Chapter Two – “Just trust me.”
“It’s only a rumour, but I heard Katie Heron is pregnant. That’s why the family hasn’t shown up for service in weeks.”
Charlotte Nichols stiffened a little, feeling her hand tightening around her purse, “Pregnant? Are you sure?”
“As sure as can be,” Mrs Winston replied, one hand moving up to pat her synthetic maroon red wig, her nails equally as fake and her face almost resembling a clown because of how brightly painted and polished it was.
Charlotte wasn’t normally one for gossip but talking with the ladies kind of put her in the circle of things and besides it was church, it was the last place you wanted to offend anyone especially in their tightknit community.
“I bet you it happened during one of those choir practice sessions. Honestly, Betty knows better than to leave her two daughters in the hands of those riff raff that call themselves members of the choir – except your son of course, Charlie, Aaron is a sweet boy.”
“Right,” Charlotte said through gritted teeth, the wheels in her brain already spinning.
“Morning Denise,” Edward Nichols’ cheerful voice boomed as he made his way to the women, curling an arm around his wife’s shoulders, “not gossiping about me, I hope?”
“Oh you know we are,” Denise Winston teased, brushing her bright red talon-like nails on Edward’s shirt. Charlotte ignored the obviously more than intimate touch. To her pleasure though, Edward blatantly ignored the woman, instead gazing at his wife.
“You ready to go home, honey? I’ve got the kids in the car.”
“I’ll text you,” Denise said excitedly, winking at Charlotte and she managed a short, fake smile before turning around, her husband’s arm guiding her towards their jeep.
“Pregnant,” she muttered to her husband, “Katie Heron is pregnant – can you even imagine?”
Edward shrugged noncommittally but Charlotte wasn’t relenting, “I always knew those girls were nothing short of prostitutes but I don’t even understand how someone would want to get them pregnant, they’re so ugly.”
Edward chuckled a bit, “wow, way to give them some credit, woman.”
“I’m just saying,” Charlotte said with an offended shrug, in the end sending her husband’s arm off her shoulders as she stalked to the car. She eyed Aaron sharply upon spotting him – he was currently laughing and playing with the twins at the back of the car. Her eyes zeroed in on a bit of chocolate stuck to Alexander’s cheek as she slid into the passenger seat and she bluntly stated, “You got them ice-cream.”
Aaron blushed guiltily while the twins pouted and hurriedly began cleaning their faces to get off the bits they’d missed, “they wouldn’t stop pestering me.”
“If you don’t stop doing that, you’re going to get them spoiled,” Charlotte scolded as Edward got around and started the car, pulling out of the parking lot and zooming out.
“I won’t do it again,” Aaron replied quietly.
Aaron couldn’t help catching the way his mother kept glancing at him through the rear-view mirrors in the car and he could feel his stomach filling with dread. Ugh, what on earth had he done now?
“What do you guys say we go to the amusement park?” Edward asked loudly, glancing at the children and the twins immediately started squealing with delight.
“Yes!” Aaron said enthusiastically, for the twins’ benefit and they yanked at their seatbelts as they started discussing what they were going to ride and do in the park, their voices high and loud.
Aaron brought out his phone and earplugs, turning the volume up high as he pressed play, listening to music to drown out the noise of the twins. He was sure his dad was trying to make up for his absence at home by taking them out and he was happy about it.
He was lost in his own thoughts when a small hand smacking his thigh brought him out of it with a slight jump. He pulled the earphones out of his ear, looking questioningly at the culprit who was giggling girlishly along with her twin – like they had some secret.
“Mummy was talking to you,” she giggled and Aaron looked up at his mum, eyebrows raised in question.
“One day that gibberish you call music is going to make you go deaf,” she snapped at him, crossing her arms and turning to face the window.
Aaron felt a twinge in his chest at the obvious steel in his mother’s voice even as he faked a guilty smile at her, not wanting to let her know how badly her jabs affected him.
Edward laughed heartily and glanced at Aaron through the rear-view mirror with a heart-warming smile, “What your mother is trying to say is Katherine is coming home next week with her boyfriend. It seems like things are getting serious since she’s bringing him home.”
Aaron managed a tight smile, feeling a bit better at his dad’s warmth, “I’m happy for her.”
