by AJ Sherwood
“Mack!” Mama Lafayette sounded thrilled down to her toes. “You’re coming! You naughty child, you should have told me so!”
“We literally got the call last night. We’ve been so busy getting on the road, I haven’t had a chance. I assume you heard from Edmée?”
“Yes, she just texted me. You’ll stay here?”
“No, likely not,” Mack said gently. “I have to stay at Edmée’s until I can figure out where that evil ghost is coming from. And after that, we need to work the next case. There’s another case at the university campus in Lafayette we’ll be working too. Mostly at night, but we can visit with you some during the day.”
“That’ll do. Of course, you’ll need to help Edmée and Cali first. Brandon’s coming?”
“Of course,” I assured her, finally finding a good spot to jump in. “It’ll be fun finally meeting you in person.”
“Oh, Brandon, I wasn’t aware you were listening in. Good, I’m so glad we can finally sit and have a proper chat with each other.”
“Yes ma’am, looking forward to it.”
Mack cleared his throat. “Mama, don’t you worry about buying me groceries. I’ll pick up things on the way in. I’ll be stopping at Whole Foods, so if there’s something you need, you text it to me and I’ll grab it along with everything else.”
“Bless you, mon angé, I was short on a few things but I haven’t had the time to get over there. You going to the Baton Rouge or the Lafayette one?”
“Baton Rouge.”
“Oh good. I’ll text you, but get me more of those gummies, I love those. And that yummy spaghetti sauce.”
“Sure.”
There was a distant call on her side of the phone. “Oh, my break’s over. I’ll get back to work. You come by and at least hug your mama, alright?”
“I wouldn’t dare do anything else,” Mack assured her with a smile on his face. “Bye, Mama.”
“You both drive safe now, you hear?” A blown kiss, then she hung up.
Part of this conversation confused me. “Is there a difference between the stores?”
“Baton Rouge is much larger and has things the other Whole Foods doesn’t. We always choose Baton Rouge’s if we have the time to go over there.”
“Gotcha. I take it you usually went grocery shopping with her?”
“Yeah. So I know more or less what to get even if she doesn’t send me a list.”
“They sell sugar or salt in bulk? Because I’m pretty sure we’ll need a lot.”
“No, but I’m not planning on barricading this entity,” Mack informed me flatly. “I’m just taking him out.”
“Now that plan I like. Can I shoot it?”
He gave me a feral smile. “Only if I don’t get to it first, cher.”
3
Opelousas hadn’t changed at all in the nine months or so I’d been gone. All the streets were still cracked and badly patched. The old ’60s storefronts were the same. The businesses lining the main street were unchanged, ranging from Mexican restaurants to Avon stores. Now that I had other places to compare it to, I realized my hometown was definitely the poorer relation. At least everything was clean and kept up.
Brandon studied it with interest. He didn’t say much, but his eyes kept sweeping either side of the street, taking it in. I had mixed feelings about him seeing the place. On the one hand, I wanted to take pride in my hometown. But truth was, even I didn’t like it much, and I wanted his opinion to match mine. As we passed the various stores, I saw ghosts wandering the sidewalk, only their manner of dress and slight transparency separating them from the living souls. A fine shudder raced over my skin, and I thanked heaven Brandon was driving. The ghost population had gotten worse, I’d swear on that.
I’d walked these streets often while growing up. With only one vehicle, and seven people, my mother hadn’t always been able to get her kids to the right place at the same time. Most of us ended up walking somewhere, or biking the few times we’d managed to lay hands on a bike. I hadn’t walked so much as run along these streets, trying to avoid the things I couldn’t understand. Or worse, the ones I did and needed to avoid at all costs. Driving along the main strip was like a tour of all the battles I’d survived in my childhood.
Yeah, couldn’t say that I missed the place at all.
“Your mom said to swing by and hug her first? Where’s she?”
“She works as a cashier at JB Sandoz. Hardware store on Main Street. Go straight, straight” —I indicated with two chops of my hand— “then turn straight at the light.”
