“I can’t help it, sweetie. I’m not a normal mother, and you should respect that. I am a—” she looked at Fable and Axel reluctantly.
“A Ghost,” Axel said with a mouthful. “We know. But you cook the best chicken ever.”
“You’re so charming, sweet cheeks,” she said to Axel. Loki didn’t feel comfortable with his mom calling Axel sweet cheeks. He was sure no one had called him sweet-anything since dinosaurs roamed the earth.
“I love you, Mrs. Babushka,” Fable cheered.
“Just Babushka. No Mrs.,” she said to Fable.
“I love you, Babushka. I haven’t eaten such good food for some time,” Fable said.
“You’re such a sweet girl,” Babushka blew Fable a kiss.
All the fluffy love filling the room made Loki furious. Babushka and Fable made him feel like they had found love at first sight. When Babushka cooked, Fable kept asking her how to do this and that and tried learning from her. Loki thought it made them look like mother and daughter, which also annoyed him.
“So, mom,” Loki tried to remind her that she was his mom. “Why don’t you stay for a while? Why do you have to go, especially now that you seem to have mastered looking normal.”
“Don’t talk to your mom this way,” Babushka said, slapping him on the back of his hand while sipping from the bowl of soup. Loki hated it when parents referred to themselves in third person. ‘Don’t talk to your mom this way?’ As if she wasn’t even there, which in this case, was kind of true? Babushka wasn’t really Babushka. She was Babushka’s ghost.
“Yeah,” Axel grinned. “Don’t talk to your mom this way.”
Loki was about to send two dead chicken wings flying across the table, hitting Axel in the face, maybe poking out his eyes and then drowning him in his bowl of soup.
“I can’t stay for long,” explained Babushka, addressing Fable and Axel. “I have business to attend to. Ghost business, you know.”
“Of course Mrs.—I mean Babushka,” Fable agreed. “Being a ghost isn’t easy. I think you’re doing a great job, being a ghost and raising a kid.”
Loki was thinking of drowning Fable in her bowl of soup as well.
Being a ghost isn’t easy? The next thing Fable is going to tell my mom is that she wants to become a ghost like her when she grows up.
“You’re such a sweetheart, and you’re fabulous, too,” Babushka said. Fable giggled with rosy cheeks.
“You should’ve seen her evil grin when she cast the spell on the house earlier,” Loki said.
“That was for your own protection,” Babushka defended her. “And she put the spell out now—I mean, I saved the day and broke the spell with my powers. Look around, everything is fine. After we finish eating, Fable and I will clean the house. You and Axel should fix the broken window.”
Axel stopped eating as his jaw dropped, looking at the window. “Is there a possibility the crow can come back, Babushka?”
“Not a chance, dear,” Babushka said. “It’s scared of me. Ghosts are much more powerful than a crow.”
“You’re absolutely awesome, Babushka,” Axel said.
“Thank you,” she said, and turned to Loki. “I really wonder why you still insist on killing Snow White when you have amazing friends like Axel and Fable.”
“Yes, Babushka,” Fable said. “Please tell him to forget about killing Snow White. She needs our help.”
“Are we really going to have this conversation again?” Loki said, and stopped eating.
“I think Fable is right,” Babushka said. “From all she’s told me, there is a possibility Snow White needs your help.”
“Ugh,” Loki was about to leave the table. “This is unbearable. It’s like me against the world.”
“Sit down, Loki,” Babushka demanded, losing parts of her human form to ghostly anger. “It’s impolite to leave the table like that, kiddo.”
“I am not a kid, mom,” Loki slammed the spoon on the table. Axel hid his laughing behind the sound of the ringing spoon. Fable wondered why Loki acted so grouchy in his mother’s presence.
“You’re going to be sixteen soon, baby,” Babushka reached to touch his face, but some of her flesh peeled off and got in the way a little. She pulled it back and covered her bones with it.
“It’s all right, Babushka,” Fable said. “You’ll get better.”
“Aw. You’re so kind,” Babushka said.
“Look mom, I don’t need to have this conversation now. Not when I don’t even have a clue how to enter her dream without her making fun of me.”
“Who said you can’t?” Babushka said.
“Didn’t Fable tell you?” Loki said. “She can control her dreams, and there is no way for me to kill her like that. She even told me that she won’t let me enter her dreams if I don’t try to save her.”
“But of course you can still enter her dreams,” Babushka said. “It’s all written in your Dreamhunter notebook.”
“No, it’s not,” Loki said.
“Yes, it is,” Babushka insisted. “Show it to me.”
“I can’t. If you read the page it will dissolve into sand.”