“Isn’t this precisely how everything went so wrong that one summer.”
“I was a kid. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“I would argue that when it comes to lizard vampires, nobody knows what they’re doing.”
“Maybe,” Ricky said. “I mean, I have some experience. I survived them once and I was attacked before I even had a chance to plan. Next time, I’ll be ready and things will be on my terms.”
George nodded. “I still think Dad should know.”
“Let me finish my research first and then I’ll figure out if Dad should know. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe knowing about them puts a person at higher risk. Maybe that’s part of the reason they were so intent on following Nick back to the hotel. I mean, I’m sure it was the blood thing when they got close, but it could be that they like to try to tie up loose ends. One hid in Amber’s trunk and rode all the way down to Virginia trying to get her.”
“So, first, thanks for telling me about all this. It was super nice of you to pull me into this quagmire and put the stink of knowledge on me.”
“I didn’t develop this theory until after we talked.”
“Great.”
“You see what I mean though, right? I can’t in good conscience say anything to Mom and Dad. It’s just you and me and maybe the Harpers.”
“Hoopers,” George joked.
“Exactly.”
“And Amber,” George said.
“She won’t talk to me any more. Says I’m stalking her.”
“Are you?”
“A bit, yes. Her cousin just died a couple of days ago. She lives—lived, I guess—with her cousin, Evelyn, and she was really old. I got an alert when the obituary was published.”
“That sucks. Were they close?”
“I mean, they lived together, so yeah.”
“Amber has a big family though, right? Didn’t you say that they were all fighting over the inheritance?”
“There are a lot of them, but they’re not really close. That’s why Amber was living with her cousin. I guess fighting is what they do best.”
“Maybe the funeral will bring them together.”
“Maybe,” Ricky said.
He couldn’t help but think of Amber standing alone at the side of a grave. The image stuck in his head.
“You know,” George said, “this is the most we’ve talked in years.”
“Not my fault. Besides, you say that like we’re sixty years old. I think lots of brothers have a year or two where they grow apart temporarily. We were at different phases in our lives.”
“We’re in different phases now, we just have a common interest.”
“Well, if we survive the spring, I’ll be sure to make more of an effort to find common interests with you.”
“Thanks,” George said. “Hey, drop me off at the library, would you?”
Five: Amber
Amber stood alone a few feet away from the grave. When Shawn tried to stand next to her, she had sent him away. Now, she was regretting it a little. She felt like she was standing at the edge of a cliff and the depths were calling to her. The night before, that had been her dream. She had stood at the edge of a cliff that overlooked a bottomless pit.
The narrator of her nightmare said, “If you fall in, you’ll either die down there in the blackness or end up praying for death.”
She had woken up sweating and alone in her cousin Evelyn’s house.
All the other relatives who came to town had gotten a hotel. Only a few were still talking to Amber. Her cousin Karen had asked her to let someone else handle the execution of Evelyn’s will. The implication was clear—they all thought that it was her fault that Uncle Bill’s house was still in limbo. She was the one who had volunteered to go take care of everything and nothing was settled. Now, she had another estate to contend with. The cousins were going to be even angrier once that will was read.
Amber had found a note in Evelyn’s drawer when she was picking out clothes for Evelyn to wear in aeternum. In the note, typed on attorney’s letterhead, Evelyn had dictated that she wanted Amber to have everything. She said, “I don’t want you to be surprised when they read the will. I want everyone else to be surprised, but not you.”
Amber sensed someone approach her and stand next to her.
Without turning, she whispered, “I told you not to stand next to me.”
“Sorry,” the man said.
Amber turned so fast she almost lost her balance. The voice hadn’t been Shawn’s.
“Ricky? What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need a friend,” he said. He took another half step and stood next to her. He was wearing a dark suit that fit him a little tight, but he looked good. Compared to her relatives, he stuck out like a sore thumb.
“You didn’t know Evelyn.”
“Funerals are for the living, right? That’s what my mom always says. Besides, the four of us made a pact to have each other’s backs.”
That’s when Amber saw the Harpers. Liz and Alan were a few paces back, standing on either side of their son.
Amber had managed to stand stoic with dry eyes until that point. At the sight of her unexpected friends, the tears began to flow. She looked at the coffin and wished that she had explained to Evelyn why Ricky and the Harpers were so important. If Evelyn was looking down and seeing these unfamiliar faces, Amber wanted her to know how much it meant that they had made the trip all the way from Maine for the funeral of someone they never met.
Ricky held out a pressed handkerchief.
Liz came up on Amber’s other side and put an arm around her while Amber pressed the handkerchief to her eyes.
They listened to the pastor talk about family.
# # #
Liz rode with Amber while the others followed in their rented car.
“I can’t believe you came,” Amber
