Shade and the Skinwalkers

by Marilyn Peake

  As though noticing me for the first time, Kai’s mom waved to me and said, “Hi, Shade! I’m so glad my daughter has you for a friend. You’ll look out for her, right?”

  I said, “Definitely. She’s been staying at my house. We just celebrated Thanksgiving together.”

  After that, we all sat and talked. Kai filled her mom in about things happening in her life. A mom and daughter catching up on things, nothing more. Eventually, the fog swirling around Kai’s mom completely disappeared. She looked more like Brandon: almost solid, but not quite. For a brief span of time, it was like Kai’s mom had never died.

  After a couple of hours, Kai’s mom said, “Hey, someone’s here to visit.”

  A split second later, Kai’s Aunt Doli floated into the room. She had the exact same degree of substance as Brandon, Kai’s mom at that moment and all the other ghosts I’d ever met. Her black hair still had a red arrowhead shape on top. Placing a hand on Kai’s head, she said, “How are you, my dear niece? I’m so happy to see you!”

  Kai started crying uncontrollably with what seemed a mixture of sadness and joy. She was visibly shaking. Trying to wrap her arms around her Aunt Doli, she passed right through her.

  Kai said, “You’re not in cat form. I thought I’d never see you again!”

  Her aunt said, “My body will forever be a cat, but not my spirit.”

  Kai’s mom interrupted her. “She already knows how it works. I told her.”

  Suddenly, Kai had a question. “You’re not just glamoured, are you?”

  Kai’s Aunt Doli asked, “Glamoured?”

  Kai said, “Yeah, like at your funeral. Your body was glamoured, so that people could see you in your human form, even though you’d died in animal form.”

  Kai’s aunt laughed. She said, “No, no, not at all. I don’t think the faeries have any control over things like that in the afterlife. This is us—your mom and me—in spirit form.”

  Kai’s mom said, “Maybe that’ll change later, if we reincarnate or something. We don’t really know how it all works. All I know is I’m not in any hurry. I’m enjoying my time here with you, Kai. And the time back in my house. I feel happy here.”

  Kai said, “That reminds me. I have a question about the house. How have I not gotten kicked out of it yet? Who’s paying for it? And what about your boyfriend? I’m scared to death he’ll come back here.”

  Kai’s mom looked at her aunt. She said, “I had some money saved up. I made out a check to the landlord that covers our rent until September and popped it into a mailbox. I wasn’t sure I could do that in ghost form, but it turns out I can. You can stay here at least until then, no problem. And as far as my boyfriend goes...”

  She and Kai’s aunt started laughing.

  Finally, Kai’s aunt said, “I discovered we’re capable of haunting. I also discovered we’re capable of making rather frightening sounds and facial expressions. Let’s just say I paid a little visit to your mom’s boyfriend and scared the crap out of him. I told him to stay away from this trailer park or I’d come back and get him. It made a rather strong impression on him, let me tell you. I doubt he’ll ever be back here again.”

  Kai’s mom shook her head and laughed hysterically. She was free now. I felt happy for her, even though I knew Kai missed her deeply.

  CHAPTER 22

  The Christmas season was magical. And I don’t just mean because I found out that magical creatures like ghosts and faeries and shifters are real. It felt magical because after struggling through so much pain our entire lives, Kai and I finally had a season of joy. I started wondering if that’s how most people lived. It was so new to me, it felt like I’d been wearing a space helmet on my head my entire life, then suddenly discovered I could breathe the air.

  Kai and I were both happy that she got to stay in her trailer and that her mom’s boyfriend wasn’t coming back. I seriously wished I could have seen her Aunt Doli scare the crap out of that guy. That must have been quite a scene.

  Kai’s mom told us she was pretty sure she could stick around at least through Christmas. She said that in the afterlife you kind of had intuition about where you were supposed to be and how long you’d get to stay there or what you had to do to move on to the next stage. She beamed with delight as she said to Kai, “Oh my gosh, this must be how things always feel to you as an empath! You just sense things about reality. I’ve never been able to do that before.”

