Autumn Calling (5 page)

“Oh,” she said with surprise, then, “OH,”
she said again, pulling away from Summer. “A Watcher,” she said
respectfully and then curtsied for him like royalty.

With his bow as a response, Daniel said, “My
dear Ms. Midnight, there’s no need for such formalities.”

“You know my name?” Ms. Midnight said, then
immediately answered her own question. “Well, of course you do.
It’s a great honor to have you here.”

“The honor’s mine,” Daniel said, smiling at
the slightly flustered Aunt Myrtle.

Summer found this all to be very
entertaining, but she was dumbfounded as to how Aunt Myrtle knew
Daniel was a watcher.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know Summer had a
visitor. I should let you two talk.”

“That’s okay, Ms. Myrtle. Summer and I were
just finishing up,” he said with a rather devilish smile for an
angel. Summer smiled back at him, flushing a bit. “Might I see you
tonight?” he asked Summer.

“Sure.”

“Good, then I will leave you two to it,” he
said as he passed the women and opened the door to leave.

“Bye,” Summer said.

“Good-bye,” Aunt Myrtle said. “So where was
I,” Aunt Myrtle continued when the door shut. “Oh, yes. I’m so
sorry about Sister Mary Louise.”

“Thank you, Aunt Myrtle,” she said as she
sat on the couch. Her aunt followed in suit.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, I guess. Still in shock, I
suppose.”

“No surprise there.”

“Can I get you some tea?” Summer
offered.

“No, dear. I’m good. I just wanted to check
on you. How is Tori doing?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t talked to her since
I dropped her off with Nick yesterday.”

“Hmm,” she said with concern.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“How did you know Daniel was a watcher?”

“His aura.”

“His aura?”

“Yes. It’s bright white and almost blinding.
Don’t you see it?”

“No, but he certainly has a presence about
him.”

“Yes. A strong aura does that to a being.
How long have you known him?”

“Since the night Hunter kidnapped Morti and
killed Ms. Ash, Sully’s mother. He’s kept me from harm several
times.”

“I imagine so, though I didn’t know he had
made himself known to you.”

“So you knew he was watching me?”

“All your life.”

“He said he’d been asked to watch me.”

“Yes, he had, by your grandmother Ivy. She
had been mortally wounded when she abducted you from your father’s
family. On her death bed, she asked Daniel to watch over you when
she knew she could not.”

“How did Ivy know Daniel?”

“Your grandfather Henry and Daniel had been
great friends, and Ivy had known him for years through him.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Aunt
Myrtle said, “Sister Mary Louise will be greatly missed. You know,
I knew her when she was young.”

“Sister Mary Louise?”

“Yes. She was such a funny little thing,
always in pig tails, and she had a smile for anyone who came her
way.”

“How did you know her?”

“She was Ivy’s best friend Barbara’s
daughter. You don’t think your grandmother would leave you
completely at the hands of strangers, do you?”

“ I don’t know. I mean, I guess not.”

“She loved you very much.”

“Can you answer a question for me? I know we
haven’t really talked about it, but I think I should know all I can
about what I’m up against.”

“What is it?”

Summer reached over to the side table and
opened a decorative box. She pulled out a necklace with a sun
pendant upon its chain. When Aunt Myrtle saw the necklace, she
coughed as if something caught in her throat. “Can you tell me
about this and the missing piece supposedly my twin sister
has?”

“Uh, I, how did you find out?”

“Sister Mary Louise gave it to me when I
graduated and left the orphanage. It took me a while to open the
box it was in, but Jackson helped me do it. When I pulled it from
its box it looked to me as if it was missing something; not
complete somehow. It was Daniel who told me about my sister. I
imagine she has a similar necklace that somehow makes mine
complete?”

“Yes,” Aunt Myrtle said nervously. “It’s
true. You do have a sister. I had completely forgotten that the
puzzle box was among your things.”

“Why didn’t YOU tell me I had a sister and
that she will be among the Macabres I have to fight?”

“I’m sorry dear. I really am. I don’t
remember things like I should and I often forget what it is that
you know and what you don’t know. It’s all very frustrating, I can
tell you.”

