An hour later and we were done with our call to our father.It went exactly as I had expected it to.He was stiff with me, gentle with Delilah, and ignored Menolly as much as he could.
We didn’t tell him about the demon magnet spell, nor did we introduce him to Chase.The less we mingled our home life with our Earthside life, the better.All three of us had agreed when we first came over that we’d try to make a new start here, even if we were eventually headed back to Otherworld.
After we ended our call, we headed back downstairs for cookies and milk.Well, except for Menolly, who couldn’t eat.Chase joined us in the kitchen, looking tired.
“So, you really think you can break the spell?”he asked, giving me a hopeful look.
I shrugged.“I’ll try.Asheen is certain it will work.”
As we relaxed, Chase glanced around.“You don’t have any pets?For some reason that surprises me.”
“I want a cat, but with Delilah being so territorial, that doesn’t seem like a good idea,” I said.
“If it was up to me, I’d have a menagerie,” Delilah said.“I used to bring animals home all the time when I was a kid.We had a huge shelter for them out back.”
“You brought home every kind of animal except the one I wanted: a cat.Rabbits, mice, dogs…we had them all,” I said, laughing.“But I made Delilah take care of them.I had too much work to do as it was.”
“Delilah was so soft-hearted,” Menolly said.“She’d bring home any animal she found who needed help.Father wasn’t happy, but Lethe helped smooth things over.”
“Lethe?”Chase frowned.“Wasn’t that your boss, Camille?”
I shook my head.“No, but his name’s close to hers.Lathewas my boss.Lethe—her full name’s actually Lethenatall, but it was too long for us to pronounce when we were small.So our mother asked Lethe to use a nickname.She was Lethe from that day on.”
“What was your mother like?”he said, accepting another glass of milk from Iris.“You seldom talk about her.”
I glanced at the others.“I’m the only one who remembers her as more than a blur.I was so young when she died.Our mother was Maria D’Artigo and she was a gracious, wonderful woman who got caught up with our father when he was Earthside on a mission.She followed him home and married him.”
“And you have her last name?”he asked.
“In Otherworld, women and men are known by their mother’s first name.I’m Camille te Maria there.When we came over Earthside, we decided to take her surname as our own.”
“So the father—” he paused.“I guess that makes sense.”
“You absolutely know when you have a baby that it’s yours.Nobody there can prove that the father is who he claims to be.So the system is matrilinear in that sense,” Delilah said.
“Well, that’s interesting.And yeah, it does make sense.”He paused, then said, “I was raised by a mother who spent every waking moment chasing any man who could support her—well,us.My father left before I ever really knew him.He was an addict.Heroin, cocaine…whatever he could get hold of.”
Startled, I glanced at him.We didn’t know much about Chase’s background, other than that he absolutely loved his job.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He shrugged.“It is what it is.I didn’t like depending on my mother’s paramours, so I started working young.I managed to stay in school and work a couple of jobs from the time I was eleven.I delivered newspapers, and worked as a stockboy at a local grocer’s.I also got a weekend stint as a busboy.The grocer paid me under the table.He knew we needed the money and that I wouldn’t be able to work for him otherwise, given child labor laws.”
“What did your mother say about you working so much?”Delilah asked.
“As long as her boyfriends kept her in booze, she didn’t care,” he said.
“You’re a self-made man,” Iris said.“That’s admirable.”
“It was a necessity if I didn’t want to end up like my old man.”Chase shrugged.“My mother dates slackers and losers.I saw too many of them fall because of booze and drugs.I swore I’d never be that kind of man.”
We all fell silent.The energy was thick and heavy, and I was dreading sleep—I had a tendency to have rough dreams when I was upset—when a mouse suddenly raced across the kitchen floor, squeaking.
Delilah’s eyes went wide and—before I could stop her—she jumped up and raced after it.In a blur, she began to shift, and a moment later there was a big, fluffy orange tabby cat there, yowling as she chased the mouse into the laundry room.
“I’m on it!”Iris said, dashing after her.
I rubbed my forehead, my apprehension turning to laughter.“Oh, Kitten, you always know when we need a laugh,” I said as Iris came out of the laundry, holding Delilah in her arms.