“And what about Cal?” Griggs asks. “Gonna take him home too?”
Cal looks unsure until my mother steps in. “Of course. He’s staying at Little House. I’m going to take care of both these boys, you can count on that.”
The sheriff nods, tipping his hat in our direction. “Well, then, I’ll take my leave.” He looks me up and down, his gaze staying on my feet for a moment, then looks back up at me. He turns to walk out the door. He stops before stepping outside. “Say, Benji,” he says, looking over his shoulder, “you wouldn’t happen to wear a size nine boot, would you?”
“Yes, sir,” I say.
“Funny thing, that. Found some size-nine boot prints outside my back window a few nights ago, like someone had been prowling. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
I laugh, though my stomach is sinking. “Sheriff, I would think between running the store and everything else that I wouldn’t have time to be paying you a visit. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who wears these boots. It’s all they sell at the hardware store.” My heart thuds in my chest.
“Is that all, Sheriff?” my mother asks icily. “Seems to me you have a suspect to go speak to.”
“That I do,” he says with a grin. “I’ll let you know if I have any other questions. And, Benji, watch yourself out there. Seems like you’re attracting all kinds of attention these days.” He winks at us and walks out of the store, the little bell ringing overhead.
“Mom, I’m fine,” I tell her in Big House as she tries to check me over yet again.
“I’m just worn out. I think we’re going to head to Little House to take a nap, okay? I just want to put today behind me and start over again tomorrow.” She looks like she thinks that’s the most ridiculous idea she’s ever heard, but I’m already standing, motioning to Cal to follow me out the door.
“You’re getting that security system upgraded,” she says, standing to poke me in the chest. “I don’t care how much it costs. You know better than that, Benji.”
I sigh. “I’ll start researching first thing tomorrow, okay? We’ll see what we can get and how soon.”
She narrows her eyes.
“I promise,” I say. “Cross my heart.”
“Hope to die?”
“Stick a thousand needles in your eye,” I say gruffly. “Cal, let’s go.”
He follows but I feel his absence behind me as I reach the door. I turn and see he’s standing in front of my mother. She’s looking up at him, unsure about his presence so close to her. I think about calling out to him, but I wait.
He reaches out and touches her shoulder. “Lola Green,” he says quietly, “I know you are worried. I know sometimes things can seem scary. And maybe sometimes they are scary. But I will tell you this, okay? I will watch Benji. I will protect him. I will keep him safe. This I promise you. I will keep Benji safe. It’s my job.”
My mother gasps quietly, bringing her hand to her mouth, her eyes growing bright. She makes a little strangled noise from behind her hand and shakes her head. “Who are you?” she whispers. “You come out of nowhere and you stay here and you say things like that to me? Who the hell are
you, Cal? Why are you here?”
For a moment, I think he’s going to open his mouth and spill everything, and I think about what that would do to her, what that would mean. There would be surprise, I’m sure. Shock. Disbelief. Confusion. And if she believed him? If he did something to prove what he would say is true? There would be anger. Rage. Fury. She would demand answers I’m not ready for. She would ask him, if he was a guardian as he claimed, then where was he the morning Big Eddie died? Where was he then when he was supposed to be protecting the people here?
He would tell her that he couldn’t remember, that pieces were still lost to him. He would tell her that he was like a puzzle that had yet to be made whole. He would tell her how sorry he was, but he just couldn’t remember.
And it would sound like a lie.
Instead, he says, “I am Cal Blue. I am here because I care about your son. I care about all of you, but I care about him more. I am here to protect him, and I will do my duty.”
She trembles, tears welling in her eyes then spilling over onto her cheeks. She sniffs and brushes her face angrily. “Then you better do your job,” she says bitterly. “If something happens to him, I am coming for you. Do you understand me? If anything happens to him, I will hunt you down and make you pay.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less,” he says, squeezing her shoulder.
She glances at me, her expression unreadable, and then she turns away, leaving the kitchen. I hear her going up the back stairs and wait until her door slams shut. He stares after her for a time before I call his name, my voice rough.
He seems so big when he walks toward me, as if there are parts of him, just under the surface, that add to his mass. For a moment, I think I see the faint outline of wings stretching out behind him, the tips dragging along the floor. A flat disc of metal feels like it’s burning a hole in the jeans pocket I placed it in earlier. My skin feels electrified. My heart pounds. I don’t know what all of these events mean, but it feels like things are changing and I can’t do anything to stop it. I don’t know that I want to even if I could.
He towers so far above me that it seems impossible. His eyes are like pools of oil, liquid in the way they shift. He reaches down and takes my hand in his and carefully pulls me out of Big House and toward home.
He takes me to the bathroom in Little House and turns on the shower, telling