After Obsession (13 page)

“Was she cussing at everyone?”

“Alan,” she warns.

“Just asking.”

“This isn’t a game.”

“I know, Mom. I know it isn’t a game.”

“I don’t know when they’ll let Courtney go home. If they keep her overnight, and I can only imagine they will, Lisa wants to stay here. You might need to come get me.”

“I will. Bye.”

I put the phone back in my pocket.

“Sorry,” Aimee offers. I wave it away like it’s nothing, but she knows. She grabs my hand and holds it tight in both of her little hands. Touching her doesn’t make me feel like I’m getting shocked anymore, or like I’m seeing visions; instead it’s just warmth, a healing kind of warmth. I remember what she told me about dreams that evening we first talked on the phone.

“You see things, don’t you? Things that have happened or that will happen in the future?”

“Sometimes.” There’s fear in her voice. That doesn’t comfort me.

“What do you see for Courtney? How about me? Us?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t. I see bad things, but nothing … nothing solid. Just threats. So far.”

Her eyes look toward the river. She shudders and says, “Let’s go inside.”

“What if we ate it and replaced it with another Cheeto? Do you think they’d notice?” We have homework spread out on the kitchen table, but we’ve barely looked at it. Who can do homework in the presence of such an expensive Cheeto?

Aimee laughs at me and takes the plastic bag out of my hand as if she were afraid I might actually do it. “I think they have every bump on this Cheeto memorized.”

She looks at the Cheeto, then puts it back on top of her refrigerator. I can’t believe I was just holding a Cheeto that is already worth more than I paid for my truck.

“You can eat dinner with us,” she says.

“Would your dad mind?”

“Of course not.”

I shrug like I’m totally cool and not at all nervous about meeting her dad. Then I remember something else. “How did you know about those newspaper articles about me saving games?” I ask.

“I might have googled you.”

“That sounds dirty.”

“It would really go a long way toward impressing my dad if you helped me with dinner,” she says. “And stayed to eat it with us.”

“I don’t know. If I had a hot daughter like you and I came home from work and found some guy playing house and cooking dinner with her, I’d probably shoot him.”

“I am not hot.”

I can’t help but laugh at her.

“Gramps will be home first. Today’s his day to visit friends at the senior center. Then Benji. Dad’s always late, but he’s been better the last couple of days.”

“Great.”

“What?”

“It’s like two practice runs before your dad gets here. If your grandpa doesn’t throw me out and I survive the wicked glare of your little brother, then I get to face off against your suspicious father.”

“What would he be suspicious of ?”

“My intentions toward his daughter.”

“And what are your intentions?” She smiles a teasing smile and again I want to lunge across the table and kiss her.

“You’re the psychic on this exorcism team,” I say. “I suspect you know my intentions.”

•
15
•

AIMEE

Gramps tromps through the door and doesn’t even pause when he sees Alan at the table doing homework with his giant long limbs sprawling everywhere. He just puts his hat on the coat hook, takes his shoes off, and slides on his bright yellow Crocs, which are hideously ugly. Then he Croc-walks over to me, kisses the top of my head, and says, “Well, who do we have here?”

Alan stands up, hitting the table with his thigh. Papers jiggle. He reaches out his hand. “Alan Parson, sir.”

I half want to laugh but the other half of me is so proud that he’s polite.

Gramps takes his hand and shakes it. “Good to meet you. I’d ask if you were tutoring Aimee, but I know she doesn’t need a tutor. Is she tutoring you?”

“No, sir … I …” Alan looks to me for help.

“We’re just hanging out,” I say.

Gramps nods. “What happened to the other one?”

“He turned out to be a racist,” I finally admit.

Gramps digests that pretty quickly and nods at Alan. “And you’re the race he was
ist
against, huh? You Native American?”

Alan’s fingers twitch a little. “Part. Navajo.”

“Good. Good. This place is too damn white anyway.” Gramps heads toward the fridge.

Alan’s smiling this ridiculously large smile and just watching him. It’s pretty obvious he likes Gramps.

“He’s Court’s cousin. He and his mom just moved here from Oklahoma,” I explain, then feel like a total jerk. “I’m sorry. I’m talking about you in the third person.”

Alan just smiles even bigger and shrugs.

“Aimee tell you about our Cheeto? Looks just like Marilyn Monroe.” Gramps whirls around. “You do know who Marilyn Monroe is?”

“I know.” Alan sits back down at the table. He stretches out his legs beneath it. His calves are on either side of my legs. “I think it’s amazing what people will pay for it.”

“I’ll tell you what’s amazing.” Gramps makes us wait for it, pouring some water. “What’s amazing is that we even had a bag of Cheetos in this house in the first place, with Little Miss Health Nut here.” He gestures to me.

