Bash Qureshi

“Questionable?” Jamal tilted his head, curious. When Bash continued to describe his establishment as a sort of magic shop, Jamal nodded slowly. He presumed maybe questionable had to do with people’s personal feelings regarding magic and the like. “Never mind. I think I get it. Eye of newt and whatnot?”

“Man, I saw a pale hand sticking out of a trash bag.. I was about to call the police. Then I woulda looked like the creep.” Jamal chuckled, recalling how eerily realistic the adult toy appeared. “Ha-ha. No. I didn’t get to keep the cash.. or the grenade. But I find plenty of other treasures that I do get to keep. Let me know if you’re ever looking out for gently-used furniture. Summit Lake is a gold mine for it.”   @bashqureshi​

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“Fun fact, eye of newt is just another name for mustard seed.” Bash chewed on his pizza thoughtfully. Of course the rich people down in Summit Lake were throwing out their furniture instead of donating it. Maybe when Bodhi was talking to him again he could convince him to take a trip up their and haul back some new stuff for the apartment. 

“What’s the best thing you’ve found, then?” He was genuinely intrigued. While his job was entertaining enough on its own, he rarely got to leave the store for it. As far as Bash was concerned, Jamal basically got to treasure hunt for a living.

“I would hope so.” Ingrid mused, thinking that since she had never been away from Providence Peak, she made a great local. Putting the bottle back on the shelf, green hues glanced over the label and price; knowing that she’d be screwed if she chose the wrong one. Whatever, this way she wouldn’t have to use it again till someone else decided to buy it. Craigslist could do wonders. “Honestly, I don’t know but I’m not going to risk it either.” Last thing she needed was for a morbid search after a possible explosion. Nope, Ingrid was smarter than that. “Well…” Her voice trailed off, before shrugging. “That’s really nice of you, but I live outside the city limits so..” She could walk alone. She had a knife and all, it was no biggie. “You need help with your stuff? To carry, I mean.” 

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“Uh...” he glanced down at his mountain of snacks, weighing up his options. He’d mostly just resigned himself to tottering home with them and dropping things occasionally. Usually his son would be here to help him—it was supposed to be movie night—but Bodhi wasn’t speaking to him right now. It would be nice to have some assistance, but he felt a little bad asking a stranger to help. “Sure, thanks. Tell you what, I’ll trade you some M&Ms for your service.”

“That all sounds way cooler than most classes. I never did the whole college thing myself, but if I did it would have to be something that’s just cool to learn,” Kat nodded back. Even if she wasn’t fully on board with the whole idea of the paranormal being real, it was something she could learn about and listen to stories of all day. “Psychokinesis. Like moving things with your mind and shit? Where did you land on that? Real or not real?” Fingers drumming on the counter in front of her a bit, Kat gave a soft sigh and tossed her hands up. “Never did get to find out. All our footage ended up being damaged from the weird power surge or whatever happened. We got out of there with nothing, so no idea what it said. Plans are in place to go back someday, though. If it is haunted…it’s got to be for a good reason. Something special is probably down there and I can’t just leave it.”

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“It was inconclusive,” he shrugged with a small smile. “I was mostly looking at supposed cases of it, ended up down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole at one point.” And he’d been so hopped up on caffeine and sleep deprivation at the time that he’d been completely convinced of it all. “A lot of people out there really think the government has been trying to develop it in soldiers. It’s wild. Bullshit, obviously, but kinda interesting.” 

Her description of the events following her adventure only made his eyebrows raise. “You know, some people would say that’s not a coincidence.” She was lucky it was just him manning the register today—a couple of the kids who worked weekends could trap customers for hours in lectures about the supernatural. Instead, he sighed.  “Every time you tell me about your work I get more and more jealous. I’ve never even left the states. I wanna see freaky shit around the world.”

Her eyes scanned his face and she could tell that he was worried and exasperated at the situation. Even she had been left kind of shellshocked at the distance Bodhi had put between his father and even herself. “No, it’s understandable.” He was gone for months on end and Bash deserved to send him off on good terms. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll send him a text and see how he’s doing and then maybe let him know that I wasn’t aware.” Just so he knew that Sophia hadn’t also kept a secret from him. “Come here, give me a hug. Look, it’s a lot for you too and I’m sorry this has been happening as long as it has. It’ll be okay.”

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“Anyone ever tell you that you’re freakishly understanding?” Bash mumbled as he wrapped his arms around her. God, what would he ever do without Sophia? He hoped Bodhi would listen to her. If his son gave both of them the silent treatment he didn’t know how he’d cope with it. For one, they’d be without responsible supervision which was never a good thing, even if they were the adults in the relationship. “Thanks, Soph. I’m sorry for not telling you. I just... I knew I was being stupid and I think I convinced myself that as long as no one knew it didn’t matter.” He withdrew with a sigh. “Let’s go get high, yeah?”

