Page 4 of Ethan

As it was now, some of the spirits around thought that she should be at their beck and call all the time. However, since moving into her family home, one that she lived in as a small child with her grandparents after her mom died Shawnie was finding things around that helped her understand what she was. The books that she’d found, diaries for the most part, told of what she’d been able to do since birth.

Shawnie had lived more than her share of lifetimes. Also, since living here as a child, she knew more about the house than most people who lived around here did. She got a lot of information from the spirits that wanted to hang out with her. It had been very helpful in her getting the necessary paperwork to make sure that the house came to her. And not some idiot who thought that there were treasures around.

Thinking about her childhood and the things that she remembered, Shawnie couldn’t believe how lucky she’d been tohave such a wonderful upbringing. Her parents had been good to her while they were alive, and her grandparents had allowed her to come back into their lives when she showed up one day with Shamus in tow. It wasn’t unheard of to have a baby out of wedlock as she had done, but to her grandparents, it had seen it as a sin beyond anything that they’d ever known.

Shamus had paved the way for her to have family around her. When she’d been so desperate for even a morsel of food for her son, her grandparents had decided that they’d watch over Shamus while she worked. However, she herself wasn’t welcome in the home. That lasted for about a month before they were remaking room for her, not only in the house but in their hearts as well.

Being at their side when they passed, they never came to her after they were gone. She didn’t know if that was normal or not, but she knew that she’d be as welcoming to them as they had to her all those years ago. It had been well over two hundred years since she’d lived here in the house as a child. She was sad again when she thought of their passing.

“Missy, you have company.” She looked out into the driveway and was dismayed to find that Henderson Printing was here again. “You should call up them policemen and have him removed. He’s like a bone with a dog.”

“Yes, he is, but I’m not going to mess with him today.” She looked at him. “It’s a dog with a bone. I think you say those old sayings wrong just to see if I’m paying attention to you.”

“Might be. That man out there, how you gonna get rid of him this time? I surely do love watching you have words with the man. I guess he don’t know how to take no for an answer any more than you do.” Shawnie tsked at the old man. “Well, you don’t like to be told no, do you?”

“I suppose not.” She watched Mr. Henderson as he fussed with something that he was trying to pull from the back seatof his car. Picking up her cell phone without looking at it, she pressed the button that would call the police. Having them on speed dial was one of the smartest things that she’d done, she thought as the man made his way to the porch. She was, as much as he entertained her at times, as fed up with the man as Finny was. “I told him that I no longer worked for him, but he keeps coming back.”

“On account of you being so talented. His business is taking a flop, and he don’t much care for that. I know you have talent better than most. I’ve seen you working on that mural in the dining room. Right, pretty if you ask me. Goes right along with the stained winders, too.” Lance had told her a month ago that she could have the broken glass pieces replaced and that he’d get the colors that she needed if she did want to. “That boy, Lance. He coming around too? Them boys, they seem to spend a lot of time around here for you being a single woman and all.”

“What do you want, Mr. Henderson? I have, numerous times, told you that I don’t work for you anymore. I’m finished with your sly ways of trying to get into my underwear. Go home.” He tried to hand her a folder that she had seen before. “You told the client that you did all the work on that advertising. I don’t want to work for a man that takes credit for other people’s work.”

“Well, Tommy and the others up and quit on me and now I got no one working for me. What did you do, tell them all to leave me? I just need for you to finish off the work here and I’ll be on my way. It’s the least you can do for me after me putting up with your rudeness. I wonder now if you were that rude to the clients.” She asked him if he thought that she’d have any clients if she was rude to them. “I suppose not. But I do need this finished. They’re already demanding their deposit back and I don’t have it. You wanting all your back pay and vacation right then put a damper on my funds.”

“Like I care what you lost out on. Had you paid me…youknow, I’m not going to do this with you again. Get off my land or—oh good, the police are here. I’ve nothing more to say to you.” She wanted to slam the door in his face but she knew that talking to the police was something that she needed to do.

After telling them that she’d press charges, they told her that they could hold him for forty-eight hours before they had to let him go. They told her she didn’t have to hurry or anything. Holding him that long was their privilege.

Ignoring the things that were now out of her hands for the nice day, she set about pulling out the ingredients to make bread and some chocolate chip cookies if she had the time. The smells were enough to get her into a better mood so she was going to get as much baking done today as she could. It left her less stressed to have this sort of job to do. And it would go perfectly with the roast that she was thinking of having tomorrow night.

Just as she was putting the last batch of cookies in the oven, her cell phone rang. However, she didn’t answer it when Finny told her not to. While she didn’t normally take the advice of a spirit, he seemed like there was something nefarious going on, so she did as he said.

