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I scowled at my father. If he scared away the only friend I had ever made, I would never forgive him. Clair had a similar expression on her face as she eyed her husband from the table. Conrad took the hint easily enough though.
“I should be heading out anyway. I told my sistah I would be home an hour ago.” Conrad turned back to the table. “It was a pleasure to meet yuh Mrs. Fisher.” He said with that laid-back grin of his.
“Conrad, I’ve already told you to please call me Clair.” She scolded him, returning his smile. Conrad chuckled.
“Night Clair, thanks for di dinnah.” He said easily, humoring her. He turned to Jeremy and nodded, his grin never faltering. “Mr. Fisher.” He said by way of parting. I stood up from my chair quickly.
“I’ll walk you out.” I hurried past Jeremy, shooting him a ‘don’t screw this up for me,’ look. Conrad was already at the door by the time I caught up, his hands back in his pockets.
“I’m sorry about Jeremy. He’s... had a rough day.” Thankfully, Conrad seemed completely unperturbed by it.
“Dun worry ‘bout it. If mi dawta brought home some crazy tattooed dude from anger management, mi dun know how thrilled mi would be.” The thought of Conrad being anything but relaxed seemed impossible, but I was glad he was being so cool about his unceremonious dismissal. “We still on for di library tomorrow?” He asked.
“Of course, I’ll text you in the morning and meet you there.” I said, grinning. He gave me a lopsided grin as he turned to open the door.
“Likkle more ,” he drawled as he sauntered out onto the porch.
“What? I asked to his retreating figure.
“It means ‘see you later,’” he called over his shoulder chuckling. He gave his two-finger salute to our elderly neighbor, Mrs. Serafini, who was busy taking out her trash, then he turned the corner and was gone.
I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. My heart was pounding. I almost didn’t want to go to sleep in case I woke up to find that everything had been a dream.
Whatever it was about me that pushed people away hadn’t seemed to affect him at all. Why had he chosen me to befriend? It was all just so bizarre. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and started to head back into the kitchen but paused in the hallway when I heard Jeremy and Clair arguing.
“You don’t find it a little bit convenient that with everything going on, now she makes a friend?” Jeremy hissed at Clair. I hung back in the shadows. With everything going on? What were they talking about?
“Whatever you think that boy is I can tell you right now that he isn’t. We can trust him.” Clair retorted. Her tone was soft, quiet. But it was the voice she used when she was about to go to battle for whatever it was she believed in. Jeremy didn’t stand a chance.
“And how exactly do you know that after spending, what? An hour with him?” He demanded.
“You better be nice to that young man next time you see him, Jeremy, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. This is the first time Raven has spoken to anyone remotely close to her age without it turning violent. She was laughing . Raven was laughing. ” Jeremy went quiet. Did I laugh that rarely? I thought about it for a moment and realized that they were right. There hadn’t been much room for laughter and joy in my life since I had sent that girl to the hospital six years earlier.
“I, of course, want her to be happy,” Jeremy said softly, almost sadly. “But I would rather her be safe then –” Whatever he was going to say was cut off by Clair.
“Raven? Honey? What are you doing?” She called into the hallway, and I popped my head in.
“Nothing. I’m going to go to bed.” I said, and I knew that they had caught me eavesdropping.
“Ok love.” Clair said, her face strained. “We’re both working tomorrow so neither of us will be here in the morning. Just text one of us if you need something.” I appreciated the update. Their schedules were so sporadic it was hard to keep up with what days or shifts they worked week to week.
“Ok. Night. Love you.” I said, heading up the stairs.
“Night Raven.” They both replied in unison.
I grabbed my school bag with my laptop in it on my way up the stairs. My room was dark, and I turned on my bedside lamp in favor of the overhead light. Though the days were getting longer, it was already pretty dark out and I basked in the coolness of nighttime. I finally shed my uniform and pulled on my grey sweats and the oversized T-shirt that I usually slept in. It had come as a promotional item with one of the cases of beer Jeremy had bought a while ago.
Curled up in my comfies on my purple duvet, I fired up my laptop. I ran a quick search for the news. I wanted to see if I could find out what Jeremy had been talking about. However, Canadian news wasn’t the most forthcoming. Unlike many news stations in the States, Canada liked to be a bit more subtle with the airing of their violent crimes.
The constant effort to exude a sense of security among citizens kept many of the larger crimes under wraps. I knew this for a fact, thanks to my relationship with Jeremy. Over the years, he had investigated murders just as brutal as the ones you would see on Dateline, and never once has one of them been publicly aired. At least not until the perp was caught.
After a couple of minutes of scanning through different newspapers online, I let out a frustrated sigh. Nothing of interest was coming up. What had he meant by ‘with everything that’s going on?’ I shutdown my laptop and flopped back into my pillows. As I reached over to grab my nearly finished paperback, I resolved to do some snooping through Jeremy’s office at some point this week. It wasn’t like him to keep me in the dark.
One of the reasons he was so good under the stress at his job was his willingness to confide with his family. It had never before been a burden he had to carry alone… even if some of the stories would make the average person’s stomach turn. If Jeremy was keeping something from me it had to be really bad…and I was going to find out what it was.
5
Despite everything that had happened the day before, I woke up in a terrible mood. I had finished my novel then tossed and turned through the rest of the night. I wasn’t sure if it was in anticipation for my meeting with Conrad, or because of the conversation I had overheard the night before. Either way, I was left with this clammy feeling that someone had been watching me in my sleep.
