Ben looked at all the files on the seat next to him and in the box on the floor. He hoped they hadn’t all gone from being secrets to being dead kids.
Chapter Nine
While Roger was getting some medical stuff ready and Zellie and Avery were seemingly bound together at the mouth and pelvis, Melody made herself comfortable and sat on the edge of Raleigh’s bed. “Now that you know my entire family history, how about you tell us about yourself? Is there anyone expecting you to be home soon? Your parents? A girlfriend?” Usually, Melody would have been pissed that Roger had broken protocol and told Raleigh their secrets, but the guy had been possessed and had his body mutilated, so she let it slide. Plus, she kinda liked the idea of someone new knowing. Now she had another person in the world to understand the pressure she was under.
Raleigh grinned at her. “What day is it?”
“July third.”
He nodded his head. “I told my mom that I would probably be home day after tomorrow. I’d planned on being gone a week or so.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “Like, on some sort of solo manly wilderness adventure?”
“Ha. I guess that was the idea.”
“A stupid idea. You are definitely not from around here. We all grow up knowing you never go out by yourself. I mean, you
at least
take a dog with you.”
“Well, we just moved to Rosedell at the beginning of June. I haven’t made any friends yet and I’m allergic to dogs. I didn’t even really want to go, but my mom took pity on me and bought me all this camping equipment for my birthday. None of which was in any way useful when I got lost as hell and couldn’t find water.”
“You’re lucky Wes found you before a hungry mountain lion did.”
Raleigh looked down. “I’m starting to think that too.”
“Think what?”
“That I’m lucky Wes found me.” Raleigh brought his gaze up to meet Melody’s.
Her eyes locked with his. A giddy warmth spread throughout her body. He was definitely cute and likely going to get cuter the more he recovered.
Excellent timing, Universe. Like I don’t have a million other things to deal with.
Her gaze fell to his mouth.
Hey, Wells, stop staring at him like a superdork and ask him a question.
“So, you’re new to Rosedell?”
“Yeah, my mom’s opening up a New Age shop in what used to be the insurance office in town. The rent’s really cheap. I guess the guy that owned it bit the dust last year?”
“Shh!” she said, putting her index finger to Raleigh’s getting-prettier-by-the-second mouth. “That guy was Avery’s dad.”
Raleigh cringed. She dropped her hand dangerously close to his. “Crap. Sorry. I’m not usually such a dumbass. Make an exception ‘cause I’m in such a pathetic weakened state?”
Melody smiled at him. “It’s okay.” She glanced over at Avery and Zellie. They were still lost in their own world. “Actually,” she whispered, “Avery’s dad is a spirit. He lives with my mom.”
“Get outta here!”
“And he’s the father of my little brother Wyatt.”
Raleigh arched his left eyebrow. “How is
that
possible?”
Melody blushed. “Oh. No. Wyatt was conceived before Mike Adams died. My mom, uh, cheated on my dad, who’s a pastor. The whole situation is beyond gross and totally humiliating.”
Raleigh inched his fingertips over the top of the sheet and touched hers. “
My
mom was a stripper at this skeevy club in North Portland when she got pregnant with me.” He rolled his eyes. “All I know about dear old Dad is that he was a carnie who operated the Tilt-A-Whirl and went by the handle Bobby Big Time.”
“Wow. Really? Bobby Big Time?” She giggled.
He shrugged. “Parents suck.”
“Indeed they do.” Melody scooted her fingers a little closer to his. “You’re easy to talk to, you know that?”
“So are you,” Raleigh grinned. “I guess it helps that we don’t have that whole awkward disbelief of spirit possession thing hanging over us.”
Melody grinned back at him, “It does.” She took the plunge and laid her hand on top of his. “You’re not freaked out? Not even a little?”
He moved his pinky out from under her hand and tapped it on hers. “Nah. I’m from Portland, remember? I grew up in a house with, like, ten healing crystals hanging from the ceiling and a Feng Shui water fountain in the middle of the family room. I didn’t know that people ate meat until I was seven. I’m accustomed to weird.”
“Cool. You know, we were maybe neighbors last summer. Zellie and I stayed with our aunt Hazel in Portland.”
“With Hazie?” Raleigh winked at her. “Too bad we didn’t know each other then. We could have hung out.”
