Grim and Bear It

Jake

The problem with having a nosy ghost roommate and a sister who was also a SHAP employee was that keeping a secret was a pipe dream. When I walked into Eliza's house, she took one look at me and crossed her arms. "Have you slept at all since the wedding?" she chided.

"Of course." I'd had a nap at lunch earlier today.

"Then why are you slurring your words?"

"I am doing no such thing." I was over-enunciating, but my point stood. "I'm doing a check."

She waved me away. "Of course you are."

"You're my baby sister. Deal with it." I activated my watch, then checked every access point. Eliza was right, of course. Nothing was out of place, no broken latches, no locks cut off from behind.

The watch showed no supernatural creatures-except Daisy-and no trace of residue. Despite the reading, the pit in my stomach didn't dislodge. I opened the master bedroom closet and looked over the rows of clothes and shelving. A stack of photo frames in a shoe box sat on the ground near the back of the closet and I used my cane to pull them toward me.

I leaned down and grabbed the first two frames. Dust floated up with the movement and I sneezed. Blinking away my watery eyes, I looked at the photos. The first was Eliza with a group of friends from high school. The second was at her baby shower, a novelty size bow stuck to her head while she held up a box of diapers and a teddy bear. I smiled, trying to fathom how Daisy had ever been small enough to be inside another person.

I set the two frames aside and grabbed a third, my smile fading as I flipped it over. Ben, Eliza, and Daisy stared back at me. The photo was just blurry enough to not merit hanging on the wall, clearly taken in low light with an old cell, but the joy on their faces in the extreme close-up shot was apparent. I ran my thumb over the glass, surprised to find it dust free.

Did Eliza still sit in her closet when she was sad? Pull out old pictures and cry until she could lock her emotions away? Or were the first two pictures responsible for keeping this one clean?

"When you said you were going to check the house, I didn't think you also meant my closet," Eliza said, coming into the room.

I blinked up at her. "Being thorough."

"Being nosy." "Reminiscent."

"Brooding." She took the picture from my hand and looked down, the corner of her lip curving upward. "Daisy learned to ride a bike that day." She glanced up at me and hugged the photo against her middle. "I still miss him."

"Me, too," I admitted. "Did you ever write to him?" I had always wondered if she'd used her gift to send him a final letter or open the communication for him to write to Daisy.

If I could write letters to the dead, would I have written to Poppy? Even if it cost me one year of my life? Well, if I had known she was dead.

Eliza let her hair fall in front of her face as she put the photo back in the box and toed it into the closet, then shut her doors. "He wasn't the letter-writing sort."

"And that stops you?"

"You're nosy." She gestured around. "Did you find anything?"

I shook my head. "Maybe you did just forget to set the alarm." I still didn't believe that.

"So, exactly what I said. If only you bothered listening to me."

I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug. "I will never stop wanting to protect my favorite girls. Deal with it."

She rolled her eyes when I pulled away. "Dinner will be ready in thirty. Daisy's working on her spelling homework. We need to get through the 'how to keep my powers a secret' chapter in the SHAP handbook this week, but I can do it with her tomorrow."

"You're annoying."

"Love you, too, loser." She turned and I followed her into the kitchen and found Daisy drawing words in the air with her pointer finger. The word shone in the air, then disappeared.

We were definitely going to need to study that SHAP chapter tonight. "Hey munchkin. What're you doing?"

She reached out and gave me a half-hearted hug around my middle before looking back down at her tablet. "I remember the words better if I make them light up.'

Okay, sound logic. "You can make them light up at home, but you won't be able to during the test."

She frowned. "Oh, yeah."

"Can you imagine them lighting up in your head only?"

She squeezed her eyes shut and bobbed her head as if she were using her whole body to write the words, then opened them and checked her book. "Yep!" "Okay, good. Do that." She may look a little silly, but if it worked, it worked. "You ready to run through your list?"

She sighed as if it were a major inconvenience. "Do we have to?"

"The faster we finish your spelling, the faster we get to study magic."

She practically shoved the tablet at me. "Okay!"

It only took ten minutes to get through the rest of her homework; closing her eyes and imagining writing the word seemed to work. The moment we were done, she closed her tablet, then ran to her room to grab her SHAP laptop. A twinge of sadness caught me off guard. She was still a kid and already training for a career.

When I was eight, we had one household computer that we were only allowed to touch if we had a report due, and even then, the first choice was taking us to the library to use the public ones. Daisy had a kid's cellphone that would call four people-Eliza, me, Dad, and Magnolia, a tablet for school, and a laptop for SHAP business. She was already an adult in too many ways.

She opened her laptop and waited for it to boot. She was excited about all the training now, but how long before she became resentful? Sure, she had amazing powers, but at what cost?

I wished I could take them away from her until she was older. Wish I had told Eliza to wait another year or two before registering her as a witch with SHAP. But as she tapped her fingers on the table, little pink, gold, and green sparks popped out. No, she couldn't have waited longer.

She logged into the portal and brought up the chapter with corresponding quiz. "Are you ready?"

I leaned back in my chair, straightening my leg, taking care not to make any noise of discomfort, then nodded. "Read it out loud."

