Makai grinned and crouched closer to their level. “No, I’m just really, really tall. Maybe I had a giant ancestor, though?”
“What’s an ancestor?” The child tugged at their long hair and swayed on their feet, looking at Makai curiously.
“It’s like a grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa or something. Really long time ago.”
The kid looked thoughtful, then glanced past Makai and brightened up. “Mom! He says his grandpa was a giant!”
Makai smiled slightly and turned his head. A pretty, albeit harried-looking woman pushing a cart looked at him with mixture of amusement and some healthy suspicion.
“Joy, what are you doing running around like that,” she asked the child in a tone that suggested this was an ongoing struggle.
“I wasn’t running!” the child insisted, looking at Makai with wide eyes that begged for him to agree.
“Uh, Joy wasn’t running, I swear!” Makai lifted a hand like he once had in a courtroom.
“It’s J-O-I-E,” the child told him and then tilted their head and added. “It’s a boy day today, so you can call me J-O-E-Y.”
“Okay.” Makai nodded seriously. Then he held out a hand toward the boy. “I’m Makai. M-A-K-A-I. Nice to meet you, Joey.”
They shook hands, and when Makai looked at the mom again, she seemed choked up. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and Makai understood.
He got to his feet and slowly walked the few steps to her and held out his hand. “Hi, nice to meet you too, Joey’s mom.” He smiled at her.
“I’m Lotte, L-O-T-T-E.” She let out a stuttery chuckle.
“Hi, Lotte.”
“Mooooom, can we get Cheerios?” Joie was pointing at the box near his head.
“Sure, baby. Just grab it and bring it over.” She looked at Makai and sighed. “So, you’re the new guy?”
“Does the whole town know I’m moving here?” Makai asked, although he knew the answer already.
“Oh yes. You’ve been the biggest talk in town since you contacted Mr. Kelly and the word got out.” Makai frowned, which made Lotte flap her hand quickly. “Oh no,hedidn’t say anything. He’s surprisingly professional for a prejudiced old fart. It was his wife who saw your name and made the connection and….” Lotte shrugged apologetically.
“Right. It’s hard to hide with a name like mine,” Makai said, sighing. His story had made the news. After all, people didn’t get exonerated for murder every day. He wasn’t surprised that an inquisitive person who followed the news on such things would recognize his name. He wondered if the townspeople knew he’d had family here, once.
“Yeah. Sorry about that. The whole town is surprisingly open-minded, though. Even some of the old folks are good with Joey and others who aren’t exactly like everyone else around here.” She smiled at him. “I think you’ll fit right in.”
“Eventually maybe, yeah.” Makai tried to force positivity in his tone.
Lotte perked up. “But hey, you’re our closest neighbor. Still about half a mile from us by road, but we’re across the lake from you.”
“Oh? Well that’s nice.” Makai smiled, finding that he felt genuinely pleased about this. “I have only seen photos of the property, but it seems lovely there.”
“It really is. My ex-husband’s family owned the house we live in. I got it in the divorce couple of years ago. It’s been good to stick around.”
Makai nodded. “Silver linings?”
“Oh definitely.” She chuckled.
“Mom, can we go now?” Joey’s tone was getting impatient.
“Sure, sure. If you need anything, you know where to find us,” Lotte said and pushed her cart past Makai and his cart.
“Yeah, same goes the other way. I can fix stuff, if there’s an emergency or anything,” he told her back, and she waved over her shoulder, smiling.
“Thanks, Makai!”
