Autumn Calling (7 page)

“Don’t forget the carpet used as fur on your
car.”

She grabbed her keys and gave him a look
that made him chuckle at her.

“I see humor is now on your repertoire.”

“You do drive a car that looks like a giant
dog.”

“Have you been talking with Tori? If so, cut
it out,” she said closing the door behind them as they made their
way to the gate.

“No, but I have heard enough conversations
between the two of you to know she really doesn’t like to be seen
in it.”

“Very true, but when push comes to shove,
it’s a free car.”

“That it is.”

The following day was business as usual.
Tori came to the house in the morning and they headed to the other
side of the property where Morti set up for their lessons. Seeing
as they were a little early, they moseyed in that direction and sat
on the garden bench watching Sully chasing dragonflies and other
flying insects.

“I’ve been doing some research on my
parents, and it does seem they may be related to the Romani Kale in
Wales. Cool, huh?!”

“Very,” Summer agreed.

“Course, it would have been much easier to
find out this stuff if my parents had survived. Think of all the
cool stuff they had and did.”

“But if you had known them, we wouldn’t have
been besties. Not that I don’t wish you had a chance to know
them.”

“I know. Somehow I think we still would have
met and been friends even if I had them around.”

“I bet you’re right. Friendships like ours
are written in the stars, or wherever it is they write that kind of
stuff.”

“Exactly,” Tori said with a giggle.

“How’s the house hunting going?”

“Pretty good, I think. The guy that’s
selling the Mausoleum to Nick owns a really cute bungalow that he’s
thinking of renting until he and his wife decide whether this is a
permanent move or a temporary one.”

“Have you seen the house?”

“Yes. It’s adorable. Two bedrooms, one bath,
great big kitchen, nice sized living room with a fireplace, lots of
windows, and a really nicely landscaped front and backyard.”

“That’s great. Are you excited?”

“I am. Not looking forward to packing, but
the end result will be worth it.”

“I’m so happy for you. Nick seems to be
pretty excited too, when he’s not giving me the sulky face he’s
been frequenting around me. I don’t even think he knows he does
that. We’ve had conversations about it and he seems to be oblivious
to it. Speaking of Nick and his defensiveness over Jackson, have
you heard from him?”

“Not even a peep.”

“That’s so weird. Nick makes it seem like he
talks to him all the time. If he’s talking to Nick why wouldn’t he
be calling you?”

“I haven’t a clue, but thankfully, I’ve been
a little distracted myself.”

“Oh?”

“You can’t tell Nick though.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Daniel’s been coming around.”

“Oh! Mister hottie dark angel?”

“Yes, and he’s changed.”

“Really? How and why would you want him to?”
Tori joked.

“He seems to have been learning the art of
human conversation. He actually used humor and sarcasm.”

“Say it isn’t so!” Tori said, imitating an
overacting Southern damsel.

“It is and we actually even kind of had a
date.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yes, and the night we heard about Sister
Mary Louise’s death he stayed with me all night. He just laid
beside me and held me. It was so wonderful. I felt so safe and
wanted.”

“That’s so sweet. I worried about you, you
know. I had Nick that night and you didn’t have anyone, but I just
didn’t have the strength to check in on you.”

“I know. I felt the same, but I knew Nick
would take care of you. It really was nice to have someone worrying
about me and wanting to comfort me in my sadness. I’m not sure how
I would have handled it if he hadn’t been there.”

“So do you think there’s something between
the two of you?”

“I think he made a huge effort to learn
about humans and human emotions in the last few months. If nothing
else, it says to me he would like to get to know me better.”

“What about Jackson?”

“I don’t know. I mean, things can’t continue
the way they are. If he’s communicating with Nick and couldn’t even
find time to offer his sympathies over the sister, then I don’t
think there’s really anything there to begin with.”

“I’ve got to admit, I’d be pissed if Nick
did that to me. I mean, if he’d been making an effort, it would be
one thing, but he doesn’t seem to be doing that much to show you
he’s still in this relationship.”

