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Sophia Burn kept Jerome busy all afternoon with his unicorn. My mom had grown up around horses before going to college and meeting my father. Apparently, they had already bought a saddle for my nieces’ horse and she saddled up his unicorn after deciding it was docile enough to give it a try. I sat in a patio chair and watched them. My dad sat with me, smoking a pipe.
My father didn’t have a surname. When he was absolutely required to give one, he used Archangel. My mom thought that was a terrible last name, so she’d kept her own after they were married and both my sister and I were given Burn for our last name, possibly as a cruel joke, considering both our first names mean sun.
As we sat and watched Jerome ride his unicorn for the first time, Dad got a text from my sister that said she had super-important news and would there in an hour, and she was bringing overnight bags for the girls. Helia was like our mom, blond and petite. I looked more like our father; darker skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. I was taller than both my mom and my sister by an inch or two.
“Well, Dad, that sounds awesome. I’m going to pack up Jerome and go to a movie, since I refuse to show up two hours late to a baseball game” I said.
My sister was always trying to convince me to get a job in customer service or the equivalent because she considered working as an exorcist dangerous. Not to mention, she was always asking me when I was going to get married. In her mind, my being an exorcist was why I wasn’t married. I had a long-distance boyfriend, and that seemed to me like enough for now as Jerome, Valerie, and I dealt with the emotional part of Valerie’s disease. Duke was supportive of my acceptance of responsibility for Jerome if Valerie couldn’t be cured.
Duke worked for the U.S. Marshals and led a Fugitive Recovery Unit with a mixed group of mortals and supernaturals, but he himself was a mortal. I’d even taken Jerome to Kansas City with me when I went to see Duke for a weekend. We’d gone to a football game, the Kansas City Zoo, and the aquarium. Jerome and Duke got along very well. Sometimes, better than even Duke and I. Although Jerome had a habit of calling him Dude, Sir for some reason.
“That’s why I warned you,” Dad said. “The new Avengers movie is in theaters; it was good, albeit sad.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I told him. Forty-five minutes and seven hugs later, Jerome was climbing into the SUV when my sister showed up. The passenger’s seat of her car had several suitcases in it.
“We got evicted!” she shouted as she jumped out of her car. “That jerk got us evicted!” Jerome unbuckled his seat belt and went to my sister’s car. She religiously used the child locks, and the girls, who were old enough to get out of their seat belts on their own, couldn’t open their doors. He opened one door and both little girls scrambled out like they’d been trapped in the car for a year. They threw their arms around Jerome and gave him hugs.
To his credit, the teen hugged the girls back, stooping down and wrapping arms around both of them.
“What does evicted mean?” The youngest, who was five, asked Jerome in a whisper that was just below a shout.
“It means you have to move,” Jerome said. “But I’m sure Grandma and Grandpa will let you stay with them.”
“We’ll sort it out tomorrow,” our mom said to Helia. “Tonight, let’s get ready to feed the girls, get baths, and...” Sophia was cut off mid-sentence.
“Is that a unicorn??” the oldest, an eight-year-old with a mild lisp, asked.
“Yes, her name is Star Dancer,” Jerome said.
“She looks just like Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!” the youngest squealed. Jerome stood up and covered his ears. The youngest could hit ranges only dogs could hear with her squeals, and Jerome had sensitive ears.
“Pinkie Pie is made up, it can’t be Pinkie Pie,” the oldest snapped at her sister, while also covering her ears. Then I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing so hard it hurt to stand. I have never laughed so hard in my life. But my youngest niece jumping up and down screeching Pinkie Pie while pointing at a unicorn reminded me so much of Agnes from Despicable Me that I couldn’t contain my laughter.
Possibly because Jerome was closest to the squealing girl, it took him a moment to realize why I was laughing so hard. But once it dawned on him, you could read it on his face. He almost instantly doubled over laughing and holding his belly. I gave up and flopped onto the grass.
“I don’t get it,” Helia said.
“You’re raising Agnes from Despicable Me,” I gasped out.
“Oh my god, you’re right!” Helia squealed and everyone broke into peals of laughter except Amber, the source of our hysteria.
With a straight face, she marched up to me, stomped her foot, and said “Don’t laugh at me!” in her sternest, angriest voice, which just made me laugh harder. Then she burst into flames and I laughed even harder because now she reminded me of Jack-Jack from The Incredibles, and I momentarily wondered if I watched too many Pixar movies.
