Page 23 of Starved Until Sunset

“My grandson Cody usually comes to see me just after sunset.” She grabbed the handlebars and pulled herself upright. “But I guess he’s busy tonight.”

“You know,” Dave said before Cody could find his voice. “I heard from Cody earlier today, and he asked the two of us to come and visit you for him. Does that sound okay?”

“I guess it does.”

Cody managed a shaky smile of gratitude for Dave and wiped at his eyes. They followed Felicia as she set off down the hall.

“He tells me to wait by the door,” Felicia said over her shoulder.

An alarm started going off in the back of Cody’s mind, quiet amid all the noise of his own inner dialogue and racing thoughts.

“He does, huh?” Dave glanced back at him. “How long has he been doing this?”

“I don’t know. A while now.”

Cody followed them into her room and watched as Dave got her settled by the window. When she had the usual blanket draped over her legs, he approached and once again used the Rollator as a seat. Leaning forward, Cody gently took hold of her hands.

“Grandma, I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay?”

She fixed him with her watery brown eyes. “I’m listening.”

“I know Cody really well.”

“You do?”

“I do. He’s like my very best friend.”

“Some might say his own worst enemy,” Dave said in a stage whisper.

“Not helpful,” Cody said from the corner of his mouth, keeping his eyes on Felicia. He smiled at her and continued. “He’s talked with me about you many times, and the one very important thing he’s told me over and over is that he will always come to your room to visit you. Okay? He will never ask you to meet him anywhere other than right here where you are right now.”

“Okay.” She released a shaky sigh and shook her head before turning away to look out the window. “I get so confused sometimes.”

“I know you do.” Cody leaned in close and gently kissed her forehead. “But all you need to remember is there are people close by who love you very much, and they will never ask you to meet them anywhere but right here in your room.”

She gave a small shrug. “If you say so.”

“See what it’s like talking with you?” Dave stage whispered again.

“Shut it.”

They visited with Felicia a little longer, but she never understood they were her grandsons, though she talked about them both. When they left a short time later, the sun had set and the room was heavy with shadows. Cody switched on the bedside lamp and paused in the doorway to look back. She sat with her head turned away, looking out the window, waiting, apparently, for him to arrive even as he was getting ready to leave her.

If he thought about it too long, it would break his heart.

Dave had driven separately since he and Ollie lived halfway between their house and Parson’s Pines, and Cody walked him to his car.

“It’s hard to see her like this,” Dave said. “And Mom and Dad can give us all the sympathy they want over the phone, but they don’t know how it feels every day with her.”

“Yeah, every day is a different choose-your-own-adventure.” Cody leaned back against Dave’s car and crossed his arms. “It’s really hard to know what’s in her mind and what might be some kind of threat.”

“You’re thinking about the nix,” Dave said.

“Yeah, that, or something other than a shape-shifting water sprite that fixated on our family.”

“Jesus, something else that shape-shifts?”

“I don’t know, maybe? Or it could be someone really persuasive who showed up outside her window and she called him my name and now he’s telling her he’s me.” Cody scrubbed his hands up and down his face. “Or she’s imagining that I come by and thinks I’ve asked her to meet me by that side door.”