Godfather: Part two
Wendy got up from bed, her feet swinging over and touching the cool hardwood floors. She sighed, stretched, and wondered how she could have dreamed something so silly. She got dressed in her favorite house wear sweats, and a man’s extra large size hoodie. She wanted to tell Marie about her dream. She could hear her watching the soap operas, a guilty pleasure while the kids were at school.
She walked into her living room and felt her heart drop.
He was sitting on her couch.
He had his coat and shoes off, and legs crossed, the remote in his hand as if he did this every day. If he disliked what he was watching, he didn’t give it away. In fact, he didn’t show any emotion that Wendy could pick up. He was as indifferent to the screaming baby mamas as to the blood and guts of a horror movie. He only showed a smile a second before saying, “How did you sleep, niece?”
“Damn near like the dead. Was that your doing?”
“No, but I’m glad you slept. I worry about your health.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“No joke,” he insisted. “A lack of sleep shortens a mortal life by quite a margin. I won’t bore you with details, but it’s enough to cause those who love you to worry. Thereby taking time off their lives. It’s all a vexatious cycle, really.”
“Did you…just say you love me?” The idea of it seeming rather far fetched.
“In a manner.”
“So…why are you still here? You have a day off, I expected you do something amazing. Something you always wanted to.”
“I am. I’m living. And, to be honest, I am with you. That’s all I’ve really wanted to do for quite some time,” he stated while running his thumb absentmindedly across the buttons.
“Why me?”
“I have few people that would count as ‘family’ and you are the best of them.” He put air quotes around the word family.
“Wait, there is someone else?!” She had never thought someone was as clumsy as her Papa had been at her birth. He had pulled a stranger off the street, or so he said. Her Mama thinks he chose Death, because he thought it would save his life someday. It didn’t.
“Had. I had another person. A godchild who thought to trick me. I was very careful never to do that again, till you happened.”
“I was an infant! How did I do anything to you?!”
“You opened your eyes when I held your hand. I had just taken a whole family. They had a gas leak in their house, everyone died. I was so conditioned to watching people close their eyes and never opening them again…it was novel, to hold something so fragile and be broken by it’s mere existence.” Despite his words his smile was still terrifying.
“I broke you?”
“My resolve, yes. Now, if you had one day to do something before having to go work another hundred years, what would you do?”
“Honestly, I’m kind of doing it.” Wendy admitted. Without thinking she sat down next to him and took his cold, smooth hand in hers.
“Here, we’re going to watch Supernatural.”
“Why that one?”
“Because, compared to today, it’s pretty mild and normal.”
When Marie came back from running errands in town, Wendy explained how this was the first time seeing her Uncle outside of work. She fought to explain how she kept running into him, but Marie made her own assumption that he was some sort of insurance officer. Marie agreed that something special should be done. Wendy didn’t have to work, and it had been a long time since they had all gone out to dinner. They chose a hot dog and ice cream joint, much to the girls excitement. They fought over who got to sit next to him all night, much to Wendy’s displeasure.
When they got back home, Wendy was giving the girls a bath while Marie was left with “Uncle Death” in the backyard. The chain link fence was just to keep the girls from running into the woods behind the house, but it rarely did it’s job. She made a pitcher of Margarita mix, and put a double shot of tequila in her own before joining him. They sat in cheap plastic chairs and watched the wind dance though the tall grass between the woods and the fence.
“Your name really Death?” Marie wondered out loud.
“Yes, afraid so. Mostly I have my family call me Mort. Short for Mortis.”
“Latin Death. That sounds like a mixed drink, Latin Death.” Marie mused. His small laugh made her smile.
“Wendy talks bout you, you know.” Marie smiled.
“Really now?”
“Yeah, she’s afraid for you. That something bad will happen, and one day she won’t see you anymore.”
“I’m very much afraid of the same thing.” He stated, his normal blank face showing a moment of concern when Wendy joined them.
“Everything OK?”
“I’m not sure.” Death replied.
When the girls were in bed and Marie was in the bathroom preparing for bed, Death pulled at Wendy’s elbow till she followed him into the kitchen.
“Call a babysitter, then take Marie to the hospital.” He demanded.
“Why?”
“She is having the beginning signs of a heart attack. She hasn’t said anything because she doesn’t know but — ”
“You do.”