“I know you have memory problems, but this
seems to be an important bit of information that you’ve left
out.”

“It was not my call to keep things from you.
The
B
rotherhood of
R
eformed
O
rder
O
f
M
agic, better known as the BROOM, thought it best.”

Summer hoped this statement was true, but it
seemed that if she didn’t ask the right questions, no one would
ever tell her the whole story of what was going on and what was
about to happen.

“Keeping secrets was never my strong suit.
Often times I’d have to write things down, but Ivy, she was good
with secrets,” Aunt Myrtle said, reminiscing, or was she entering
one of her episodes where she would soon be ranting and angry?
Summer and Tori often times had to cut classes short with Aunt
Myrtle because of these maniacal fits she’d transition into.

“Are you okay, Aunt Myrtle?”

“I am most certainly fine. What is it I’m
doing here? I have so much to do,” she said getting up and moving
for the door.

“But wait, you were telling me about my
sister.”

“Sister? You don’t have a sister,” Aunt
Myrtle said, mumbling something irate under her breath as she shut
the door behind her.

Something about this story of her sister and
her grandmother abducting Summer from the Macabres’ seemed to bring
on these outbursts in Aunt Myrtle. If she was going to get answers,
it would have to be from someone other than Aunt Myrtle.

This was the second time Summer had tried to
get the woman to confide in her, with the same result: nothing. But
if not her, then who? Morti was less than inviting, and he didn’t
seem very receptive to chit chat beyond what was absolutely
necessary for the lesson plan of the day. Hunter may know, but he
was hundreds of miles away with Jackson, and that only left Daniel,
who had already told her once that he was not supposed to reveal
details of her life for fear of changing her path, whatever that
was.

But things seemed different with Daniel now.
Maybe he would be more forthcoming knowing that Myrtle was
incapable of revealing the vital information she needed. She knew
Daniel took his position as watcher, not teller, very seriously,
but she hoped maybe given the circumstances, he might oblige her
this one time. It was at least worth a try.

* * *

She thought she should check on Tori and see
how she was doing with the loss of Sister Mary Louise. She texted
her in hopes she’d answer.

“R U up?” she wrote.

After a few moments her phone chimed.

“Yup.”

“How R U?”

“OK. You?”

“The same. Want to go have pancakes?”

“Idk. I look like crap—eyes R puffy.”

“Me 2— We could wear sunglasses.”

“It’s raining.”

“2 cover our puffy eyes, LOL.”

“Oh. Ok. I’ll meet you at IHOP in 20.”

“I’ll be there.”

She thought since she had to kill some time,
she would check the office out, make sure the mail was picked up
and such. When she headed for the back gate, Sully came sliding up
all muddy and soaked as if he was going with her.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re covered in mud and
water, boy! I won’t be gone long.”

Sully cocked his head at her and then turned
as if insulted by her put off.

“Don’t sulk,” she said as he walked away. He
turned one last time to see if she’d changed her mind due to his
pouting, but when he found she hadn’t he became distracted by a
leaf that went tumbling by with a push of the gusting wind.

She smiled at him as she secured the gate
and drove off.

She pulled into the empty parking lot of
Paws and Whiskers. As she made her way to the door, a woman ran up
behind her.

“Please, can you help me?” she said. She was
soaked to the skin and carrying a black cat with a white tuft of
hair on its chest in the shape of a diamond. The cat looked
unconscious.

“The clinic isn’t open. The doctor’s on
vacation.”

“Please, she’s hurt,” the girl pleaded.
Summer agreed and let her in, turning on a couple of lights on
their way to an examining room.

The dark-haired woman with shockingly green
eyes laid the cat on the table as gently as she could and hovered
over the cat, while Summer washed her hands.

“Can you tell me a little about what
happened?” Summer asked over her shoulder.

“Um, well she was on my window ledge and
this horrible mocking bird kept dive bombing her from the air,
squawking up a storm. One of the attacks on her must have knocked
her off her balance, and she fell from the second story.”

“Let me take a look at her. What’s her
name?”

“Vixen,” the woman said.

Summer pet the cat gently. “Vixen, what a
cute name,” Summer said as she roamed her hands all over the cat
feeling for internal injuries and broken bones. Then she put her
stethoscope on and listened to her breathing as she said, “And how
old is Vixen?”