“It’s that man again, that Fairaday man. He’s got it in his head that he can put him a temporary house on the land so that he could just have himself a look around.” She asked him if he was doing it now or if that was his idea. “He’s got him a camper, whatever that is and he’s thinking that you’ll just be stupid enough to let him live in this here house when he makes himself invaluable to you. I don’t know how he figures that’s going to work. He’s not any value to that wife of his, that’s for sure. His wife, she’s fit to be tied, not happy with him spending the money before he finds it.”

“I don’t really have a need for the money, Finny, and I’ve never asked you this before, but is there money or something of value around here?” He nodded, his lips so tight against oneanother that she was sure that if he could bleed, he’d be doing that. “Finny, what is it that you’re not telling me? Please don’t make me have to beg you to do that.”

“There is a treasure. Several of them, as a matter of fact. I can take you to them if you want. I’m thinking that you should just find them all and let that buzzard know so that he’ll leave you in peace.” She said that sounded like a good idea, but she was worried about the extra notice that it would create. “Yeah, there is that too. There is a man in town. You know him a little. Ethan, another one of them Tucker boys. He’s been…I don’t rightly know what it’s called when he just goes around digging up little things when houses are torn down. He thinks its fun to find things. I’d feel a might better about leading you to them if you had you somebody around that can shift into one of them big lions. You can take care of yourself, but also, well, people pee themselves when he does that, and it’s just too funny for me not to want him to keep an eye on you on the off chance that someone might try and get you.”

“You just want him to scare people. Don’t you care a smidge if I get hurt?” Finny told her to behave herself, that he loved her all right, he supposed. “All right. I’ll give him a call. Is it safe to use the phone now?”

While he was going on about the stupid phone wasn’t ever fit to use, she called the man who was on her list of doctors if she was hurt again. Of course, being what she was, a woman that had a bit of magic, she healed a good deal faster than a human, but it was nice to have someone around who could help her out when she hurt herself badly enough to have to be in bed. Like she had when she’d fallen through the floor and got stuck there. Dangling from the ceiling to the next level wasn’t anything that she was going to repeat.

~*~

Ethan was just putting his tools into the back of his truck whenhis cell phone rang. He knew the number. All of them had been given Ms. Farley’s number when she’d been hurt. Thinking that he and some of his brothers were the only people welcome at the house, he answered the phone, wondering what she was going to need next. If anything.

“Two things.” He had to smile. She answered the phone much like he did. Getting to the heart of the matter. “I have baked some cookies, chocolate chip, as well as three apple pies as well as some homemade bread that I’ll pay you with if you wish to help me around the yard. Finny, my long-gone uncle, said that there are treasures here about and has decided that I need a shifter around to make whoever comes around piss themselves while being chased by a big old lion. He told me that it’ll make his day to have someone around who will do that for him. He’s an odd sort of man.”

“All right. Are we doing landscaping or something different? If you’d not mind, I’d love a few cuttings of the bushes you have out front of your home. I think they’d look fantastic when I get my own home set up.” She told him what Finny had told her. “Oh, I can help you with that. Yes, I’d love to. Did he mention what sort of treasures there might be? I don’t know much about you other than you’re a little bit older than you look, which I didn’t get a good look at you when I was—never mind. I’ll be there in about, say, twenty minutes?”

“If you pick up my dinner I’ll share with you and some of the hot bread. It’s soup, a gallon of the potato cheesy soup I was going to have for dinner and freeze the rest.” He said he’d do that for her. “Good. We can start on a plan that works for us both and see what kind of treasures we can find. So you know, I’d like to keep it under wraps as to what you’re helping me with. I don’t want anyone snooping around while we’re working. I don’t even want to have you around, I like my privacy, but it’s a need that I can work with.”

After hanging up, he couldn’t help but think that she was an odd person, too. Who asked for help and then told them that they didn’t want him around? Smiling, Ethan decided that he was going to have a look around her yard too. The landscapers had done a wonderful job and the place was looking about as new as the day that it had been finished.

After getting the soup, the smell was so wonderful all he wanted to do was to eat it from the bucket, he made his way to her home and pulled up into the drive. Someone had been doing work on the garage/apartment and he could see that it was going to blend into the house like it hadn’t been put in only about twenty years ago.

Going to the front door, he was surprised to see that the stain glassed window in the large opening had been taken out. He was heartbroken about that. When he’d been here the last time, he’d been so impressed with it that he wanted to take some pictures of it to someday add to one of his doors. Going in when she opened the door, he was surprised and pleased that she was no different to him physically as she had been on the phone. She was nearly rude with her responses.

“We’ll eat first. I don’t know where these treasures are or even if they’re of any value to anyone but Finny but—What are you doing still standing there with your mouth hanging open?” Ethan looked around the entrance hall for someone playing a joke on him, then back at Shawnie. She was getting pissed if her foot tapping was any indication. “Well?”

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