CHAPTER 4
1257 Words
CHAPTER 4The black vapor of Juaquin Prado’s infectious soul swirled above her face. Through it, Mara could see the dragon flying into the low-slung clouds, retreating from the threat, circling above the roof of Mason Fix-It. In the distance, monotone dead voices chanted her name, calling her to join them. Then the black morass above flooded her eyes, blinding her, sending shocks of pain radiating through her head. Mara grabbed her temples and screamed.
She sat up in bed with a start. Her eyes snapped open. Sitting next to her on the bed was a little girl in a T-shirt and bright green sweatpants, who, for a split second, Mara didn’t recognize.
“You made me miss trick-or-treat,” Hannah said without preamble.
Mara rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath in an effort to slow her heartbeat. “What?”
“I didn’t get no costume or candy. Now Nana says turkey will have to be my treat, and my daddy says it’s too late to go trick-or-treating ’cause all the candy has been given away.” She mustered a pout while glaring at Mara.
“Sweetie, give me a minute to wake up. I can’t make sense of anything you are saying.” She pointed to the chair across the room. “Can you fetch my robe? Then we’ll go down to the kitchen and sort this out, while I have a cup of coffee.”
Hannah slid off the bed and retrieved the robe.
“You look hangovered,” Hannah said, handing Mara the robe.
“I feel hangovered.” Mara slipped on the robe and pointed toward the door. “Lead the way. Do you know how to get to the kitchen?”
She giggled and skipped out of the room. “This way!”
Mara shuffled after her, while running her fingers through her hair, failing to get it to look less like a nest. When she got to the stairs, Hannah yelled down toward the kitchen, “Nana, she’s awake!”
Diana walked out of the kitchen to the foot of the stairs with a disapproving look. She held a bundle of cloth from which she pulled a needle and thread, midstitch. “Hannah, I told you not to wake her up.”
“I didn’t. She had a bad dream and woke up. Huh, Mar-ree?” She pranced down the last two steps, hugged Diana’s leg and turned to look back up the stairs.
“Something like that.” Mara stepped down and rubbed Hannah’s head. “I was sort of hoping you were just a dream. Where’s your dad?” It struck her funny to refer to Sam that way, and she chuckled.
“He’s running errands on your bike, and Nana said I couldn’t go ’cause I don’t have a helmet,” Hannah said.
Mara sagged her head in the direction of the kitchen and said, “Tell me there is coffee in there.” Diana nodded, and they went into the kitchen.
Mara shuffled to the coffeepot on the counter. Her thigh grazed the oven door, and it felt warm. “What are you baking?”
Diana sat at the small round dinette table off to the side of the kitchen near the back door, continuing her sewing. “It’s preheating for the turkey.”
Mara shook her head, trying to drive away the lingering tiredness. “I can’t believe I’ve been asleep since yesterday afternoon. It’s Thursday already.”
Crawling into the neighboring chair, Hannah stood on her knees, so she could see over the table at what her grandmother was doing. Mara put her cup on the table across from her mother and joined them. She took a moment to inhale the aroma of the coffee before taking a sip, then turned to Hannah.
“So, what’s your damage, little girl?”
Hannah raised an eyebrow at her. “Huh?”
“Something about trick-or-treating?”
“You told me that I could go trick-or-treating, but Nana says its Thanksgiving not Halloween, and it’s your fault.”
“Maybe I need more coffee, but you don’t seem to be making any more sense to me now than you did upstairs.”
Diana broke the thread with her teeth, tied a knot, then interjected, “As best as I can tell from talking to Hannah, it appears that, when you sent her back in time, she left the day before Halloween, but she showed up here the day before Thanksgiving. Therefore, she has been deprived of the traditional costume, trick-or-treating and resultant sugar high.”
Hannah nodded vigorously. “Yeah, deprived.”
“Sorry to harsh your Halloween buzz. What do you expect me to do about it?” Mara asked.
“I want a costume and trick-or-treating!”
“I get that, but I’m not as smart as the aunt Mara you’re used to. I don’t have a clue about how to send people back in time. Apparently, come to think of it, I’m not that great at it in the future, considering I, or she, missed the target by almost a month.”
Diana rolled her eyes and glanced up with a look of disapproval.
Mara picked up on the expression. “What?”
“What were you thinking, sending this little girl into the past all by herself? What in the world were you hoping to accomplish?”
“How am I supposed to know? I haven’t even done it yet. Haven’t I committed enough past infractions for you to harp on without looking for trouble in the future?”
“No, not when the future is sitting at the table calling me Nana.” Diana looked up from her sewing and winked at Hannah. Turning to Mara, she said, “But speaking of infractions, let’s talk about lying and sneaking out in the middle of the night.”
“I’m sorry about that. I knew that something had to be done about Juaquin Prado possessing all those shedding victims, and I knew it might be dangerous. I just didn’t want you to feel responsible, if something went wrong.”
“That’s not your choice. I’m still the mom around here, and you’re still the kid, at least for another year or so. I understand you wanted to help Buddy—”
Mara sat up straight, her eyes widened. “Buddy? What happened to Buddy?”
“After that black cloud left his body, he recovered from the shedding fairly quickly. Last night he asked if I could run him home, so I dropped him off.”
“Is he okay?”
“He seemed fairly upbeat. Looks like he has a bad case of eczema, but that is fading quickly. I invited him for Thanksgiving dinner, but he said he had plans. I got the impression that is why he wanted to go home.”
Mara nodded. “He helps out at one of the shelters near his apartment, serving dinner to homeless people. It’s a big deal for him, something he and his dad used to do each year.”
Diana reached back and stuck the needle into a little red tomato-shaped pin cushion on the counter behind her. She pointed to the side of her chair and said to Hannah, “Come stand right here, and hold up your arms.”
Hannah hopped down and stood next to Diana, who slid the cloth over her arms and head. It was a bright green hoodie that matched the sweatpants Hannah wore.
“Okay, turn around, and pull up the hoodie,” Diana instructed.
Hannah reached behind her and slipped the hood over her head, revealing a row of increasingly large felt triangles that had been sewn onto the scalp and down the center of the back, forming a scaly-looking spine that stopped at her waist.
Mara smiled and said, “Look, you’re a dinosaur!”
Hannah shook her head. “Nuh-uh, that’s wrong.”
Diana patted her shoulder. “Lift up your arms, honey.”
She raised her arms, showing that material had been stitched between the arms and body of the hoodie, forming wings that hung down to her shins. “I’m a dragon, just like Ping!” She ran in a circle in front of the kitchen counter, flapping her wings.
“That is so cool,” Mara said. “You are such a good nana, Nana.”
Diana reached down and grabbed a bag on the floor next to her chair. Out of it, she pulled another piece of green material and a plastic bag stuffed with white cottony batting. She placed them on the table in front of Mara’s coffee cup.
“What’s that?” Mara asked.
“Penance for your bad timing and infractions. You get to make the tail, Auntie Mara,” Diana said.
Hannah ran up to the table, still flapping her wings and turned her back. Wiggling her rear end, she chanted, “Make my tail! Make my tail!”
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