35 9.4

Chapter Nine

Part Four

"You are so dense," I spat at my brother before racing off after Nana.

She didn't even look at me. Nana was removing herself from us as quickly as possible. That meant that she had defiantly made plans! She wanted to go someplace in a hurry. Why? Who on Earth was she meeting or for that matter where would she go?

There was something incredibly fishy going on.

"You want me to go with you," I called behind her.

Nana's voice pleasantly cut me off.

"No, it's fine."

I glared, "I can drive you."

"No, you should stay home with your brother."

I reared back, blown over.

Me? Stay with Gavin? Especially after fighting all afternoon, was she crazy?

Nana, in her right mind, wouldn't dare have left my brother and I to our own devices after an argument. Especially as heated as we had gotten. She would have made tea at some point and made us apologize to one another. She wouldn't just ditch us. This Nana was different. This Nana had something worrying her so much that apparently it was worse than the two of us fighting.

I followed her right to her bedroom door.

Unable to hide my worry I remarked, "You're acting extremely strange."

"Well, it's been a weird day."

With unyielding confidence, I added, "You're running away from me."

She paused her hand twisting the knob on her door. Letting it go she laughed. Her tinkling laughter was way too sweet and nauseating.

"Running away? Oh, come on! How am I running away from you?"

"You just ran to your bedroom like your pants were on fire," I pressed harder, "I get the feeling that something we said bothered you."

Her hand hovered over the doorknob again. I saw just the slightest of a trimmer before she gripped it.

"Well of course it did," she berated, "A lot of what the both of you said bothered me. You two were fighting like cats and dogs up there! I did not raise you two to act like that."

She wasn't wrong. That was a correct assessment but that wasn't what I meant.

She knew it because she quickly added, "I'm going to see a friend."

"What friend?"

She opened the door and finally faced me. The smile was painted on her pale white face.

"Am I not allowed to have a friend?"

My eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You never visit them this time of the day."

"Mrs. Winters," Nana pipped as if that should have been sufficient.

It wasn't.

"You mean Mrs. Winters from church? Doesn't she come here?"

Nana shrugged, "I'm sure your aware that she's been in the hospital. She can't come here."

Mrs. Winters was a Church Lady that would stop buy from time to time. It had been a while since she had, and Nana really didn't hang out with others much. She preferred being around me and Gavin. However, she had only brought up Mrs. Winters now. Why?

Like she'd been reading my thoughts Nana chided, "Didn't you know she'd fallen? She broke a bone poor thing."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said still showering Nana with my questionable expression.

"I've not gone to visit her since she fell," she reasoned, "I have time now to go. What sort of friend am I if I don't visit her?"

"It's just weird that you want to go now, and you hate hospitals."

"It's not that weird," she rebuked waving my concern off, "after the day we've had I'd like to get out some."

"You hate hospitals," I reminded her again.

She shrugged, "Nobody likes hospitals."

"But you HATE hospitals."

She hated them because if she was recognized, she'd get cornered. Loved ones of people in the hospital would beg her to tell them about their family, sometimes becoming mean when she would refuse. There were other times that she would get visions while in the hospital, or worse be reminded of when our Papaw had died.

Turning she paused.

"It…would mean a lot to Mrs. White if I visited."

"I'm sure," I said dryly.

Jerking Nana looked back at me worried again.

"No …canoodling," she quickly whispered, struggling to find the right words, "you know with the Guardian! You…stay home."

My stink face spurred her to quickly add, "Until you know what he wants from you I do NOT want to near him. We don't know what…he's…capable of."

That gave me pause. It was in the way she had said the last part, that sat funny with me.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't trust him anymore, "she said adamantly, "As much as it hurts me to say, we really have no idea who he is. Our family has trusted him for generations, but it's startling to find out that he's here…in the flesh and…canoodling with my…"

"I get it."

"See that you and Gavin have some dinner. I'll be busy tonight…at the hospital."

I opened my mouth and froze.

She planned to say out past dinner?

With that she promptly shut the door in my face.

Wide eyed, I stood flummoxed. It was like everything had become cattywampus.

"What's wrong with you?"

Gavin was at the end of the hall. He stood popsicle in hand.

I looked at him, in all his casualness. Shaking my head, I could have slapped him silly.

I pointed at Nana's door.

He glowered at me, obnoxiously reasoning, "Well, what were you expecting?"

I blanched.

Giving a look at Nana's door I jogged towards Gavin.

Conspiratorially I whispered as low as possible.

"No," I spat urgently, hissing, "Forget about me for a second Gavin!"

"Well, it's sort of hard…," he started to say before I grabbed his arm.

