Haunting

Chapter Fourteen

Shannon raised an eyebrow, “aren’t you supposed to love me or something?”

Reggie just shot Shannon a coy smile and flitted out the door.

She made the right decision. When she watched Reggie leave Shannon was hit with certainty that can only come with her gift. She had made the right decision. Reggie deserved a life and if Shannon got to spend it with her, so much the better.

The house was filled to the brim with tradesmen, just as it had been all week. The wood was stripped down and the plumbers and electricians were scheduled to come in and start work the next week. Shannon was both impressed and appalled by the power Fiona had over anyone with a Y chromosome. If any other person on the planet had asked for what she had the entire world would be laughing at them.

The steep walk down the cliffs to the beach was difficult with the wind blowing strong from the ocean.

“What do you want to do?” Reggie asked out of the blue.

“I don’t care,” Shannon replied seriously. “As long as I’m with you nothing else matters.”

Reggie turned around and walked down the rocky ledge backwards, watching Shannon closely. “I meant in the broader sense. What do you want to do with your life?”

Shannon was silent for a moment. “I know I’m going to lose some of my girl power points when I say this, but I just want to be a mom.”

Reggie smiled at Shannon. “There is nothing wrong with that.” Reggie paused for a second, her eyebrows crinkling. “But how?”

“Adoption,” Shannon replied with a shrug, “a donor. Whatever.”

“A donor?” Reggie questioned.

“A sperm donor,” she clarified. The look of confusion on Reggie’s face encouraged Shannon to explain further. When Shannon saw the expression of mild repulsion on her own face mirrored on Reggie’s she laughed. “I try not to think about it.”

“If I was you I wouldn’t want to think about it either,” Reggie said in commiseration.

The small beach that could only be accessed by the trail on Shannon’s property had obviously been used be teens in the past. There was a ring of large stones that had been used as a fire pit many times and on the cliffs there were hundreds of names carved haphazardly into the stone. It was a perfect place to party because you could only see onto the beach if you stand at the top of the cliff or by boat, so this was where people came to have not entirely legal bonfires.

It was beautiful, especially with the light of the nearly full moon reflecting on the still, glossy ocean.

Shannon sighed and sat down on the fine sand. “Although I think I might want to become a social worker,” she admitted to Reggie who was staring up at the moon. “What did you want to be?”

Reggie turned to Shannon with a sad smile on her face. “I never really gave myself the luxury of wanting anything. I was always expected to be the dutiful wife and take care of my husband and children.”

“That’s crap Reggie,” Shannon breathed. “You wanted something you were just afraid to admit it, you still are.”

Reggie looked at the girl digging her bare feet into the sand. The look of love and adoration on Shannon’s face almost made her want cry. “Well,” she began reluctantly, “when I was young I wanted to be a train driver.”

Shannon giggled. “Why?”

Reggie thought back to her days of innocence, “I wanted to know how they worked. And I’ve always been a fan of loud noises.”