to me.
“Take care of him. I did him a favour, but he’s still pissed off about Aria.”
“Who’s Aria?”
“She’s now my wife,” he answered.
I felt a probing tingle in my mind and let my guard drop.
But she wasn’t. Once upon a time she was his love, or so she let him believe.
Oh.
But he’s beginning to see that someone else was meant for him now.
OH.
Be patient with him, Mya. He put barriers up after what I did to him.
Our connection dropped.
“Thank you for coming, brother. It was good to see you, but I think it’s time to draw all this to a close,” I told him.
“I do believe you’re right,” he answered.
Everyone left until finally it was just me and Death.
“Shall we go home now?” I asked.
He nodded.
We walked back down to the alleyway where I’d made the decision to become Queen and I realised then why Lawrie had decided to hold my wake where he had.
He wasn’t such a bad dad after all.
He’d known that I needed to be here to accept my undeath.
I felt a shadow pass and looked to see Lawrie step out as Death embraced me with his cloak to take me home.
“Thank you,” I mouthed. Lawrie nodded, and then we were gone.
The mystery of Jenny however remained. I guessed there was nothing I could do about that right now, and anyway, as I got home, I found Stan and Stan junior there, who had started on replacing the old plumbing. Death excused himself for work matters with a polite hello to Stan and a narrow-eyed hello to his son.
“How’s it going?” I asked Stan.
“Good, just taking all the old pipework out and working out what we need to get the job done.”
“I guess I’d better let you get on then?”
Stan nodded, picking up a black sack filled with rubble. I glanced at him and then my head snapped back towards him as I really looked at him. I gasped.
Surely not?
A penchant for red and white tracksuits, or while working red and white overalls, white hair and ruddy cheeks. Now if I imagined him with a beard…
“Stan?”
He turned around, the sack hung over his shoulder.
“Yup?”
“Are you Father Christmas?” I asked him.
Those eyes of his twinkled. “Now, come on, Mya. You know there’s no such thing. You’re an adult. I mean as if Santa would work in a hardware store on the days of the year he had off.” He shook his head as if I was being ridiculous and then he winked at me, smirked, and walked out.
Just as I thought about his name and the name of his store. Stan A’s. S T A N A S. Which rearranged to Santa’s.
Heading to my living room, I sat down and reflected on my burial. It had been good to hear Cathy speak highly of me and I was genuinely sorry that she was sad. I was, however, starting to think that I was going to be far happier here in my undead life than I had ever been in my alive one.
The burial had left me with a mystery though. Where and who was Jenny? And when would I find out the truth?
I looked at my bookcase. I left any books to be returned out on top of it now with a note and then used the app to request new ones from The Librarian.
The Librarian.
The person who wouldn’t speak to me and who I hadn’t seen.
Could it be?
As I put two and two together hoping for four, it seemed today was one of discoveries.
I typed into my app and pressed on the REQUEST BOOKS page.
Please type below the items you require.
I did. I wrote:
I’d like to order The Librarian to my living room if I knew her as Jenny.
Queen Mya.
Not a minute later, Jenny appeared in my living room and took a place on the sofa at the side of me.
“You are The Librarian?”
“Indeed.”
“But… how?”
She sighed. “Ugh, I find explaining so boring, but I suppose you won’t leave the matter unless I do?”
“No, I won’t. You should know what I’m like from working with me.”
“Quite. Okay, then. I’ll try to say it as quickly and succinctly as possible in the way you’ll like best. Like a story.”
“Whichever way you like. Just tell me what’s going on,” I demanded.
She sighed, but then started. “Once upon a time there was a witch. She met a man from Gnarly Fell and though her date wasn’t a success, she fell in love with the place, and decided to live there. But