I cut him sort, yanking him down towards me.

"No! She's being really REALLY strange."

Using the only example his poor brain could understand I said," Nana said for us to get our own dinner."

Gavin's eyes shot wide. It looked like I had just said that a meteor was coming and everyone on Earth was about to die.

Clambering he gasped, "What?"

Go figure! It was the mention of no food that triggered him.

Pushing me aside, he threw his popsicle stick at me. I quickly grappled to catch the thing as he stomped down the hallway.

On a holler he called, "Nana! Now let's not do anything crazy here!"

I quickly followed him, pausing just before her door. He reached up knocking on it.

"Nana," he said a little more panicked, "Are you listening? I realize today has been difficult, but that doesn't mean we can't sit down for a meal together."

She didn't respond. Instead, what followed his speech was the noise of her dresser drawers being opened.

"Alright," he winced, "I'm sorry! I will never fight like that with Circe again! I promise!"

The door opened so fast that Gavin leapt up into the air. Plastered with his back to the wall he looked as if she just scared the crap out of him.

She clicked her tongue shaking her head.

"I ain't listening to the garbage your spewing Son. I know just as well as you do that you and little missy here," Nana spared me a glance, "will start a arguing about something."

"Well, ok," Gavin swallowed, realizing he couldn't pull the wool over her eyes, "you got me. Yea we will probably fight again but I promise not like this!"

"Oh, you do," she rolled her eyes walking past me.

"Seriously," he pipped following her.

Like two ducklings we trailed behind Nana.

"Like seriously Nana we argue all the time and you know we always make up! That's what we do," he pleaded, "we fight, we laugh, we cry, and we eat together."

Slowing down only a second Nana tossed over her shoulder, "You don't need me for food."

"Well sure," I said joining his argument, "but you know we always sit down and have a meal together no matter what."

"Making up doesn't always include food," she argued back.

Gavin sputtered looking her up and down like she'd become someone completely different.

"Who are you," he gasped, "This ain't the Nana I know! She'd always been up my butt about making up over dinner!"

Nana stopped just before the door and slipped on her aqua marine windbreaker.

She was defiantly going someplace.

Laughing sardonically, she sang, "Well you can do that. I don't need to be around for that. You know I got a life too."

Gavin's mouth fell to the floor like a cartoon.

"What's going on with Nana," he wheezed astounded at me.

I glared at him.

Why did he think it was all my fault?

Following her close on her heels as she started lacing her shoes he continued with a pinched voice.

"Do we need to take you to the hospital?"

She turned and smiled at Gavin. It was the first genuine smile I had seen since we hiked up the mountain. Did she somehow find this amusing?

"Oh, stop being so dramatic you two. It's one night," she scoffed.

Reaching out her hand she ruffled his dark hair, musing, "Can't you live without my cooking for one night? How are you ever going to find a wife acting like that?"

"I don't need one," balked, Gavin complaining further, "It's just out of the blue!"

My brother was on the dollar with that one.

Nana was an over sharer. She'd tell us not only who, but when, where, and why she wanted to visit someone. Driving made her nervous. She'd typically ask one of us to take her, but not today.

Today Nana decided to visit a hospital she hated, and visit her friend, which was very unlike her. She never visited hospitals for very understandable reasons.

What made her deviate from waiting to visit after Mrs. White was discharged? That's usually what she'd do. Nana would bring food, offer to take care of stuff, grocery shop, or whatever that person needed.

Hands on her hips Nana staired pointedly at us. Once at me and then my brother. I saw her face darken.

"I'm going to go. You two," she ordered, using her crooked finger to drive it home, "best be nice to each other. I don't want to clean up bodies."

"Nana," my brother wailed, "you can't be serious!"

"Where are you going exactly," I chimed in, more worried about that than food, "it's not like you to drive on your own. You hate driving."

Squishing her lips into a tiny bud, Nana answered simply, "I'll call if it gets too late."

I shook my head.

"That's not going to work," I said very a matter of fact, "You can't drive if it gets dark. You hate traffic. You said just last week that it gave you the shakes. I don't understand why one of us doesn't take you."

Trying to hide her frustration she hid it underneath a halfhearted smile.

"I'm old not an invalid. You act like I have no life."

I wasn't going to say it, but Nana's life was with us. Outside of family and using her gift, she had no life. None of us did.

"I'm not saying that you don't have a life. I know you do," I said with reason, "but I also know you can't see well in the dark. That worries me. It's too late for you to dive from the hospital to the house all alone at night. Why don't you let one of us take you, or even wait until tomorrow?"

She paused.

"I can't do that."