He fingered his earplugs and decided against replacing them, not wanting his mother to jab at him again. He shoved them in his pockets, stopping the music from playing just as they entered the amusement park. The twins were bouncing excitedly in their seats and it was annoying him but he bit his tongue to keep from snapping at them. It was no use pouring his hurt out on them anyway.
They paid at the gate and got their tickets, walking into the busy park. This was the place to be every Sunday after church – it was very nearly filled with families having a relaxing and fun time.
Aaron immediately wanted to go to the games arcade, he really wasn’t a fan of the other rides anyway but before he could take a step, his mother said, “Aaron, take your brother and sister with you. I don’t think I feel like walking. Make sure you take them to all the rides they want.”
Aaron gritted his teeth but nodded, holding out his hands for his siblings to grasp. They immediately pulled him towards the bumper cars while his mum and dad were probably heading to the outdoor restaurant located on top of a small rock.
By the time the day ended, Aaron was exhausted, the bottom of his feet hurt from trailing around with his siblings and his ears and head throbbed from all their screaming and yapping. He hadn’t even been able to visit the games arcade like he’d wanted to and when his siblings had asked for ice-cream and cotton candy, he’d been unable to refuse. He regretted it now though because they were hyperactive as ever, dragging him to every ride and screaming their delight. He knew they would sleep like the dead tonight but that didn’t stop him from swearing to never buy them anything sweet ever in their lives again.
As they headed back home, all he could think about was going to his bed and going to sleep but that didn’t happen because the minute he stepped foot in the house, his mother was dragging him to the kitchen to help her make dinner. He was too tired to even grumble as he shuffled to the kitchen.
At least today she isn’t cooking any meat, he thought as he started cutting the vegetables for fried rice.
“Did you know that, apparently, Katie Heron is pregnant?” his mother suddenly asked out of the blue.
Aaron shrugged, unsure of the sudden and unusual attempt at idle chatter, “No, I did not know that.”
He was currently chopping the carrots into neat little cubes just the way Charlotte liked it when a slender hand came on top of his, gently stopping his cutting. He turned around to look questioningly at his mother. Charlotte was a small woman; she was a perfect example of the French word petite with her being the same height as Aaron, her dark brown hair held up to her head with several pins and she was currently dressed in a soft, cream cashmere sweater and form fitting black pants, her cream heels with red soles now replaced with fluffy bunny slippers for the kitchen and house.
“Did other people really turn up during choir practice?” she asked, light blue eyes narrowing at him, “because all the times I dropped you off, Katie was always alone.”
Aaron blinked, too slow to process what exactly his mother was insinuating as he nodded, a small frown on his face, “of course everyone else showed up. Katie made sure to text each one of us so we turned up. So maybe I was always the first to turn up but that’s just coincidence.”
“Are you sure?” Charlotte asked, her voice hard and her grip tightening a little on Aaron’s hand.
He tried not to wince as he stressed out, “Yes, I’m hundred per cent sure.”
She gave him look that clearly said ‘I don’t believe you’ but Aaron shrugged. She could do whatever she wanted; it still didn’t change the fact that he was telling the truth. It was only after dinner was over and he was in his room, plucking the strings of his guitar according to some of the music he’d written when it suddenly clicked in his head.
Charlotte thought he was responsible for Katie Heron’s pregnancy.
“Wow,” he whispered, his fingers freezing on the strings, “Just wow.”
Was his mother really being serious? He had known, he knew all his life that for some reason she never trusted him but this was just on a whole new level. What did she think he was doing? Sleeping around with any willing female? The fact that she knew nothing about him, about his stunted social life and his old fashioned dreams of love at first sight and hopefully marrying his first girlfriend made his throat fill with bile. Did she even want to get to know him? Did his father? It was all about school and study and make us proud and don’t disgrace us in public and Aaron was honestly sick of it.
He wished he was as free as Katherine, sure, she’d received the same treatment from their parents but at some point she just stopped taking their shit and they left her alone. Now, they almost had a healthy relationship. Aaron wanted to snap too like she had done, but it just wasn’t in his nature – he was the type of person that just took whatever was dished out at him and let it be because he didn’t like trouble or confrontation.
