Golden Calf, Part Sixteen

29 May 2005

Lori had finally agreed to move back into her apartment when I offered to let her keep the key she'd been using. She chose a number of things to leave behind for when she was spending the night, and I helped her carry the rest of her stuff home this morning. I'd been home, staring at the tv with Rick, for about an hour when I decided to start putting things back to normal. There was food I would never eat to check on, supplies in the bathroom to find homes for, a room I needed to make sure was clear for Jackie, books I had rearranged to make room for-

"Rick?" I called, looking at the books. "Have you seen my books on possession?"

"Why the hell would I have seen your books on possession. Are they exciting?"

"I guess that depends on what you want out of them."

"That's a no, man. Just say no when people ask you something like that."

"They're all gone! The ones on possession, a couple on ghosts, one that wasn't really about either but had a relevant chapter, everything!"

"Are they important?"

"Well, they're mine. But also I figured I should brush up on the topic, you know, since Jackie is gonna wanna talk about it."

"Oh, right! Hey, weren't you doing some of that research at your dad's place? Maybe you left them there?" I had been carrying stuff back and forth, I had to admit to myself, and it wasn't a completely unreasonable suggestion.

"Yeah, alright. I guess I'll check there."

"Speaking of, how's Lori handling the idea of you living with a woman?"

"I haven't really mentioned it yet." I heard the tv turn off, and then Rick walked into the room.

"Run that one by me again."

"Well, she isn't living here, it was hardly her decision."

"Are you fucking kidding me? You invited some hot Latina chick-"

"I never said she was hot."

"You showed me pics from that Halloween party. And you invited her to live here, in your house, where you live, and it never occurred to you that your actual real-life girlfriend might like to know about that?"

"What's your issue here?"

"She...you...you're so dense sometimes! You spend too much time worrying about what dead people think about you and not enough dealing with the living ones! Look, she's gonna feel threatened, and she's gonna feel hurt when she finds out, and only you can stop this particular forest fire."

"He's right," Kastor said, sitting on my armchair. I pointed at him.

"You stay out of this!"

"Yeah!" Rick yelled to, what I assume to him was, an empty armchair. "Unless you're agreeing with me!" He turned to me. "Is it agreeing with me?"

"Is there any good way for me to answer this?"

"Probably not," they both said. I put my face in my hands for a moment, then looked between them.

"Okay, okay! I'll talk to her later. I just, you know, she was pretty occupied with everything going on, and Jackie isn't going to be here for a bit yet, I figured I had a little time to wait for an opening."

"Do what you want, man," Rick said, leaving the room, "just know none of us you leave behind can talk to you after she kills you."

"I can," Kastor said.

​"Greeeaaaaat," I muttered as I returned to my work.

previous

beginning

Next