My sister and I were jogging along the boardwalk at Huntington Beach. It was midday, Saturday. My kids and her kids were with her husband at Disneyland. I wondered what her husband did to deserve such cruel and unusual punishment. I said as much to Mary Lou.
"Oh, he loves it. He's a big kid himself, you know."
"Does your husband know about me?"
I asked suddenly.
Mary Lou shot me a quick look. We were both dressed in workout pants and tank tops. We both swished as we ran.
Mary Lou's expansive upper half bounced furiously, despite her tight sports bra. Her crazily bouncing chest reminded me of two cats trying to escape a paper bag.
"Of course not," she said. "I haven't told anyone."
I nodded and frowned. I had gotten a sudden hit of her husband isolating my kids to ask them questions about me. Then again, you try living with a secret that could ruin you and see how suspicious you might become. A husband taking not only his own kids - but mine as well - raised some questions.
"Does he suspect anything?" I asked.
"No."
"Has he ever mentioned me?"
"Mentioned you how?"
"In a way that might make it seem like he was digging for information."
"Nothing that I can remember. C'mon, Sam. He's just doing something nice for us so that we can spend the day together. It's been so long since we could just be sisters and nothing more. And now we can spend days together. Glorious days. Not just nights. Okay?"
I nodded. "Okay."
But there was something here.
Unfortunately, I couldn't read family members, although I could read their auras. I felt guilty as hell searching my own sister's aura to see if she was telling me the truth, but that's exactly what I did as we spoke. The verdict: I thought she was telling me the truth. Something suspicious had passed through her aura as she answered my questions. A ripple of sorts. What that ripple meant, I didn't know. Reading auras was still new to me.
Having psychic abilities was still new to me. Being a blood-sucking fiend...not so new to me.
I let it go. For now.
Mary Lou and I continued along the boardwalk at a steady clip. She was huffing and puffing. I don't huff or puff, although Kingsley might blow your house down. The big bad wolf that he was.
Granted, I was much weaker during the day, but not so weak that I would need to stop jogging.
It was early spring and the days were growing warmer, but not so much by the beach. Mary Lou and I didn't live by the beach. We lived about ten miles inland.
So a trip to the beach took planning and driving. Therefore, we planned and we drove. I probably would have preferred to sleep - okay, I most definitely would have preferred to sleep - but I could tell my sister needed some Sam time.
Hey, I was nothing if not an awesome sister.
Now Mary Lou's boobs seemed to be the main attraction on the beach. One guy stared at them for so long that he just missed running into a trash can. Mary Lou and I giggled.
These days, I could continue jogging into infinity. I was pretty sure my body didn't need to jog, that I didn't need exercise. I was pretty sure my body was a self-sustaining machine. But jogging felt...normal. It reminded me that I wasn't very far removed from the human species.
I mean, I still looked human. I mostly acted human.
Mostly.
I am human, I thought. Just...different.
Yeah, different.
As we jogged, I told Mary Lou about my business trip this weekend, and that I would need her to watch the kids for a few days.
"They have islands in Washington?"