Clenching his teeth, he decided not to focus on the pain growing in his chest, instead fumbling in his music sheets for something more upbeat to play to uplift his mood. He got a pen, scribbling and rewriting the music in his lap, Stacey resting on his pillow beside him. He’d pick the guitar up and test a few tunes, change the music on his sheets and try out again until he had half of a new song developed.
Maybe tomorrow he could try writing out some lyrics. The thought brought a smile to his face as he replayed the rhythm of the new song over and over again, trying to imagine what the song would portray. The melody was soft and sweet and he immediately thought of love.
“Yeah, definitely a love song,” he whispered to himself, chuckling a bit as he scribbled ‘love’ on top of the music sheets.
He continued fingering the strings, trying to get used to the feel of the song, mouthing a few words here and there until a sudden banging on his door made him nearly drop his guitar in fright.
“Aaron, it’s freaking one a.m. in the morning! You better quit that racket or I’m going to take that guitar away from you! Go. To. Bed!”
His eyes were wide as he listened to his mother’s footsteps already disappearing down the corridor towards her room. He sighed; quickly scribbling some changes to the music notes on his sheets before getting up to drop his guitar in its special place in his wardrobe. He piled the music sheets on the side table and slid into his bed.
He really, really wanted to go to a carnival in his fantasy world today; a real fair where he wouldn’t have his family bugging him and ruining his time.
*
It was just perfect when he fell asleep and woke up in Fantasia – yeah, so the name was cliché but that was what he was going to call it because he really couldn’t be bothered to think of a more unique name – that Ma told him a parade was coming to town. Aaron never really explored his fantasy world, he felt more than content to stay with Ma, Macy and her neighbour Beatrice, the two older women’s magic abilities keeping him entertained and occupied more often than not.
But it was like Ma heard his wish – well, of course, this was his dream, wasn’t it? – and they were going on a mini-adventure. Now Aaron could properly discover the depths of this world. Sometimes he didn’t feel like he was dreaming, it felt all too real for that but he knew he was just being paranoid because if he wasn’t dreaming, then what was he doing?
“They call themselves ‘Sven and the wild wonderers!’” Ma said theatrically, waving her hands so that the five words appeared dramatically in the air in a flourish of magically coloured dust – like blasting fireworks – before the dust slowly disappeared on their way to settling on the ground.
“Well, I don’t know about his wonderers but Sven has got some parts of him that do some really good wandering if you know what I mean,” Beatrice said with a naughty wag of her eyebrows sending Macy and Aaron into bouts of stifling laughter.
“Beatrice! We have an underage child here!” Ma laughed, giving her neighbour a teasing slap on the shoulder.
“Oh please,” Beatrice mumbled, round cheeks flushed, hair a pink mass of curls all over her face and shoulders, “they’re old enough to hear such things.”
“Oh come on or we’ll be late for the parade,” Ma giggled, ushering them out of the house.
They left the tree house and the door immediately morphed into a wall the minute they exited, making it impossible for anyone to go inside. Now, it just looked like a cube of green grass and flowers, no windows, doors or other openings visible.
Aaron recognized the streets, made out of paving stones of a rich brown colour, the houses on each side of the small street nearly identical. The houses were also now just cubes of grass and flowers, showing that the owners weren’t currently present. It looked like everyone was gone for the parade and Aaron was really excited. He’d never been to a parade before.
“So who exactly performs in the parade?” Aaron asked as they walked down the streets, waving at anyone they saw on the way.
Even though Aaron didn’t have any magic, he was dressed similarly to Ma, Macy and Beatrice – in fitting silvery netted clothes that clung to his skin making him feel almost naked. Ma had complained about the lack of meat on his bones but not in the jabbing way his mother at home did, more in a teasing sort of way, calling him a ‘gangly’ kid. It made him almost feel like he looked good for once in his life.
“Mostly people from the neighbourhood,” Ma replied with a soft smile and teasing wink, “so expect a lot of magic tricks dear boy!”
Aaron grinned at her just as he heard the sound of music and blinked at the sight of fireworks going into the air only then noticing that the place had three suns. His mouth dropped open at the beautiful sight – one sun reminded him of the one back home, bright orange while the other two were closer to a red than orange.
