Spades

e l e v e n : juniper kyung's party

| ELEVEN |
JUNIPER KYUNG'S PARTY

"Isaiah?"

"Yes, Mel?"

"Do you believe in ghosties?"

If she had asked him this at a different time, at a time where she wasn't carrying a baby pumpkin and he wasn't dumping bags of sweets and biscuits into the shopping cart in preparation for Hélène's Halloween party on Saturday night, perhaps he would've been a little creeped out. But considering the supermarket was decked out in streamers, spiders, skeletons and other spooky stuff, he was a little amused.

"Well..." He started, "If ghosties can hear me, do you think they'd want me to believe in them?"

Amélie frowned, probably overwhelmed by the complexity of the question.

"Yeah." She said after some time. "Because...because what if you were a ghostie, and...and nobody believed in you? You'll be really really sad." She said, as matter-of-fact as a five year old can be. And she had spoken like a true philosopher.

"I do believe in ghosties." He said seriously. "And now I know that if I ever turned into a ghostie, you're gonna believe in me." He bent over and stroked her check briefly.

"I knew you'd believe in ghosties."

"Yeah?" He asked, an amused smile on his face. "How'd you know?"

"Because your mummy is a ghostie."

The smile bled off his face like hosed mud off a windscreen. He had to blink a few times assure himself that that, that moment was real and actually happening to him. Mel really just said what he think she did. She did. She really did.

"Wh-what?"

She frowned up at him and beckoned him closer. Isaiah, in his confused, shocked haze, kneeled down and leaned in closer immediately. Amélie's blue eyes drilled into him. "I know we have two mummies. My mummy said your mummy is a ghostie. And I know that you love your mummy very much so you believe in ghosties."

She wrapped her little arms around his knees, where she just happened to reach, and squeezed with the determination of a five year old.

She smiled to herself and strolled ahead of him, picking and choosing which sweets she deemed worthy enough for the trick-or-treaters and for her mother's party, completely unaware that Isaiah's throat was constricted, and he was finding it a little hard to breathe.

Ignorant of the fact that an inner turmoil was stirring inside him, his phone vibrated.

"Where the hell are you?"

He pulled the phone away from his ear and squinted at the caller's name. Karim.

"I'm sorry, would you like to try that again with your inside voice?" Isaiah drawled, adopting a tone of teasing.

His conversation with Mel stuffed itself deeper and deeper into his system and his mind, where it would remain untouched until one fateful day, a day where Isaiah Nicholas Evander Matthews (The Third) could pretend no longer.

"Where are you?" The voice enquired, apparently very eager to know where he was.

"I'm at M&S with Rosa and the kids. But...I think we're done." Isaiah frowned, narrowly avoiding Rosa who swooped by him, pushed the cart away from him and wheeled it to checkout.