  She said that we should go do whatever we were going to do before she made herself visible to us because she’d be around for a while. She turned to her sister and said, “You, too, right? Do you have the same sense that I do, that we’ll be around at least through Christmas?”

  Kai’s aunt shook her head yes with enthusiasm. She said, “Yes! Yes, I do! This makes me so happy.”

  We said, “Goodbye, see you later,” and left for the mall. There was a really cool all-year Christmas store there, as well as lots of Christmas decorations being sold in other stores.

  It took us both by surprise, but we were actually going shopping on Black Friday. And looking forward to it!

  We decided we’d buy lots of things to decorate Kai’s trailer. Her family had never done that before. She said, “A couple years, my mom threw a few strands of lights over some bushes outside our house; but that was it. I was lucky if I got more than a few lame gifts.”

  We super-bonded over this. I said, “Yeah, me, too!” and we high-fived each other like it had been a good thing or something. I think we were just so happy it was over.

  We decided we’d try to make Christmas special for both our moms. Kai said, “This is my last chance.”

  I said, “You don’t know that. My necklace keeps lighting up. I half-expect to see Brandon all the time and his grandmother’s contacted me again, right? I bet your mom and Aunt Doli will keep coming back to see you, especially for important events in your life. I bet they’ll show up at your wedding, if you ever get married.”

  Kai vigorously shook her head no and laughed. She said, “Naw. Don’t even go there. After seeing my mom’s messed-up relationships, I am not planning to get trapped inside a marriage with legal documents. Better to have the freedom to exit quickly if things go wrong.”

  I thought about it for a split second, then said, “Yeah. It’s not on my top list of things to do either, that’s for sure. I have so much else I need to straighten out in my life first.”

  Kai drove to the mall. Wow, was it crowded!

  It was fun, though. The Christmas store had everything we could possibly hope for. We had no idea there would be that many lights to choose from. Bubble lights. Regular lights. Large bulbs, small bulbs, teeny-tiny bulbs. White lights or blue, green or red lights or multi-colored lights. The multi-colored lights could be primary colors only or could include purple. The lights could blink or not blink or have an option for both. There were even lights set into clear rope and curtains of lights. And strands of lights with an option to play music!

  And the garland. More choices! The fake strands made to look like pine tree branches looked absolutely real. Some had plastic red berries or fake snow in them. And there were shiny silver and gold ones.

  Like kids in a candy store ... or kids on Christmas morning ... we walked through aisle after aisle with amazement and awe.

  Kai said, “I want to buy a tree! We only ever had a tiny one that my mom plopped on a table every year.”

  I said, “How are you going to afford that?”

  Kai said, “I had some money saved up. It took me years of saving everything I ever had, but I grabbed it before I left to stay at your place. I’d hid it behind some books in my room, so my mom’s stupid boyfriend wouldn’t find it. Every once in a while, he’d trash our whole house, looking for cash and spare change to buy booze. My mom had a secret stash, too—in a flowerpot at the bottom of fake soil under a fake plant. I grabbed that, too.” Kai froze. She said, “Oh, no. My mom’s going to think I stole her money...”

  I laughed before I could
stop myself. I said, “No, she won’t, Kai. She doesn’t need the money anymore. She would have expected you to take it after she ... after she...” Oh, God, I’d stepped in it. Me and my big mouth!

  Kai looked upset. She said, “Died! Right? After she died! Why don’t you just say it?”

  I put my arm around her. I said, “I’m sorry, Kai. She’s back, though. I just wanted to tell you that I don’t think she’d mind you taking the money. I think she’d be proud that you were smart enough to remember where it was and to take it, to survive on your own.” Oh my God, I was reminding her that she was all alone. I should just shut up! Kai didn’t seem to notice, so I continued. “And I’m sure she was glad her boyfriend wouldn’t find the money!”

  Kai smiled. She said, “Yeah. You’re probably right.”

