Sunshine's shadow

1

20th February 2011

"Yes," I heard my dad saying monotonously on the phone. "Yes. I know but I don't know what else to do." He paused and I watched his composure break. "Well fuck you and the horse you rode in on. She won't be going back to your shitty fucking school anyway!"

He slammed the phone down on the receiver and brushed his hand through his long blond hair. I lost focus on him as Mr Granger walked in the room and started spouting off about how we should take better care of the house he built with his bare hands. I tried to tune him out but the old man was a particularly loud spirit and I could only imagine what a grouch he was when he was alive.

"How about we try homeschooling again?" Dad said after calming down very slightly.

"Dad, we both know I'm not going to be a rocket scientist or a doctor. What's the point. I can still get my GED in a few weeks." I said calmly.

"You should be able to graduate like all of your classmates." He growled but I knew the anger wasn't aimed at me.

"I'm not like all of my classmates." I replied with a laugh. "Don't you have a run to go on?"

Dad nodded as he pulled his kutte on and grabbed his keys from the bowl on the bench. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and ruffled my long blonde dreads.

"Stay safe Sunshine and your Uncle Hap is hanging around while I'm gone." Dad said before heading to the garage where his motorcycle sat next to my car.

"Couldn't you have asked someone else." I groaned to myself thinking of all the spirits that follow him around.

I played some music as I made dinner for two, knowing how stingy Happy was he would drop by for a meal. His idea of checking in on me just happened to always be at mealtimes. On queue, at 6pm I heard the rumble of a harley pull into the driveway and heard the front door open.

"You should lock the door kid." We both said at the same time, his serious and mine mocking.

"Everyone in this town is scared of me Hap." I said with an eye roll. "They think I'll put a spell on them or something. Yes, I can see and hear you."

I smiled at the young man spirit who had followed Happy in. He looked at me in shock as I stared back at him.

"I can't kill him, no." I said answering his question of vengeance, making Happy snort. "Yeah, I'll find him and pass the message on."

The relatively easy conversation allowed the spirit to fade away for the moment, appeased. I just had to pass a message onto his dad from him, easy peasy.

"Who is Esai's dad?" I asked Happy who had simply accepted my gift from the start as a child.

"Marcus Alvarez but you can't go near him." Happy said as he dug into the spaghetti bolognese I made. "He's the Mayan's Oakland president."

Before I could reply that I didn't care who he was gunshots popped off breaking the glass around us. I got up from my chair and walked across the room as plaster and plates shattered around me. Happy was yelling at me to duck down but I had no fear of death, I dealt with it everyday. After 17 years of close calls that people called miracles, I knew I wouldn't die unless it was my time. Once I accepted that, I had faith that this moment wasn't the one that would end my life.

I walked to the hallway cupboard that held the gun safe and pulled out the rifle dad had given me. Checking it was loaded I walked out the front door and aimed at the car parked out front. They sprayed bullets across the front of the house but not a single one hit me. I sighted the driver down the scope and shot him in the head before shooting the other two.