Shamrock Samurai

13 | OLD OAK TREE

As I pulled up to my mom's house, I couldn't help but get the chills.

I guess I would never look at this house the same again after the Banshee attack. Looking at the roof, I could envision myself fighting that crazy she-demon. The roof drainage pipe was still damaged where I'd hit it as I tumbled off the roof onto the grass. Man, the fall wasn't that far, but it actually kinda was when landing on your rib cage.

As I got out of the car my mom and kid brother Aiden exited the house and Tain ran out to meet me.

I hadn't been at the house all week since the incident. My mom and brother hadn't either. Nehemiah had fixed their minds, removing the memories of the Banshee from it. My mother and brother both had a fixed memory that I no longer shared.

I had talked to Aiden a few days afterwards. "You okay bud?"

"Yeah I guess so," he said.

"How you feeling after what happened?"

He looked like he didn't really want to talk about it. "It's all kinda hazy, like I was there but wasn't there."

"That happens sometimes when people are in crazy situations. Once your adrenaline kicks in, your memory kind of lapses." I said, reassuring him even though I knew exactly what had happened.

I just needed to make sure. He knew deep down inside that something wasn't right with his memory, that something weird happened that night, but his brain filled in the gaps. He just had to shrug and chalk it up to adrenaline and the woman being a druggie.

When I talked to my mom it was much of the same thing. Neither of them remembered that she was a Banshee or that anything supernatural had gone down. My mom remembered, quote, "The nice black man helping us get home." But she didn't remember the fact that he had a staff or that he could do magic. Or the fact that I did magic. So I had literally no one to talk to about this stuff except for a crazy non-leprechaun and a mysterious wizard named Nehemiah who didn't even exist online.

"Thanks for taking Tain," said my mom. She helped Aiden load his stuff into the car. "We just came back to get some more clean clothes and then we're heading back over to Nancy's house."

Nancy was my mom's best friend. She had been there a lot for my mom once my dad had gone. She'd also been there when my sister died. "She tried to accommodate Tain, but she's just so allergic to dogs," My mom explained.

"It's totally cool. I'm just glad that Nancy is so understanding."

She nodded, smiling weakly.

I pointed to the gutter, "I'll try to get that fixed Mom, as soon as possible."

"Don't be silly Sean. I'll have a professional do it."

"Ouch," I said.

"Oh don't act offended. You don't have time anyway."

I nodded. She was right. I had way too much going on. She didn't even know the half of it.

"So if you could just watch Tain for a couple of days. His dog food is just inside the house along with his bowl. Make sure that he gets walked for at least thirty minutes to an hour every day. Maybe you could even work it into one of your dates," she said winking.

I rolled my eyes but grinned. "Okay, get out of here Mom."

I waved to her and my brother as they drove away. Tain barked affectionately wagging his tail. I turned to him and scratched behind his ears.

"Alrighty boy. Time to get my hunting gear."

---

The sword hung, sheathed and mounted on my brother's bedroom wall.