Visions: The Mystical Encounter Series (The Mystical Encounter Series Book 1) (20 page)

“You’re awful quiet today. What’s going on inside that mind of yours?” he asked.

“Barry, do you realize I don’t know where you live?” I questioned while watching his face carefully. His smile faltered a little before regaining his composure.

Drawing his lips into his half–grin, he answered, “It’s not that exciting.”

I waited for him to elaborate while continuing to watch him. When it was apparent he wasn’t going to add anymore, I half–way joked, “I still would like to know where you go at night when you leave me.”

He drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. “Okay, I’ll drive you past it before we head home.”

As he turned left, his eyes were weighted with worry as he scanned for traffic. Apparently something’s off because he clearly didn’t want me knowing where he lived. Although I found that rather strange, I remained quiet. Part of me wanted to tell him to forget it and just head toward his grandma’s. That would have been the polite thing to do, but my curiosity was piqued. Polite or not, there was no turning back now.

If I knew
why
, then maybe I wouldn’t press the issue. Not knowing where he lived wasn’t the entire problem. The fact he didn’t want me meeting his mom concerned me. I wondered if he felt I wouldn’t be living up to her expectations. Like, I wasn’t good enough, or something. Or maybe he didn’t think she’d understand my abilities or something to that effect. It could just be that he was afraid of what his mom’s reaction would be. Still, I would’ve felt better if he’d let me meet her, or at least explain to me the reason behind his reluctance to have us meet.

While driving, Barry tried to talk, but I could tell he was apprehensive. I acted like I didn’t notice. I went as far as changing the conversation to some silly topic about mating habits of giraffes I saw on the Discovery Channel last night. That resulted in a laugh, but there was still an underlying nervousness to his voice.

Slowing down to a crawl, he pointed over to a one–story house off to my right. Half expecting to see a run–down, weathered home that he’d be embarrassed about, it was instead surprisingly cute. The house was smaller in size, as with most houses on the block, but the vinyl siding seemed fairly new. The yard was nice and neat, properly trimmed. The landscaping was absolutely beautiful with the prettiest flowers I’d ever seen. That house was stunning and eliminated the possibility of him being ashamed. Which only confirmed my suspicion‌—‌he didn’t want me to meet his mother.

“This is nice, Barry…‌Thanks. Don’t you want to go say hi to your mom?” I pressed, trying to be sly.

“Um…‌She’s probably not home right now,” he said rather anxiously. With one last glance toward his house, he shifted his eyes as he deadpanned, “She usually doesn’t get in until late.”

It was quite obvious he didn’t want to discuss his mother any further. I suppressed a sigh before adding, “Well, thanks for showing me where you live. I think it’s cute, and it
is
nice knowing where you take off to when you leave me.”

The smile I loved seeing spread across his face as he reached over, grabbed a hold of my hand, and said, “No problem. I don’t go far.” He gently raised my hand up to his mouth and softly brushed his lips against the top of my hand. “Let’s get back home.”

Smiling at him, I simply responded, “Okay.” I couldn’t help but think he references his grandmother’s house a lot as
home
. He must prefer being over there as opposed to here. I glimpsed in the side mirror and watched his house shrink in the distance still left wondering why.

As we arrived on our street, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the familiar police car parked in my driveway. Immediately recognizing Detective Tanner’s car, I started to worry, wondering what could have happened now. The closer we got, I noticed he was outside sitting on some chairs‌—‌a recent addition‌—‌talking quite comfortably to my mom. Mom seemed to be listening to him intently, for there was a gleam in her eyes as she stared at him. It was a gleam I’d never seen before. We drove right past, without them giving us a second glance. Some detective, I thought to myself and had to stop the chuckle wanting to escape.

Parking in his grandmother’s driveway, Barry got out and walked me over to my house. Although he didn’t say anything, I think he was just as curious as I was. As we walked across the lawn, Mom’s laugh trickled through the air spiking my curiosity further, for this was out of character for my mother. She was usually quite reserved around people.

When they finally noticed us approaching, the detective stood up rather hastily with a sheepish expression. I wouldn’t have ever thought we could have thrown him off guard since he was usually observant, but I think we actually startled them. Perhaps he was human after all.

