“This is Ordinary,” I said, lifting my nearly full beer. “Nothing about it has ever been normal.”
Chapter 15
CHRIS HAD an alibi for the time period wherein Heim had been harmed. He had been spending that time with Lila. Mostly, he admitted to me, trying to talk Lila out of enacting petty revenge against Heim. He assured me her plans involved egging his house, or putting sugar in his gas tank, or welding his crab traps shut, not clubbing him over the head and kicking him into the sea.
She had certainly looked torn up about his death. I just hoped she wasn’t faking it.
“She’s not faking it,” Jean said as she and I took a seat at a table close to the front door of Jump Off Jack’s. Jean had ordered us iced tea and cheese bread.
“Late lunch or early dinner?” I asked.
“Both. You’re too thin. We’re on our break.” She tore off a piece of bread and took a big bite.
I pulled a piece of bread my way and dug in. It was delicious, the cheese from local farms in Hebo, the bread fresh, with just a bite of heat in it. Jalapeno, I thought.
“Get anything useful from the sisters?”
Jean didn’t look over at Margot and Lila, who stood at the table, saying their goodbyes to Chris.
“Not really. Lila’s reeling from his death. She had plans, things she wanted to do to him to make him pay for breaking up with her. Shewanteda chance at making his life miserable. She didn’t want him dead. I think she’s truly sorry that he is.”
It was a backward kind of logic, but I could understand it. The heart, even the jilted heart—maybe especially the jilted heart—wanted what it wanted.
“You think she’s upset she didn’t get a chance at revenge?”
“No. I think…” She popped another bite of bread in her mouth. “If he were still alive, she’d be buying rotten potatoes to hide in the walls of his house. Now that he’s gone, she’s mourning him. Thinking of all the great times they’d had together. She’s sad.”
“She was never really over him, was she?”
Jean tipped her head a bit. “He was a god. There’s a certain…I don’t know, tingle about them, you know? Even though they’re temporarily mortal, there’s something really attractive about them. When I was little I had the biggest crush on Shiva, remember?”
I smiled. “I’d forgotten about that. Dad thought it was cute.”
“Dad did. Mom didn’t. She sat me down and made me promise I wouldn’t run away to go live with him in the junkyard.”
“You wouldn’t have run away.”
“Oh, yes, I would. I had my suitcase packed. But she explained it was the god stuff that drew me, like a magnet to a refrigerator. And then she made Dad take me out to Gaia’s place so I could see all the god powers she was keeping that year.”
“When did this happen?” I asked. “Where was I?”
“Worrying about if Ryder would like your hair in braids or in a ponytail.”
I grimaced. “Middle school?” I’d worn a braid on one side and a ponytail on the other for a week, to try and figure out which one he liked more. He was more interested in Sheila Guberman’s rainbow braces.
I gave up and wore my hair long, tucked behind my ears.
Jean took half the remaining bread and pushed the plate my way with one finger.
“Did seeing the powers make a difference?” I asked.
“I was hypnotized by it. I think I cried, out of joy or wonder, or…I don’t know. It was a lot for a nine-year-old to see all that power, that magic right there in a hollowed old log.”
“Is that where she kept it?”
Jean nodded. “It was absolutely wonderful. And then when I looked at Shiva, he seemed less wonderful. Still…intriguing, but I could tell that the thing about him that I’d found so amazing was the echo of his power.”
“And then what happened?”
