The Medium Kid

Chapter 41

"I'm not a kid."

"No, but you have been in your office since yesterday afternoon, so I know you didn't sleep last night. You've barely eaten or stopped for a break. Before you protest, tea is not food."

"I couldn't stop," Alfie said, feeling his eyes close without his control. "Too many ghosts."

"They will wait till you get some sleep."

"They give me nightmares if I make them wait."

Tom sighed and rolled his sleeves up to carry his son to bed. Alfie groaned when his dad placed hands under his armpits and lifted him. Alfie wrapped arms around his dad's shoulders and legs around his waist.

"I thought this would get harder as you got older. I'm doubting that this growth spurt the doctor thought you'd have will ever come," Tom chuckled, remembering the many times he carried Alfie to bed when he was very young.

"It might," Alfie mumbled, resting a head on his shoulder. His dad smelt of firewood, as usual.

"Maybe one day I'll be the one looking up at you," Tom smiled and entered Alfie's bedroom and turned on the light. The scent of lavender seemed to linger in every room. It was a scent Molly and Tom had to quickly get used to when Alfie started diving more seriously into his mediumship. "You should really tidy up." Tom moved a box with his foot and climbed over a mountain of clothes to reach Alfie's bed.

"I'm not the one who messes it up," Alfie said when Tom flopped him down onto his bed like a fish slapping a table.

"Right," Tom chuckled, not believing that ghosts could mess a room up quite as much. He tugged Alfie's socks off and rolled him under the duvet, thankful that Alfie chose to wear black joggers and a big t-shirt that day. "Do I take your rings off?" Tom felt uncomfortable when his son started to wear the rings. He thought other kids at school would bully him, but he soon learned that Alfie did what he wanted and didn't care about what others thought of him, and his dad should adopt the same thoughts.

"Yeah." Alfie's eyes were closed and he didn't have the strength to open them. He felt his fathers warm hands gently twisting his rings and removing them.

Tom smiled at Alfie's chipped nail varnish. That was another thing he wasn't fond of to begin with, but it was a unique trademark that made Alfie who he was. Tom wouldn't change him for the world.

"I haven't brushed my teeth," Alfie mumbled, "or showered."

"Just go to sleep." Tom tucked him in and planted a kiss on his forehead.

When Tom turned to leave, a hand reached out and curled fingers around his wrist. "Dad, when can I visit your house?" Alfie managed to unstick his eyelids, ignoring the stinging of tiredness as his father's blue and brown eyes avoided him.

"I don't know," Tom said with a quick smile. "We can discuss it another day." He headed to the exit faster than needed. "Go to sleep." Tom switched off the light, and shut the door, leaving his son staring in the darkness.

* * * * *

When Koda still wasn't home at 10:00 in the evening, Morlen got back in his car and phoned the parents of Koda's friends and then Alfie's mother. The hope shrunk in his heart when nobody had seen Koda all day. Morlen didn't know how upset his son was after his friends cornered him at the gym and said things to break Koda's heart.

Morlen had to make it right, and feeling the immense worry was a start. He had never concerned himself with the whereabouts of his kid. Now that he had lost Enya so easily, he couldn't lose Koda too and had to know that he was safe. Morlen didn't know how unstable Koda's mind was, he didn't know if his son was capable of doing something stupid.

After sitting hopelessly in his car for ten minutes, Morlen resorted to either phoning the police or checking the one place he hadn't been since Enya's funeral. Morlen fought against his grief and set off down the road. Part of him worried that Koda would return home when he wasn't there, but he pressed on, following the gut feeling churning inside.

It took him five minutes in the car to reach the small church where Enya was buried. The gate to the graveyard was locked, but the fence was short enough to climb over. The metal fence poles had sharp points on the top and Morlen was careful not to injure himself as he struggled over to the other side. The night was very quiet. If anyone caught Morlen, they might think he was a grave robber, breaking into a graveyard to steal from the dead. Morlen shuddered. He had done many things in his life that went beyond the law, but messing with those who had died would never be one of them.

Once Morlen turned on his torch, there was something rather creepy about the yard of the deceased, so he sped up his search and stormed in the direction of Enya's gravestone. It didn't take him long before he saw it. A rush of shivers and sorrow injected his heart, stopping his lungs from breathing in the cold evening air. His legs froze on the gravel path. He thought if he avoided where she lay, then her death might not seem so real. The headstone with gold letters spelling his wife's name brought every memory of Enya to the surface, the good and the bad.

Morlen thought that one day they might get a divorce if Enya continued to abuse. He never envisioned being a widower before they had the chance to revive their relationship. He would have much rather had a divorce than never being able to touch her, talk to her, or share one last glance.

The despair was too much, but it didn't stop Morlen from taking a step closer. His hand trembled and he struggled to keep his torch up. This made the light point down to a lump on Enya's grave. Someone was curled up by her headstone, someone big and familiar.

"Oh Koda," Morlen said, his voice heavy with desolation, the same heaviness that hunched his shoulders and throbbed his head, the same heaviness that made him long to go back in time to save a life he used to love.