Ghosts of July (Shamans of the Divide, Book 1)

Chapter Seven

I woke up early the next morning. Really, really early. The sun was just showing itself over the far mountain ranges in the distance, casting a warm yellow and gray light on everything. The alarm on my computer desk said it was just a little past five.

After I threw on a pair of shorts and my favorite orange tank top, I sat at my computer and checked my Line Time and e-mail out of habit. Line Time was empty, as usual. No new e-mails from Taylor, either. A new message from "kingwren33" sat at the top of my unread mail, however.

 

To: giggles3398@mailbuddy.com

From: kingwren33@linkmail.net

Time: 1:40 a.m.

Sheriff,

I didn't really apologize about what happened with her. I'm really sorry. Forgive me?

 I'll see you later.

RH

Oh man, this kid was too much. I smiled at my screen for a good minute or two and did a little internal swooning that he'd given me the silliest of nicknames. I hit reply.

To: kingwren33@linkmail.net

From: giggles3398@mailbuddy.com

Time: 7:55 a.m.

King Wren,

No worries. Walking home in the dark like a criminal is good practice for my plan to fund college stealing cars.

See you soon.

July

I'm pretty sure if I'd had the right key, I would have signed off with a smiley or a heart of some sort. I had a ton of energy coursing through my veins and nothing really to do because it was so early. Just when I was considering jumping back inside my covers and lying awake for seven hours until Renn showed up, I heard the clanging of coffee cups and the wafting smell of coffee coming from downstairs.

I walked softly down the old staircase and smiled at all of the old photos that lined the wall. There wasn't a spare inch of wall space that hadn't been covered in some great memory. Photos of kids and grandkids filled walls in every other room of the house, but the staircase wall Nana saved just for photos of her and Pop. Black and white wedding portraits, brightly colored snapshots of them in a red and orange hot air balloon, and the two of them with fanny packs standing in front of a cascading waterfall in what I suspect was Hawaii. They'd worked hard all their lives, but they also knew their time together was a gift and they made the most of it. I wondered how Nana moved on without Pop. She hadn't left Shades in the seven years since he died. I wondered if her adventures were over. The thought made me a little sad.

In the kitchen, Nana was dressed for the day and had rollers in her hair. She was wearing Capri jeans, some ratty old Birkenstock sandals, and a Disney t-shirt from the 1970s. Captain hook had an afro and platform shoes.

"Good morning, Buttercup," she chirped as she flitted around the kitchen making herself a cup of coffee.

"Morning, Nana," I said sitting in the chair Renn had been in last night. "What are you doing up so early? Didn't you get in late?"

Nana sat down across from me and stirred her coffee. She was slim and in good shape for a woman in her seventies. Her face was bright and she had the greatest blue eyes I'd ever seen. My mom had inherited them, but I'd gotten the hazel green eyes of my dad, but I wouldn't know. Just as soon as he'd convinced my mom to name me after the hottest month of the year, he split. We hadn't heard from him since.