The Spirits of Christmas (5 page)

Stay with us? Akira wanted to protest. Their house wasn’t
childproof. They had no toys. Where would he sleep? What would he eat? How
would they take care of him? But her brows drew down and she stayed silent as
she glanced at Hannah.

She tried not to let ghosts bully her, but it might not be a
bad idea to let the old woman feel an empty house again. Maybe the silence
would remind her that company wasn’t so bad. And Akira wanted a chance to talk
to Rose in private, away from the older woman, about that golden energy and
what it might mean.

“Go and good riddance.” Hannah grumped, stomping away from
Toby and Zane toward the kitchen.

“Come on, bud. Let’s go get your stuff together.” Zane held
his hand out to Toby and the little boy stood and slid his own into it
obligingly.

“Can we bring da trains?” Toby asked.

“Sure. We’ll pack up some of the track, too, and maybe even
that little barrel house so we can load ‘em up.”

“Dat is de barra’ yoader,” Toby corrected him.

Zane blinked. “Barrel loader. Got it. Not a house.” He
grinned at the little boy.

Toby had taken to Zane like peanut butter to jelly, Akira
thought. All right, she could do this. They could do this. As long as Zane was
around, they’d be fine.

An hour later, she was not so sanguine. “What do you mean
you need to run an errand and it might take a while?”

Zane ran his hand though his hair, looking guilty. “Ah, well
. . .”

“You can’t leave me alone with him,” she hissed, glancing
over her shoulder at Toby pushing his train along their coffee table. “I don’t
know anything about taking care of a child. I fed him ice cream for breakfast!”

Zane looked startled for a second before laughing. He slid
his hand around her waist to the small of her back. “Did you have some, too?”

“Of course not.” She put her arms up and around his neck and
leaned into him, letting herself relax against his warmth, tucking her cheek
into his shoulder. “Who eats ice cream for breakfast?”

He chuckled and she felt his breath stirring her ear as he
whispered, “There’s a box of chocolates under the Christmas tree for Grace. You
can feed him those for lunch if you like.”

She snorted in protest, not lifting her head. Not likely.

“Seriously, though, I have to go,” he continued.

At that she did pull her head away, looking up into his
eyes. “Where? And why?” She wanted to clutch his arms and refuse to let him
leave, but she didn’t.

He hemmed and hawed and finally said, “It’s almost
Christmas.”

“I know that.”

“I need to go get something. A present.”

“No, you don’t.” She shook her head fervently. “No. There is
no present more important than being here right now.”

“It’ll be a good present,” Zane tried.

“No,” she repeated. “No. No. No.”

As the door closed behind him, she resisted the urge to kick
it. What was she supposed to do now?

She covered her face with her hands trying to hide from the
reality that she was alone with a very, very small person, then dropped them
and straightened her back. She was being idiotic. How hard could it be after
all? She could do this.

She’d start by feeding Toby some lunch. Maybe not the
healthiest lunch—she wouldn’t try for a tofu stir-fry or anything too ambitious—but
she had peanut butter and jelly and bread. Every toddler liked PBJ, right? It
was like a universal law.

Toby didn’t.

Or at least he didn’t like her PBJ. Her peanut butter had
lumps in it. Crunchy bits. All of Akira’s persuasive abilities couldn’t convince
Toby that peanut butter was meant to have peanuts in it. It wouldn’t have
mattered anyway, because her jam was the wrong color. It was too red. A bad
red. And the bread…Toby poked at it disconsolately.

“You could take a bite and see,” she suggested. “Maybe it
tastes better than it looks.”

“I did.” He pointed to the edge where the tiniest nibble of
crumb might be gone. “It didn’t.”

The ringing doorbell was a welcome interruption from the big
brown eyes staring forlornly at her from across the table.

Meredith thrust the take-out container in her direction in a
rush of words, “I was at Maggie’s when Zane swung by and I needed to talk to
you anyway, so I said I’d drop this off. But I can’t stay—I’ve got a million
things to do. I left a message with Nick Bendow but I haven’t heard back from
him yet. His manager, though, said that he’s on an international tour and has
been gone for months.”

“A what?”

“Yeah, fun, isn’t it? He’s a musician. Anyway, the manager
didn’t know anything about Nick letting someone use the house. He’s going to
check, but I think your tenant is probably a squatter. Thank you so much for
letting me know. It could have turned into a huge problem, but I’ll call the
sheriff and get it taken care of.”

