DevilMayRide

24
The next day Sadie brought Dawn over to her mom’s house, where a crowd screaming “Surprise!” greeted them.
Dawn squealed with delight and acted like she really was surprised, even though all the surprises had happened the night before.
Sadie’s mom and aunt were impressed with Terry’s creative appetizers and elaborate stork cake. Terry cornered Sadie in the kitchen, held a spatula to her face, and threatened her with bodily harm. He backed off when Maeva promised she’d never go midnight Satanist hunting again without him.
Dawn sat down and opened her gifts and was thrilled with the coupon for free babysitting Sadie provided.
She opened Maeva’s gift last and pronounced it the loveliest nursery decoration she’d ever seen.
“What a perfect mirror for the wall,” Dawn exclaimed, holding up the circular mirror with the engraved carvings around the white wood frame.
“That’s not a normal mirror, is it?” Sadie whispered in Maeva’s ear.
“It’s a scrying mirror,” Maeva whispered back. “You know, for seeing into the future. I figured we’d better get him or her started early.”
Sadie could only laugh.
Once the last guest had gone home and all the dishes and decorations were put away, Dawn sat on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table.
“Careful with that cranberry juice,” Sadie’s mom told Dawn. “We just had the sofa cleaned.” She sat down next to her daughter.
Sadie and Aunt Lynn each grabbed a chair.
“That was really nice,” Dawn said with a contented sigh. She took a long sip of her juice.
“Yes, it was. See, Peggy, you were all stressed for nothing. It all went off beautifully,” Aunt Lynn said. “I guess I should start packing soon,” Aunt Lynn said wistfully. “It’s been a lovely visit, but I can’t exactly hang around forever.”
“Why not?” Sadie asked.
“Yeah, Auntie Lynn, why don’t you stay in Seattle?” Dawn suggested.
“Oh, you don’t want me hanging around,” she said quickly. “Besides, I’ve got my house. I’ve been there so long I wouldn’t know where to begin packing everything up.”11
“I’d help you pack,” Sadie offered. “I’d even let you put up some of the butterflies on my back fence.”
“You’d do that?” Lynn asked, dabbing at her eyes quickly and then waving her hand. “Oh, forget it. It’s a silly thought.”
“No, it isn’t,” Peggy insisted. “It’s time you sold that house and moved to where the rest of your family is.”
Dad walked into the room along with John. The two men had been hiding from the shower by watching sports in the back bedroom. Now they came into the living room with plates heaped with shower leftovers.
“You should definitely move here,” Sadie’s dad said.
“Sounds like it’s final,” Sadie said. “You can stay with me until you find a place.”
“No, she’ll stay here,” Peggy insisted.
“Well, I think she should stay with me,” Dawn said. “She can help with the baby.”
“That’s a great idea,” John agreed. “Dawn could use an extra pair of hands when I’m at work.” He looked pointedly at Sadie. “And it needs to be someone responsible.”
Sadie figured it was going to take a lot of diaper changes and free babysitting to win back her brother-in-law.
“Oh no! Mom, I’m so sorry. I’ll pay to have your sofa cleaned again,” Dawn said.
“You spilled your juice?” her mom exclaimed, leaning forward to look.
“No. My water just broke.”
Chaos ensued with everyone fighting for a chance to drive Dawn to the hospital. John won that battle, with Mom, Dad, and Aunt Lynn piling into a separate car to follow.
“I’ll be there soon,” Sadie promised. “There’s something I need to do first.
“My sister is on her way to the hospital to have the baby,” Sadie told Zack over the phone. “If you’re not doing anything, do you think you can sneak me onto a crime scene?”
“A florist might be a better idea,” he said.
“Yeah, but first things first.”
Zack met Sadie at the curb, parking outside of Onyx House.
“You’re not going to try and go inside the house, though, right?” Zack asked. “I’m still catching flak for breaking into Egan’s house.”
“What I’ve got to do is just outside in the yard,” Sadie promised. She started to walk away, leaving Zack leaning against the hood of his Mustang. She was ducking under the arbor when she stopped short, turned around, and walked back to Zack.
“I don’t think I was clear before,” Sadie said.
“About what?”
“About this.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him fully on the mouth.
“I love you, Zack Bowman,” she whispered against his mouth.
Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a single key and pressed it into his palm.
“Your apartment’s too small. Hairy and I need our space, but if you’ll still have us, I’d love you to come and live with me.”
“I’d like that,” he said gruffly.
She took him by the hand then and nodded.
“C’mon,” she said, tugging him toward the yard. “If you’re with me, you might as well be all the way.”