“Yeah, back in my day we just drank beer,” Hank gave an awkward laugh, hoping the joke landed. Not quite loving that he could say back in my day and it not sound ridiculous. Crossing his arms over his chest, Hank immediately dropped them, feeling it sent the wrong message even if it was little more than socially acceptable comfort. Opting instead for parade rest as it too easy, too automatic, but he didn’t feel as self conscious like that either. 

“That’s because no one here knows how to make tea. They involve the microwave,” the disgust was impossible to hide but Hank didn’t even try. “Coffee really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be though so I’m willing to sound like my dad and say kids these days don’t know what they’re talking about.” 

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“I know, man. It’s total sacrilege,” he commiserated with a serious nod. The shop had an electric kettle in the kitchen... and about three antique stovetops knocking around somewhere in the back, but those were varying levels of ‘supposedly haunted’ and Bash had never tried to use them for fear of breaking them. He huffed out a laugh at Hank’s grumblings. It was nice to be around someone who wasn’t in their teens for a change. Sometimes he forgot what it was like to talk to other adults. “You’re such an old man,” he teased, even though he agreed. “Next thing you know you’ll be out on your front door waving your fist at the local kids.” Except he knew that would never be Hank, the guy was too polite. And shy. If anything he’d be hiding from the kids, Bash was sure of it. He nodded to the milk. “But hey, at least they’re keeping you in business.”

For some reason, Yao didn’t experience the kneejerk urge to deny Bash’s suspicion. He only grew quiet and smiled more, confirming it. “I’ve never felt like this about anybody before.” Yao had been in long term relationships before but they didn’t last for one reason or another. He hadn’t been looking to meet a romantic partner when he started speaking with Verda on her OF page, but he’d been open to love and the Universe seemed to have been listening. Yao raised an eyebrow at Bash. “Yes. How do you know her?” he asked, hopeful that it wasn’t also through OF.       

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He fought back the urge to laugh, not because he found his friend’s feelings funny but because nobody had ever asked him to quantify his strange friendship with Ver before. It felt a little weird trying to sum it up. “We’re friends. She’s besties with my bestie.” He wondered if Yao had met Sophia yet; it would be interesting to see how he dealt with the chaos of all of them put together. “She’s awesome. God, it’s so great that it’s her, man. Seriously, I’m really happy for you. You both deserve something good. Do you think it’s getting serious?”

“No, Bash…” She shook her head. “It’s my fault,” she said softly. She breathed out shakily as she tried to keep her heart steady. “I should’ve come here with you and Bodhi nineteen years ago. I… I should’ve stayed. I should’ve… should’ve been here… Then all of this could’ve been avoided. You two wouldn’t be fighting and he… he wouldn’t be hurting right now. This… This is all my fault and I’m truly so very sorry. I don’t… I don’t know how to make this right.” Maybe that was a part of the reason why she stayed away so long: she didn’t know what she could do to fix things between her and Bodhi. To make things truly right. 

She left him. She didn’t want to, of course. She thought that she was protecting him from herself and that he would have a happier life without her in it. Yet she still hurt him. She never wanted to, but she still did. And she regretted it. She regretted it deeply.

Her bottom lip quivered and she brushed some of her hair out of her face. Their son was hurting right now and it was her fault. Nodding, she cleared her throat and tried to keep a steady breath. It took everything inside of her to hold back her tears. “O-Of course. Should, um, should I go? I don’t want to risk him seeing us here together and possibly hurting more than he already is.”

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“It’s really not your problem.” He felt a little bad for dragging her into the mess that was his own making. It wasn’t like Nazli knew they were here after all. She’d told him she didn’t want to be involved. Bash was the one at fault for continuing to pry, for pursuing her, for knowing better and still not listening to his gut. What had he been thinking?

Well, he knew the answer to that. He hadn’t been thinking at all. His dick had done all the thinking for him.

“I’ll go,” he insisted, guilt rising in his chest. “I’ll see you around, I guess. I’ll... I’ll give him your number, but if he doesn’t use it then that’s it. I can’t- I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to see you again.”

Bash couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze as he got to his feet. Passing her, he reached out only to squeeze her shoulder for a second and then headed for the door. It shouldn’t be so hard leaving someone behind that he barely knew, but for some reason it tugged on his heartstrings. “Take care, Naz.”