"Why not," I begged, my voice starting to show the strain I felt, "What makes visiting Mrs. White so imperative that it can't wait?"

I watched her determination filter across her face as soon as I had finished speaking. I realized with absolute certainty that Nana was not going to budge. It was pasted all over her face before she had even taken a breath to speak.

"Let me remind you Circe, I don't have to tell you everything I'm doing. I'm the adult here remember."

I opened my mouth. Shutting it as quickly as it had fallen, I knew she wasn't going to listen. She was going to leave.

My brother looked at her like he'd just been insulted.

"We aren't kids anymore.".

"Well then stop acting like one," Nana griped, "If it gets too dark, I'll give y'all a call. Until then, I'll be gone."

Nana left though the front door.

The glass door swung back slowly, the air squeezing. The Whooshing out of the hydraulics at the top of the door, matched the gasp of our own.

We stood both watching her walk down the porch steps, speechless.

Gavin shook his head, in little motions, coming to life while I was still immobile.

Breathing ruggedly, he said simply, "Why's Nana not making dinner?"

Dryly, inch by inch I turned to study my brother.

How one person could be so dim?

"That," I spat in disbelief, "is what your worried about?"

He looked at me panicked, "No, but you can't say it's not weird."

"Oh my gosh Gavin," I complained, pinching my nose, "You didn't notice her acting weird at all in the woods?"

He wrinkled his face at me.

"We were fighting," he said, "She never likes arguments."

I rolled my eyes.

"No! She was like running to get back to the house," I pointed out the door as if her determination to leave alone was proof, "She never runs! Says it messes up her hair!"

Gavin faced outside again, his gears in his brain screeching against each other.

"The only time I've ever seen the woman run was when she was chased by a bee."

"She HATES driving," I added.

Gavin shrugged, "Nobody likes driving…unless they got a Dodge Challenger."

"She has never, not one time after Papaw died, entered the hospital."

He breathed, in denial, at first and then slowly considered my defense.

"You really think…she's like…doing us dirty," he asked carefully, his words picking up traction, until he hurriedly said, "Nana doesn't lie she only dances around the truth!"

"By answering questions, we didn't ask."

"Or changing the subject," he gasped pointing at me.

Halleluiah the bells had finally rang for him.

Sometimes it truly hurt having to explain things to him. Especially when they should have been obvious, like pink elephant in the room obvious. I really liked to think that he wasn't stupid. Gavin just had a lot of other things going on his mind, that took precedence over what was in his face.

He shook his head brooding, "If she's not going to meet Mrs. White, then who else would she be meeting?"

"I don't know."

"Wouldn't she'd tell us," he stated irritated.

"Not if she didn't want us to know. I mean, Nana had a life before us, heck before Mom, and we don't know what all she did. She could be meeting anyone."

"But why," he griped, looking out after her, "what would make her want to meet some secret person randomly?"

I pointed at the door just as Nana's car sounded from outside.

"Something we did…or said triggered her."

Gavin opened his mouth and then closed it. He certainly did not appreciate what I was implying but a fact was a fact. We had initiated something, whether or not it was a memory, or idea I couldn't say.

I faced Gavin watching his broody face smooth out into a blank expression. He'd come to terms with what I alleged.

"She didn't look good when we were coming back to the house," he admitted, "I thought it was something I said."

"Well of all the crap you said I would have no idea what it could have been," I said sardonically, "because your mouth was a garbage can."

His brown eyes narrowed at me.

"Could have been something you said or did. You weren't no Angel either."

I shrugged.

Gavin wasn't completely wrong. I had said a lot of things I didn't like too.

Gavin's face twisted into worry.

"Shit," he said painfully, "something feels really bad, but I don't know what it is."

He looked at me, searching my face to see if I felt it too.

I nodded as I faced outside. I felt it too. As Nana's car started tolling into my line of vision on the driveway I wanted to run out and block her car. What if she put herself in danger? I mean right now she'd safely had stayed hidden. Could this put her on the other Vampire's radar?

"When someone deviates from their typical behavior, it usually didn't spell out anything good."

I looked up at Gavin impressed.

"Did you read that from a book?"

He didn't react to my jest and continued saying, "Especially when their so regimented. Nana has a schedule. She likes to do things her way, the same way every day."

I felt my chest squeeze with anxiety.

To some they wouldn't notice but we did. Nana liked to say home. She'd work around the house, plant flowers, or work in the garden. I knew it was just in case someone stopped by. She wanted to be available to those who needed her. Also, she'd never admit to it but, it was for our parents too.

My head drooped as my heart squeezed tighter. I struggled to breath.