“Amber, you’re going to give your aunt a heart attack,” Dad said as he picked up the flaming girl, who was seriously mad at me.
“Jack-Jack,” Helia gasped and I wiped at the tears streaming down my face. My sister sat down on the ground next to me. Jerome came and joined us.
“Do you want me to egg his house?” Jerome asked Helia.
“Nah, not worth the eggs,” she muttered in response. Although, I imagined she wanted someone to do just that.
Helia’s marriage had been rocky for a long time, but my bringing home Jerome had been the nail in the coffin. Jerome at 14 was more powerful than Helia’s husband, and Jerome had been helping Amber and Madeline learn to use their magic better. Magic that was more powerful than their father’s, possibly because it was also tinged with angel magic. Essentially, her husband had been very jealous of their power, to the point he required girlfriends to prop up his ego. My sister hadn’t taken too kindly to that. He’d always had wandering hands, but after Jerome arrived those hands had wandered even more. What Helia didn’t know was that we had flattened his tires with magic on at least five occasions, and we’d accidentally sent a baseball through his windshield, again using magic. I considered all this his fault, Helia had caught him with a girlfriend on the kitchen floor and she said she’d never get the image out of her head. In return, he’d agreed to talk to his brother and help her get an apartment in a building his brother managed. Now, apparently, that had gone south.
“All our stuff has to be out of the apartment in ten days,” Helia said.
“Next weekend while mom is having treatment, I’ll help,” Jerome announced.
“Me too, since he isn’t yet old enough to drive.” I added helpfully.
“I can’t believe the bastard made his kids homeless.” Helia sighed. “I found out today instead of tomorrow because I ran into the maintenance man, who said he was sad to see the girls go.
“Jesus Christ,” I said.
“I’m 38 years old and moving back in with my parents, if they’ll let me,” Helia sighed again.
“You and I both know they will insist on it. It isn’t like it’s your fault you’re moving back home. The unicorn is staying here until I get approval to build a stable since it might be with us permanently, so the girls will have Grandpa and Grandma and a unicorn to help them through the divorce.”
“At this point, I just want it over with,” she said.
“Mom and Dad own the house next to mine, see if they’ll give it to you,” I told her. “They have been plotting to tear....”
“I know,” Helia said. “I’ve been in on the plotting. Jerome’s gaming room was my idea. The teen equivalent of a playroom. Wait, how did you know?” She looked at me.
“Bill and Camilla were attacked; Jerome and I were here when the police came to verify that Mom and Dad really did own it.”
“Are they okay?”
“They think they will be. Someone put silver shavings in their fan system,” I said.
“Just like that vampire family across the river,” Helia said.
“I guess, it seems I’m the only one that didn’t know about the vampire family in Alton.”
“I’ve been working a few days a week for Uncle Remiel. His receptionist quit and Mark was harassing me at my job about all the things he wants in the divorce, so I quit and didn’t leave a forwarding work address. It was a pay cut, temporarily, ensuring I don’t have to pay alimony or anything to Mark.”
“We’re a no-fault state,” I commented.
“Yes, but Mark has been a house husband the last three years.” Helia sighed again. “You guys were leaving when we pulled up.”
“I was taking him to see the new Avengers movie,” I said.
“It’ll make you cry,” she responded.
“Probably,” I agreed, not letting her know I already knew who died because Jerome had seen it and ruined that part for me.
“I’d go see a happier movie,” Helia said. “That way you and Jerome return home in good moods.”
“Mom usually takes to bed after her session on Sunday and doesn’t get up until I’m getting ready for school on Monday morning,” Jerome said. “Michael was going to try to boost the healing power for it today, so I expect she’ll be even more tired than normal tonight.”
There was a sadness in Jerome’s voice and in his face. Valerie and I were taking him to grief therapy already. All three of us also went to family therapy so I could be prepared for Jerome’s mood shift if his mother died and know what to watch for with him. I was finding the sessions very useful. I was learning what Jerome was afraid of with me as a parent and what Valerie’s fears were for Jerome after she was gone. And they all knew I worried I wasn’t up to snuff. Valerie was a good mom and I was worried I’d be a terrible one in comparison. Which was the other reason Valerie had already made me his legal guardian. If she was cured, we could always reverse it. But for now, Jerome still had his biological mom and his adoptive mom, and one was teaching the other.