* * * * *
Fiona
“Flapjacks!” Annie shouted from down the grocery aisle, she was holding up a box of flapjacks in each hand and waving them around. “Kids love flapjacks!”
“I’m not stocking their larder, Annie, I’m making them dinner,” Isabella called back.
“Nothing wrong with stocking that hot guy’s larder, you hear what I’m saying?” Mikey muttered, staring with curiosity at the jam selection.
“Don’t go there,” Isabella warned softly.
“Time heals all wounds,” Mikey was still muttering and his eyes had gone narrow.
Fiona watched closely as Isabella allowed herself an open reaction, considering Mikey was staring at the jams and Annie was tossing flapjacks into the cart Isabella was pushing.
Sorrow.
Unadulterated.
Then she masked it.
No, Fiona thought, time did not heal all wounds.
“Where’s the grape jelly?” Mikey asked the jam selection.
“They don’t have grape jelly here,” Annie explained.
“That’s un-American!” Mikey shrieked, his head turning to Isabella and Annie.
“Well, yeah, considering we aren’t in America,” Annie drawled.
“Kids love grape jelly,” Mikey said with authority.
“American kids like grape jelly, Scottish kids like, I don’t know, marmite,” Annie replied as Isabella pushed the cart forward.
“Marmite?” Mikey asked then pulled an exaggerated horrified face.
Lime marmalade! Fiona shouted her children’s preference.
“Lime marmalade,” Isabella said instantly and Fiona was so shocked she accidentally floated straight through Mikey causing him to shiver.
She hated floating through people and avoided it at all costs, she didn’t feel anything physically, just emotionally, but it made her sadder than her normal sad at being dead when the only thing she could make people feel was cold.
“Cat walked over my grave,” he whispered, doing another shiver just for effect as Isabella grabbed a jar of lime marmalade. Then she grabbed another one.
“I hate lime marmalade, too sweet,” Annie mumbled.
“It’s fruit and sugar and fruit is sugar so there’s no way for it not to be sweet,” Mikey hilariously explained.
No matter how funny he was being, and Fiona had decided she liked Mikey, Fiona wasn’t listening.
She floated close to Isabella and asked, Can you hear me?
“So, I’m thinking chicken strips, fries and some kind of vegetable,” Isabella, clearly not hearing Fiona’s voice from beyond the grave, stated. “What kind of vegetable?”
Peas, Fiona told her.
“Broccoli?” Annie asked.