The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (55 page)

“The Sheep,” he said, like
duh.

Jade giggled beside me; she really dug Gramps. To her, he was invincible. He'd just handed Carson's dad his own ass; he was pretty high in all the kids' eyes right now.

“Oh,” Helen said, not really knowing how to respond to that.

Join the club.

Gramps turned. “Okay everyone, chow's ready, the interloper has gone, time to continue the festivities.”

We all walked back to the BBQ area where a big fire pit was full of illegal wood.

“Oh, Pop, are you really going to burn that,” Mom asked, pointing to the fragrant and neatly bundled wood.

He nodded. “Yup.”

She sighed.

Bill shook his head and Dad expounded, “Grandfathered.”

“Right,” Bill said. “I guess that is where the garbage can and lack of a gray water spigot comes in too.”

“Yeah,” I responded.

“I'm not using dirty-ass water to wash my dishes.” Gramps said and Helen flinched at the language while Mom quietly sighed again.

Jonesy and the kids grinned. Gramps was expert at making everything über-awkward and not noticing that he made it that way.

It was kinda terrific. Unless you were on the receiving end.

The fire was blazing and Gramps had all the marshmallow sticks out and stuck with a marshmallow, handing one to each kid.

When he got to Christi, who had arrived right after Hamilton left,  she said, “I'm on a diet.”

He just stared at her until she took the stick. “Fine,” she huffed and his eyebrows jacked down over his eyes. “Thank you,” she tacked on.

Maybe she was smarter than she looked.

There was a somewhat peaceful silence, where the adults talked quietly and the fire crackled, twilight sliding into night as we sat together on log rounds with uneven surfaces, pea gravel lining the pit, a rusty circle holding the chunky pieces of wood.

I watched the firelight flicker on Jade's face, the sun having kissed her a good one today, her cheeks pink, her mouth red. My gaze lingered on her lips and she laughed at my look. She knew I was diggin' on her, thinking about
studying
French again. I looped an arm around her shoulders and she cuddled in next to me.

It was Helen that got our full attention. “Bill and I have good news.”

We all looked at her expectantly.

“We're going to have a baby,” Helen said.

What the hell?

Jonesy spewed a chunk of hot dog at the fire where it landed with a plop, sizzling in the heat.

Mom recovered first. “Well, that's... ah, wonderful news.”

Bill was grinning to beat the band and Jonesy looked like he was going to puke. It's not every day that you find out, at almost fifteen,
definitive proof
that your parents have sex.

Wow, so uncool.

“Ah, could you guys like...have warned me?” Jonesy spluttered, completely discombobulated.

“Well, son, it's not like we were asking permission,” Bill said with arched brows.

All the teens looked uneasily around at each other but Tiff said, “We have a big family and I always thought it was kinda weird once I met you guys, that the Js and Caleb were all only children. Now Jonesy gets to change poopy diapers and all that happy shit,” she said, juggling a hot marshmallow in her mouth.

Mom gave Tiff a severe look but she didn't notice, going on, “My youngest brother is only five and my mom's pretty old.”  Shrugging.

She looked a confirmation at Bry who nodded, adding, “Yeah, she's like forty-something,” he said.

The parents all blanched at forty-anything being old.

I thought between Tiff and Jonesy something horribly obtuse would be uttered.

Of course it was.

John said, “Women over forty can successfully have children. In fact, there has been a significant increase in births in the over-forty group.”

Helen beamed at him and we looked at him like he needed to go die. I mean, who would even care enough to know that?

Apparently Alex. “And...” he said, adding to the knowledge base, “the incidence of Down Syndrome has been lessened with the marker's discovery and...”

“... the subsequent pharmaceutical moderator,” Dad finished.

“So maybe my parents won't have a flipper-baby?” Jonesy said.

Tiff barked out a laugh, shrugging. “Maybe they'll get lucky.”

Bill looked ready to punch Jonesy and Helen appeared crestfallen.

“What?” Jonesy said.

“Shutting up would be good right now,” Sophie said.

There were a few awkward moments of silence and then Gramps suggested going inside to play some lame card game called Pinochle. He herded the adults inside and turned his face at the last moment, the light from the fire reflected on it as he winked.

He was making the adults go away so us kids could sit around.

We all sat there poking our sticks into the fire, Christi piped in and said, “I feel bad about my brother hurting you, Caleb.”

Maybe she was okay, I thought.

Then, she ruined it by qualifying, “Not that I'm an AFTD-lover or something.”

Tiff glowered at her and Bry looked kinda embarrassed. She just had to go. I didn't care if she was the hottest girl alive. She was always casting spells and stirring her cauldron.

“And you guys get on my dick about what
I say
?” Jonesy said, both hands on his chest.

“Ah, hold on there. Not all of us want to be 'on your dick'.” Sophie said.

Tiff and Jade laughed, raising their hands.

“I think Jonesy was using it as an expression,” Alex clarified, pushing his glasses up with a finger.

“How many of us want to be on Jonesy's dick?” Bry asked. “Raise your hand?”

Mom popped her head out of the open window. “Are you kids talking about penises?”

Oh My God.

“Not really Mom...”

“Well, I don't want any inappropriate dialogue out there.”

“Don't worry about it, Ali. We're just discussing the merits of porn!” Jonesy yelled.

I put my face in my hands.
This couldn't be my life
.

Jade started rubbing my back.

Mom got up and Gramps grabbed her wrist, whispering in her ear...there were a few more words and she sat back down.

Gramps had placated. Wow, that was close.

