touch

“Money.”


Involuntarily, I glanced back at him. “Where do you get the money from?” I was curious how a being that couldn’t interact with the human world unless through a deal could get his hands on money… and probably any form of it. My guess was that he wasn’t just limited to the US.

“That’s not an issue. I have existed for so long, made deals for so many different things that I can always trade for it to meet a deal’s demands.”

“What was the first deal you ever made?”

“A boy wanted to marry a girl several steps above him. Wealthy. He asked for a way to become wealthy enough to marry her. I showed him how to carve combs from shells scavenged from the sea near his home. Once he mastered that, I taught him to adorn them with decorative carvings. We worked together at night for weeks. Many of his attempts broke. When he had three sets of hair combs, he was considered wealthier than anyone in the village.” Morik smiled at me and shrugged. “Instead of offering for the girl, he went to a bigger town to sell what he’d made.”

“How long ago was that?”

His eyes lost focus for a moment. “More than four thousand years ago.”

“Holy crap!” I clapped a hand over my mouth and looked at the door holding my breath. I felt him turn and look at me. The light under the door remained unchanged, as did the volume of the TV.

“No one heard,” he assured me. “What would you ask for?” he asked hesitatingly. He watched me with cautious eyes and it took me a moment to realize why.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him, “I won’t be asking for money. It’s done nothing but cause me problems.”

A relieved smile flashed at me, an abrupt showing of white in the darkness. We both grew quiet, the silence separating us. I’d asked what he usually did when not chasing us down to see what he might have planned for his hour. Brokering deals was out.

“Do you want to do something?” I finally asked after glancing at the clock twice. Only fifteen minutes had passed.

“What do you have in mind?”

With the TV still on, leaving wasn’t an option. Whoever sat out there would freak out seeing me still away and walking around. That left staying in my room with him for another forty-five minutes. I’d pretty much used up my conversation for a while. I looked around the dark room searching for anything. Games required light. On my shelf, a box label glowed lightly. Perfect.

“Want to put together a glow-in-the-dark puzzle?” Old people love puzzles.

“We can do whatever you like,” he said quietly.

I moved to the shelf for the puzzle and then cleared space on my desk. Every noise made me cringe. I probably had the only mom in the world who’d be okay with finding a boy in my room after dark. When it came to finding a… whatever he was… demon? Well, she’d act like any other mom and start screaming. Maybe worse.

Once the pieces spread across the desktop, I turned to look at Morik. Only he wasn’t sitting on my rumpled blankets anymore. He stood just behind me so when I turned I bumped into him.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

He reached around me and started sifting through the pieces, his arm brushing mine. I stepped to the side to give him more room. Not that there was much to give. With a long and narrow room, the bed took up most of the width between the door and the desk. The desk occupied the wall under the window. What little room remained, the chair and shelves claimed, leaving a comfortable walkway throughout.

Looking at Morik, the chair, and the puzzle on the desk, I saw my mistake. One of us would be standing for the next half hour.

“I didn’t really think this through,” I whispered to him. A low rumbling laugh sounded from his direction, but I ignored it. “Maybe we should plan better for tomorrow. What time did you want to hang out?”

“After school.”

I hesitated to agree. “I need some time to talk to my mom. How about you come over for dinner?” I paused, thinking. “Do you eat?”

He chuckled again, but stayed focused on the puzzle. “Yes. I eat. Are you sure your family is ready to meet me?”

“Now? No. They will be by tomorrow night. If not, we can go somewhere else and grab something to eat.” Whether dinner here or dinner somewhere else, it was an easy hour… much better than doing a puzzle with him in a dark bedroom.

He continued moving puzzle pieces around on the desk. The mini lamp, still on the bed, created a sphere of light that didn’t quite reach where he stood. I wondered how much of the puzzle he really saw. Was he just trying to look like he had something to do? Wasting time?

Standing beside him, I couldn’t see much of what he did. I remembered what he said when I was cold and decided to see how honest he’d been. “Would it be okay if we cut tonight short and make up the time tomorrow?”

That got his full attention. He turned to look at me, frowning slightly.