  I still had money from working at The Daily Buzz in my old town. I had saved almost all of it. Like Kai, I tended to hoard money because it was so hard to come by.

  After several hours walking through the store, we decided on what we’d buy. We each filled two carts, so we pushed one and dragged one. And then drove around to the loading dock to pick up the fake Christmas trees we’d purchased.

  Exhausted, we headed off to the food court to fortify ourselves with cheeseburgers and Diet Coke. As soon as the sugar and caffeine and protein kicked in, we went shopping for Christmas gifts.

  Kai struggled with whether or not to buy gifts for her mom and aunt. She felt she really wanted to get them something; but wasn’t sure that made sense, considering they probably didn’t have any use for material stuff anymore.

  I could tell this made her feel desperately sad. She wanted this Christmas to be special. I said, “Why don’t you get them something pretty to look at, so they know you were thinking of them?”

  Kai thought that was perfect. She bought them each an Angel Christmas Candle Carousel that was really cool. Heat from the candles rises when they’re lit and makes the metal angels spin around, looking like they’re flying.

  I wanted to get one so badly for my mom, but I still had an automatic reflex that made me cringe when I thought about her falling asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and nearly burning down our house.

  Yeah, no. That was not going to happen. I’d get something else for her. In the end, I picked out a necklace made of pink and white cultured freshwater pearls. The day was full of surprises. I had no idea that such a thing existed. They were a lot less expensive than regular pearls, and really pretty.

  I thought about getting the same thing for Kai, but I didn’t think she’d appreciate me giving her the same kind of thing I gave my mom.

  Then an idea hit me. I told Kai I wanted to go off by myself for a while to buy her gift. She agreed, happily, and said she was about to say the same thing in order to get my gift.

  I bought Kai a DVD collection of all the Teen Titans shows.

  When we got back together again, Kai had a big grin on her face. I wondered what she’d gotten me.

  CHAPTER 23

  Every day leading up to Christmas, Kai went home to spend time with her mom and Aunt Doli. I went over sometimes, too, but I tried to give her space and some time alone with them.

  A couple of times, we played board games together. Watching Kai’s mom and aunt move game pieces around was a lot like watching Brandon play Angry Birds on a cell phone. Just like how he floated a stylus in the air and made it tap the touch screen, they made their pieces float and hover and finally land where they wanted them. Once, Kai’s aunt got frustrated over losing too many houses to Kai’s mom in a game of Monopoly and she made them fly off the table and slam into a wall, rather than returning them to the bank like she was supposed to. I sensed a bit of sibling rivalry between her and Kai’s mom.

  Every night, Kai and I wandered around our neighborhood, admiring the Christmas lights and decorations. Most of the trailers had minimal decorations—just a few strands of lights and maybe a plastic Santa or two. It was expensive to run extra lights. But a couple of places: man, you’d swear those people lived in a trailer park just to save up enough money to light up their homes at Christmastime. I was pretty sure you’d be able to see their bling from outer space.

  I have to admit, I hoped those people never moved away. Standing in front of their homes was like having a free ticket to Disney World. OK, maybe not Disney World, but certainly an amusement park.

  On Christmas Eve, my mom made a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy and side dishes of vegetables and biscuits. Kai and I had spent a couple of days making batches of Christmas cookies. We had a blast making the sugar cookies, rolling the dough and using cookie cutters to make lots of different shapes. My favorites were the snowmen with candy eyes and chocolate chip buttons. We also made outer space aliens because ... well, why not? We painted them with green frosting and gave them their usual black eyes, but we added a red bow against their green necks. Voilà, Christmas colors.

  Our houses looked wonderful. Kai cleaned her trailer and decorated. She hung strands of twinkling white lights and non-blinking colored lights from the ceilings in the living room and bedrooms. She decorated her Christmas tree with silver garland, shiny Christmas balls and colored lights that blinked at any of five different speeds.

  My mom had bought a tree the same day as I did, so we ended up having two of them. Right there in the living room: two Christmas trees! I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven.