“Wait, wait.” Akira put a hand up in protest. “What does
that mean, get it taken care of?”

“Well, get her out of there.” Meredith raised her eyebrows.
“If she broke the locks to get in, it’s a crime. And the sooner I get her out
the better. Squatting is a serious problem in Florida; I don’t want to wind up
spending months in court fighting her.”

Akira took a deep breath. This was the solution she needed,
wasn’t it? If the sheriff evicted Nora, Hannah would be happy and no one would
be in any danger from her. Toby might not be able to feel Hannah now, but Akira
didn’t know what would happen to him if Hannah lost control. But still, what
would Nora and her kids do if they lost their home? And at Christmas?  And it
would be terrible if Nora got arrested. But Akira’s pause to think took too
long.

“Gotta run,” Meredith said, glancing at her watch. “Later.
And Merry Christmas!” With that, she was gone, heels clicking as she hurried
down the path, red hair glinting in the sun.

Akira walked back to the kitchen carrying the container and
biting her lower lip so hard it hurt. She knew the Latimers would help Nora if
she asked them to. She probably didn’t even have to ask. For all she knew, Zane
had already texted Grace and a moving van was at the house, packing up Nora’s
possessions to move her someplace safer. But Nora didn’t seem like someone who
would easily accept help like that. In fact, Nora didn’t like someone who would
easily accept any help.

Maybe Rose could hypnotize her again?

“Rose.” Akira called to the ghost girl as she reached the
kitchen. “I need to talk to you.” Rose had accompanied Nora to the hospital in
the ambulance, returning with Zane in the morning, and the two of them hadn’t
had a chance to talk about last night’s events.

“It was amazing. Amazing.” Rose twirled around in the middle
of the kitchen floor, her skirt flaring up, her hair spinning with her.

“What was?” Akira crossed to the counter.

“I saw a baby get born. A baby. She was so tiny. She was so
. . . it was so . . . it was so gross. Really, just ew. The whole thing. Ick.
Disgusting. I can’t believe you have to do that. But then after, there was a
baby. And she blinked. Her eyelashes were the littlest, teeniest-tiniest
eyelashes you ever saw, just little dark specks on her eyes. They were so
adorable.”

Akira smiled as she lifted the lid off the container. And
then she frowned, distracted from Rose’s enthusiasm by the food in front of
her. What was this? Everything Maggie made was good so she was sure it would be
tasty, but she’d never seen it before. It was sort of like her favorite vegetable
biryani, only…not. Those were chunks of chicken, she thought, poking at it with
a sense of rising indignation. What had Maggie made?

“What dat?” asked Toby, sliding off his chair and joining
her. He stood on tiptoes as Akira lifted the container down to show him.

Before she could tell him that it was biryani and he
wouldn’t like it, he heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Subiyan. Yes, peas. Dank
you.”

“What?”

“For me?” he asked, looking up at her, face plaintive. “I
yike.”

“Um, sure,” Akira said. This looked an awful lot like some
kind of stir-fried rice to her. “How do you feel about tofu?”

“Tofu pasghetti or tofu smoovie? Or de cheese square tofu or
da tofu on sayad? I no yike on sayad.”

Akira translated all of that without much difficulty as she reached
for a bowl, and it renewed her resolve. Another semi-vegetarian had moved to
Tassamara. That made the town’s count two. Three if they included Toby. Somehow
she had to figure out how to keep them here.

*****

Ba-de-ba-ba
.

Akira opened sleepy eyes.

Ba-de-ba-ba.

She picked up her phone and glared at the screen, licking
dry lips and yawning. “Yes?”

“Good morning, love.” 

“Jerk,” she mumbled at him. “What time is it?”

“Oh, insanely early.” Zane sounded much too cheerful for a
man who hadn’t come home all night. “You ready to wake up?”

“No.” She clicked the off button and set the phone back
down, then rolled over and stared at her sleeping companion. Toby was adorable
asleep, the chipmunk cheeks eminently kissable, the short dark curls a scruff
that she longed to pet.

Ba-de-ba-ba.

Her phone rang again. She closed her eyes. She could ignore
it. She would ignore it. But he’d keep calling. She could turn the ringer off. But
eventually she’d have to deal with him.

