Sera Ch. 11

And then I thought of my seduction of Daddy. Was he really the kind of man who'd ever permit such a thing?"

"Oh... no..." I refused, shaking my head a bit.

"Oh, yes," he refuted, "But take heart. At least you get the benefit of actually being told, rather than having to figure out what the fuck for yourself."

"How... how long have you...?" I trailed off again.

"How long have I known? Let's see... Uh, I'd say it started almost a month ago, when Mum and I got off the bus in Saint John, but it took a little longer to find out what was wrong with her."

"Wrong with her?" I managed.

"The Kathleen Burchell you've met is very different from the Kathleen Golding that raised me."

"I'm sorry, but I still find all this... It's crazy."

"That's why Grammie was in a special care home. They thought she was crazy too, and she was. But not just crazy."

"You're asking me to believe that we... we have Jedi powers?"

He regarded me frankly over his drink, then cracked a smile that turned big, then to quiet, sincere laughter. All in all, I could understand why Gina would think he was weird, but I still wanted him.

"Yeah," he said as his laughter died, "well the thing about Grammie's analogy is that it doesn't accurately describe the true nature of what we are. As they say so often, it's not like on TV."

"I... noticed Gina was acting strangely. Earlier on in the library, I mean. She was very open about her feelings regarding some problems between us. At first, I was happy that she seemed to be seeing things my way, but then..."

He nodded, replying, "She caught your eyes at some point. That's what I meant about how it affects other people, how it could easily hurt those who we care about."

Again, I thought of Daddy, but those thoughts were disturbed by his next words, delivered in a meaningfully ominous tone with his eyes suddenly over my shoulder.

"To say nothing of those we don't care about."

From behind me, our server approached and stopped at the end of our booth, asking, "Are we ready to order?"

It was odd, looking at her sunny attitude, clouded over by this crazy Jedi spell. Her blouse was still opened up, not in a lewd sense but one that could grab attention, and that's what Steven addressed instead of answering her question.

"Have people been looking since you unbuttoned?"

"Yes."

"Do they like it?"

"Everyone appreciates it and it's good for business."

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Yes. Especially when it's a booth full of guys and they look down my top. Sometimes I like to think about how it'd be if I were served to a booth full of guys."

Okay, that floored me, my remaining disbelief taking another severe blow. Even Stevie was knocked down by this volunteered information and he struggled not to laugh before finally managing another instruction.

"Okay... (ahem) uh, button up again."

She did this with her professionally polite smile, then asked us again if we were ready to order.

"No," he answered. "We'll let you know when we are, just keep an eye on our drinks for now."

"Okay," she replied, walking happily off.

Looking across the table at me, his mouth twitched a little as another laugh fought for control of his face. I was still picking my mind off the floor after our server's comment, actually turned on by the thought of her fantasy as I looked at him afresh. Moments later, he'd allowed himself a smile, though it was a wry one as it landed on his drink.

"This is actually how it started for me, y'know. Alcohol."

I looked at him questioningly and, after a pause, he started talking. He related what he called an 'abridged version' of his knowledge of what it was inside us, something he referred to as a parasite that resided within all Burchells. He told me how it fed on alcohol, or any other type of mind altering substance, and how easily it could suddenly take over once enough of said substance was consumed. He related some of its abilities, also strengthened by substance abuse, and said that this parasite had come from our grammie, that she had gotten it from her mummy and her mummy from hers. He also told me some of his and his mummy's experience with it to date, finishing up with a much more in depth report on what our grammie Marie was like that was just plain bad. By the time he was finished, we were each on our third drinks and I had more questions than I had before he began, but I sat wordlessly at first, soaking it all in before I broke the silence.

"Sooo..." I started, frowning as I still tried to wrap my head around the concept of this thing that I'd inherited. "You're saying this parasite is as much me as I'm it?"

"It learns from your life experience from the day you're born, becoming a sort of alternate version of you, but it also influences your decisions, more so as you get older."

"And you think you got it from drinking, like your mummy?"

"That's what I assumed at the time, but it's more like drinking is... opening the door to what we really are."

"Can you do the Jedi spell if you're sober?"

"Yes, but I don't know for how long because I never stay sober for very long these days."

" ... So, why wasn't I like this before? I've been drinking a little heavier than what I'd tell most people before I ever got here, but I've never had the Jedi spell until now. What happened, or what did I do to change that?"

He looked down then, turning his head and saying, "I don't know. I don't have all the answers, just a head start on them."

He was lying, but I ignored it and mentioned, "You said that Grammie Marie grabbed your pastor friend by the crotch?"

"That's what she told me."

"That's what Auntie Ashleigh did to your mummy."

"I know."

"So, she knows stuff about this," I hopefully assumed as I remembered her wonderfully sparkling blue eyes and how they had an odd darkness at the meeting when she was shouting at me.

"Yeah, but she hasn't exactly been forthright with them."

"Why?"

"Because of you."

" ... Huh?"

"You were unaware of the parasite when you got here and you had to be told somehow before Ashleigh would agree to tell anyone anything. She said she didn't want to exclude you like that."

"Well... in that case, why didn't she just tell me herself? If she didn't want me excluded, why are you the one telling me about this?"

"Because I agreed to. Ashleigh came to me and convinced me to break it to you."

"A little late for that once I accidently spell Gina, don't you think?"

"Yeah, well things didn't quite go as planned. I stalled and..."

"And what?" I asked.

" ... Drink up, Kittenface, it's time to go."

Obviously, I wasn't about to let things go at that.