“What kind of classes do you take with a degree like that? That’s wildly cool,” Kat questioned with a genuine look of curiosity about her. Having never been to college herself, it was already a fascinating subject to her, but throw in the whole concept of parapsychology and it was even more interesting. “That’s true, though, honestly. The mystery is what makes it worth talking about. If ghosts were all over the place and everyone believed in it, I mean, where’s the fun in that?” The mysterious, the haunted, the things that left you with lingering questions, that was what could make something worth really delving into. Kat had certainly chased after her fair share of lost items and legends of old in her time. Pursing her lips in thought for a moment, Kat snapped her fingers when a good story finally popped to mind. “Maybe not the craziest, but definitely up there. I was over in Costa Rica and we’d found this…weird underground labyrinth. There was a room down there that just…there was something off about it, you know how you get that feeling where all the hair stands up on the back of your neck. Didn’t stop me from going in there anyway. I was trying to read some of the writing on one of the walls and out of nowhere all of my equipment shorted out. Flashlights, cameras, everything completely dead. And I don’t know if it was a trick of the shadows from the one torch we had on hand or what, but I’d swear that the big statue in the corner of the room started to cry blood. We got the hell out pretty quick after that.”

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“It’s mostly stuff like looking at the history and philosophy of shit, different psychological approaches to the paranormal, looking at fraudulent cases and so on,” Bash explained. “But we did get to do a pretty cool class on paranormal phenomena. I did my thesis on psychokinesis. It was kind of awesome.” It was one of the things that made him almost glad he’d dropped out of college when he’d had Bodhi; going back and studying something so interesting had been a great way to fill the time. He listened in earnest as she told her story, eyes widening as she described what she’d seen. Leaning back, he gave a low, impressed whistle. “Holy shit, you had a for real weeping statue experience. That’s pretty sick. Did you ever find out what the words on the wall said? Maybe they’re what prompted it.”

Sophia couldn’t blame Bodhi. It was different from Bash just hiding a hook up he was having with a stranger, but this was his mother. A woman who had been absent from his life and Bash had been essentially keeping to himself. “He hasn’t even been coming to your place?” The brunette whispered when she saw a couple walk out. He hadn’t called Sophia and to think that maybe he felt like she was also in on this whole betrayal made her feel sick. “He probably doesn’t know who to talk to.” Chewing the inside of her cheek, she looked over Bash and then sighed in disappointment, at both him and the whole situation. “He might think that you told me and I was hiding your secret.” Sophia went to pinch Bash but didn’t actually do it, just flashed him a disheartening smile. “Are you still seeing her? Is it even serious?”

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It wasn’t often that he and Sophia got serious—the sigh she let out made shame trickle through him. “He’s been grabbing clothes and stuff, but only when I’m at work. I don’t want him to go back to school still mad at me. I know that’s selfish but...” Bash worried about his son enough as it was when he was halfway across the country, even when they called each other on a regular basis. “Can you talk to him? Make sure he’s okay? I don’t wanna push him and make him feel like I can’t respect his boundaries or whatever.” If anyone could get Bodhi to talk, it would definitely be her.

“I see that, man.” Jamal snickered, realizing he didn’t really know what kind of establishment Devine & Co. was. He’d never been inside, despite passing it regularly. “What’s the other half?” Why pass up an opportunity to get that question answered? Jamal shrugged when the other man reacted to the things people insisted on from him. “Agreed. But uh, it’s not too bad. I’ll be the one laughing when I retire in my 50s.” When asked about the finds, Jamal smirked. “Pssh. You’d be shocked what kinda things people throw out. Found one of those real dolls in the trash once.. you know those crazy expensive creepy-looking sex dolls.. an old grenade.. $4,000 cash in a box of Raisin Bran.”  

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“Crystals and questionable books.” Bash often found that attempting to explain the store as a whole made him sound... well, insane for lack of a better word. “Anything strange or unusual that you can think of really. It’s a magic shop, sort of.”

“What the fuck,” he laughed. “I bet that scared the crap out of you—did you know it was fake straight away?” His eyebrows crept up in amazement as Jamal continued to list things. “Whoa. Did you get to keep it? The cash I mean, not the grenade. I hope you didn’t keep the grenade.”

“Yeah.. some would say a broomstick would be more fitting when it comes to me, but as long as it can fly.” Ingrid attempted to joke. “– if only it could be that easy.” That could help with traffic and gas expenses. Smiling over at him, the brunette let out a sigh, knowing that whether she got oil or not, that shit wouldn’t be running for too long and the sooner she could sell, the better. “I know, but you’d be surprised how much people are willing to pay for an old piece of junk.” she admitted, finding it ridiculous. “A razor scooter sounds more dangerous than a broomstick. I used to have a bike but someone stole it.” That that was a bummer, and the main reason behind all the cursing while trying to drive. “Don’t we all?” 