“Where the hell are you?” she hissed into the phone.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He sounded contrite but also amused. Or
was that pleased with himself? Her eyes narrowed and she shifted to try to get
a look at the clock. It was after seven, but not much after.

“Your errand took you twenty hours,” she snapped, doing the
math with ease.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that,” he said. “Also, though, I
haven’t slept in, um, thirty, maybe?”

Akira blinked. She’d napped at Nora’s house after Zane and
Nora and Rose went off to the hospital. It hadn’t been good sleep, but it had
been some. And she’d dozed a little during the day. And at seven-thirty the
previous evening, when Toby started yawning, she’d put them both to bed with
relief. She might not be ready to wake up but that was because she hated waking
up, not because she needed sleep.

She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, phone to her
ear. “Are you tired, sweetie?” she asked with mock sympathy. “I’m in bed. Our
bed. It’s nice and warm, cozy and soft.” She let her voice drop to a croon.
“I’m wearing that silk tank top you like, the black one that’s too short, with
that weird v-neck and those tiny straps.”

“Are you really?” The groan behind the words was fully
satisfying.

“No, of course not,” she said, returning to her normal
voice. “I’ve got company. I’m wearing a t-shirt.”

He laughed. “I hope he doesn’t wet the bed.”

“Ugh. But no, I don’t think so.” She looked at Toby again.
The conversation hadn’t disturbed him. His sleep was deep and his breathing
even. “Where are you?”

“Nora’s getting released from the hospital at 8,” he said,
ignoring her question. “I’ve arranged for a ride home for her and the baby. Can
you be at the house by 9 to meet her?” 

“What about the sheriff?” Akira asked with a yawn. Zane had
refused to tell her where he was or what he was doing but they’d texted back
and forth the previous day about her worries.

“He’s holding off. He told Meredith that he’d check as soon
as he could but that they were real busy with Christmas week, vacations, and
that drug mess that just went down. It’ll be okay, though.”

“Mmm.” Akira closed her eyes.

“Don’t go back to sleep,” Zane ordered. “Akira? Come on,
babe, 9 o’clock at Nora’s house.”

“Hannah’s house,” Akira corrected him. That was the problem,
she thought sleepily. Whose house was it, really? Did it belong to the living
or to the dead?

“Nick’s house,” he corrected her. Ah, of course. But the
mysterious Nick was absent.

Abruptly, Akira sat up. “Did you find Nick?”

“Hmm.” Zane’s answer was a satisfied hum, wordless but still
revealing.

“Is it okay with him that Nora is there?” Akira demanded.
“Is he coming home? Will he tell Hannah to move on?”

“I’ll see you at the house, babe. As close to 9 as I can
manage.”
Click.

Akira glared at the phone. Then she smiled and shoved the
covers away. Almost two hours was plenty of time to find out what Toby thought
about tofu scrambled eggs.

*****

Nora looked both exhausted and radiant, Akira thought, as
the woman stepped out of the front seat of a black Mercedes sedan that had
pulled up in front of the house. Dave, a familiar face to Akira, stepped out of
the driver’s side and tapped his forehead at her in a friendly, casual salute.
She smiled at him as Toby raced down the path to his mother, who crouched down
to meet his hug.

Toby was talking and Nora was listening intently as Dave
walked around the car and opened the back door, reaching inside and unbuckling a
car seat. He pulled it out and motioned toward the house. “I’ll bring her in
for you, shall I?”

“Oh, no,” she protested, reaching for the handle of the car
seat, before grimacing and touching her abdomen briefly. “You’ve done too much.
I can get it.”

“Paycheck, remember?” he said cheerfully. “I do what the
boss says and it pays my mortgage. Doesn’t matter to me whether it’s flying
through a tornado or carrying a mite like this. You gotta figure you might be
saving my life, though, by keeping me away from those tornadoes.” He grinned at
her and she smiled back. Toby slipped his hand into hers and together they
followed Dave up the path.

“Howdy, Akira.” Dave nodded to her as Akira stood from her
seat on the porch steps, greeting him and hurrying to pull open the screened
door. He carried the baby inside and set her down on the floor by the couch,
before looking down at her and giving a shake of his head. “You ever seen
anything as tiny as that?” he asked Akira in a hushed voice as she joined him.