Ch. 5 / Pt. 1 : When They Wear the Mask
Deirdre woke to birdsong and morning haze. Her shoulders and neck told her she’d slept on them wrong. Of course she had: she’d slept on the couch. Why? And when?
A waft of searing steak and onion brought her from reclining to sitting, sitting to standing. Careful not to knock the table holding Rehani’s cards and scribblings, Deirdre padded out of the den and into the house’s main thoroughfare. The scent brought her to her kitchen, where Rehani cooked breakfast. Deirdre noticed that Rehani had ‘borrowed’ one of her leather jackets but didn’t mention it.
“Your boy had a rough night,” Rehani said, stirring vegetables in a pan.
She remembered that she’d slept on the couch so that Paul could take her bed. “Did that all feel…off to you, at all?”
Rehani bobbed her head, locs echoing the movement. “Oh, shit yeah.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I know the cosmos called me up and told me you and that white boy can do something about some evil shit happening, so what am I gonna do? You can’t just hang up on the universe.”
“Yeah…I guess not. Is Paul—is he, I dunno…conscious?”
“Conscious, yes. A little green around the gills and paler than I thought a person could get, but…conscious? Yes.”
“We should go over everything we gathered last night, everything we wrote down. We need to start reviewing—”
“Nuh-uh.”
“What?” Deirdre balked.
“Your boy up there is gonna need something to eat before he’ll be able to do anything besides whine and groan and grumble. And me, I’d be happy to tell you everything I wrote down in all those readings, last night…right after you get back from the salon.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“What, you wanna keep that nest?”
“Wow. I—wow.”
“Take care of yourself,” Rehani ordered. “Your appointment’s in an hour. You can borrow my car. I’ll split lunch with what’s-his-name while you’re gone.”
“Paul. You know it’s ‘Paul.’ And since when are you so psyched to split lunch with someone?”
“Half the reason I came over here is ‘cause I know you buy from the farmer’s market. Have you tasted these tomatoes? I mean, have you tasted them? Here.”
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