Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) (17 page)

“Ma, stop spinning. I can’t focus when you do that.”

She stopped and I swear I saw her sway a little. “Did you actually see Taylor doing drugs or did she just say she was?” I knew kids talked a good talk but sometimes that’s all it was, talk.

“You remember the day she came home from Taylor’s? When was that? Last week? I don’t know. Time is different for me now and I can’t get a handle on it. It feels like yesterday when I died but I know it wasn’t. I’m gonna have to ask them about that.” She stood in thought for a moment and I lost my patience.

“Ma, focus. Emily.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. That day she came home? She was so upset. She sat and cried in her room and my heart just ached for her. I tried so hard to get her to see me, so I could, you know, tell her what a good girl she is and all, but I couldn’t so I went over to Taylor’s to see what happened, see if there was something going on there that upset Emily. And you know what I heard." She spun in another circle. “I heard that nasty girl call at least five people and say terrible things about Emily. She said she’s a prude and still sleeps with her teddy bear and that she’s a virgin. A virgin. Of course she’s a virgin. She’s a child for Heaven’s sake. Madone, this world. It’s going to hell in a hand basket ever since that MTV came to cable. I knew this was gonna happen. What’s wrong with being a virgin at fifteen?”

I considered addressing the MTV comment but she was on a roll and I wanted her to finish.

“After about thirty minutes of listening to her spit out that filth about my darling granddaughter, I’d had enough. I got so angry, Angela. I don’t know what came over me, but I gathered up all that anger and threw it out into her room, and you’re never gonna believe what happened.”

Oh boy. I was pretty sure I’d believe it but I wouldn’t like it.

“Ma, tell me you didn’t do anything to hurt that girl.”

“Of course I didn’t hurt her, but believe you me, I wanted to. If I could have, I would have smacked the living daylights out of her. No one should talk like that, especially not some little girl, and not about my granddaughter. No, I didn’t hurt her, but I did toss a few things around her room, and you know what? I loved it.” I think she might have glowed a little. It was creepy.

“What do you mean, you tossed a few things around her room, Ma?”

“Ah Madone, it was nothing, really but it sure felt good. I didn’t break anything, but I betcha I could have. I just tossed the pillows from her bed against the wall, and maybe I tossed a few books at the bed, but I didn’t hit her or nothing. She’s lucky, too.”

I didn’t hit her or nothing
. My mother was never a hitter, she was more like a threatener. She’d say things like, “
wait until your father comes home
” and “
I oughta throw you into next week
,” but she never followed through on most of it. Not that she could have thrown me into the next week anyway, but you get the point.

“Hold on. You tossed books at the bed? Was she
sitting
on the bed, Ma?”

Ma's head dropped toward the floor, a sure sign I wouldn’t like what she was about to say. “Well, uh...she might have been sitting on the bed, but I didn’t throw them where she was sitting. I threw them on the other side. And it’s not like I actually tried to throw the books. It just sort of happened and I didn’t know how to stop it. The books didn’t even touch her. I just wanted to scare her a bit, make her stop talking about Emily, you know? Nobody gets to talk about my granddaughter that way.”

“Jeez, Ma! You can’t go around throwing things at people. What were you thinking?”

Ma stopped glowing. “I was thinking about my granddaughter, Angela, that’s what I was thinking. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like that and I made sure that little brat stopped. She deserved it, and I didn’t hurt her. So her phone is broken, what’s wrong with that? She shouldn’t be on it talking like that. Not about my granddaughter, anyway.”

“Her phone is broken? I thought you said you didn’t break anything?” I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like this. “What did you do to her phone?”

“Nothing. I didn’t do anything to her phone. She broke it herself. She overreacted a little when the books came flying at the bed and her phone flew out of her hands when she shot out of bed screaming. It’s not my fault the girl scares easily. She should take better care of that phone. I bet it’s expensive.”

I stared at my mother and then against my better judgment, burst out laughing. Maybe it was inappropriate but she was right. No one gets to mess with my daughter, except me...and Jake, sometimes. Ma did too.

“So what did she do?” I got control of myself.

