#GRUDGEGIRL

Chapter 9

Jia and Izzy sat together in the cab of the pickup truck wolfing down burgers and onion rings from the Flavor Freeze Burger Shack. There was cold beer in the cooler and all around the pair were SUV's, minivans, and cars; each with tourists and local families enjoying their meals amid the glow of the late afternoon sun. Jia dipped an onion ring in a little cup of ketchup and pointed to Izzy.

"How do you know if you're crazy or if you're just going crazy?" she said, taking a bite.

Izzy shrugged and dug his teeth into a triple decker hamburger dripping with mayonnaise and mustard. "You're asking me? I ain't no freaking shrink, but I guess everybody goes crazy from time to time in their lives. Once upon a time, I went bat shit crazy to the point where I didn't think I was going to pull through, but somehow I managed."

"What happened?"

Izzy's eyes darkened as he took a sip on his milkshake. He gazed out into the busy parking lot and emitted a weary-sounding sigh. "Just black days, kid. A period in my life where I couldn't see the light if someone was shining a lantern in my face. I did a lot of crazy things as a result, and I guess that made me nuts for a time."

"What got you through it?"

He shrugged and said, "Time. Booze, smokes, pot and a lot of friends who stood by me. My brothers in the club and their old ladies. Where are you going with this line of questions, kid? Are you worried that you're losing your shit?"

Jia stuffed her now empty onion ring box into a trash bag and sucked back on her milkshake. "I think I'm still there sometimes ... most of the time."

"How come you say that? Is it because you offed that prick in Millersville? Hell, I wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep over that arse."

She shook her head. "No, that's not it. See, the trouble with some of the things that go on in your head is the fear of disclosing the stuff you experience to people. To friends, especially."

He arched his bushy graying eyebrows. "Is that what we are now, Jia? Friends? You should know that once I make a friend out of someone, I've got their back and I have to know they've got my back."

Jia had spent the last five years of her life shunning people and sticking to herself. The last time she actually could call anyone a friend would have been back in junior high school, before the first ghost and that grisly first kill. She chuckled to herself because she'd forgotten what it felt like to have friends in her life.

"Yeah I'd say we're friends, Izzy," she said after a moment. "We know some secrets about each other and, well ... we've each got blood on our hands."

Izzy wiped the grease out of his beard with a napkin and threw his burger wrapping into the trash bag. He grabbed a cigarette and lit it, taking in a deeper haul of smoke that usual. Jia grabbed the trash back and tossed it into a garbage bin next to the driver's door, then she started the truck, and in minutes they were back heading toward the highway and back to Capri Lodge. He tossed Jia a cigarette, and she lit it with a flick of Izzy's Zippo.

"If we're friends, Izzy, then I have to trust that you won't get all judgmental on me when I tell you about why the Millersville guy is dead."

"I already know why," he replied. "What I don't know is how you knew he killed that little girl."

Jia gripped the steering wheel as she rounded a corner and the truck cruised past the shopping mall one more time. The sun was hanging low in the sky, and the streetlights flickered for a moment and then filled the street with a yellow-orange glow. "Izzy," she said with a hint of reluctance in her voice. "I see things that everyone says can't be real. There are some people, I guess, that are sensitive to the unexplained things in the world."