She sighed dramatically. “Now I don’t have a job. Can I sit next to you?”
I patted the thin comforter, and she jumped up onto the bed. “Lula is getting food. She left a few, yeah, a few minutes ago. She’s not back yet. Did I wake you up with the TV?”
She wadded the blanket in her hands, getting it out of her way as she scooted closer.
“No. Not really.”
She flashed me a smile and turned, putting her back to the headboard like me. Then she rested her head on my shoulder. She drew her knees up and stared at the TV bolted to the dresser on the other side of the room. “It’s about keys,” she said, “and doors.”
“I see that.”
We were both quiet for a bit while the cartoon friends figured out how to put a key in a lock and open the door, then made a big deal of walking back and forth across the threshold.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Abbi said. “About Cupid.”
I did my best not to sigh. “I didn’t say I believed the owl woman, Abbi,” I said. “I was just repeating what she said.”
“But she said god, right?”
“Yes.”
“And that I fell to find you?”
“That too.”
“But I don’t think?” She twisted to look up at me. The show had gone to commercials and a woman in a crisply pressed shirt was sniffing some kind of deodorant like it was her wedding bouquet.
“I don’t think I fell to find you. Please don’t be mad.” She bolted up, legs curled under her in a crouch, feet flat on the mattress. “Imighthave fallen to find you, but I don’t remember. Maybe I just came down here to save Hado. And for the cookies.”
There were times like this that Abbi seemed very much a child instead of the powerful being I knew she was. I glanced at Hado. His watery gaze was not at all human as he watched to see what I would do.
I straightened and scrubbed at my hair. It had been a day or two since I showered. I itched and probably stank.
“Are you angry I didn’t fall for you?” she asked, sounding very young.
“No. Abbi, why would I be angry? I want you to listen to me, all right? Use those big ears of yours.”
That made her smile, all teeth for a flash, before she went back to twisting the blanket between her fingers.
“I had a vision.”
“Two.”
“Yes. I had two visions. They were sent to me, or magicked on me by the owl woman, who I think is a seer or a trickster. Now, I might be wrong about both my guesses as to what she is.
“People are not always what they look like. Magical people are not always who they say they are. For instance, a ten-year-old girl with shaggy white hair and big eyes, who likes cookies…”
“…loves.”
“…who loves cookies, might actually be a deity. The Moon Rabbit. And her fuzzy little kitten might actually be her shadow and protector, who is sometimes a big grumpy man.”
That smile again, quick, but there were still clouds in her eyes. “But itwasa vision,” she said. “Visions are important. Like magic. Like dreams.”
“Yes, all those things are important. But this vision was more of a place where one woman—if she was a woman—wanted to talk to me. She might be telling the truth, or she might be lying about everything.”
Abbi nodded. “But if she’s telling the truth, then I fell to find you, but I don’t know why I would do that.” She lifted her chin at an angle, and closed one eye, peering at me like an insect she’d never seen before. “What’s so important about you?”
I yawned and scrubbed my head again. “I have no idea. Like I said, just because it was a vision, doesn’t mean it’s the truth.”