“Beats me. I was laughing so hard I disappeared. It was the strangest thing, too. I’m gonna have to learn to control that. But I gotta tell you, it was so funny to watch that little snot shoot out of her bed like that, I almost peed myself. Well, not literally. Wouldn’t that have been a big surprise, though? She’d come back in her room to a puddle and smell piss. Dang that would have been great.” Ma laughed so hard she snorted and I got the giggles all over again.

She controlled herself and got serious. “They have these parties, Angela. These horrible, horrible parties.” She shivered.

“What parties, Ma?”

“Drug parties. The kids? They go into their parents’ medicine cabinets and take the prescription drugs, and then they go to someone’s house and pour them in a big bowl and everyone takes a handful and swallows them. Just swallows them like they don’t have a care in the world, and they don’t even know what they are. But Emily said no, she wouldn’t do that and she didn’t want to go, so Taylor told her she was a prude and now they’re not talking. I’m proud of Emily for having enough sense to say no, but she’s so upset, I’m worried she might do it just to keep Taylor as a friend.”

I thought about what my mother said. “They have parties and just take handfuls of mixed prescription drugs? Are you serious? Someone could die doing that, Ma.” I realized I did exactly what Jake does, repeat things people said to me. Guess I couldn’t really get annoyed with him for doing that anymore. I still would, but I shouldn’t.

“Well, duh. Don't you think I know that? That’s why I’m telling you about it. Ah Madone, this is bad, Ang. This is real bad. You still have my painkillers in the cabinet, don’t you? What about my other medicines? Did you get rid of those? You better lock them up. Better yet, throw them down the pot. We don’t need nothing tempting sweet Emily.”

“It’s okay, Ma, I don’t have any of that stuff anymore, but I do have some other things, like Jake’s cholesterol medicine, and some stuff left over from my surgery last summer. I should probably hide those, just in case.” I paused and thought some more. “Wow. I can’t believe this. Good for Emily not getting involved, but what do I do? Do I talk to Emily? Should I call Taylor’s mother?”

“Well you can’t tell them how you found out, that’s for sure. If it were me, I wouldn’t tell Emily anything just yet. I’d just find a way to approach her about her fight with Taylor. That’s what I did with you. Act like I didn’t know what was going on, even though I did. It worked every time.”

Huh. Who knew?

“She’s a mess Ang, and I don’t want her doing anything stupid out of desperation. And as for that little
cagna
, I’m gonna give her the evil eye.”

I laughed, not because it was funny, but because I knew my mother would do it. “Ma, you can’t go around administering your own brand of ghostly justice, and Taylor may very well be a
cagna
, but she’s also a child. She has her own set of issues to figure out, God bless her. Let me handle this, okay?”

Ma frowned at me, but nodded. “You really know how to spoil my fun, don’t you?”

“It’s a skill I’ve perfected over the years.”

“Aren’t you glad I snooped, Angela? I can be a big help like this, you know.”

I had to admit, she was right about that. I just hoped there was a better way to go about it the next time.

The next time. Geesh. What did I get myself into? Actually, what did my dead mother get me into?

We chatted a little more about typical mother-daughter stuff, and I realized normal people don’t have this chance; they don’t get to chitchat with their dead mother. I felt blessed knowing I’d got a second chance at time with my mom, and cursed she wasn’t going to be the only ghost in my life. I decided Mel was right, yet again. I needed another sit down with Linda because this stuff was way over my head.

J
ake finished the yard and Josh decided to head over to the pool with his friends. Gone are the days of me packing up snacks, toys, sun screen and extra towels, throwing on my bathing suit, feeling bad about how I looked in it, and heading to the pool to make sure my kids didn’t drown. I couldn’t wait for those days to end...couldn’t wait for the freedom it brought. I never believed I might miss them like this. I thought about asking Josh if he wanted me to go, too, but decided to let him be a big boy. It made my heart hurt.

I meandered to Emily’s room and gathered my composure before knocking.

“Em, it’s me, can I come in?” We have a rule here. The house belonged to Jake and me and it was a privilege to live here, so no doors are allowed to be locked, except ours, and we can enter at any time. Emily hated the rule. Josh wasn’t there yet, but his time would come. I never really just walked in unannounced, but they knew there was always that chance. She was lying on her bed, reading some trashy teen vampire novel, which I hated but at least she was reading.