“Yeah, right,” she blurted. “Like you would’ve been caught dead with a 14-year-old girl!” She gritted her teeth the second the words had flown out of her mouth.
Why? Why am I such an idiot?
Raleigh shrugged his shoulders again. “I don’t know about that. I’m only two years older than you and if you looked anything last summer like you do this summer...” He grinned. “And well, I’ve already been caught almost dead with you.”
Melody felt the power of his grin in her whole being. She couldn’t help but smile.
This is really happening
.
“All right kids,” Roger said. He walked over to the bed and shooed Melody off of it. She reluctantly stood up. “I’ve got to excise this skin before it goes necrotic and then get our Lazarus here sewn up. You all probably won’t want to stick around for that.” Gently, he rolled Raleigh onto his side.
Raleigh wiggled his eyebrows at her.
Normally, Melody would have been out the door pronto, but... “Will he be in much pain? I could stay with him, hold his hand?”
Roger reached behind himself and pushed a button on one of the IVs. “He won’t feel much of anything now.”
Melody looked down at Raleigh as his eyes glazed over and his mouth opened into a goofy half-smile.
“Sunny days,” Roger said, chuckling.
Zellie put her hand on Melody’s arm and tugged at her. “C’mon, Mom and Dad are going to be pissed that we’ve been gone so long. I promise I’ll bring you back to visit in a couple of days.”
Melody grabbed Raleigh’s fingertips with her own and gave them a light squeeze. “So, um, take care and feel better, okay?”
He nodded his head, his eyes at half-mast. “Blackplack,” he slurred, his face twisting up in a confused expression at the sound of his messed up voice.
“Oh, yeah. It’s in the Jeep. I’ll just drop it off outside the door.”
After I rifle through it as per your earlier suggestion.
“Ohhhhkaaay, Mel.” Raleigh closed his eyes completely and drifted off.
Roger took an iodine-soaked cotton ball off of a tray on the cart he’d wheeled over next to him and poised it above Raleigh’s back. “Later taters. See you in a few.”
Melody retrieved the backpack from the Jeep. “I’ll be right back, I’m just going to drop this off.”
“Sure,” Zellie said, not even bothering to look at Melody as Avery hoisted her up onto the hood of the car.
That kind of lust-filled craziness wasn’t exactly what Melody thought she wanted. She thought her sister and Avery were way too co-dependent, but she supposed she wouldn’t know until she tried it.
She went around back and paused at the end of the wheelchair ramp. Before she could change her mind, she unzipped the backpack.
Inside was Raleigh’s wallet, containing two hundred dollars, a debit card and his driver’s license. Melody ran her thumb over the little picture. Raleigh’s hair was a clean honey blonde and pulled back into a ponytail. His skin was fair and freckled and unscarred. He was smiling and wearing an aqua Life Is Good t-shirt the same color as his eyes. But most importantly, Melody saw that they had the same birthday. He was exactly two years older than she was. She grinned.
Two years isn’t a big deal.
Her dad was two years older than her mom.
She dug down into the backpack further, coming up with a journal and a Leatherman. That was it. That silly city boy didn’t even have a head lamp or a regular old flashlight. She vowed to never let him go to a park by himself, let alone into the woods.
Yeah, because that’s not co-dependent thinking.
She stuck the journal and Leatherman back inside. Of course she was curious to find out more about Raleigh, but reading his private journal wasn’t something she would do. Besides, it was probably just full of a bunch of hiking observations and crap. She walked up the ramp and set the backpack just inside the door, resisting the urge to go inside and make sure that Raleigh was truly okay.
Seriously Wells, find a grip and get it.
When they got back to Avery’s house, the station wagon and their dad’s car were gone. Avery parked in the driveway and ran inside to tell his mom that he was giving them a ride home.
“You know, there’s the possibility that we’re going to have to take more deadish bodies to visit Roger,” Zellie said, turning to look at her.
“I know.” Melody picked at her nail polish, sensing that Zellie was gearing up to give her a talking to.
“And we’ve got to work together to make sure it goes better than it did today. We both made a lot of mistakes. But Candace has put her trust in us and we can’t let her down.” She reached over and took Melody’s hand. “I need for you to be with me on this. I can’t do it without you.”
“Plus, it’s less pressure on you if I’m the one that screws things up.”
