Chapter 4
Chris walked closer to me than usual, his arm pressing against mine. I had barely drunk anything, but my head felt like it was swimming. Thank goodness for the rain. It wasn’t a light drizzle any longer.
I raised my face to the night sky and let its cool touch give me a cold reality check.
Taking him back to my place was not a good idea. I’d just end up another broken heart in a long list of them. I was pretty sure there was even a Chris Silver recovery group in town.
I let him walk me home. When we got to the door of my apartment, I took out the keys, paused and faced him.
He didn’t press forward, and his face didn’t seem to show any sign of what he was thinking. But that glowing look was there. He took a step closer, taking my hands in his. They were so warm.
He kissed me on the forehead.
“Call me tomorrow,” he whispered.
My breath caught for a second, but I recovered my poise.
“Sure.”
He turned and walked down the hall towards the elevators. I actually stood there, watching him go. I rolled my eyes at my own foolishness.
What was I doing?
When I stopped being such a girl and picked my dignity off the floor, I closed the door.
Fortunately, little green dude wasn’t there.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Since I’d slept most of the day, I wasn’t overly tired. I now had three choices because I couldn’t sit here pining for Chris — comb through the papers that Joan had left me, examine the extra earring and see if I could dig up a number for Aunt Marigold, or take a shower.
I opted for the shower — piping hot.
I stood in the water for a good ten minutes, just letting the heat soak in before I did anything. I tried not to think, but that wasn’t so easily accomplished.
I had just learned I was adopted; my mother had revealed to me the purpose of my being in her family; my brother didn’t believe any of it was true; a hot friend of mine was giving me vibes I shouldn’t be getting; I’d found another earring to match something I’d received years ago; and the little green man may not have been a figment of my imagination after all.
Thinking was all I did in there.
When I finally managed to extract myself from the shower, I decided that the next order of business was to review those journal entries. It was a little odd I should have had the same hallucinations that my grandfather did. Or maybe it wasn’t hallucinations after all, which was the most confusing part of this. And if that was true, then what about this curse, as Chris called it? That part niggled at the back of my head, and sent a shiver wriggling down my spine.
I threw myself on the futon. The frame moaned again.
I grabbed the leather-bound package and started with that first page once more.
Today, the little green man appeared again. I haven’t seen him in months.
That was it.
The next page was similar.
The green man intrigues me. I try to talk to him. He doesn’t say anything. He just looks at me. If I try to touch him, he disappears. I wish I knew what he was.
I flipped through a few more and stopped.
Aunt Marigold was here today. She gave me a green cufflink for my birthday.
I had to re-read that one again.
Aunt Marigold? A green cufflink?
Panic was starting to settle in. My hands shook.
I took a moment to think. Aunt Marigold wasn’t my real aunt, I knew that. From what I could recall my father had been an only child. So, I had always assumed she was my father’s aunt, but it looked like she might have been my grandfather’s aunt?
How old was Aunt Marigold?
I put the pages down to fetch the earrings.
Sure enough it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. There were two there. And they were identical.
I wondered if Aunt Marigold had given me more than one, but I knew that couldn’t have been the case. The summer she gave it to me was one I’d never forget. There had only been one earring. I was sure of it.
I walked back into the living room. Despite my better judgment, I cast a glance at the ficus. I almost cried out.
The little man was standing there, waving.
My first instinct was to run for the kitchen and grab the meds, along with thoughts of tossing that goddamned plant off the balcony.
Since there were no meds, a calmer head was forced to prevail. I took a deep breath.
Maybe I needed to take a different approach. Since the little, green man was now leaving me gifts, I thought perhaps I should engage him.
I took the earrings with me and sat down on the floor next to the ficus. Chris’s scent was still here. I actually inhaled.
The little man inched back, hiding behind the plant. His wave got more diminutive.
I sat there, looking at him for a while before I finally gathered up enough insanity to try speaking to him.
“Hello,” I said.
He took a tiny step forward, but said nothing.
This was crazy. I was talking to my hallucination. Dr. White was going to double my meds after this.
I held out the earrings to him.
“Do you want them?” I asked.
I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was talking to him. I had to be losing my mind.
He shook his head.
Well, at least he understood me.
He motioned for me to put them up to my own ears. I did like he suggested and he clapped those huge mitts of his.
Then he made a motion like I should hook them into the holes in my ears.
I groaned as I got up and took them to the mirror. Was I really going to do this?
I hooked one of them in and looked at my reflection. They really were pretty. The silver and emerald actually brought out the green in my hazel eyes. I remembered when my aunt had given the single earring to me. It had been my sixteenth birthday, while I was spending the summer with her in England. I had met a boy then, who was living with Aunt Marigold. A boy I had tried to forget.
I was never into jewelry or girly things, but this earring I had loved. I think it had more to do with the fact it was truly the first valuable gift I had ever received. Aunt Marigold had given it to me in private. Joan never knew I had it
Strangely, I don’t think I had ever put it on. Of course, with only one, what was I supposed to do with it?
I hooked the second earring in.
Then everything went black.