It was the strangest feeling knowing the truth and yet hoping for something different. I knew my parents had died. I mean, now I really did, but then it was just a feeling. Me, my brother, Nana, and even my uncle we all just knew. However, regardless of knowing, deep down inside there was a small forgotten smidgen of hope. When a family member went missing, you never truly lost hope. Today I had crushed mine, and also the hope of everyone else today.

"Do you think it's because of mom and dad," I asked quietly, resigning myself to be at fault.

Gavin beside me shrugged.

"We said a lot of shit up there. I could have been any of it."

"I guess."

"What were you two talking about," Gavin wondered thoughtfully, "you know when I scared you guys?"

I tiled my head as the anxiety began picking up speed.

Maybe I was making things up. Maybe Nana really was seeing her friend. After all she'd just found out that her Daughter and Son-in-law had actually been murdered. That would make anyone behave differently. However, something did stick out to me and it wasn't about them.

"When we were alone, I was trying to explain to her why I couldn't remember calling on Kyung."

"You really don't," he asked as if to make sure.

"Yes," I said curtly, "I have no memory whatsoever of what really happened."

"Like how we were with our parents? That sort of forgetting?"

I nodded adamantly, "Exactly. She had freaked about what I had promised him in exchange."

Gavin tensed.

"You can't remember?"

I stared him straight in the eye.

"I mean my Lord Gavin. It could have been anything and I don't have any clue."

"Didn't you know that would upset her?"

"Well, I didn't want to lie to her anymore," I answered honestly.

Gavin stood chewing his nail. He looked like he wanted to race out the door after her but wasn't sure if he should.

I answered for him.

"You should go after her."

He looked at me alarmed.

"NO," he said shaking his head, "I can't go and spy on her! That's Nana we're talking about!"

"Nana that's acting weird and going out alone when we know she can't drive in the dark."

Gavin turned looking out the window again, but Nana's car had already disappeared down the gravel road.

"Remember it wasn't too long ago that someone hired people to kill me."

Gavin flinched, "Shit. You really think that they might…"

He let the word hang.

I frowned. My heart pounded in my chest, and my fear raced. I was scared for her.

"I don't know. I still don't know who hired them, but honestly don't feel comfortable with her going out alone…or even really you."

"Why don't we go together then?"

"What good am I," I said indicating my lack of height and masculinity, "I mean I can throw a punch but that's about it. I'm about as intimidating as a fly."

Gavin's lip twitched. He'd thought it funny.

"Who the hell didn't she want us to know about," he asked shaking his head, "what set her off? You think it was a vision or something?"

I shrugged, thinking very carefully.

"The only thing I can think of," I said slowly considering my words, "Is that she kept asking you the same question over and over. Remember?"

Gavin's attention narrowed down at me. His brown eyes lighting up. He did remember.

"Oh yea. What was it she kept asking?"

I pursed my lips, recalling it.

"Wasn't it…something about you and…"

"Oh," Gavin interrupted me like the lightbulb came on.

He snapped his fingers finishing for me, "It was about me being scared stiff in front of the Dude."

I nodded, more confused than ever, because why did that get her all hung up? That was when she'd gone whiter than a sheet.

"Yea you're right," Gavin replied, "she got kind of funny about that, but why out of everything else said would that bother her?"

"I've no idea."

Gavin stood a moment longer. I could feel his nervous energy.

"Something is screwy."

"I really want to leave," he said finally.

"You should," I answered worried, "I don't want Nana alone."

"Then you'll be alone," he said, hesitantly, "you know if I leave you?"

I swallowed.

"I'll be ok."

Gavin studied me a second, his eyes darkening.

"Because he'll come for you? Is that why?"

I swallowed feeling the blush flush my cheeks.

Yea that was why. Looking down and away to hide my embarrassment I nodded.

"No seriously," Gavin demanded, pulling me around, "because I can't leave you if…you know…something bad happens…and he won't come."

"He would."

"Then," he said reluctantly, "I'm going, but you better not have anything happen to you before I get back."

Turning away from me he yelled, "I'll kill him if something does."

That made me smile.

The sentiment was nice. Especially after the jerk my brother had been all day. Gavin didn't need to worry about me though. I was sure that if I called, Kyung would come. That was actually what I had been counting on. I'd not forgotten my original plan. I was going to meet him this night and make him take me to my parents.

"Be safe," I yelled as he walked into the dining room and out of my sight.

"Always am," he yelled back.

I heard my brother exit through the garage.

After watching his car disappear, I walked slowly away from the door, closing it.

I had my own things to do too.

I had someone I wanted to see as well.