I looked at the group. “No body talk, K?”

“Your mom sure has cantaloupes about stupid shit,” Tiff said.

True, but...

“She's okay, she just wants to think I'm acting good.”

She shrugged. “I think our parents are kinda distracted with having all of us running around all the time.”

Bry nodded, agreeing.

We started to get into the groove, dragging lounge chairs over  to the fire and all of us paired up. None of us said anything about Sophie and Jonesy sharing.

The stars filled the sky and this far out there was little light pollution (as Mom called it). We sat quietly, whispering about school, the hide-a-way, stuff.

The adults started to filter out on the back deck, crossing the huge lawn and all the couples that had been practically lying on top of one another tried to shift apart so it looked better.

Jonesy's parents and mine weren't impressed. “Pop, are you sure you want this group overnight? It's mixed you know... I think it may be...”

“Don't worry about it, Alicia. If I can't handle them I might as well give up now.”

Mom glanced at me, worry on her face. “You have to let him go, honey. He's raising corpses for God's sake, he can handle a little overnight mixed company. He's responsible. Aren't ya?” Gramps said, his eyes boring into mine.

I nodded.
Like I'd say no
.

The Parents and Jonesy's parents rolled out the driveway, Helen and Mom waving as they left.

Gramps plopped down. “Okay kids, here's the deal: no sex.”

Nuclear bomb detonated.

John and Tiff looked at each other awkwardly; Bry and Christi (after she got done gasping like a trout) just stared at Gramps.

Jonesy said, “Not here, Mac. The timing's off.”

Gramps looked at him.

“You shut your pie-hole,” he said, pointing a stout finger at Jonesy, who looked back at him like,
who me
?

Sophie pushed him off the lounge chair and he got all caught up in the handrail and she fell on top of him with a squeal.

“See what I'm sayin'?” he said from beneath Sophie. “I'm a chick-magnet.”

“Ugh!” Sophie said, using more elbow force than necessary as she used his torso to leverage herself up.

“Hey! That hurt.”

“What-ev-er!” she hollered back, her curly hair a riot around her head. She shoved it behind her ears violently.

Gramps was wiping the tears that were rolling out of his eyes from laughing so hard.

“I guess maybe not so much warning was needed,” he said, his gales of laughter breaking off into a random chuckle.

Sophie settled back into the chair and Jonesy got up and brushed off grass and a pebble or two. He pulled up a log (as close as he could get to Sophie) and sat down.

Gramps started telling funny stories about his childhood and naturally Gran came up.

“Did Mom ever tell you about Gran and what she said?”

Gramps got a puzzled expression. “No.”

Huh, I guess it fell on me. I had forgotten about it until now.

“Yeah, before we really knew the full extent, of my abilities.”

“The Scenic episode?” Tiff interrupted, snapping her gum, making Jade jump.

I nodded, sounded like a pulse show. “Yeah.”

Gramps made the circle with his finger,
go on
.

“Anyway, she told me to tell you that she was sorry. His face changed and became unreadable. “She said you'd know, Gramps.”

“Yes, I do,” he responded.

We waited. When it seemed like forever and there was no explanation coming I asked, “What was it, Gramps?”

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, his hands loosely clasped, dangling between them.

“You kids are too young to understand the prejudice against paranormals but, back when I was a boy, if you were 'special' you didn't want to announce it.” He watched the fire dying down, poking it with an empty marshmallow stick.

“Now, not to take away from the importance of your dad's discovery Caleb but,” I nodded and he continued, “paranormal phenomenon is not a 'new' reality. People have been showing flashes of abilities for millennia. All your dad did was validate what we already understood. The pharmaceutical moguls capitalized on it... and here we are.”

John was frowning, that was his “thinking-on-it” face. “So, how does this pertain to you?”

“Not just another pretty face, eh?” he said, his gaze steady on John, who I knew had a blush going in the dark, the firelight obscuring it.

“When I was a little tyke,” and he swung out his hand to indicate a kid about five, “your gran would walk me to church and we'd pass the quiet neighbors park.”

“Huh?” Jonesy said.

“Cemetery,” I said, automatically translating Gramps weird way of talking. It wasn't weird to me, but I could tell by the other kids' faces they weren't catching on. Well, John was, his parents were one hundred and five.

“Anywho, I would catch emotions of the dead. Just little snatches here and there and I would tell Gran. She would give me a swat to my backside.”

We were all quiet. It seemed really cruel to spank a kid for an ability; totally lame.

“Don't be too harsh on her, kids,” he remonstrated when we all looked pissed for the five-year old he'd been.

“It was a different era. Nobody wanted
anyone
to be different. We all wanted to fit in. After awhile, I stopped saying anything.” He shrugged.

I understood wanting to be normal even though it wasn't ever gonna happen for me.

“So, when I raised Gran, she... ah, figured out that maybe it 'ran in the family'?”

He nodded. “Yup.”

“Kinda smart for a zombie,” Jonesy said, shuddering.

“Not as smart as Clyde,” Bry said ominously.

Gramps gave me a sharp look. “Who's Clyde?”

I brought Gramps up-to-speed on my main zombie dude.

“Just a warning, Caleb.” His eyes had never been more serious. “Be careful with this. I think something here stinks. And you're working this serial killer shindig.”

I don't know if I'd call it that, but...

“You need to watch out that your power doesn't just get a mind of its own.”

“What do you mean?” Jade asked and Sophie nodded.

“Your power has responded to stress, duress, conflict, et cetera?”