“I guess five or so.”

“Well, she’s a very pretty cat and in very
good health. I need to take an X-ray on this one leg,” Summer said
as she gently lifted the cat. “You can come if you like…” Summer
paused for the woman to voice her name.

The woman looked greatly relieved and said,
“You can call me Autumn. Thank you I would.”

They walked back to the lab and Summer laid
down the cat. The machine made its mechanical sound and a second
later Vixen meowed.

“Oh good, she’s awake. What perfect timing,
Ms. Vixen. Why don’t you give her some love, and I’ll check the
results of the X-ray.

Summer examined the film finding what she
suspected and then came to inform the woman of her findings.

“Hi, Vixen,” she said, gently giving her a
pet. “How are you feeling, girl?” Summer said, petting the cat to
ease her anxiety.

“Why did you say Vixen had perfect
timing?”

“Well, normally to get a cat’s X-ray they’d
have to be sedated.”

“I see.”

“Well, it’s as I suspected. She came down
hard on her back legs and has a tiny hairline fracture on her left
metatarsus. It doesn’t need to be cast, but it should be tightly
wrapped for a few weeks, and I’m sure she’s not going to like that
very much.”

“But she was unconscious,” the woman
said.

“Yes. The pain can knock her out for a time,
but it looks as if she has a slight concussion. She should be fine,
but you’ll need to monitor her for the next twenty-four hours. Can
you do that?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“You’ll have to keep her off her feet as
much as you can, and if she sleeps you need to wake her up every
couple of hours to make sure she’s coherent. Normally I’d keep her
overnight, but as you can see the clinic is closed and I have no
staff to help watch her. I don’t see why, under these
circumstances, you can’t do that job. I’ll give you my number and
you can call anytime with any questions or concerns. Let me get her
leg wrapped and then you can take her home. No outside time for a
couple of days until we know all is well and there are no lingering
problems.”

“Thank you so much, Doctor.”

“Not a problem. If you could write down your
number, I’d like to call later and check to see how she’s
doing.”

The woman thanked Summer again on their way
out of the clinic and Summer headed to IHOP to meet Tori.

It was good to talk with Tori. No matter how
sad Summer was, Tori knew how to cheer her up, and she likewise
knew what made Tori happy. Since they both had a good cry the night
before about the sadness of Sister Mary Louise’s departure, they
talked instead of all the fond memories they had of her. Summer
also told Tori what Aunt Myrtle said about having known Mary Louise
when she was a child and her connection to her grandmother Ivy.

It was heartening that the woman they loved
so much was practically family in more ways than they originally
thought. Pancakes and comforting talk of past adventures was just
the ticket to make them feel better.

As they were finishing up their late
breakfast, they got a text from Sister Margaret, asking them to
come to the orphanage to talk to the police. They had some general
questions to ask and thought it would be easiest if they all met
there since the Reverend Mother had no intention of going to the
police station. She had played her “I raised you, boy” card with
Joey Bertrand, the sheriff, and won hands down.

The sisters were right, the questions were
mostly, “When was the last time you saw her?”; “Has she been in
contact?”; “Do you know anyone who might know where she went?” It
was all very disturbing. Summer felt if maybe she had made more of
a fuss about her being missing that maybe she wouldn’t be dead.

But Sister Louise had always talked about
one day stealing away on a journey by herself, so when the Reverend
Mother said she had left, Summer didn’t think anything sinister had
happened, only that she had finally taken her trip and one day
she’d get a postcard telling her and Tori how much fun she was
having meeting people and seeing the world. Sadly that wasn’t the
case, and the guilt ate at her insides.

When Summer got home after her jaunt with
Tori and talking to the police, she stopped in at Aunt Myrtle’s.
She found her still in her agitated state, so it was likely lessons
would not be conducted today. She called Autumn to check on Vixen.
Thankfully all was well and she was resting comfortably at home.
Summer did a little gardening under the watchful eye of Sully until
he decided it was time to play, and he dropped the slimy ball he
carried around when he wasn’t pestering Morti on Summer’s foot.