“Heather…” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to tell you in person that they’re going to build the playground equipment with the reward money you generously offered,” he said in a rush.

“Oh, that’s great. Thanks, detective, for coming and telling me this in person,” I said, instantly relieved it wasn’t anything too serious. I glanced over at Mom and noticed her staring rather admirably at the detective.
What the heck?
Thrown off guard, I had to fight to keep my expression neutral.

“That’s quite all right; I thought you’d want to know.” He snuck another glance over toward my mother and smiled before continuing, “They’re in the planning stages right now, and since winter is approaching, it probably won’t go in until April. We’ll keep you informed of the progress, though. The mayor wants to have a ceremony for the dedication, so I’ll have to fill you in with details later.”

As I thanked him, I started to imagine what the playground would look like. There were plenty of different styles to choose from, but I could picture one with tunnels and slides. And not just the straight slides they currently had, ones with curves and bends. Just the thinking about it made me excited.

The detective got ready to leave, but before reaching the top step he turned around saying, “Oh, I’ll be keeping in touch with you Heather, if something comes in that I need your help on.”

“All right,” I said, all excitement draining out of me by those few words. I tried my hardest to appear thrilled at the prospect of working for them, but deep down, I didn’t want to. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help, but it took me awhile to recoup from Johnny’s experience. To get my brain back into normal mode, so to speak. Although I wouldn’t trade that for anything, it was still exhausting.

“Great, I’ll let you know.” With one last glance at my mother, he added, “It was nice to meet you again, Ms. Reiner.”

“Vicky, please call me Vicky,” she quickly replied, appearing rather flushed as a pinkish tone over–took her cheeks.

“Miss Vicky,” he said with a nod. And just like that, he was gone.