She began reading, sounding out the words that she stumbled over. "We all want to share secrets with our best friends but remember that your magic is a secret you can't share. If you want to tell someone, they have to be on your sharing list. Your mentor will help you make a sharing list."

She frowned, then looked at me. "Does this mean I can't tell anyone who's not on my list?"

I nodded. "That's exactly what it means."

Her eyes got wide. "Really?"

I nodded again. "Really, munchkin."

"Like forever?"

She looked shocked. I didn't blame her. This was a lot on a kid's shoulders. Their brains didn't understand the bigger picture yet. "You can make the list bigger when you get older, but you'll always have a sharing list." "But then how will people know? I want everyone to know. Magic is so cool! Maybe I could start a magic show online. I bet I'd get like...a thousand views." She bounced in her chair, excited.

"Hey, hey," I covered her little hand with mine. "Daisy, you can't share anything about your magic to anyone not on the list. That includes online, too. No one else can know. If the wrong people find out, it would be dangerous for you and your mom."

I smoothed my hand over the top of her hair as she deflated in front of me. "But you can talk to me and your mom and your grandparents and your Aunts Mina and Carma as much as you want."

"But I can't tell Ashlynn or Brayden?"

I looked over at Eliza who was watching us from across the kitchen counter, her knife paused above a pile of vegetables. I knew from our conversations about school that Ashlynn and Brayden-twins-were her best friends at school. "No, you can't tell them. At least not for a long time."

"This is stupid." She kicked the table.

"Daisy," Eliza reprimanded, "no kicking the furniture. What can you kick instead?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" she shouted, crossing her arms in a huff.

"How about you go kick the soccer ball around the back yard?"

"Fine!" She pushed herself away from the table and stomped over to the sliding door. She shoved her feet into shoes, grabbed her soccer ball from the toy basket, and stormed outside.

When she was out of earshot, Eliza put the knife down and covered her face with her hands. "Shit."

I pushed myself up and limped over to her, rubbing her back. "Was not expecting that reaction."

"I should've warned you. She'd asked a few times when she could tell them. They got a new puppy and won't stop talking about it. She wants something cool to tell them, too." "Well then, I guess you're gonna have to get a puppy."

She gave a watery laugh and put her head into the crook of her arm on the counter. "What am I doing? I should've waited to register her."

"No. You were right."

She straightened and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. "You sure?"

I nodded. "Positive. She's practically leaking magic. If she can't get it under control, we're going to have to talk about homeschooling or applying for the SHAP boarding school." Eliza sniffed and shook her head. "I want her life to be normal for as long as possible."

"Me, too. And you know as long as I'm around, I'll do whatever it takes to help. Including homeschooling math." I made a dramatic face.

She elbowed me. "Shut up. You love math."

"More than most things in life."

She shook her head and returned to cutting. "Stir the sauce, please?"

We tag-teamed dinner and finished it quickly, then Eliza grabbed plates to set the table. "Usually this is Daisy's job, but I'll still have to get her to finish that chapter after she calms down. Might as well save my energy arguing for that instead." "I'll get her cleaned up." I opened the back door and looked around the yard, not seeing her. "Hey Munchkin! Time for dinner."

No answer.

"Daisy!" I used my serious voice. Nothing. Don't panic. She's eight and upset. She's probably fine. I cleared the anxiety from my throat and shuffled onto the small patio. "Daisy Grace Robinson! Come here now, please!"

For two agonizing heartbeats, there was silence. What if the email threat had found its way here? What if something had happened to her?

I held my breath, listening so hard it nearly hurt. Suddenly, there was a rustling of bushes at the edge of the property and a soccer ball shot into the yard, followed by Daisy. I nearly shouted in relief.

"Sorry, Uncle Jake! I kicked the ball too hard." Her cheeks were pink with exertion and she was smiling.

"Dinner," I managed, my heart close to exploding. I sucked in a deep breath. "Then lessons."

She kicked the ball toward me, but then paused. "Do I have to?"

"Would you rather do the dishes and I'll do your lesson?"

She rolled her eyes with her entire body. "Nooooo." She walked over until she was standing in front of me.

"If you get an 85 percent or above on your quiz, I'll take you for ice cream this weekend."

She stuck her pinky out. "Pinky promise?"

I held out my pinky. "Absolutely."

"Double scoop? With sprinkles?"

"Do I look like some kind of monster? Of course with sprinkles." We wrapped our pinkies around each other and shook on it. I moved out of her way and she dashed inside, leaving her ball outside the door.

I leaned down to scoop it up. Something purple fluttered at the corner of my vision. I shot up, spinning around, flinching at the sharp pain in my leg. The soccer ball rolled across the patio. "Poppy?"

Silence.

"If you're here, we need to talk." I looked around again, finding nothing. "I know you were at the same crime scene I was assigned. Found a purple sequin."

She didn't respond. I turned around to open the door when the soccer ball rolled to a stop at my feet. She was here. "Whatever was there wasn't human," I relayed.

"I know," she whispered, her voice no louder than a breeze. "Watch your back."

"You too," I whispered, before grabbing the ball and carrying it inside.