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Bash laughed. “Then you fit right in in this town.” Considering his job, the idea of somebody attempting to fly around on a broomstick was nothing unusual for him. He gathered his things up in his arms. Hopefully the attendants would have a better clue than he did, otherwise she was screwed. It would probably be even more expensive to call out a mechanic for a breakdown than just to replace the oil. “Do you have enough oil to get you home? I can walk you back if not. Or... wait with you ‘til you call someone who’s not a complete stranger.”

From the few things Ingrid knew about the car, she was thankful to know the year and model after finding a torn up book in her mother’s belongings long time ago.  Despite not knowing many of the details he was asking for, the brunette shrugged. “Um.. it’s a Pontiac Firebird  of 1990. That much I know.” she exclaimed, letting out a sigh. The sooner she gets rid of it, the better. “At this point, it feels like it’s already dead. Sometimes I have to leave it running, otherwise it won’t start. A few kicks can work wonders though.” Ingrid added with a smile, “I wish this wasn’t as complicated.” 

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He could definitely sympathise. “It’d be pretty nice just to have a flying carpet or something, huh? Or teleportation. Imagine just being able to-” Bash made a ‘poof’ motion with his hands. “-and then you’re where you need to be.” The shelves of engine oil continued to stare back at him, still mystifying. There was no way he knew enough about cars to be able to identify what she needed off that information alone. Hopefully one of the attendants would know, otherwise they were just going to have to guess. “I don’t mean to state the obvious, but it sounds you need a new car, dude,” he smiled at her. “Or maybe even just like... a razor scooter or something, sounds like that might get you where you need to go faster. You got some place you need to be?” 

Jamal studied Bash’s face a moment longer and nodded, certain he’d seen the man. “Mh. Downtown.. Devine & Co.? That your place? Lots of tea leaves in your bags,” he teased, accepting Bash’s hand and giving it a confidently relaxed shake. “Uh.. yes and no. I usually get the ‘wait up man i think i lost my retainer in there, could you look for me?’ or ‘I’m pretty sure I had last night’s winning lotto ticket, it shouldn’t be too deep’” he chuckled, shaking his head. “Otherwise, most people steer clear. Nobody wants to get too chatty with the garbageman.”     

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“Half the store is tea leaves these days,” he joked, shaking his head. They’d had to up their orders recently. A lot more people were going for fortune-telling at the moment; maybe people needed something to be hopeful for, maybe they were just more superstitious now, he didn’t know. Either way it was good for him. “Jeez.” Bash’s eyes widened, half-appalled and half-fascinated. “That kinda sucks, I mean it’s a pretty important job. We’d be screwed without you guys.” There was no way he could hack being a sanitation worker. He admired Jamal for it. “You ever get anything super weird in the trash?”

“I am absolutely happy to do that for you,” Kat promised with a grin. It was a silly thing that she didn’t think would work in any capacity anyway, so Kat wasn’t fussed about whether or not her mother used it properly. “I’ll tell her it’s some new type of potion that’ll make all the men in town fall for her if she drinks it. That’ll really win me some brownie points.” Kat had been humoring her mother for as long as she could remember, so this was nothing new. If a probably innocuous love potion made her feel better about herself, Kat was happy to oblige. Especially now that it was just the two of them and Kat knew her mother was still lost in many ways, she didn’t mind. 

Head bobbing to the side, Kat figured that Bash’s explanation made perfect sense when you thought about it. “You know, that’s probably all she needs. A little placebo effect to turn up her mega watt smile should do the trick for her,” Kat smiled, hoping it would have just that type of impact for her mom. The woman was great, if a bit exhausting, she just needed a slight push in the right direction. Letting a hand brush against the back of her neck, Kat took another look around at the shop before letting her shoulders lift a bit. “I don’t know, honestly. I grew up really traditional Catholic, so all of this stuff is fully outside of my wheelhouse. It’s fascinating, though. I’ve been to some pretty far out places where they practice all different types of magic and…I’ve seen some shit, so I don’t know. There’s something to it, but how much of it is coincidence and placebo, I don’t know.”

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“That’s always the question. You know, I did a degree in parapsychology? You’d think it would’ve been enough for me to make a decision, but I still don’t know whether I believe in it all or not.” Most of the people he spoke to had a hard stance on the matter. It was always hardcore cynicism or a dedicated belief in the paranormal. Bash liked the people who were on the fence like himself best though. They were the most interesting to talk to about this stuff. “Some stuff just can’t be explained, I guess. Maybe one day it will be, but I kinda like not knowing.” He was envious of her travels too. While he’d seen some strange things happen in the store, it wasn’t the same as visiting far off places and meeting people with totally different experiences to his own. “What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen?”

