The Bertie Mansion

VIII

On the way to his room he stopped by his mother's and went into his sneak mode. He pushed open the door to peek in on her, only to find her awake with the lamp on. Her tea was untouched and sitting on the bedside table.

"Mom? What are you doing?" he asked as he joined her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he passed her the cup of tea.

Jade accepted the warm drink, holding it between her hands. "Just thinking."

"Remember your orders? No thinking. I know the ghost was a shock, but it'll look better in the daylight, once you get some sleep. I'm sorry for scaring you like that, I had no idea Rob was in the room." Jeremy picked at a piece of fuzz on the blanket to occupy his hands.

"I'm over that, honey. Don't worry about it." Jade glanced at the ceiling and closed her eyes. "It just reminded me of your father. I miss him so much."

Jeremy sucked in a deep breath. "I do too. We all do, even Will."

"I know that. But this ghost, it makes me wonder why my Jeremy couldn't come back to me. If it's possible, why couldn't we be together forever? Why didn't he stay with me?" Jade spoke to the sky.

"From what Rob said, it seems only people who go through horrible events can become ghosts," he shared. "Like hanged bad."

She took a sip of her tea. "Oh."

"Mom, be comforted that Dad must have had a good life. He had no reason to be bitter about anything. He loved us, and I know if coming back would be best for his family, he'd try his hardest to get it done." Jeremy squeezed one of her hands. "We can talk more about this tomorrow if you want to, okay? But for now get some sleep."

"You talk like I'm a little kid who just needs a little bit of soothing. Jeremy, I'm not a fragile flower you need to protect every second of the day. I appreciate it, but please, use that voice on toddlers." Jade frowned at him and took another sip of tea.

He smiled and tried to make light conversation, to get her drinking and eventually conked out. "Well, I have to practice on someone. Who knows when I'll have to use it? Don't you always say to be safe rather than sorry?"

"Now you remember those words of advice? Where was that memory when you were a kid, getting into trouble every other day?"

"Oh, I knew your lecture by heart. I just didn't care," Jeremy said. Jade gasped in shock, though he was glad to say it was fake.

"How dare you? You made me repeat myself all those times when I could have just told you to repeat it out loud to me?" she asked, taking several more sips. "Shame."

Jeremy gave her a sly grin. "I'm sure I would have forgotten as soon as you opened your mouth to ask."

"You know the problem with your line of thinking? I'd prefer you to be safe before you end up with a toddler to take care of," she said. "Unless that's what you want."

The sound of rain on the hard tiles of the roof was more prominent on the second floor of the mansion. They sat, unspoken words passing between them. After a while, Jade yawned.

"I've been thinking," she said.

"Not a good habit," Jeremy responded. "You never know what trouble it could bring you. You have to be safe, Mom. Safety first."

Jade cuffed him lightly on the back of his head. "I'm being serious. The neighbors, those ones in the Downy Mansion, they have a kid. Maybe you could babysit for extra cash. Your record hasn't followed you here."

"We're not low already, are we?" he wondered, attempting to recall how much they had spent. "We've been careful. There should be enough to last a long time."

"Kids somehow like you, honey, though it's a mystery to everyone else. Should you enjoy it, a childcare business might be your new calling." She smiled at him and placed the empty cup on the bedside table.

Jeremy felt a stab to his heart. His real calling was off the table for him. "That's adding salt to my wound. To see kids being picked up by their loving families day in and day out, I don't know if I could do it."

"You can always adopt. I don't care whether your children have your blood or not." Jade appeared concerned, but she also appeared in a struggle to stay awake. "I invited the Downys over for dinner tomorrow. You can ask then. Think about it."

"Okay, Mom. Go to bed, it's late." He helped her get tucked in and brushed hair off her face, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight."

Jade turned off her lamp and relaxed on the bed, her breathing quickly becoming even. Jeremy backed away and closed the door after himself as quietly as he could. Hopefully she would remain asleep until the morning.

He hated to sadden his mother even further. The system was unfair; single people who might be the perfect parent had a lot of hassle in the adoption process because of a small income and no partner to share kid duties with. For him to adopt, he'd have to find someone also willing to raise an adopted child. In modern families that was harder and harder to find, especially someone who could love him that much despite his apparent faults. But he pushed that to the side, wishing for the best. He had a long life ahead of him.

The door to Will's room was cracked open. As there was light pouring out, Jeremy assumed his brother was playing his favorite video game again and needed to be told to sleep.

Will held in curses as he pounded on his controller, so into the game he didn't notice the intrusion to his room. "Come on! Eat up, heal!"

"Playing Invasion of the Bunnies again?" Jeremy asked as he plopped down on a chair. "This is sad. They aren't even aggressive."

"Shut up," Will said as he fed more carrots to a dying bunny. He was desperately farming as fast as he could but the carrot demand was too high. The fuzzy blobs started falling down onto their sides. Not long after too many were starving and he lost the game.

"They don't even die," Jeremy pointed out to his miserable brother. "It's not like you killed them. It's a stupid game."

"Well, this stupid game is all the rage in the cities right now! Every teenage boy has it. No one has beat it yet, either."

"Even an idiot like me could win," Jeremy said with a scoff. He grabbed the controller and started a new game. He had seen Will play before and knew the gist of it enough to settle right in.

At first there were only a few rabbits and Will complained when he chose not to feed all of them, staying just below the tolerable amount of starving bunnies. The game preyed on pity, and Jeremy didn't fall for it. He saw what happened every time Will tried to keep all of them happy. It was impossible, or so nearly impossible there was no point trying.

Jeremy hoarded the carrots, feeding only the bare minimum to keep playing, and spent as many carrots as he could on farmland to make more carrots. Once he judged he had enough stockpiled and growing, he brought the rabbits back to life by feeding them and watched them duplicate using the fast-forward function. He maintained the upper limit of rabbits for the required game time to beat the game. The music played to signal a winner, leaving Will's mouth hanging open.

"How? What? Huh?" he said, possibly with new respect in his tone. Or disbelief at the cruel treatment to the bunnies.

Jeremy shrugged and handed the controller back. "You're too soft. You spoiled them rotten. I wasn't afraid to sacrifice."

He propelled himself off the bed and decided it was high time to go to bed, but Will called out before he left the room.

"Would you do that in real life? Starve people? Starve Caleb?"

Jeremy swallowed down his yes once he heard his friend's name. He could never do that to Caleb. He wasn't the monster people, even the government, thought he was. "No. I did what I had to in order to beat the game. It was just a game."