All About Larry
For the next four days, Josh was sure that Aiden was shirking his nightly search duties. Over the past few weeks, Aiden had looked, sounded, and acted more like a zombie (the typical movie and video game kind, not the classy Cleo kind) than a werewolf. Now the chronic bags were gone from under his eyes, and he spoke clearly rather than mumbling. To top it all off, he stopped dozing off if he sat still for more than thirty seconds.
It was Friday night. Josh sat at the kitchen island with his brother, sister, Aiden, and Mrs. F-G. In their midst was the most elusive of dinner guests, at least in the Cooper household: the delivery pizza box. This was, Josh suspected, Mrs. F-G’s way of apologizing for what she kept insisting was sub-standard food as of late.
Not that Josh had complained or anything. She hadn’t lost her ability to cook, just her vision to predict what would be the perfect meal on any given night. So he might score her as ninety-five out of one hundred, but to her, anything less than perfection was a failure.
After dinner, Rosemary went into the great room to construct a couch-cushion fort. Jackson sat in his high chair, shoveling the last few bite-sized pieces of pizza into his mouth with his chubby fists, while Josh helped Aiden clean up. Due to the pizza dinner, this was his favorite time to help clean. There were plates and glasses to put in the dishwasher, but no pots and pans to scrub. You got points for being helpful while doing a minimal amount of work.
“So, Aiden,” said Mrs. F-G, sitting at the island and supervising the cleaning, “you’re looking much more rested the last few days. Have they taken you off the night shift?”
“Um, no,” Aiden answered, not meeting her gaze as he rearranged glasses on the dishwasher’s top tier. “It’s just a bit easier going right now. Fewer hours. More chance to nap.”
Looking from Mrs. F-G to Aiden, a thought occurred to Josh. It was a question best left for a more private moment, but he couldn’t wait. “What happens to Mrs. F-G if you kill Mr. Midnight? Will she get her oracle thing back?” From the scathing look Aiden shot him, he regretted asking.
Before Aiden could answer, though, Mrs. F-G said in a shocked voice, “You’re going to kill him?”
“Well,” explained Aiden, “not if I can help it. They gave me a Sunblade, just in case I can’t capture him. He’s been deemed too dangerous.”
“No, Aiden, it’s not worth it. Not for me or Cleo or anyone else he’s attacked.”
“It’s not that, Ann. There’s no sign of Steve. Nobody knows if he’s dead or alive. Even though there’s no hard evidence that Mr. Midnight took him, they’re not taking any chances. If Midnight progresses to killing people and we didn’t do all we could to stop him…”
“What about Larry?” asked Josh.
“What about Larry?” echoed Mrs. F-G.
“Some council gave Aiden a wooden stake.”
“They gave him what?”
Aiden gave Josh another “I wish you hadn’t said that” look and said, “It’s another ‘just in case’ thing. There are some suspicions about Larry’s role with Mr. Midnight. If these suspicions turn out to be true, and he won’t come with me peacefully…” Aiden shrugged. “We’ll see what happens.”
“Are you saying that Larry is in league with Mr. Midnight?” Mrs. F-G looked like she couldn’t wrap her mind around the concept.
“They’re not sure,” Aiden answered. “But it’s looking that way.”
“I never trusted him in the first place,” Josh put in. “He’s kinda creepy, if you ask me.”
“Larry? Creepy?” Mrs. F-G asked, bewildered.
“Do you really think so, Josh?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah,” Josh felt a bit more defiance in his voice than he’d intended. “I know he’s your friend and all—at least, he was your friend—but Larry Fancypants is a total creepazoid in my book.”
At that moment, the kitchen door burst open and Rosemary yelled, “He is NOT a creepazoid!”
“Rosemary, calm down,” Aiden soothed.
“Not until Josh takes it back!”
“I’m not taking it back,” Josh said, almost yelling back at his sister. “He’s a jerk.”
“He is not!” Rosemary cried, her face going red.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Josh said, not even trying to keep the scorn out of his voice.
“Aiden,” Rosemary whined, turning on the waterworks. “Make him take it back!”
“Uh, Rosemary, he kind of has a point,” Aiden said. “I can’t tell you the whole story, but we think that Larry might be involved with some bad stuff that’s been going on.”
“I don’t care!” Rosemary yelled. “I don’t care what anybody thinks! He could never do anything bad! Larry Fancypants is a good guy!” She ran out of the kitchen and down the hall, Aiden following at a brisk walk. Josh wandered out into the hall to watch the show.
By the time Aiden got to Rosemary’s bedroom door, she’d already locked it. “Rosemary, open up please,” Aiden said.
“No!” She yelled back. “Go away!”
“If you’ll just listen—”
“I said go away!”
Aiden took a deep breath. Josh guessed that he was counting to ten. “Okay. I’ll check on you in a little while.”
The two of them went back to the kitchen to find Mrs. F-G still sitting there, wide-eyed, and Jackson still in his high chair, his face smeared orange with pizza sauce.
* * * *
An hour later, Aiden knocked on Rosemary’s door yet again. He had tried every few minutes, each time rebuffed with ridiculous yelled insults such as “You big-brained-nose-picking alpaca” and what sounded like a stuffed animal thrown against the door.
Following the knock, Aiden said, “Rosemary, we’re just about finished making the ice cream if you want the first scoop. We found some more of your edible glitter and everything.” Homemade ice cream was Rosemary’s favorite treat, and it had been Mrs. F-G’s idea to entice her out with it. Aiden listened, curious to find out what he’d be called this time, but nothing came. She didn’t even bother to throw anything.
Aiden went back to the kitchen and reported, “I think she wore herself out with that tantrum. Sounds like she’s asleep. I’m just going to let myself in and make sure she’s settled in bed and not on the floor.”
Mrs. F-G reached into a nearby drawer and took out a large ring of keys, tossing it to Aiden. “They’re all labeled. Her room is number four, I believe.” She then went back to stirring tiny bits of bacon into their freshly churned vanilla ice cream.
Aiden nodded. “Thanks.”
When he opened Rosemary’s door, he expected to find her on the bed, buried beneath a heaping pile of blankets. He wasn’t prepared for what he did see: nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. The bed was in its usual place, blankets intact. The dresser was there. The shelves still held all the usual toys and books. What was missing was Rosemary. Aiden did a quick check of potential hiding places. Under the bed, in the closet, even the little nook between the wall and her dresser. She wasn’t in the room.
Like both Aiden and Josh, Rosemary had an en suite bathroom. Like the bedroom, it was empty. Aiden walked back out to the bedroom, spotting the one thing that was out of place, the sight of which made his stomach drop. The balcony door, always kept shut and locked from the inside, was ajar.
Aiden rushed onto the balcony. Looking left and right, he saw that she wasn’t hiding out there. There was only one place left to look. He walked to the railing and looked straight down. The streetlamps far below cast enough light to show that the sidewalk was clear and empty.
Hurrying back inside with panic rising in his chest, Aiden stepped on a piece of paper. Somehow he hadn’t noticed it his first time through the room. Picking it up, he saw a scribbled note in familiar handwriting.
Took Rosemary rainbow riding.
XXOO,
LFP