SYNCHRONICITY (Dream Walker) 🖋

Tanny's Picture

Once dressed, Sebastian waited for Alison to finish getting dressed, not wanting to leave her alone with Cody. They entered the kitchen area where Tanny was sitting at the large island, having just finish a small bowl of ice cream and looked up at them.

"Hey kiddo," Sebastian cooed.

"Hey Uncle Bastian."

"What-cha doin'?"

"Sittin'."

He chuckled, "Yes, I can see that. Time for bed soon?"

She curled her lip and remained silent.

"How was school today?"

"Good," she replied.

"What did you do today?"

"Colored." She climbed down from her chair and slid to the floor. She ran to her pink Barbie back pack and pulled the zipper open, then removed out a sheet of paper. She ran back over to him. "Wanna see?"

"Of course," he said as he held out his hand. He looked thoughtfully at the crude but colorful drawing of a black wolf standing next to a blue mountain lion with a red dragonfly sitting on its head. There was a blurry winged canine-like creature that he couldn't quite make out, but it looked to be a small wolf cub; what ever it was was jumping over the ring of fire that surrounded the animal family, as if playing with it. "Who's this," he asked.

The little girl put her hands on her hips. "Uncle Bastian, don't you pay attention?"

He grimaced. "Sorry Love."

She pointed to the wolf. "That is you."

He nodded.

Then she pointed to the mountain lion. "And this is her." Her gaze shifted toward Alison. And she pointed to the red dragonfly. "And this is her baby."

He pointed to the red, yellow and orange curly lines. "And this?"

"That's Jimmy. Duh."

"And this?" He pointed to the jumping wolf-cub/creature.

She sighed hard. "That's the other one. She's far away and I can't see her good."

Sebastian breathed in deeply, his brow craning high. "I see," he said thoughtfully. "You're going to be a great Medicine Woman when you grow up," he whispered as he embraced her.

"It's for you," she said.

"Thank you," he whispered then let her climb in his lap and felt her little arms circle his neck. He held out the paper toward Alison. She accepted the paper and he wrapped his arms around Tanny and squeezed her and growled in her ear, then kissed her face repeatedly, causing the child to giggle. "Time for bed, yeah?"

"Yeah," she groaned. "Tell me a story"

"Grandfather tells better stories than me, you know that. Besides, we have to go to Safeway."

"How come?"

"We have to get some meat for Cody."

She nodded her little head. "Ohh...Grandfather said that Sally is with Great Spirit now."

He nodded. "Yes."

She nodded again. "That's good. Her was a good dog."

"Yes she was. You should get to bed before your grandfather hollers at you."

She nodded. "G'night, Uncle Bastian."

Sebastian stood and allowed her to slide down his body. As soon as her tiny feet hit the floor, she turned and held up her arms toward Alison. Alison knelt down and felt the child's arms circle her neck and felt her lips on her cheek. "Good night, Miss Alison."

"Thank you, Tanny. Good night..."

Alison closed her eyes and held on to the little girl for a moment. Tanny pulled away and took her grandfather's hand and walked toward her bedroom.

"Sweet girl," she whispered as she took Sebastian's hand and lay the paper on the countertop. He brought her to her feet and the disappeared from the kitchen to materialize in the middle of the living room of the apartment.

He opened the door and looked up toward James's apartment and saw light through the blinds. "Good, he's home."

He took the stairs two at a time and knocked on the door. He could see that James was looking through the peep hole and turned of the outside light.

"Hey," he said happily as he opened the door. "What's wrong?"

"Just wanted you to know that Sally passed a little bit ago."

Sebastian watched his son's eyes glaze over as his head lowered. Finally, he nodded. "She lived a long time," he said, his voice cracking a little. "Is Alison with you?"

Sebastian nodded and pointed down to the foot of the stairs. He explained the incident between her and the dogs and then what followed to Cody and Sally.

"Dad? If she stays with you, what are you going to do with the pups?"

"What do you mean?"

"She has three or four dogs herself and Topher said that her aunt told him that she has cats too..."

"They'll have to adjust..."

James shook his head. "Dad, that's too much for Alfred to deal with, don't you think? The man is sixty-three don't forget. He was having trouble with the five and Sally was there to help keep the peace. Now, with her gone..."

Sebastian nodded. "We'll have to talk about it. I'm going to bury her tonight...if you'd like to be there to help send her off...? If you're still tired though...I understand."

James nodded. "I'll be there. I'll be on the bike though. I'm not supposed to perform magic just yet."

Sebastian smiled and nodded, then took his leave. The walked down the stairs to find Alison on her phone. "Okay, he's back...I gotta go...thanks for hanging in there...love you too. Buh-bye," she giggled finally.

"Everything alright on the home-front?"

She nodded. "There's another litter of kittens," she said as she placed her phone in her purse. "White ones. I've always wanted white kitties," she said wistfully.

He smiled and took her hand as they walked toward the car.

He cast his eyes down and nodded.