“You’ve got a bunch of reality TV shows on the DVR. Do you plan to delete them any time soon or should I?”

“I’ve watched them all so you can delete them if you want.”

Why couldn’t she delete them after watching? Like her father and brother, whatever they'd taped sat on the DVR until something I wanted to watch didn’t get recorded and I got pissy about it. I was beginning to think they actually enjoyed making me pissy and maybe if I stopped being that way, things would change. Ha. I knew that was a pipe dream.

I sat on the edge of Em’s bed and tried to be casual. With a teenage daughter, perception was most definitely reality, and if I came off in any manner other than casual, her defenses would shoot up like the space shuttle. “So, what’s up? Still not feeling well, kiddo?”

She kept staring at her book. “I’m okay, a little better, I guess. Just not good enough to go out and do anything yet.”

I pulled my legs into the Indian style position, and said a silent thank you to the heavens because they still bent that way. “Well, that’s good, but I hope you’ll feel well enough to go out again, soon. I was thinking maybe we could go shopping or something tomorrow.” Yikes. I wanted to pull the words back into my mouth immediately after they came out. I hated shopping. I mean, I really, really hated shopping, but more importantly, I really hated shopping with my Emily. She couldn’t just try something on and buy it. Nope. She had search through every single rack at every single store, try on every single thing she might consider liking, then go back to each store and reconsider every single thing she tried on and maybe a few others, until she finally decided on one, maybe two things, if anything at all. I’d rather have two root canals at the same time and go straight to the OBGYN for an annual exam than go shopping with my daughter. And she knew it.

“Mom, I’m fine. You don’t need to take me shopping. I know how much you hate shopping, especially with me.”

Phew. Dodged that bullet. I started to tell her no one likes to shop with her, but didn’t think it was the right time to joke. Sometimes I could exhibit self-control, as long as chocolate or cupcakes weren’t involved. “Good point, but I can tell something’s up, so if you want to talk, I’m here.”

She continued to fake read, not realizing she hadn’t turned a page since I came in. “Nothing’s wrong, Mom. I’m fine.”

This was a battle I knew I couldn’t win, so I got up. “Okay, just throwing it out there. It’s a mom’s job, you know. I walked out of her room.

Ma met me in my bedroom. “You got nothing, huh? What’s with these kids today? When you were her age, you told me everything. Why don’t they do that now?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell my mother I didn’t tell her everything, especially when I’d barely told her anything, so I shook my head. “Beats me. I need to talk to Jake about this. He needs to be involved, too.”

Ma looked at me with her shifty smile and I knew before she said anything she was going to do something I wouldn’t like. “Okay. Well, I hope you figure it out."

“Ma, do not go back over to Taylor’s house and do not give that child the evil eye. You hear me? I know that smile, Ma. I know you’re thinking up something, so stop it.”

Her face shifted to her
I’m innocent of all charges
smile, which was the proof I needed to know I was right. “Who me? Then she shimmered away.

“Dammit, Ma! I hate it when you do that!” Trying to talk rationally with someone who could disappear on a whim was so freaking annoying.

Nothing happened in the,
I see dead people
part of my life for several days. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved and secretly hoped the curse...er, uh, gift, was gone for good. Instead of calling the psychic, I decided to ignore the whole situation. Sometimes that whole,
if you pretend there isn’t a problem, then there isn’t a problem
thing worked, so I figured I’d give it the good ol’ Richter family effort.

Emily finally left her room for more than just food and asked to go to a different friend’s house – one she hadn’t spent a lot of time with as of late, and I liked – so I let her go. I hoped this would make a dent in her teenage angst. Josh filled up his busy social calendar with trips to the basketball court and pool, practicing lacrosse, and hanging out in his room playing Legos while Jake spent few days on another trip to New York and was already back. Ma, to the best of my knowledge, hadn’t caused any headaches or tossed any pillows, but it was quite possible she had adopted the
ask for forgiveness, not permission
policy. All in all, the Panther family seemed to be humming along like a finely tuned engine. I should have known something was coming.