He blinked and looked away before he hurt his eyes as they left the small street leading to their homes and entered a much larger street that was crowded by a lot of people, clapping and singing.
The four of them immediately pushed through the crowd of similarly dressed people until they got to the front and Aaron cupped his hands over his mouth, yelling, “WOOHOO!”
Macy laughed at his excitement, cupping her hands over her mouth and doing the exact same thing.
He watched in awe as the floats came. He knew they were all from Ma’s village but their clothes were of different colours, bright and beautiful and the group of females dancing – God, they left the ground to twirl in the air for a few seconds, suspended beautifully, colourful flecks of dust twirling around their spinning bodies, their pale skirts swishing and reflecting the light from the three suns high up in the air and showing off their shapely legs before they dropped on the floor in a mind boggling way – their feet landed so softly on the ground but the ground vibrated at the impact, making Aaron know that it was as a result of their magic.
“WOO!” people yelled as the dancers did a new routine, walking in a circle in the air, the smiles on their faces permanent as they moved and twirled and then Aaron’s jaw nearly dropped when their fabulous dresses started uniformly changing colour in time with their steps – from red to blue to green to yellow and so on.
They started making some sounds as they walked up in the air to emphasize their moves before they landed back on the floor and the colours flew out of their dresses in a bright flair of rainbow dust, leaving their outfits pure white and sparkling.
“Oh my God this is amazing!” Aaron yelled over the noise, grinning so hard his cheeks were hurting.
“Just wait for the swimmers!” Ma yelled back and Aaron turned back to the parade, watching eagerly.
The dancers disappeared down the street and Aaron craned his neck for the next batch.
“Holy hell!” he yelled when a large body of water came swooping down the street before freezing right in the middle, so that all the spectators could see clearly.
So these were the swimmers? Aaron thought with delight, only then just noticing the people inside the water which was slowly changing shape right in front of his eyes. The water morphed and shifted, not touching the bars keeping the people from tumbling into the road to keep from disrupting the flow of the parade and Aaron was just so gobsmacked.
A body of water was currently floating in front of his face.
“Oh my God!”
“You can say that again!” Ma laughed loudly, “I can barely even get the shower started in the morning and they’re carrying a body of water while simultaneously swimming in it!”
As the water changed shape, the people in it, dressed in a dark shade of blue were swimming around, forming different dance patterns. They twirled around each other; making shapes and doing fantastic routines that nearly made Aaron’s eyes go cross eyed.
Then suddenly, the entire body of water started freezing. The dancers looked panicked, swimming around desperately until all that was left was a huge chunk of ice floating in the middle of the road, the dancers trapped in it.
Fear was slowly creeping up Aaron’s spine when the layer of ice suddenly burst out in a flourish of rainbow dust, making him jump in surprise; the water expanding a bit before retracting dramatically on the dancers.
The rest of the parade continued like that until Aaron felt himself getting thirsty. He spotted a man handing some icy blue cones at the end of the street in a corner and licked his lips. It didn’t look like anyone was paying so maybe it was free and he slipped away from Ma, Macy and Beatrice, jogging up to the man.
He was smiling to himself because this was definitely the best dream he has ever had.
“Hi,” he said brightly and the old wrinkled man reached for a small blue pouch from inside the cooler by his feet. He waved his hand over the pouch and Aaron could barely hide his wonder when the pouch disappeared and was replaced by the icy blue Popsicle held on a brown stick.
“Thanks,” he said and nearly dropped the Popsicle when a blue girl about his age walked by him to get a Popsicle.
He just couldn’t help staring at her. She was…she was a ghost. He could see right through her to the parade going on behind her and everything about her was blue. From her short curly hair, to her eyes, her skin, and her clothes – she was a dark blue ghost.
Oh my God, Aaron was staring at a young female ghost.
She glanced at him when she noticed him staring and winked, “I don’t know if you’re looking at me or looking right through me…eh, eh?”
She must’ve told that joke before because she was waiting for Aaron to laugh and when he only stared at her, still in shock, he watched her cheeks turn opaque with a blush and his stomach dropped as he felt his own cheeks flush a light pink.