They walked together under the vine-covered trellis.
Sadie found Rhea sitting cross-legged on the grass under the window where she’d fallen the year before.
“Hi,” Sadie called out, and the little girl jumped to her feet and frowned.
Almost immediately her essence began to fade away.
“Don’t go,” Sadie called out. She released Zack’s hand and reached out for Rhea.
“You can’t touch me, remember?” Rhea smirked.
“It’ll give you cooties.”
“It won’t give me cooties,” Sadie said, laughing. “It’ll just make me grossed out. Kinda like fingernails on a blackboard.”
“Oh, I hate that sound!” Rhea exclaimed with a shudder. “Why did you come back?”
“Because I wanted to say I’m sorry for lying.”
“About what?”
“About Brian not being your dad.”
Rhea fully appeared then and began toying with the ID bracelet. She spun it around and around her wrist. Her eyes were wide and bright with unshed tears.
“Brian really is your dad. I just said he wasn’t because—”
“Because you wanted Tim to get mad at Mom?”
“Something like that,” Sadie said.
“So that means you’re my aunt too.”
“Yes.” Sadie swallowed the emotion that clogged her throat, and nodded. “And I wish I’d known you were here. Maybe I could’ve stopped everything that was going on and maybe then you wouldn’t have fallen out a window.”
“Tim pushed me,” Rhea said quietly, and fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I thought so,” Sadie said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Sadie took a deep breath.
“I really wish you could stay here so that we could talk all the time.”
“I can,” Rhea insisted. “I can stay here forever and you can come and visit and we’ll talk. Just like now.”
“I know you can stay, but you need to think about if that’s what you really want,” Sadie said softly. “You have other choices.”
Sadie heard Maeva calling from the front yard.
“Over here!” Sadie called over her shoulder.
Maeva and Louise appeared from around the side of the house. Each of them carried a small tote bag.
“Wh-what’s going on?” Rhea asked, jumping away. “You’re going to make me go, aren’t you?”
“Only if you want to,” Sadie said.
“Well, I don’t want to,” Rhea insisted with a stomp of her foot that was like a pouf of talcum powder. “And you can’t make me. Hmph.”
“If you stay here, it’s going to be awfully lonely most of the time,” Sadie said. “But if you go, you can be with your dad. Your real dad.”
Rhea looked skeptical.
“Nope. I tried once and it didn’t even work. I tried to go and nobody was there.”
“He didn’t know about you then,” Sadie explained. She nodded toward Maeva and Louise. “That’s why they’re here. I can’t contact Brian because of how he died. But they can. They can call him here and then you can decide what to do. Maybe the two of you can go together.”
“Really? Cross your heart?”
Sadie nodded and made the heart-crossing motion with her right hand.
They sat in a circle on the grass, Sadie, Maeva, Louise, and Zack, with Rhea in the center. Maeva lit a vanilla-scented candle and began humming. Louise murmured a chant. Sadie closed her eyes and held her breath, afraid to do anything.
After a minute Maeva abruptly stopped humming and Louise suddenly stopped chanting.
“There’s a mist,” Maeva murmured.
“White smoke,” Louise added. “It’s Brian.”
“I see him,” Rhea said, her voice soft with wonder. “He has nice eyes. Friendly eyes like you, Sadie.”
Sadie opened her eyes to see Rhea looking up and smiling.
“Brian, I don’t know if you can hear me, but this is your daughter, Rhea,” Sadie said. “Joy was pregnant when you left. Rhea needs someone to take care of her now.” Sadie’s voice was choked with emotion. She turned to Maeva. “I don’t know if he can hear me.”
“He can,” Maeva said, and she nodded toward the center of the circle. “He has a message for you. He says thank you.” She blinked away tears and appeared to be listening before she spoke again. “He also says he loves you very much and he hopes you can move on now and let him go.”
Sadie’s throat was tight with emotion. She could only nod.
Rhea’s form became slightly transparent. She reached her hand up over her head and suddenly Sadie saw a cloud of smoke form the shape of a hand. The misty fingers reached out to lock with Rhea’s hand.
“I think I’m going to go,” Rhea said softly. The edges around her shape were shimmering. “He wants me to come with him.”
She looked over at Sadie as if asking permission.
“You need to take care of each other,” Sadie said firmly. “I love you. Both of you.”
“I love you too,” Rhea said.
The little girl’s shape was suddenly engulfed in arms of white mist. Both shapes shimmered before dematerializing. They left behind only a fine wisp of mist that washed away as fat raindrops fell from the sky like tears.