Alan clears his throat. “She can’t be that bad if you’re having hamburgers for dinner.”

“You staying?” Gramps asks.

Nodding, Alan looks to me for verification. “If that’s okay.”

“It’s okay.” Gramps asks me, “You tell him what we’re having?”

“Burgers,” I say innocently.

“Not
ham
burgers.
Veggie
burgers. You ever have veggie burgers?”

“Uh … no. I’m from Oklahoma. If it doesn’t bleed, we don’t eat it.”

“Exactly.” Gramps claps him on the back. “Man after my own heart. Your brother home yet?”

It takes me a second to realize that he’s talking to me again. “Benji? No … I think the Vachons are dropping him off.”

Gramps snorts. “He’ll put you through the wringer. Don’t let him bully you. He’s all of four foot eight, but he’s one intimidating little son of a gun.”

“I won’t,” Alan says.

The door flies open and there’s Benji. He stands there gaping and then points at Alan. “It’s him!”

Nobody says anything.

Benj rushes over to Alan. “You are freaking huge. Your hair is like eight feet long. Do you have split ends? Aimee’s always whining about her split ends.”

“Benj,” Gramps interrupts. “Why don’t you go change into some clean clothes?”

“What? And leave the lovebirds alone?” Benji singsongs.

“Yes.” Gramps smiles and pushes him toward the living room and the stairs. “Exactly. Notice the lovebirds doing their homework. Maybe you should do the same.”

At that moment I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone more than I love Gramps.

We eat. Alan even swallows the veggie burger. Dad works late, doesn’t show up, and then it’s time for Alan to go. I walk him to the truck.

“I don’t want you to leave,” I say.

He touches the side of my face with his fingers and the whole world spins out of control in this crazy-good way. I think he’s going to kiss me, but he doesn’t. His fingers drop and I almost think I imagined it. He says, “I know.”

“You’ll be safe, right?” I pull in a big breath. “Nothing will happen, right?”

“Nothing will happen.” He folds me into a hug, but it isn’t long because it’s so obvious that Benji’s watching from the window. “You call if you need me.”

“You, too.” I hate pulling away. I hate how it’s suddenly so cold without him. “Tell me if you hear anything about Courtney. Deal?”

“Deal.”

He drives away, and suddenly the night seems a whole lot darker and a whole lot more sinister. A twig snaps in the woods. Wind blows a leaf across my foot. I hurry inside, but honestly, I don’t know if it’s any safer in there.

Dad comes home, making apologies and explaining that Courtney seems a little bit calmer, although they’re keeping her sedated overnight at least. I warm him up some food, go upstairs, and paint for a while. I can’t focus, though, so I do the horrible obsessed girlfriend thing and google Alan again. I pull up picture after picture of him on the football team making play after play.

I know nothing about football. I really know nothing about Alan. What if he’s playing me? What if Courtney has a brain tumor? What if those dust storms were just dust storms? A cold wind blows through my window. I shiver and leap over my bed to shut it. Something is on my windowsill. It’s a rock. There’s a word painted in yellow on it: MOM.

My right hand whispers down. My finger touches the rock. It’s cold and gray, round, and about half the size of my palm. My finger moves toward the word, the bright stain of it against the stone.

The paint is still wet.

“Dad!” I scream-shriek it. I stare at the tip of my finger. A dot of yellow stains it. “DAD!”

He thunders up the stairs, but Benji gets there first. He stands at my door, pajama-boy with crazy-wild hair. “Aimee?” He rubs at his sleepy eyes.

My dad bullets past him, leaps on my bed, pulls me into his arms. “Honey? What is it?” He rocks me into him, rocks us back and forth like a lullaby movement can make it all better. I stare into the gray T-shirt he always wears to bed.

“Aimee?” Gramps’s voice finds me. “You have a nightmare?”

I pull away from Dad, making big eyes so Gramps knows I’m lying. “Yeah.”

He looks at Benji, nods at me, puts his hand on Benji’s shoulder, and says, “Off to bed, kiddo. Nothing to see here.”

“I get nightmares all the time,” Benji mumbles. “I don’t wake up the whole house.”

“Benji!” Gramps warns.

My dad pulls me in to him again. He’s warm from being asleep under the covers. “I am so worried about you, kiddo.”

His voice is a broken rocking horse trying to rest, trying to find something solid for balance.

I lean away from him. “I went to shut my window and I found that on the sill.”

I point to the rock.

“A rock? You screamed about a rock?”

“I didn’t put it there.”

“Maybe Benji?”

“Look at it, Dad. It’s got paint on it. It says …”

He leans his long trunk across my comforter and peers at it. “Did you paint that on, Aimee?”

I yank my knees to my chest. “Dad! No.”

“She didn’t do this,” Gramps says. I’m not sure when he came back in the room. He crosses his arms in front of his chest. “You know that.”