“Well that was awkward,” she said with a strained giggle, holding her hand out, “I’m Jamie. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
“Uh, Aaron,” he said with a cough, more than certain his hand would pass right through hers and was pleasantly surprised when he felt a warm, but strong grip. His cheeks darkened even further and he saw her own cheeks and neck turn even more opaque. He quickly dropped his hands and she put hers behind her back.
“Aaron,” she said sweetly, mouthing the name and then shook her head, sending her short curls bouncing – in fact, curls were the wrong word, her hair was like cooked noodles with how springy and curly it was, “never heard of you. Did you just move here? Are you Fay?”
“Aaron!”
He jumped a little at the gasp of his name and turned around to see Beatrice bounding towards him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him behind her in a gesture of protection, hissing at the girl, “You stay away from him.”
Jamie blinked and then rolled her eyes, “I was just striking up a conversation, no need to go all ghost hunter on me…eh, eh?” she winked at Aaron and this time he couldn’t help the soft laugh that left his lips. God, her jokes were horrible. And he found it as cute as hell.
Beatrice just pulled Aaron away while Jamie yelled, “see you around, Aaron!”
“I should think not!” Beatrice yelled back and Aaron looked up at Beatrice, surprised to see how serious she was. She took Aaron to a corner and leaned down to hiss at him, “that girl is a devious little thief. You stay away from her if you know what’s good for you. And when I say thief, I mean magical thief – she devours souls to survive because she’s a ghost. Just trust me, Aaron, she’s bad news.”
Aaron’s eyes widened in surprise but he nodded in understanding, following after Beatrice as they went to find Ma and Macy in the crowd. He turned to glance back at the Popsicle vendor but Jamie was gone and he felt a little shiver travel up his spine now that he could no longer see her. What if she could become invisible? And how on earth did she suck people’s souls out?
It must be easy for her, he thought; her horrible awkward jokes would get anyone to be her friend in seconds. Hell, he’d been close if not for Beatrice. He felt a little self-conscious now as he thought about Jamie being able to disappear if she wanted to.
When the magical parade was finally over, they headed back to Ma’s place and had a hearty dinner while Beatrice retired to her own house next door. Over the light of the fire place – a fire place in a wooden house, if that didn’t spell magic, Aaron didn’t know what did – Ma told them the story of the ghost girl.
“Sure, she was once a pretty girl you know, with dark hair and dark skin and the most beautiful grey eyes – until she went evil. Her parents used to hunt people like us and feed on our souls and that poor girl was caught up in it. And of course, as karma would have it, she and her family got attacked by the people she fed on, they killed them all but because such a young soul was tainted with evil, she can’t pass into the next world. She is tied here to this world, watching generation after generation grow old and happy while she’s stuck in that age…forever.”
“Ooh, spooky,” Macy whispered and Ma hit her with a pillow.
“You ruined the effect, thank you very much.”
Aaron laughed as Ma and Macy got into a little pillow fight. He however, couldn’t stop thinking about the ghost girl and her story. He couldn’t imagine her being part of a group that killed people and ate their souls – it was unreal. God, his dream had taken a weird turn tonight. Thank God it hadn’t evolved into a nightmare. He shivered at the thought.
“Okay children! Time for bed!” Ma said and Macy groaned.
“I don’t wanna,” she whined and everyone laughed.
“Go on, up with you!”
Aaron said goodnight to Macy and made his way to his room. As he slid into the sheets, he felt like crying. The minute he closed his eyes he was sure he was going to be back in his room, back at home in the real world with a father that didn’t really care and a mother that didn’t trust him – or even his twin siblings that could care less unless he got them some trinket.
He wished so badly that he didn’t have to go back. They would probably be so glad to be rid of him, probably wouldn’t even notice if he didn’t wake up in the morning.
If I could just sleep a little longer, he thought softly to himself as he closed his eyes.
Ma slipped silently upstairs into Aaron’s room, certain that his bed would be cold and empty because he would have flickered and disappeared back to the real world and was surprised when he was still in his bed, fast asleep.
*
Beatrice was worried. It was only a matter of time before everyone noticed and she couldn’t play safe any longer. She was about to rush off to Ma’s house to complain when she heard a tentative knock on her front door.
She opened it and Ma quickly rushed in.
“What?” Beatrice asked, locking the door behind her, “What is it?”
Ma turned to beam at her with a smirk, “We’ve definitely got him now.”