“Honey.” Brandon blew out a breath, amused and patient. “Can you translate that for us non-Southerners?”
“Oh.” Right, people outside of Louisiana didn’t understand our directions. I’d learned that with Beau. “I meant, go straight through the next two lights then take a right at the third.”
“This is going to be fun, I see it now,” Brandon muttered, easing up on the brake as traffic started moving again. “People are going to be giving me interesting directions the entire time I’m down here. I take it that hand motion was supposed to tell me how many lights I go through?”
“Yeah,” I said, abashed. But then he grinned at me, amber eyes crinkling up in silent laughter, and I realized he was teasing. “You have to count how many straights someone tells you. That’ll also indicate how many lights or stop signs.”
“Yup, really interesting directions,” he said, already resigned. “Thank god for GPS.”
“Fortunately, we have addresses for most of where we need to go.”
JB Sandoz had been around for many, many years. It’d taken over an old factory, which was obvious at first glance. The orange brick building stretched out low to the ground, huge picture windows dominating the lower half of the building. There wasn’t much parking in front, just a long, narrow strip. Brandon parked near the front doors with the tailgate sticking out near the edge of the road.
We stepped out, and I was very grateful to escape the SUV for a few minutes. Shopping at Whole Foods had worked some of the kinks out of my thighs, but I still wasn’t looking forward to spending any more time in that car.
I stepped through the front door, the chime ringing above my head, and looked for my mother. She stood behind her cashier counter, and when her head came up, a smile lit up her face. Her tawny skin highlighted her smile, and she’d made some effort to look nice. Her curly dark hair was normally in a loose ponytail but today she’d tamed it into some sort of up-do bun. Trying to impress Brandon, perhaps?
“You’re finally here!”
She came around the edge of the white Formica counter and threw her arms around my waist, hugging me in tight. My mother was a petite wisp of a woman, and she tucked right in under my chin. I frowned a little as I hugged her back, as it felt like she’d lost weight. Maybe twenty pounds or so. I could feel the definition of her shoulder blades and ribs even through the t-shirt and store vest she wore. My mother hadn’t had twenty pounds to lose to begin with.
Dammit.
Pulling back, she gave me a wide smile. “You look good, mon bébé. This handsome man must be Brandon.”
I turned, my arm still tucked around her shoulders, and introduced the two of them. “Indeed he is. Brandon, meet Adélaide Lafayette.”
“Adelle,” she corrected, as she always did, and went up on tiptoes in order to hug Brandon hello. Brandon bent in half to meet her, and it looked awkward from my view just because of the height difference, but they both wore smiles stretching ear to ear.
“It’s enchanting to meet you,” Brandon told her, straightening.
“Likewise, chile, likewise. Mercy, Mack wasn’t joking, you’re a giant. What did your maman feed you growing up?”
Brandon grinned at her. “Everything.”
“I believe it!” She turned to me and said seriously, “You made good time, and I’m glad for it, mon bébé. It’s been bad at Edmée’s. Bed bugs infested her house and we couldn’t get them out for love or money. Th
at lousy landlord of hers refused to do anything about it. I helped her move out quick, but it’s been a real ordeal. She lost most of her furniture in the move.”
I winced. “No wonder she moved, then. How’s Cali?”
“Scared and clingy, and we don’t blame her. I got you two bags of road salt here behind the counter. Dylan’s donated it to the cause. Road salt’s okay for this, isn’t it?”
“Any salt’s good for it,” I assured her. “And thank Dylan for me. We only popped in to say hello. I’ll swing by the house first, put groceries away. Then we’ll be at Edmée’s.”
“Don’t put anything in the freezer,” she requested.
Oh god. She still hadn’t replaced the fridge? But I’d sent her money for it…no, I bet I knew where the money had gone. “Still, huh? Alright. Anything frozen we’ll leave at Edmée’s for now.” I hugged her again and promised, “We’ll spend proper time with you later.”