“Dad! Did you or did you not see a knife spinning on our stove the other day? I am not the kind of genius who can do stuff like that. And did we or did we not all hear freaking footsteps upstairs? They sounded like Mom! You know they did!” I push myself far, far away from them, against my bed. “I know you think I’m crazy like her, but I’m not!”

Even I can hear that it’s like I’m trying to convince myself.

Silence.

My dad whispers, “Your mother was not crazy.”

“Son—” Gramps starts.

“She wasn’t!” Dad lunges off the bed, lumbering toward him like some sort of angry grizzly bear. “Don’t start with that, Dad.”

“That’s not the point,” I interrupt. “The point is that there is a freaking rock on my windowsill and I did not put it there.”

My dad’s shoulders loosen. He straightens back up. Gramps eyes him, and then walks past him without a care in the world and comes close to me. “Where is it?”

I point.

He grabs it by the edges, careful not to smear the paint. I look from one to the other. Two guys with sleep-tired faces and fight-ready bodies, identical chins, and balding heads. Lean and strong, but so tired.

Dad says, “Tell us about Courtney, Aimee. Her mom hinted that you thought something was going on, but she wasn’t buying any of it.”

“Are you going to believe me?” I ask him.

“I’ll try,” he says.

I pull the pink folder out of my backpack. “You can start with this. Mrs. Hessler gave it to me.”

“Mrs. Hessler?” Dad’s eyes get big. “Really?”

“If you read that, it’ll help.” I choose my words carefully, trying to make like I’m calm. “I think that something from the river is trying to possess Courtney. I think there’s something really bad happening here.”

Eventually they both go into their bedrooms. I hear my father check every door, every closet, every window until he’s sure the house is secure.

It’s too hard to try to sleep. My ears are on hyper-alert mode, listening for ghost footsteps. I get up and paint. I’ve barely begun when Alan texts me.
YOU OKAY?

YEP. YOU?
I text back.
CALL ME?

I am so glad to hear his voice. We whisper into the phone about Courtney, the rock, the River Man, and what happened in the tree house, which is somehow easier to do on the phone than in person.

“He’s just trying to scare us,” I say, staring at the two sets of eyes in my painting. They are the same shape, but not the same inside. They are the same form, but not the same intent.

As I paint, Alan tells me the stuff he’s learned about exorcisms. He’s done most of his research on the Internet and he has one book that had a paragraph about it. He insists that if he’s going to try to exorcise Courtney he has to do it alone, that it’s part of the tradition and process. That freaks me out.

“I wish you didn’t have to do this on your own.”

“I can do it.”

I fumble with a paintbrush. I try to wipe the paint off with some thinner, but it’s ocher and it’s stubborn. “I know.” I drop the brush head-down into the bottle to let it soak.

Alan says, “What if he tries to hurt you when I’m not there?”

I turn away from my painting and go back to my laptop, where the images of Alan are still on the screen. He’s the one I’m worried about. “He won’t hurt me. He can’t.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“Red …”

“Look, it’s not like he has a gun. What has he done? Possessed Courtney. Thrown something at you. Made a huge dirt storm thing. Maybe he leaves a rock in my room, but maybe that’s something else, like Benji playing games or me sleepwalking or some other ghost. Give me a break. Either way, it’s lame.”

I shut the laptop. I flop over onto my bed and hug my giant tiger. It’s a Princeton tiger. Gramps went to Princeton. The night is dark outside my window. You can’t see Benji’s tree house or the river or anything that could be lurking, but you know it might be there. I pull down the shade and touch the sill where the rock was. No matter how brave I can make myself, sometimes thinking about the darkness and the river and the night, thinking about my mom standing out there that one time … it makes me not quite so brave.

“I wish you were here,” I say.

“I wish I
was
there.”

I think for a second. “Come over.”

“What?”

“Come over. We can protect each other. You could climb up the tree. I could sneak you in.”

“Your dad will go ballistic.”

I don’t answer.

“What if your grandfather catches me? He’ll kill me.”

I don’t answer.

“Aimee?”

I wait. I wait. I think,
Please be brave for me, Alan.
I wait. I close my eyes but that’s too dark, so I open them again and stare across the room at the painting I’m working on. I need to add more layers to it. I need to add more depth, but I can tell, now, at least, what it’s supposed to be.

Two women.

The same.

But not the same.

You can tell this by looking in their eyes.

I say, “I’m scared.”

I grab the paw of a teddy bear. He’s old. He’s seen a lot of stuff, this teddy. He’s seen me.

Alan’s voice is husky. “You are?”

I think about what Courtney said. I think about what I might have inherited. I think about the man from the river who haunts us. I feel so alone, and all I want is someone to wrap his arms around me. Okay, not just someone.