Page 40 of Praying for Thunder

“I don’t think so, my dude.”

Still under his hair canopy, I sat on my butt. “Can I see?”

There was a deliberate pause… Then his eyes opened to stare at wooden floors… and they were blazing red.

I gasped. Then loudly whispered, “Wow! You’re like your magical chair!”

He shut them, his hands gripping his knees. “Can you keep a secret?”

Matter-of-factly, I replied, “I don’t think so. Ani says I’m always ‘spilling the beans’.”

That made him smile, even though he had broken into an intense sweat. “Well, if you never tell anyone about my eyes going red, then you will be the best secret keeper ever.”

Now that was amazing, and something I wanted to accomplish. “I think Aunt Moola would really like to know about your eyes, but I won’t tell her.”

Inhale… Exhale… “You’re a good man, Thunder.”

A man? Wow! “Thank you.” When his breathing calmed, I asked, “Dio?”

Eyes still closed tightly, another smile appeared. “Yeah, my dude?”

“What is rape?”

Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale… “Uh…” Inhale… Exhale… “It is something no one should ever have to go through. When you’re older, I’ll explain more, okay?” He panted.

“Before I’m eight?”

His breathing stopped. His eyes opened. “Why did you ask that?”

I shrugged. “Not sure.”

His eyes faded to dark brown again as he sat—fell—down to lean against the wall. He rested an arm on a bent leg. “Not sure at all?”

“Just… heard it in my head.”

“I see.” He stared at me for a bit.

Then, as if he had exerted himself, he ruffled my hair. “I’m going to stay near you as much as I can, okay? Even after you’re eight.”

My heart soared. “Okay, Dio.”

He tried to keep his promise.

He really did.

EIGHT

THE FIRE AND THE WATER

Dio claimed he lived at the Royal Bastard clubhouse, but I can’t recall spending one night without him when he wasn’t completing a ‘job’ for Grims. Living above his work was actually brilliant. As soon as he was done with his last customer, he locked up shop and then came up the shared stairway with the other store owners.

Knock-Knock-tap-tap-knock went his door he claimed was not his.

Getting ready for work, Ani would laugh and yell through a wall, “Use your key, Diablo.”

Click, click! The door would open… “Huh, I forgot I had one!”

When he had club business to tend to, my nights started to go more like this…