whatever i do i always do truly

Was he to say he went far beyond the age of a senior citizen? That he had been around the year the military had first began to grow as a world wide concept? He figured it would get a couple of laughs out of this stiff woman (or at least another huff of disinterest) but none that would bring him the discount he was after. 

“What type of stories are you after? I have a few to spare – life experiences. I’m not in a hurry and I’ll have it over in less than five.” A hidden michevious glimmer was to be had in the corner of his eye, hoping the guide would take his words for it. A lie crafted into reality to be shared, or a proper memory? Which one was most worthy of his reasons for being here, was the question. 

“Anything that can entertain a ghost,” she replied, nonchalantly. “There’s a few that like stories… they’ll make their presence known if a patron is willing to share a good one.”

“Of course… I have to screen it first.” Midori glanced up at the man, and leaned back so that she was standing upright. “Nothing dirty… or graphic.”

A pause. “There are children here.”

“Oh.” Maybe she should have thought twice before asking a stranger for thst kind of advice, but Avery wasn’t known for biting her tongue when it came to fishing compliments. “Thanks. The cut is nice so I think I will go with this one. Are you here alone?” The last thing she needed was to know that there was a significant other that could have heard her, and Avery didn’t have the energy to get into an argument.

He smiled and glanced away from her. Are you here alone? Yep—and he was starting to feel a little bit bummed out about it when this stranger was asking him for help on her date night attire.

“Yeah I’m… I’m here alone—and I’m gonna assume you are too.”

A nod, he seemed intent on going back to whatever bargain bin deals he was looking at before. Yet, he turned his attention back to the woman once more. “Why… are you asking?”

“Oh, umm… Do you have an orphan discount? I feel like that should be a thing, you know? Like McDonald’s should give me a discount every time I buy chicken nuggets!” Would the woman feel sorry for her and charge her less for the tour? Doubtful, but at least she could try. “Anyway uhh…. Are the ghosts here nice? Because like, one time I think a ghost pulled my hair while I was showering and honestly that was super traumatizing.”

“There is… no discount for foster youth,” Midori replied firmly. Perhaps for a foster youth group she might have considered a discount, but for the solitary woman in front of her: she wasn’t inclined to.

Choosing to ignore the chicken nugget comment, Midori closed the ledger in front of her to answer the woman’s pressing question on the friendliness of the ghosts in the house. “Some of them are, some of them aren’t. Depends on which ones decide to interact with the corporeal realm today.”

“There is a liability waiver—if a ghost does pull your hair again you must know I, nor the other proprietors of the Decker Historical House are at fault for how the spirits interact with guests. If it was traumatizing… I would suggest rethinking going on this tour.”

Magic tricks, Kimball had in plenty, but to do them for a stranger wasn’t something she was sure she could do. She’d never been part of a coven that had allowed magic being revealed to someone who couldn’t perform it themselves, and she didn’t want to cross this one before she’d even gotten her foot in the door. Then again, this woman couldn’t have been all that serious. She probably would have gotten herself banned before she would have gotten herself a discount.

“Ain’t got none of that,” she muttered, digging through her purse. “How much is it, again?”

“Thirty-five dollars,” she repeated without looking up. In the moments of silence that followed she shifted her weight on the podium, but still appeared engrossed in whatever ledger she was scribbling in as she waited for the tour to start.

A quick glance up towards the woman in front of her. “We take credit cards.”

Sabrina pursed her lips, but stopped herself from saying anything. Crystals and tarot, the cliche things people thought of when they thought of magic.. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be used, or that she didn’t use them, but it wasn’t just like that. She could tell, however, that the woman had no interest in terminology.

“Right.” She half spoke, half muttered. At the ghost question, she perked up, just a bit. “It depends on what you mean, by communicate. Have you?”

“Practically every day,” she sighed, as if communicating with spirits was a mundane hassle rather than a paranormal adventure. “Their presence is strong here. They like to communicate indirectly—moving things, breaking glasses… whatever they can do to get attention.”

“Then there’s a few that are corporeal and like to sit in for dinner—I hate having unexpected guests but they don’t seem to care.”

A pause, she was thinking.

“Every time we’ve brought a oujia board in there’s been some trouble with spirits butting heads with each other and hogging the medium to communicate. They’re all bored… they like it when sensitive humans can hear their complaining.”

Tama shook Adam’s hand and gave him back the spray “thanks” he thanked him with a smile “well, if i could be here daily i would, but i’m here at least twice a week” he answered.

Tama was always trying to relax and being in the waters was the best way to do so, so it was not strange watching him at the beach the spot they were on had the best waves and it was, of course, Tama’s favorite spot.

“I will like to say i’ve watched you before, and i think i did, but i don’t put a lot of attention to people” he said honestly “but watching the amount of sand in your truck i can be sure you are here a lot” he added grinning.

Adam pressed his lips together. Was he here every day? Almost every day… perhaps that’s why he felt like he recognized the other guy. It was a bad habit to loiter around the beach whenever he could.

“Yeah I um—I come by as often as I can,” he explained, shuffling around and pulling out his surfboard from the trunk (but he wouldn’t try to estimate the actual time he spent out in the water—that’d be a little embarrassing). “So, I um… I guess I sort of get familiar with other folks who are out on the waves—inevitably.”

“Are you—new in town? Or…” he asked, his voice trailing off as he realized how ignorant he might have sounded if this guy was just as much of a regular as him and he’d never noticed.

Major didn’t know why they were in a haunted place with so much energy, when they two wixes, one sensitive to ghost and the other to energies in general, could probably get murdered if they spend too much time there.

“Well i can do a magic trick” Charlie said, Major rolled their eyes at her and tried to say “we are…”    “wixes, we are wixes” Charlie interrupted grinning, Major rolled their eyes again while Charlie pulled a pen from her purse “ok, have that pen and write anything on a piece of paper and don’t let us watch” she added grinning even more.

A curt nod. Wixes. Midori repeated the word in her head. The esoteric literature she used to be so fond of used that word, but it had never been relevant to the mundane and material until that point. Reminded her of the fae for some reason, and she imagined glittering winged creatures tangentially as she took the pen and drew on the piece of scrap paper.

A gestural sketch of a faery. Vague lines, but it held enough of a form that you could imagine it dancing off of the page.

“And?” she folded the paper, and held out the pen for the girl to take back. This was her indication that she was ready for whatever magic trick the two before her could muster.

Aware of how hypocritical it was, Atticus still couldn’t help feel strangely offended that Mickey had just lied to their Mother right in front of him. Because yes, he had his fair share of lying to his parents, but she was supposed to be the good one.

“Uh… everything okay?” He asked, tapping his fingers on the island he leaned against. 

There was an underlying desire to ask more. He could glean from context there was something to worry about but due to his status as a problematic child there might have just been a false sense of worry that lingered in his absence. 

But its not like he was about to call up his parents to check. No, he saved his check-up on them for Mickey. He unconsciously forced her to be the middle man until the day he could gather up the courage to call them himself.

She bit her lip, but when she turned back to Atticus she was all smiles.

“Everything’s peachy,” she quipped, sliding her phone into her pocket. “Mom and dad just calling—they were worried I guess… about something.”

She rolled her eyes as she strode across the kitchen—passing Atticus on the side as she eyed a spot to drop herself down in the living room. “You know I haven’t told them anything,” she said. “Like I promised—they don’t know that I’ve been hanging out with you extensively or anything… just that I know you’re okay and doing well… wherever you are.”