Page 24 of The Little Shop of Curiosities, The Music Box Part 2

“Harry, there’s no point in flogging that particular horse. It’s dead,” he says gruffly. “You had your reasons for not wanting to, and there’s no changing the past. We need to move on.”

“Grumps, I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m in way over my head. I came to London to meet my mother and try to understand why she gave me up. Now…I’m really scared of what secrets her family was hiding.” I suck in a sharp breath. “My family.”

“Harry, you’re not alone,” he replies. “You said you’ve made friends, and they’re all caught up in this mess too?”

“Yes.”

“Then you need to tell them who you really are. Keeping secrets will only put you in danger. If you trust them, tell them the truth.”

“I—”

“And you need to tell your dads.”

“But—”

“No buts, Harry,” he says firmly. “I won’t say anything because it should come from you. I understand that you want to protect them, but they deserve to know.”

“Fine,” I concede.

“Good,” he huffs. “Now, tell me about these friends of yours.”

“Well, there’s Tristan. Like I said, he’s a pathologist, but he’s also a very powerful medium.”

Grumps barks out another laugh. “I bet that keeps things interesting for him.”

“You have no idea.” I shake my head. “Tristan’s best friend is a dead drag queen called Dusty, who was murdered. After Tristan helped solve her murder, she came back as a spirit guide in training. They’re pretty much inseparable. They’re like one person with two heads. In fact, the first time I met them, they’d been wedged together inside Tristan’s body, and I had to separate them.”

“You’re kidding?”

“No, Tristan apparently got drugged by a group of potentially murderous old ladies during another murder investigation, and Dusty was trying to protect him.” I pause thoughtfully. “The two of them are an absolute disaster at solving crimes. They create more problems than they solve.”

I can hear Grumps laughing so I continue. “And there’s Tristan’s boyfriend, Danny. He’s a detective at Scotland Yard and also best friends with Sam, who he worked with on the West Yorkshire police force. Sam left the police and is now a private investigator. Then there’s Chan. He’s an ex-drag queen and is best friends with Dusty and now Tristan too. He met Tristan at Dusty’s funeral, and they became close after Chan went on a date with Death to get information about Death’s evil twin brother Chaos who was trying to use a portal to the spirit world in my dead mother’s shop during an eclipse to escape into our world. Apparently, there were a lot of tentacles involved, but I don’t know because I wasn’t actually there during the eclipse, I was outside the shop which actually was the first time I saw the fox. Anyway, then Chan started dating Death for real, they’re actually in love, and they’ve kind of adopted this Irish teenager who ran away from home last year and is called Aidan. He calls Death Grim. It’s cute.”

“You’ve actually met Death?”

“Yes.”

“What’s he like?”

“He’s nice.”

“Death is…nice?”

I nod even though he can’t see me. “He’s very obsessed with Chan. He keeps trying to give him weird gifts. One time he stole a painting from the Louvre for him. Chan was really pissed about that. It took up most of his flat in Shoreditch.”

“Blimey, Harry, that all sounds way more interesting than seniors sudoku.”

“It sounds insane is what you mean, but it’s all true.”

“Okay, then.”

“Okay what?” I reply in confusion.

“I’ll come to London. You’ve convinced me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

But he continues blithely on. “As for the dreams and the fox, you can tell me all about it when I get there.”