“That’s pretty much how I feel.”

“And Daniel? How do you feel about him?”

“You know I adored him before when he spoke
like an emotionless twit.”

Tori burst out laughing. “You did have a
pretty good crush on him for a while. My only concern is that he
doesn’t disappear again.”

“I think about that too. But according to
Daniel, he was always here; he was just waiting for me to call for
him. I hadn’t realized I could do that, so maybe I’m the twit after
all.”

Tori laughed again, but this time Summer had
a good laugh too. “I’m glad. It’s about time you have a little
affection in your life. I’m tired of feeling guilty every time Nick
plants one on me in front of you.”

“Thanks for worrying, but it doesn’t bother
me. I’m thrilled to see you so happy. When do you think you will be
moving?”

“Three weeks or so. It depends when the
paperwork goes through on the Mausoleum.”

“I think it’s cool how Nick’s buying the
place. He seems pretty jazzed about it.”

“He is, though I wish he had more of an
eight to five type job. But it seems to suit him, and I think it’s
a way better idea than that hair-brained scheme he and Jackson came
up with for them buying a van and working as a traveling blood
bank. Guys can be so weird sometimes.”

“You said it.”

“Has Ms. Midnight gotten out of her funk
yet?”

“She seems to be coming around. As long as I
avoid the subject of my parents and my evil twin.”

“Evil twin?”

“Well that’s how the Midnight’s seem to
describer her. As far as I can tell we’re just fraternal twins. Oh,
I forgot to tell you! Daniel told me what happened to my mother,
grandmother, and Aunt Myrtle.”

“I thought he refused to tell you about
that—some angel hogwash.”

“He did, but I told him every time I brought
up the subject with Aunt Myrtle, she’d go loopy on me, and Morti
isn’t the most pleasant to have a conversation with.”

“You’re telling me.”

“So, with my options limited, I asked him if
he would tell me, and he did.”

“Wow, he has changed.”

“I know, right? Speaking of Morti, we better
head over or he’ll be all in a tizzy about us being late.”

“No kidding,” Tori agreed and looked at her
watch.

* * *

After lessons ended and Tori left, Summer
worked on pulling weeds from the garden. The little bit of rain the
night before made the task easy. The soil was rich with organic
matter and petrichor. For those who love the dirt and all of Mother
Nature’s wonders, there is no better smell. Summer breathed in the
aroma and savored it. The rain made nature’s rototillers, worms,
come closer to the surface to partake in its life-giving
bounty.

She made good progress, not realizing how
long she’d been pulling weeds and loosening the earth around the
base of the thankful herbs. The sky faded to the glorious pinks,
purples, and oranges of sunset. Sully lay on his back, legs limp
and napping in the coolness of the early evening as Summer gathered
the weed pile and her tools to call it a day.

After depositing the weeds in the trash and
the tools back in the shed, she washed her hands of the hardened
earth under the garden hose. She heard the crack of a branch. She
turned with a jerk in the direction of the snap and saw the man
she’d seen a few days ago, who she assumed Sully had run off.

“Hey,” she shouted at the trespasser. “This
is private property.”

The man scurried in surprised panic at the
sight of her.

“Sully. Go get him,” she said to the lazy
hellhound. He lifted his head in acknowledgement of her command,
glanced at the man, then laid his head down in teen defiance.

“You know, Sully, you’re being quite a poop
these days.”

By now the man was well out of sight and
Summer assumed he was well on his way to wherever it was he was off
to, so there was no purpose to search for him. She closed the shed.
She noticed when she did so that the door didn’t quite shut. She
looked down at where it seemed to be hanging up to find that Sully
had chewed or clawed at the bottom corner so badly that the boards
were mangled and splintered every which way. Now that she looked at
the door with more scrutiny, it was practically off its hinges due
to the hellhound’s assault upon it.

“Bad dog,” she said and then mumbled to
herself, knowing he didn’t give a hoot as to what she was saying.
She headed back to her little cottage for the evening.

