“You can’t read? How do you make it work for you then?” She told him that hers talked to her. Real polite like, too. “I never heard of such a thing. Do you still have yours? I don’t want it, but I’m just asking. I’ve not seen mine in a coon’s age.”
“They go back, I guess.” He asked her where. “Don’t know. Just back. I heard tell if you didn’t use it no more it just goes back. That person that owned that one, you suppose they know they lost it? That’s a right scary thing to lose, if’n you ask me.”
He agreed. “I think the man in this house was only killed recently. Could be he might not care to have it.” She nodded and looked at the house. “You live here?”
“I used to live on this here land. There was a cemetery here some years ago. Lots of us were there. When they put in the houses, they moved out the bodies they could find, of course, but I still like it here.” He looked at the huge homes and the fancy cars in the drives. “There used to be a few kids around a dozen years or so ago. Now, all those big houses and not a child in a one of them. I’m thinking of moving on to somewhere that’s a bit more friendly.”
“I like where I’m at. Private like, so there’s no cars and such.” He longed to be there now with Steele and Kari and the rest of the men. But he’d been asked to see what he could find here to help out, and by golly, he was going to get what he could. He asked her about family.
“Didn’t have any that I could speak of. I was a slave for so long that I guess we just about believed we’s all family in one way or ‘nother. Was a house maid until the sickness took me. Had no babies of my own that…but raised me up a bunch of them at the big house. Miss those times, I do. But things happened to us all, and I was left out there.” He nodded, thinking that was the loneliest thing he’d ever heard. “I was thinking of going out to the West. Out there where it’s pretty all the time. Whatcha think? It all warm like they say?”
“It’s hot, I guess. Too hot for me when I was living, and I’ve no desire to go there now. You could come with me.” Billy had no idea why he invited her, but once he did, he knew it was the right thing to do. “Nice place. Family of mine is there. Gonna be a great granddad too, one of these days. My family, they understand the dead better than anyone I ever saw.”
“I know who you are.” She looked away, then at him. “You’re with that Steele man. The necromancer that helps us. You’re Billy Pike too, ain’t you? I’m Summer. Got no last name, but that’s me. Born as a slave woman, died as one.”
“I’m sorry about that, Summer. And I am Billy, like you said, and they are necros. Steele is my grandson, in case you didn’t know that.” She nodded. “You can still come out with me if you wish. They won’t bother you.”
“You think he’d help me cross over? I’m done with this world and the living in it.” Billy had heard that Steele and Nick could do that, but didn’t know if they really could. He told her that. “I’d like to go on home, if’n he don’t mind helping me. I’m old and tired of this place, like I done told you. Some of them babies I helped raise up, they’re there too, I’m betting.”
As they headed back to his home, Billy talked to her as if he’d known her his entire life. She might have been uneducated, but she was worldly smart and she had a good sense of humor too. By the time he was feeling his own earth under his feet, he knew as much about her as she did him. Which, in his estimations, was a lot.
He found Connie and Aster at the little cemetery talking to Mitch. He told them what had happened at the house.
“And you have this book now?” Billy nodded and held it out to Mitch. “I can’t touch it. I’m not sure why I know that, but it’ll cause me a world of hurt if I do. I think this calls for someone stronger than me. Like Steele or Nick. They’re the only two that I know that can maybe take this.”
As they made their way to the house, Billy told them what Summer wanted. Connie told her that if anyone could do it, then Steele could. Aster was very quiet.
When they entered the house, it nearly had him backing up. An argument was going full swing, and he watched in astonishment as Addie was right up in Steele’s face. Kari was laughing so hard that she was holding on to Nick, and Izzy and Jake were standing out of the way. The rest of them were there too—Ray, Drew, Hugh, and Nick. Landon was sitting on the counter seemingly just taking it all in.