Zellie rolled her eyes. “Totally.” Her grip on Melody’s hand tightened. “Because I know you, dumbass. You’ll have my back, no matter what, and I’ll have yours.”
She squeezed Zellie’s hand in return. “Can you take me to see Raleigh in the morning instead of in a couple days? I don’t think he should be left out there with only Roger for company for too long.”
Zellie nodded. “Sure.” A grin escaped the corners of her mouth. “Let’s hope the other spirits don’t choose teenage boys to inhabit, or you might get stuck in perpetual dork mode,” she giggled.
Melody groaned, “I was really bad, wasn’t I?”
“It was interesting to see. You don’t usually show so much...concern? I’m not sure what you see in him. He’s nice enough when he’s conscious and kinda good-looking if you can get past the dead skin flaps and what not, but, I don’t know, he’s not someone I’d see you crushing on, that’s for sure.”
Melody took her sweaty hand from Zellie’s grip and wiped it on her shorts. “Okay, I’m going to talk to you about this one time and one time only and then we will never speak of it again.” She thought for a moment, gathering her feelings. Zellie would probably be surprised that she had any.
“When Wes left Raleigh’s body and he looked at me, I...felt like he trusted me, like, instantly. That he was a good person looking at me as a good person.”
“Mel, you are a good person.”
Melody shrugged. “Maybe, but I have to really work at it. Being a Lookout has definitely helped me try to be less selfish, to care less about being popular or what people think of me, but you still know how I used to be and… he doesn’t.” Despite the heat, a chill ran through her body. “When he looked at me, I felt like I’d finally met someone I wasn’t going to have to prove myself to.”
Zellie patted Melody on the knee. “I get it.” The smile returned to her face. “And you think he’s cute.”
“And I think he’s cute.”
Avery ran back to the Jeep and got inside. “Sorry that took so long. Mom’s not happy and your parents aren’t either.”
“Why?” Zellie asked. “What’d we do now besides show up late?”
“It seems that your dad didn’t believe Claire’s cover story and asked my dad if he wouldn’t mind popping on over to the police station to see if we were actually there.”
“Crap,” Melody and Zellie said in unison.
“Yeah,” said Avery, “having our parents get along is totally biting us in the ass. Our moms grilled Claire, but I guess she didn’t give up what we were doing. As soon as she’d finished eating, your dad took her home.”
Zellie took in a deep breath and then blew it out her nose. “I suck. That was a shitty position for me to put Claire in. What’s the damage? What did your mom say?”
Avery cringed. “I kinda threw you guys under the bus, sorry. I said I just drove you to Bend and waited outside some house while you all were meeting with someone.”
“That’s okay,” Melody said, “vague is better.” Her eyes met Zellie’s in the rearview mirror. “Why don’t you drop me off at home and then you and Zel can, uh, go hang out or whatever for your birthday. It’s not like she won’t be in the same amount of trouble whether she goes home now or later. I’ll try to diffuse Dad.”
“We can save Mom for tomorrow,” Zellie said.
“That’s what I was thinking. That way we can get our stories straight.”
Avery shook his head and reversed out of the driveway. “Always an adventure with you guys. Always.”
Melody grabbed the pillowcase that Roger had given them to haul their smelly clothes in and hopped out of the Jeep. “I can see Dad standing by the window. You better go before he comes outside.”
She shut her car door and Avery backed quickly down the driveway. Dumping the pillowcase by the front steps, leaving another thing to deal with tomorrow, Melody opened the door into the family room. Her dad was sitting on the couch pretending to read the latest Lutheran Missouri Synod newsletter.
“Hey,” she said, walking quickly past him down the hallway to her and Zellie’s room. She stripped off the t-shirt and gym shorts, throwing them onto the floor of their closet, and pulled on her nightshirt. It was a little early to be getting ready for bed, just before nine, but her Dad tended to fight with her less when she was dressed in pajamas. Like he was comforted by the fact that jammies equaled daughter staying safely at home.
He knocked on the bedroom door. “Can I come in?”
Melody opened it and then went to her bed and got under the covers. “Zellie and Avery went to get an ice cream cone.”
Her dad sighed and sat down on the edge of Zellie’s bed across from her. “Is that what you kids are calling it these days?”
Melody made a gagging face. “Gross. No, they seriously went to get ice cream.”