“You don’t worry about me, you go save that baby and your cousin.” Pulling back, she touched Brandon’s arm lightly. “You both be safe, alright? I’ll cook dinner for you tomorrow.”
“Looking forward to it,” Brandon promised her.
We fetched the twenty-pound bags of road salt—just what did my mother think I was going to do, exorcise a whole graveyard?—and loaded back in.
As Brandon backed out of the space, he asked, “What’s wrong with the freezer?”
“It’s little better than a cupboard now, stopped freezing things several months ago. Fridge part of it still works.” I rubbed at my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “I sent her money last month to replace it with.”
“And she didn’t. So where did the money go?”
“One of those things I’ll have to find out.” And if my oldest, lazy brother was behind it, I’d skin him alive.
I gave him directions to my mother’s house. I took in his expression anxiously as he pulled into the gravel driveway.
The little white house had a Victorian flair, with the sunburst woodwork near the crest of the roof peak, and the decorative trim work along the porch’s roofline. It was quaint, only a three bedroom, and had never been large enough to fit all of us kids into. My mother had bought it for twenty-six thousand when she and my father were first married. They’d fixed things as they broke, but never did the upkeep and repairs the house really needed. It unfortunately showed in the peeling white paint, faded green shutters, and the warped front porch boards. The haint blue ceiling of the porch was so faded it looked grey now.
I’d seen how the Havilis took pride in their houses. Nothing was out of place, it was all in good repair and updated. Jon’s place was much the same. My mother’s house looked shabby in comparison, and I winced internally at the comparison.
Brandon’s face gave no indication how he felt about the house. “Let’s get the groceries unloaded,” was all he said. “We’ll worry about her fridge and water heater later, when we have time for it.”
“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. And now that the reality was sinking in, I wasn’t sure how I felt about him taking on something that wasn’t his to shoulder.
I’d kept my mother’s section of the groceries in the back seat, separate from what I’d take to Edmée’s, so they were easy to grab between the two of us. I still had the key to the house on my key ring, and I unlocked the side kitchen door for us. Stepping in, I took an anxious look around, trying to eyeball the situation. It didn’t look good.
The mold-stained walls were the same as always, the white cabinets in need of sanding and painting, the linoleum discolored with age. Nothing had changed in that sense but there were telltale signs something was amiss.
My mother was a good baker, and growing up, she’d always had a loaf of bread made up and sitting in a towel on the kitchen table. It had been the cheapest and easiest way to keep her children’s bellies full, and it was habit even now. I didn’t see any bread on the table or any signs she’d made some recently. Opening the cupboards, I found rice, condiments, and precious little else. The fridge held a half pint of milk and a slab of butter. The vegetables in the drawer came from her box gardens out back. I knew the source of those.
Anger overtook me, and I slammed a fist into the side of the fridge. Dammit, Georgie, damn your black rotten soul.
“Honey,” Brandon said in a mild rumble that sounded like an earthquake was imminent. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
I sighed low, trying to get my temper under control. “My eldest brother Georgie is a leech. He can’t make a living, constantly getting fired or walking out of jobs when he shouldn’t. Mama’s forever bailing him out when she don’t have two silver dimes to rub together herself. If there’s such little food in the house, and she didn’t use the money I gave her for a new fridge, odds are it went to Georgie somehow.”
“Ah. And you’re blaming yourself for this.”
Strangely, I was. I wasn’t sure why. I kept my eyes on the fridge as I answered him, as I couldn’t look up just then. “I didn’t want to come back here. I was happy to escape this place. But my mama, Brandon—I love that woman to pieces. I should have thought more of her.”
“Mack,” he sighed, and two arms wrapped around my shoulders, hugging me into that broad, warm chest of his. “You call her two or three times a week, text her constantly, keep track of her. You sent her money to help. You’re being a good son. It’s not your fault your older brother is a douchebag.”
