Vera and Polly busied themselves in the kitchen preparing what they promised was a champagne breakfast. Essentially, it was every iteration of a breakfast you could think of, except for no orange or guava juice. Just champagne. Derek and I asked if there was anything we could do to help, but Vera and Polly told us not to worry; they said we should just sit and enjoy the breakfast. Just then, Dusty appeared outside the back door of the kitchen, giving us greetings and presenting Vera and Polly a strawberry pie from Ann Miller's.
"No need to bring anything, we said!" Vera scolded Dusty, but in a very motherly way.
"You just bring yourself," Polly added. "We'll make breakfast! But, we do love strawberry pie!"
Dusty came over and sat with us while we all talked back and forth. She owned a niche bookstore that was open only from midnight to sunrise. "I've actually been looking forward to this! It reminds me of my own home growing up. We used to have big breakfasts all the time, and I miss it."
"Your parents don't have those kinds of get-togethers anymore?" Vera asked.
"No," Dusty said. "After my mother died, everything stopped. She was the one who held it all together. Now, we're just our own separate people."
"I know that one," Derek said. "My family, we're all like office workers. We have specific hours when we have to be a family, and when we punch off the clock, family time is over."
"It's just me," I added. "No story to tell, my parents died after I graduated high school. What about you guys, Vera?"
"Polly's late husband and my late husband bowled in the same bowling league at Kapiolani Bowl. They died in a car accident on the way back from a Tuesday night game. Vera and I were devastated, and after the services, we were both drowning in our grief in the chapel, and it happened."
"It happened in the chapel of all places," Vera laughed. "We weren't even sure about what we were doing, but we did it. We've been together ever since."
"What about your families?" Derek asked.
"Our adult kids don't talk to us anymore," Vera began. "And they won't let us see our grandkids, mine and Polly's, on both sides. That's why we have breakfasts like this."
Vera put the plates in front of us, and Polly served the food and the champagne. We had a sumptuous morning meal; however, even though we tried, Vera and Polly chased us away when we tried to help wash the dishes. A short time later, we're having orange slices, strawberry pie, and champagne.
"Our first assignment, and it's a big one," I said. "Metcalfe Senior Care home. Doctors and staff report finding patients in their beds, but the beds are on the lawn, in the parking lot, and at the back entrance, where all the dumpsters are. They want both a blessing and an investigation to figure out what's going on. So, spirits talk to me, but it's nothing to brag about because sometimes I don't like it. After all, some of these spirits don't know boundaries. What about you, Derek?"
"Me?" He was surprised to be asked. "Um, I touch certain things and I can see who touched it last and what they're all about."
"Dusty? What about you?" I pointed.
"My parents said it was possession, but I know it's clairvoyance," she shrugged.
"Ladies?" I smiled in their direction.
"Wonder twins," they said. "We're stronger when we're together."
"I don't think we're 3MBH," I said. "We're five people with different levels of psychic abilities that we're not comfortable with, and our families have less than zero presence in our lives. Why do we need a name? All we need is a symbol. <0 Paranormal."
Everyone laughed, but in a good way. We agreed, we're a symbol, not a name. We then had to conduct research, and once that was complete, we needed to determine a strategy going forward.
...to be continued
credit @ericbaranda
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