wave. Good. Served ’em right. Then a thought occurred.
“Wait a minute,” I said as we stood and gathered ourselves. “How many times have you two done this?”
“This is the first time,” Quentin said, his expression full of earnestness.
“I meant, how many times have you two skipped school?”
Their gazes instantly locked; then Amber’s dropped to the ground in guilt.
“Quentin!” I shouted. Or, well, signed really fast. “Amber is twelve years old.”
“I’ll be thirteen next week!” she said.
“I’m thirteen,” Angel said.
I ignored him. “You are sixteen, Quentin. That is so wrong.”
He gaped at me. “You think—?” He stopped and shook his head at me. “No way. She’s just a kid. We’re friends.”
Well, I’d put my foot in it. Amber winced at the pain that overtook her. His words had hurt. Clearly she thought they were more.
I turned to her and voiced my next words, holding my hand up to block Quentin’s view so he couldn’t read my lips. He tried to see past it, but I spoke fast. “He’s lying,” I said to her. “Whatever you do, for the love of all things holy, please don’t let your mother know you two have kissed.”
Quentin may have been able to hide that one, but there was no way Amber could have managed it. Guilt once again radiated out of her.
I gasped and turned to Quentin, appalled. “You kissed her?”
“What? No.”
Amber caught on. She stamped her foot. “Aunt Charley, you tricked me.”
I was still busy being appalled at Quentin.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets before he said another word.
“Wise decision,” I said before stalking away. Or trying to. The world toppled again and I tripped, flying headfirst into Captain Eckert. Oh, well. Better that than pitching myself off the side of a mountain. And he’d be fine once his cracked ribs healed.
12
I have a perfect body.
It’s in my trunk.
—T-SHIRT
I was still wobbly on the way down. Captain Eckert stayed close until he gave up and just wrapped one of his arms around me, holding me tight to his side as we descended. Not that the ramps were that steep. I was just that wobbly. Though the captain and I had a lot to talk about, now was not the time.
He held me all the way to the bottom of the tramway and walked me and the kids to Misery. I left him there with a warning scowl when he asked if I was okay to drive.
I dropped Quentin off at the convent to—just as I’d suspected—a horde of frantic nuns. They rushed out in one solid mass. They reminded me of penguins attacking. Our only hope was to drop into a fetal position and whimper. That stopped them in their tracks. Worked every time. Quentin didn’t follow my lead, but that was okay. I was very willing to sacrifice my dignity for the both of us.
After barely escaping with life and limb, I took a very nervous Amber home and dropped her at her door. It was on the way. Cookie was busy pretending to get ready for her date. Pretending to be oblivious of the fact that Amber was two hours late. She wasn’t the least bit angry. Fear and worry had swallowed any anger she might have had. The anger would hit later. Hopefully I’d be very far away when it did.
We walked back to her bedroom, where she was in the middle of spritzing perfume onto her neck.
“Mom?” Amber said, her voice thin and fragile.
“Oh, hey, hon. You’re late.”
Amber hesitated, then looked down at her feet. “I went to Paula’s house. We made cookies.”
And there it was. The spike of emotion I’d been waiting for, but instead of anger, I sensed a spasm of pain. She was hurt that Amber had just lied to her. “Go do your homework. I’m going out for a while.”
“’Kay.”
The little fairy princess shuffled off, feeling more miserable for having lied. She’d figure that out soon. I had complete faith in her. But Cook was hurt by her deception. No idea why. I lied to her all the time.