“Yeah. We went to the fun fair together..” Yao confessed, having a difficult time looking his friend in the eyes as he spoke of the woman he’d become so infatuated with, without his face feeling like it was going to split apart from smiling so vastly. “And then she came to my cabin for dinner. So.. I guess you could say we’ve been on two official dates now.” Listening to himself, he had to laugh a bit. He sounded like a teenager experiencing love for the first time. “It’s crazy to me to think that we had such a connection online for three years.. and .. it feels just as strong in person?” he exhaled, fingers gently brushing the blades of grass at his sides. “Like am I in some alternate universe?”  @bashqureshi​

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“Dude, you are totally in love,” Bash said in surprise, rolling onto his side and propping himself up on an elbow to look at Yao properly. He knew his friend was smitten, but from the way he talked it meant more than he’d first realised. “I’ve never seen you like this about anybody before.” There was a pang of longing in his chest, the type that was a mixture of both jealousy and joy for his friend. He wished he had what they seemed to. Yao’s entire face had lit up talking about it, like there was nothing on earth that could make him happier than this one person. “Don’t freak out or anything but... when you say Verda, you don’t mean Verda Durmaz, do you?”

Sophia wasn’t entirely sure what Bodhi could be thinking at this very moment and whether or not he’d maybe longed for the presence of his mother throughout his life. It wasn’t really her place to ask him unless it was brought up first, but it became clear, after Bash worked up the nerve to tell her, that this had been more sinister than he first let on. “Bashir Qureshi!” She full named him with a look of disappointment on her face. Despite being on the bandwagon to get him laid, she hadn’t expected this sort of betrayal towards his son. “You didn’t tell him that she was in town and you’ve known all along but also have been sleeping with her and he… just found out?” Her head shook as she pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly hesitant to even go in now because they’d likely only think of this. “I know there isn’t anyone who could make you feel as bad as you feel right now but … You need go home and at least try to make this better. How do you think he feels? It’s always been him and you against the world and you’ve kept this huge thing from him, with someone who chose to walk away from him.” She sighed. “I mean, I don’t know how he feels but do you think he’d talk to me?”

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“I have tried,” he said, miserably. “He’s been staying at his friends’ houses most nights. I know I fucked up, Soph. Believe me, I know that.” Bash let out a long sigh. There were so many factors to this equation that he struggled to get his head around it. Bodhi deserved better from him, he’d never fucked up like this with his son before and it was new terroritory that he never thought he’d have to navigate. Shame washed over him. “I don’t know... I’m not sure what’s going on in his head.” Usually, Sophia would be his first port of call for this sort of thing. She and Bodhi had always had a close relationship, she was the confidante for subjects which parents weren’t allowed to be privy to. But this time... “I don’t know if he thinks you know or not. I tell you pretty much everything. I was surprised he hadn’t already called you, but I guess maybe he doesn’t know who to trust right now.”

When Bash appeared, seemingly, out of nowhere, Hank made a few startled sounds before shooting the other a look to say “why?”. Having been looking around the shop and “sneaking” in, Hank wasn’t ready for the surprise of another person. His eyes dropped to the floor quickly at the excited greeting, a bashful and quiet thing but Hank loved that welcome. He put the items on the counter he’d been walking towards and looked up again with a small smile.

Trying to start a sentence but the words getting stuck in his mouth, stuttering a bit before getting them out. “I’m just working. Living the dream, right? I didn’t mean to say that, let’s pretend I didn’t. Uh, I brought your order though.” With a sigh, Hank tried to look cool because he was far too aware he wasn’t sounding it. 

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With a wide grin Bash bounded over to him. Despite his choice of greeting, he did actually know the guy’s name. Hank. They’d run into one another a few times before, only when he’d managed to arrive early enough to catch the milkman leaving the milk, and each time they did Bash would approach him with absolute delight. The milk delivery was one of the best parts of the week; Hank was adorably awkward. Bash liked to chatter at him until he smiled.

“Awesome, that’ll make the kids happy—they were starting to get a bit murdery without caffeine. Since when did teenagers need to drink so much coffee anyway?” Though he got on with his younger colleagues very well, they were his son’s age and made him feel like he was permanently in parent mode. “Apparently ‘tea isn’t the same vibe’ or whatever.” He rolled his eyes, giving Hank a conspiratorial look of amusement.