I gave Barry a knowing look, and he flashed quickly back and forth between Mom and the detective before giving me a quirky, little smile. Evidently, he thought the same as me.

~~~~~

Later on that evening, I went over to Barry’s grandma’s house. I’d been there many times these past few weeks, but I still couldn’t get over how sweet his grandma was. She had more or less adopted me, and insisted on me calling her “Grandma,” too. When she was around, I did, but it was mainly to appease her. No matter how much I adored that lady; I still couldn’t feel comfortable calling her grandma. I never knew my grandparents, but somehow I viewed it as a betrayal. They probably wouldn’t mind, even if they were still living, but still.

“Since we need to study, I thought it would be easier if we studied in my bedroom,” Barry said, pulling me out of my reverie. He shrugged, adding, “Follow me.”

While I tagged along behind him, I realized I’d never seen his room before. We’d always stayed in the living room or kitchen. Instantly, I was intrigued.

Upon entering his room, I was surprised to see it look like a typical teenage boy’s room, instead of some stuffy guest room I’d envisioned. The walls had a chair rail wrapping around the room, splitting it in half. The upper part was painted taupe that matched the background color of the bluish plaid wallpaper lining the bottom. The queen size bed sat in the middle along the far wall, covered with a denim duvet cover that matched the blue in the plaid perfectly. Along with a desk, there was a four–drawer dresser with a bookshelf above it. He had sports trophies, along with various pictures and medals, lining the shelves. Upon closer examination, I noticed they were all baseball themed.

“I didn’t know you played baseball,” I said, wondering why they’re kept here instead of at his house.

“Well, when I was younger. Those trophies are mainly from little league. I should probably put them away or something,” he said with a shrug.

“No, keep them out. They look good in here, adds character to the room.”

I went over toward his bed, placing my book bag down. As I started to get my physics book out, Barry came up from behind, wrapping his arms around me. He lowered his head down to mine, nuzzling his nose in my hair, whispering, “I think you look good in here.”

I shivered slightly as goose bumps instantly formed on my skin from the feel of his breath along the nape of my neck. A tingling sensation raced through my body as I yearned to be closer to him. My eyes shifted downward toward his bed, causing my cheeks to flush. They heated a few more degrees as I pictured us taking our relationship to the next level. Knowing full well I wasn’t ready for that, nor did I even know if that’s what he implied, I remained still while trying to steer my thoughts away. Barry ran his hands down my arms before softly pulling my hair to the side and planting a kiss along my neck. I turned around just as his mouth grazed the side of my face. Our lips found each other as we engaged in a long, lingering kiss. When we broke apart, we were both breathing headily. A coy smile broke across my face as I said, “We need to get busy on our homework before we get too carried away.”

Letting out an audible groan, he grudgingly agreed. Once we got absorbed into our work, the electricity sparking between us dialed down a couple of notches. It was enough to allow my mind to concentrate, somewhat, on the problems at hand. But the current continued to linger in the air, making me fully aware of its presence. My mind, a never ending collage of thoughts, kept reverting back to Barry. As I watched him engrossed in his studies, it made me appreciate, again, how lucky I was to have someone like him in my life.

~23~

Closure

“Heather, are you about ready?” I heard Mom yelling from the front room.

In the middle of applying a pale shade of pink lipstick, I paused, yelling back, “Just a minute.” While finishing, I glanced in the mirror, approving my reflection. What a long way I’d come. Never caring in the least about cosmetics before, I had recruited Mom to help. As I stared at my highlighted cheeks and glossy lips, I appreciated Mom even more for teaching me how to apply it properly. Even putting it on lightly, I had to admit, my appearance improved.

I went over to my closet to pick out some flats. A comfy pair of jeans matched with tennis shoes was my normal attire, but I needed to appear half–way decent today. We’re going to the dedication for the new playground equipment, which I was sure would draw a large crowd. Barry, Nicole, and I were going to be front and center, and I really wasn’t looking forward to that.

No matter what had happened, I still didn’t like being the center of attention. It just made me nervous, and I was afraid that would never change. The single attention I liked receiving was Barry’s.

While snatching up my shoes, I quickly scanned my room and smiled to myself. I couldn’t get over how comfortable I felt in my own room now. When I first moved here, that certainly wasn’t the case. The room never quite belonged to me. Not once did I walk in here feeling the sanctuary you were supposed to have when you were in your own space. With Johnny invading my dreams every night, it kept those blissful feelings at bay. But until we solved his murder, I always felt his presence, even if it wasn’t on a conscious level.

Now, when I walked in there, that feeling of displacement was gone. Six months has passed since my last dream about Johnny and sadly, I no longer felt his presence. I almost wanted to say I felt empty inside, but that was silly because I knew he was in a much better place. Still…‌I kind of
missed
him.

I paused at my door, and muttered under my breath, “Today’s for you, Johnny.” Then I turned and walked out to join my mom.

~~~~~

After arriving at the park, we walked over to the children’s playground where the dedication was being held. As predicted, there was already a crowd gathered around, and my stomach did a flip at the sight. I tried to tell myself to calm down, but I wasn’t very convincing‌—‌even to myself. I didn’t understand what was making me so nervous‌—‌it wasn’t like I had to speak in front of anyone. All I had to do was sit there, along with Barry and Nicole, acknowledging our role in finding Johnny and, of course, donating the money for the memorial.

Still, when I scanned across the crowd, the queasiness wouldn’t go away.

Forcing myself to turn, the makeshift stage caught my attention. It was assembled in the front of the new playground equipment. On top, chairs lined both sides with a podium in the center. A smile spread at the view of Barry and Nicole sitting there waving, trying to get my attention. In between them an empty seat stood, expecting to be filled by no one other than me. A deep appreciation for them swelled inside at the simple fact of knowing they were waiting on me. Funny how a simple gesture could make someone feel special. With a slight wave in return, I couldn’t hold back the smile that spread wider.

On the other side of the podium sat a couple, appearing a little perplexed. I assumed they were Johnny’s family. A part of me wanted to go over and say something to them, but I really didn’t know what to say. I’d been contemplating the right choice of words the past few weeks, but had come up empty.
What would be the correct thing to say to someone who suffered that type of tragedy?
Fortunately, there wasn’t time before the ceremony began, so maybe I’d get inspired afterward. It was a little surreal, seeing his family for the first time, and knowing they gave such a generous gift despite their misfortune. I couldn’t imagine how they felt right now.