I turned and burrowed into him. The clean, citrusy smell of his bodywash tickled my nose and it was somehow comforting. I wanted to believe him. Rationally, I did. It was just… “She’s about twenty pounds lighter than she was.”
“Shit. I thought she was rail thin. But some people are naturally that way, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Alright, honey, you breathe. We will work out a way to fix this. And I will help with the fridge and water heater and whatever else is broken, okay? We’ll take an extra day or two down here if we need to. Don’t stress about this.”
I nodded against his chest, taking comfort in him like I rarely had in anyone else. Brandon always followed through on whatever he’d promised. I had faith this time wouldn’t be any different. Although the fridge and water heater were mine to deal with, not his.
“Come on, let’s put all this away. We’ll order a pizza or something for her tonight so she doesn’t have to cook.”
We did have to get to Edmée’s. “That’s a grand thought. Let’s do that, she rarely gets pizza.”
The groceries were put away in a minute and then back in the car we went. I had to look up Edmée’s address, but it turned out she lived barely three streets over in one of the small Monopoly houses. It looked a sight better than my mother’s, but Edmée also made a better living. She’d inherited a small amount from her grandmother about ten years back and went to trade school with it. Edmée was a plumber now and made decent money.
I’d texted her when we hit city limits, so she knew we were coming in soon, and she popped out the door with Cali in her arms as we parked in the driveway. The smile on her face looked dim with worry. My cousin had always been from the prettier side of the family, her dusky amber skin clear and a perfect complement to her soft black hair. She’d chopped her hair short since I’d seen her, but the style suited her, framing her heart-shaped face.
Cali was very much her mother’s child except she had apple-green eyes where Edmée’s were dark brown. I saw those eyes go wide with delight as she recognized me. She held out both arms towards me in demand. “Boo!”
“Did she just say boo?” Brandon asked in amusement.
“That’s what she calls me. No idea why. Hey, Cali. Come give me a hug.”
The toddler came directly into my arms without hesitation, snuggling in with a sigh of satisfaction, although she kept her eyes on Brandon, studying this new person with curiosity.
Edmée hugged me despite the toddler in my arms and breathed out a shaky sigh of relief. “Merci, mon angé.”
“None of that,” I chided with a smile. “Edmée, my boyfriend and partner, Brandon Havili. Brandon, this is Edmée and Cali.”
“Pleasure,” he said in his deep voice.
Edmée had to crane her neck up to see his face properly—she was about as tall as my mother; height did not run in my family—and I could tell she was both taken in and intimidated by him. “Enchanté, Brandon. Thank you so much for coming. I’m sure you’re both anxious to eat something and get settled. Come in, come in.”
The inside of the little square house was clean but disorganized, and I could see the influence of her recent, hectic move in the boxes stacked in the corners and along the walls. The house held a faint hint of smoke, something she was trying to bury under air fresheners. There was a couch, TV, and a coffee table in the living room and not much else. The little round table in the kitchen nearly swallowed the room. But the place was in good repair, just in need of a fresh coat of paint.
I kept Cali close and safe while we brought in groceries, sleeping bags, and luggage. She didn’t say much to me and that worried me as my little cousin was generally a chatterbox. I wished I’d had a chance to get something for her, a toy of some sort, but we’d not had time.
“I brought you strawberries,” I told her, hoping to get a smile back on that little face.
She lit up and startled wriggling. “Where? Berries, where?”
“You’re such a fruit bat,” her mother laughed. “I’m sure they’re in one of these brown bags. You hand me stuff to put in the fridge and we’ll find them together.”
Brandon took an exaggerated breath inwards. “God, I don’t know what that smell is, but it’s killing me.”
Amused, I answered, “That, cher, is jambalaya.”
He looked down at me doubtfully. “I’ve had jambalaya before. It didn’t smell that way.”
“That’s because we haven’t lost the recipe down here,” Edmée assured him dryly.
“Berries!” Cali exclaimed in triumph, seizing the box.