minding your own business and you reach over to pet him like this and—”
Snarl! The little dog nearly launched himself from Juanita’s lap as Maxine’s hand swept toward his head. His tiny body quivered as if he were about to attack, his beady black eyes bright and wary. He looked like a long-haired chihuahua except for the huge, butterflylike ears whose position could apparently indicate whether a spiritual presence was male or female.
Jake wondered what would happen if the ghost was nonbinary, and then decided he might need a beer—or something far stronger—if he was really worried about that sort of detail.
“See what I mean?” Maxine said, reaching out to pet Bruce again, and once again had to snatch back her hand before the tiny little teeth grabbed her.
“All right, Maxine, you’ve had your fun,” Juanita said, batting her friend’s hand away. “Elwood, love, if it’s not too much trouble, I’ll have some bread and butter too.”
“Bring out the ham and cheese, Elwood,” his pop said. “And the good spicy mustard—this stuff’s great,” he added to Doug Horner. “It’s gotta be half horseradish, I swear. I can feel it burn right through my gut, and the damned mustard seeds get all up in my dentures, but damn, it’s good going down.”
Jake escaped inside to the kitchen and began to put together a tray of snacks. Fortunately, he’d stopped at the store after dropping Vivien at her house last night and had picked up a bunch of food for his dad to have on hand. He hadn’t expected the Tuesday Ladies to bring food as well—enough to feed an army for a month. They’d paraded in carrying huge bags of casseroles, sandwiches, containers of soup, a roasted chicken, scones, muffins, and two whole pies. All for just his dad?
But apparently those items weren’t allowed to be served right now…
He shook his head. He’d never quite understood the rules of hospitality.
He scrabbled around for the ham and cheese he’d been ordered to bring out, then found the pot of spicy mustard and the pumpernickel bread he’d baked last week and brought with him (it had been frozen, but no need to tell that to Maxine and her crew). He filled a bowl with cherries he’d grabbed at the store last night and put a few Cherry Newtons (his pop’s favorite) on the tray as well. That might tide over the hordes.
And then he picked up his phone…and hesitated.
For the first time in over ten years, he was going to text Vivien. She’d know who it was, since she’d never deleted his number from her phone.
That had to mean something, didn’t it? She’d never deleted his number.
He hesitated more, then chewed himself out for being an idiot, and typed the message: The Tuesday Ladies met your ghost?!
Her response was almost immediate: Kill me now.
Where are you? He hoped she wasn’t still at the theater. By herself.
Home. Made an escape and came back to work. Louise London is making me glad she’s six hundred miles away rn…
He breathed a sigh of relief. Have been invaded by Tuesday Ladies and others at Pop’s. Dinner later? His palms were a little sweaty and his belly fluttery, for Pete’s sake, as he pressed send…and then waited for her reply.
Depends who’s involved.
The flutter went to a low burn and he started to respond, but a second text came in from Vivien before he finished: I mean, if Ricky’s going to be there…
Jake gave a short laugh and tried to decide how to respond, but before he could, he heard the unmistakable thumping of Maxine’s cane approaching.
“You get lost in there, Elwood?” she demanded through the screen door. “We’re all about to expire from lack of sustenance.”
“Oh, sorry,” he said, turning sharply. The phone squirted out of his hand into the sink, which, thankfully, wasn’t filled with water. He snatched it back out and began to towel off the few droplets that clung to it. “I’ll be right ou—”
The screen door slammed. “Gotta use the john,” said Maxine, thumping in with her cane. “Old bladder ain’t what it used to be.”
“Sure, right down that hall…”
But she was already heading that way. “Just glad I didn’t pee my pants when that ghost business started happening.” She paused in the hallway, the whites of her eyes gleaming in her dark face. “I’ve seen some scary shit in my life, but that was just about enough to turn my hair dead white.”
Jake could relate. He