WalkingHaunt (8 page)
The baby giggled and drooled, showing two teeth in her lower gum line.
“Hello, Minway. Your great grandma is eager to see you.”
The girl turned and settled against her chest, giving Yoh no option but to wrap her arms around her. Yoh looked over to her brother. “How long until sunset?”
He frowned. “Two hours.”
She grimaced. “Can you draw the curtains? We can get to the bottom of this right now.”
“We can? I thought it had to be dark.”
“It does. Draw the curtains.”
The baby started sucking on her finger and gnawing with her stubby little teeth.
The rest of the Citadel reps stood by and let her run her show. They had broken the ice. It was up to Yoh and Orway to swim out of it.
Orway and Teelya closed the curtains until they were all standing in the dimness. Yoh called Yinway first.
“Hiya, Gran. How have you been keeping?”
“In the ether. Now, who is this young lady?” Gran was bending over and wiggling her spectral fingers at Minway.
“This is Orway’s daughter, Minway. We are here for a reconciliation or a truce of sorts, and I thought that it would be nice to have you here for it before I call on your son.”
Her grandmother walked around the room, smiling at those she had met before their trip and pausing in front of Orway and Teelya. “So, you were the young woman gullible enough to marry my grandson?”
Teelya blinked and smiled. “I am. He is not as bad as all that. He just got some awkward information early on, and we have been working to determine falsehood from reality. It is an ongoing process, but Minway deserves the truth.”
Yoh laughed as the spectral Yinway hugged Teelya. It was a strange feeling that most folk never experienced.
Orway was the next one hugged. Gran said, “You are getting that one on credit. I need to see proof that you didn’t turn into your father.”
Right. Father.
“Okay, I am calling him.”
She looked for him, and for the first time, she felt a soul resist her. She set her jaw and yanked him back to face his family. “Greetings. Welcome back to Wedderal.”
He flexed his jaw and scowled. “Why did you let that bitch in our house, Orway?”
Orway got to his feet. “She isn’t a bitch, and her being a bastard is your fault not hers. Why did you treat your own child that way?”
Her father looked from one to the other. “You poisoned my son, you bastard.”
Teelya got to her feet. “Why do you hate her?”
“She is an embarrassment. Her mother should never have brought her to term, but she wouldn’t listen to me. So, I told her family, and they threw her out. At that point, I was sure that she would end the pregnancy, but she didn’t.” His light and shadow features curled in disgust.
Carefully balancing Minway, Yoh got to her feet. “And because you had gone to her family to tell them about the pregnancy, there was no way you could deny paternity. It was only because my mother left her family and yours without any support that you stopped stalking us.”
“You couldn’t be raised near my son. Think of the humiliation.” He sighed, and Orway looked at him with dawning sickness.
“You were embarrassed by your child or by your lack of self-control?”
He looked at Orway. “She was proof, and your mother never stopped asking me about her. I had to make sure that she couldn’t get work here to raise the child close to you. I had to make sure they went away. If my bitch of a mother hadn’t kept track of them, you would be the heir to the Dahl fortune not her.”
Orway blinked and put his arm around his wife. “I am doing well, my family is doing well. I don’t need the Dahl money.”
“Yes, but
my
life would have been better if you had been the sole heir.”
From across the room, Yinway laughed. “And there you have the crux of the matter. I raised a selfish boy who turned into a selfish man. It was my sin that made him this way and that is why I corrected it in the only way that Yohwen could accept. I gave her everything I had, because my son had taken almost everything she needed.”
Yohwen smiled down at Minway with tears tracking down her face. “I know, Gran. Now, we need to plan for this little one, so how about we set up an education fund for her?”
Her father lunged at her. “Get away from my granddaughter. She is not yours.”
He passed through them both.
Yoh turned to face him, soothing the confused baby. “She will be a Haunt, just as I was a Haunt. She will have a talent built into her very genes that will let her talk to you any time she wishes, or she can banish you with a thought. You might want to think about how you want her to view you. It is your choice, Father.”
His mouth opened and closed silently.
She smiled. “We will talk again when you finally come to grips with the fact that you not only wanted to destroy your own blood, but then you tried to starve it to death. Think about it for a while. I will pull you back one day soon, and I will know if you are ready to talk.”
He disappeared, and gran exhaled heavily. “Well, that was fascinating, but I have never been a fan of this house. Call me when you get to the base, Yoh.”
“You know I am at the base?”
Yinway laughed, “Of course. I ordered it built twenty-five years ago. I had a vision that you would live there, and it seems we are in the early stages of it being a reality.”
“I will talk you later, Gran.” She turned her cheek for a spectral kiss, crackling with energy.
Minway turned up her chubby cheek, and Yinway repeated the caress.
Gran hugged Orway and Teelya, kissed Niisa’s cheek and the men were treated to a pat on their behinds by the hands of the energy form.
“Goodbye, Gran.” Laughing, Yoh sent her back to the outer sphere.
Debarren opened the curtains, and they all stood around staring at each other.
Minway was pulling on Yoh’s hair.
Yoh walked over to Orway and extended her hand. “Hello, brother. Are you interested in a fresh start?”
He smiled and gripped her hand. “It won’t be fresh, but we can set the past aside and go forward. I don’t think that Teelya will let us do anything else, and Minway seems attached to you.”
Teelya grinned. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I need a drink. Shall we adjourn to the dining room?”
“Hell yes.” Orkill put his arm around her waist, and the other couples did the same. With her niece in her arms, Yoh felt a frisson of hope.
Her life had been solitary up until this point, but now, she was surrounded. If she could get used to this, she could get used to flying across the stars at a moment’s notice. She chuckled and shifted the baby as she realised that the second option was far less jarring to her sense of self. It seemed she had her own adjusting to do. After all, life was short and then you did spectral laps through the sky over the living friends you left behind.
There were worse fates than constantly being surrounded by the ones you love and have loved.
Author’s Note
Fine, the sex occurred off the page. I am a horrible human being. That said, Tales of the Citadel is now on hiatus until I finish twelve fairy tales that I already have cover art for.
I will enjoy my travels through even shorter teeny-weeny stories. I hope you will too.
Thanks for reading,
Viola Grace
About the Author
Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.