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“Of course I’m sure. I recognize myself and my family. My name was Margaret Claudia Smith.” She handed me the photo back, which I found strange.
“That's why Winnie called you Clawdia? Because it’s a play on your middle name?”
“Margaret was also my mother’s name, so everyone called me Claudia. Winnie added thewbecause she liked the cat pun, but with auor aw, it doesn’t sound any different.”
Zaide asked, “So you won’t be changing how it’s spelled now you are human?”
“I don’t plan on staying human for long.” She shrugged, unaware she was crushing Zaide’s hopes and dreams by doing so. “Besides, I like puns, and I don’t want to be the Claudia of my past.”
“Past.” I repeated, rolling the thought around in my head before I continued my questioning. “This is the Crystal Palace.” I pointed at the background of the picture.
She nodded. “That’s correct. We were visiting for the Festival of Empire.”
“It burned down in 1939.”
“Did it? That’s a shame. It was a beautiful building.” She seemed surprised by the news but not devastated. Perhaps it didn’t have as much sentimental value to her.
“When was the Festival of Empire?” I pressed.
She looked at the ceiling as she thought back. “Well, we went for my eleventh birthday so it would be … 1911. May.”
I paused. Then took a breath. Opened my mouth. Shut it. Finally, I asked, “You were alive in 1911?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I was. Didn’t that picture already prove that?”
“I have so many questions.” I released a shaky breath and ran a hand through my hair. The hits just kept fucking coming. I should’ve been getting used to it, but each strange revelation had the same impact as the last.
“I’m sure you do,” she said agreeably.
I couldn’t believe the polite young lady in front of me was the same soul who ripped up my toilet rolls and drove me crazy. I couldn’t align those two personalities. She was a complete mystery. A very interesting and attractive mystery. One I couldn’t wait to unravel. Discover the secrets of her past.
“How did you become a familiar over a hundred years in the future? Why do you still look so young?”
She folded her hands in her lap, looking regal until I noticed the tension in her hands as they clutched each other for support. “A familiar is a human soul. To be a soul, you have to—”
“Die,” I finished and then gasped. “You died?”
“I died.” She coughed and rubbed her neck.
“How? When? Young? Is that why—”
Daithi came back downstairs. “Charlie, I am ready to leave when you are.”
I choked on my questions, almost pained to put a stopper on my curiosity. Turning to look at him, I saw the redness around his eyes and sighed. “Yep. Let’s get going.” He nodded and turned to the front door. “We’ll be back later. Remember to go next door and get clues and her laptop,” I said to Claudia and Zaide before grabbing my car keys from the kitchen counter and following Daithi out of the house.
* * *
In the firstten minutes of the drive to the house where the witches went with Savida’s fire, Daithi was deathly quiet. He sat in my passenger seat with his hands knotted together and his body stiff and unmoving, his face turned to the window. His body language screamed “unapproachable.” Thankfully, that vibe had never intimidated me or stopped me from questioning someone.
At a junction, I turned the radio down and said, “You okay, Daithi?” He looked at me pointedly. “I’m just making sure. You had a big evening. Savida aside, you turned a cat into a human. Surely that’s got to have an effect. Maybe you’ve got a killer headache. A magic hangover.”
He was silent a moment before saying, “Thank you for your concern, Charlie. I am fine.” And then he turned the radio up again.
I turned it off completely. “You know, we’re really big on looking after our mental health over here. We have a saying; ‘it’s okay to not be okay.’”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You believe I am telling you lies about my mental state?”
I shrugged, my seatbelt scratching at my neck. “I’m not okay after everything that has happened. This is a complete mind fuck. So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that someone closer to Savida would feel a range of emotions. Ones that may mess with your head.”