  After dinner, while we were sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows, munching on Christmas cookies and admiring the decorations on the two trees, my cell phone rang. It was Annie! Her mom was staying true to her word, letting Annie visit me over Christmas vacation. She wondered: could she come the day after Christmas? My answer: Hell, yeah, she could! Then I remembered I should probably ask my mom. My mom said, “The more, the merrier,” so Christmas vacation had just improved itself all over again.

  Before we went to bed, my mom piled some gifts under the tree and told us we could do the same. It was a beautiful sight: all those packages wrapped in paper colorfully decorated with Santas and reindeer and candy canes.

  My mom added an extra surprise. She brought two fuzzy red Christmas stockings out of her bedroom, one stitched with my name across the top and the other stitched with Kai’s name. They were practically bursting with things stuffed inside. Hanging them from the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, she said, “Just pretend these are from Santa. I’m too old to stay up until you fall asleep.” Had she ever done that? I couldn’t remember. Growing up, I’d never had any great gifts in my stocking.

  I had a lot of trouble sleeping that night. Somehow, Kai fell fast asleep. I tried to be quiet. I mostly stared at the ceiling. My necklace started glowing, so I stared at the beautiful blue light until it extinguished itself. Finally, sometime in the wee hours of the morning, I slipped into sleep without realizing I was headed there.

  We woke to the sounds of cabinets opening and closing, the clanging of pots and pans and the wonderful smell of pancakes. Pancakes! I couldn’t remember when I’d last had homemade pancakes.

  Kai and I went out to the kitchen in our pajamas. My mom said, “Hey, sleepyheads, Merry Christmas!”

  We sat at the counter. A few minutes later, my mom served us stacks of pancakes with little bits of sliced apple inside. I slathered those puppies with as much butter and syrup as I possibly could without causing a storm surge over the side of my plate. Kai did the same.

  After wolfing down breakfast, we went into the living room. My mom told us to find the packages addressed to us. She said it would be fun if we took turns opening one present at a time, so we could all share the experience. That turned out to be a great idea.

  Thank goodness, my mom and Kai liked what I’d gotten them.

  The presents they’d gotten me were incredibly thoughtful and awesome.

  Kai gave me a set of oil paints and brushes and two canvases. I had mentioned to her a couple of times that I’d love to take up oil painting some
day. That had been a while ago and I hadn’t mentioned it since. Even with all the crazy things going on in our lives, she remembered!

  My mom actually gave me a blue cashmere cardigan sweater with white pearl buttons. It would go perfectly with the blue necklace Brandon gave me, although I’d probably need a bodyguard to wear that to school. They both looked expensive. She also got me the coolest ankle-high suede boots lined with fake fur and a bunch of T-shirts that I could totally wear anywhere.

  Kai and I had a blast going through our stockings. My mom had stuffed them with candy bars, chocolate coins wrapped in golden tinfoil, candy canes and a few pairs of Christmas socks. Those gifts were pure nostalgia, bringing back my happiest childhood memories of Christmas.

  While we were trying on our new socks, my mom opened the curtains. It was snowing! I hadn’t expected that. Back East, we got a ton of snow and there was always a good chance we’d have a White Christmas. But, here, in the desert?

  It was like Kai and I had traveled back in time and turned six again.

  I pulled on my new suede boots. Kai put on some sneakers. We raced outside in our flannel pajamas. We stuck out our tongues to try and eat the falling snow, but it was too light and too scarce. This wasn’t an East Coast blizzard. This was a soft dusting of snow.

  As we lay down and started swinging our arms to make snow angels, my mom turned on the outdoor Christmas lights. The reflections twinkled against the blanket of snow like faeries dancing, flapping their wings made of pure color. Everything was magical. Everything was serene.

  CHAPTER 24

  The next day, Annie arrived! She seemed so normal and relaxed, actually better than she’d ever seemed when we hung out together. She’d lost a lot of her anger.