Enchantment Emporium

“Dad, shouldn’t you be talking about this with David?”

“He gets enough of it from the aunties.” He turned just far enough to flash her a self-conscious smile. “I’m not going to add to the chorus. But I still worry.”

They talked about other things then; about new babies, and future plans, and what they thought Gran was really up to.

“You need to recognize that there’s a chance she’s actually dead, Kitten. If anyone could figure out a way to hide it from the aunties, it’d be your gran.”

“But why?”

“Just to prove she could.”

Yeah. That sounded like Gran. “Then I’ll find out how and why it happened.”

“All on your own.”

“Dad, I’m twenty-four.”

“And you’re a Gale.”

An undeniable statement of fact that could have a myriad of meanings. Allie decided she’d be happier not knowing which particular meaning her father felt applied.

They argued about music.

“I swear to you, Dad, if you say Rush one more time, I’m going to walk the rest of the way to Toronto.”

And they talked about Michael although Allie put it off as long as she could.

“I’m not saying you should stop loving him, Allie. I’m just saying you should stop pining for him.”

“I’m not pining.” Pining meant she thought they might happen someday and she knew they wouldn’t. She’d learned to work around the Michael-shaped hole in her life. “Michael was the one for me, and just because I’m not the one for him, that doesn’t change things.”

“It should.”

“It doesn’t. What if Mom hadn’t wanted you? Or if the aunties hadn’t approved you?”

He did her the credit of actually thinking about it for a few minutes. “I’d have moved on. Eventually.”

“Well, maybe my eventually just hasn’t happened yet.” But she only said it because it was what he wanted to hear. “Dad! Last Tim Horton’s before the airport!” As he decelerated up the off ramp, Allie gave a quiet thanks for coffee and doughnuts. She’d eat enough fried dough with sprinkles to need larger jeans if it got her out of that particular conversation.

Gales didn’t have problems with airport security and, after a short wait, Allie accepted it as her due that the plane had been overbooked and they were bumping her to first class. Or business class. Or whatever they were now calling those seats an adult could actually fit into.

Family influence did not, unfortunately, extend to providing anything worth watching while in the air. Allie read, napped a bit, and pulled her father’s final warning out of memory to examine it for content she may have missed.

“Be careful, Kitten. The aunties have been wondering for some time what your grandmother’s been up to and her getting you out there is no doubt a part of a much larger… thing. Whatever it is. Also, if you ask me, I think they’re afraid.”

“The aunties?”

“If your grandmother is dead, then clearly whatever killed her was something outside the norm, or we’d have heard from the proper authorities. And if something was capable of killing your grandmother, then that something is a danger to the entire family.”

“Are you saying you don’t want me to go?”

“Would you not go if that was what I wanted?” After a long moment, while she searched for the right words, he pulled her into a hug. “It’s all right. Just don’t take anything for granted and call David if you run into something you can’t handle. He’s your big brother, it’s his job to look after you.”

Sometimes Allie wondered if her father paid that little attention to how the family actually worked. “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be fine.”

She’d be fine but a long way from home. She could feel family ties stretching. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

A red light held her cab at the corner of 4th Avenue S.W. and 6th Street S.W. and Allie found her attention drawn to the north along 6th—the streets went north/south, the avenues east/west, but the ease of movement that suggested got canceled out by the compass locations. It wasn’t enough to find 6th Street, it was crucial to know which 6th Street.

This 6th Street ended three short blocks to the north, and it looked like the entire west side of that last block was one long, two-story building.

“Excuse me.” Allie twisted in the seat, trying to get a better angle. “Do you know what that building is?”