Per the arrangement Dr. Stuart had made with
Summer, every two weeks she was to meet the bookkeeper at the
veterinarian office to do payroll while he was on vacation. This
was nothing out of the ordinary. Dr. Stuart had often relied on
Summer for office responsibilities such as these, but today was
different in that Summer lent the dog mobile to Tori for the day.
So Tori agreed to meet the accountant instead.

Tori wasn’t happy about having to drive the
car, but she didn’t own one herself and she wanted to go into the
big city to meet with some people she’d met online who had
information about her parents and gypsy heritage.

The city was a thirty minute drive from
Paradise. She could go to the city, meet up with these people, and
be back by 2:00 p.m. to meet the accountant. Easy peasy.

Or at least it seemed to be. But once she
was on the freeway and only a few miles from home, she found the
car was acting oddly. The freeway near Paradise was still a bit
windy before it got down into the valley, and the brakes were not
responding well. Sometimes they would grab harshly, and other times
they didn’t seem to be working much at all. The problem was that on
a winding highway such as this, there were not a lot of wide
shoulders or opportunities to pull off.

With each bend in the road, Tori’s fear
grew. The brakes on the carpet covered SUV with flapping dog ears
were completely useless, and the grade was still rather steep.
Tires skid as she made turns at higher speeds than a race driver
might take.

She put the car in a lower gear, but that
only made the vehicle make a high whining sound as it had to rev at
a higher rpm due to the gear. Tears welled in her eyes as she flew
around a corner. She felt sure that at least one if not more tires
left the pavement from force.

She knew she was still several miles from
the freeway leveling out. One more corner like the last, and surely
she would roll the dog mobile or lose control of it and plummet
down the side of the steep shelf carved out of the mountain to
house the two-lane highway.

She prayed that the brakes would
miraculously repair themselves and she braced herself for a long
steep turn she could see coming up on her fast. She could barely
breathe as she gripped the steering wheel so tightly her fingers
hurt. Just before she commenced banking the curve, a crow dove in
front of the car and she reacted by yanking the wheel hard to avoid
it. That’s when everything fell into silence and slow motion. The
car started to roll.

For some reason, the instrumental of The
Blue Danube Waltz played in her head as she watched without any
control as items floated around the car as if gravity had
disappeared from earth. She watched a pen rotate and spin as if it
were a prima ballerina dancing gracefully across her field of
vision.

Outside was a blur of green, black, and
brown with a horrid jolt ever so often when the car would hit
something solid. It seemed to continue on for an eternity. Sharp
pains erupted as the dog mobile continued its destructive
somersault down into the ravine, until it abruptly stopped as it
careened into a large granite boulder. At the same instant the
tumbling stopped an excruciating blow to the head sent Tori’s world
into a dark tunnel, where the light at the other end was slowly
dulling and then extinguished as she lost consciousness.

* * *

A phone call from Nick informed Summer of
Tori’s accident. He quickly relayed that he was coming to get her
and he’d explain on the way what he knew. He arrived in a cloud of
dust and laid needlessly on the horn when he arrived at the gate of
the Midnight Mansion, where he always dropped off Tori for her
magic lessons.

She had been waiting for him under the shade
of a tree where he hadn’t seen her, and he practically jumped out
of his skin when he spied her moving towards him.

She quickly sat next to him in the car and
before she had the door closed the wheels were spinning backwards
without traction in the loose dirt.

“Are you okay?” she asked, buckling her
seatbelt making sure it was secure. “Would you like me to
drive?”

He growled an angry “No” at her.

“Do you know what happened?” she asked with
concern.

“The brakes. Someone tampered with your
brakes,” he exclaimed furiously at her.

She was confused by his obvious agitation
towards her. Was he mad at her about Jackson? Had Tori told him
about Daniel? She wouldn’t, would she? No. That wasn’t how Tori
rolled.

“Where did they find her?” she asked.

“Someone behind her saw her flying around
the corners, picking up speed, and going over the edge. They
stopped immediately and called the paramedics. If they hadn’t seen
her flip who knows when or if she would have been found.”