How ridiculous to know this was happening to somebody else and yet to be feeling exactly the same torture. It was also heartbreaking to realize what this poor woman was going through. And Simon could do nothing about it. It broke his heart and pissed him off, and yet, once again, he was stuck without the ability to help her.
“Not true,” he muttered aloud. “We might help her. There’s got to be something we can do,… some way to find her.”
He just didn’t know how, and he knew that, as far as law enforcement officers were concerned, Simon could give them nothing at this point that they could use. The fact that this asshole was torturing her just made it that much worse.
“Is there anything you can tell me?” he muttered. He had a Bluetooth in his ear, hoping he wouldn’t appear quite as crazy if someone saw him talking by himself, but how much worse would it be if they knew that he was talking to an energy source? That sounded strange even to him.
An energy source? How the hell did that work? He used to ask his grandma about it, and she would say that we were all energy. Everybody was energy, and, therefore, you could talk to their energy. When Simon tried to call it spirit, she corrected him, noting that it depends on what you’re talking to. If you’re talking tospirit, you’re talking to the soul of that person, to the creation inside of who they are.
Simon had been confused at the time, but he had gained more clarity as he grew up. And it still didn’t make all that much sense, but he kept hoping that he would eventually figure it out—especially now that he was stuck with this nightmare. But, to date, he hadn’t gotten very far on that clarity issue. He did understand there was a difference between trying to talk to her directly and trying to talk to her indirectly. Something about spirit walks and talking to the soul versus trying to talk to her consciousness. He was working on it, but it just wasn’t going very quickly.
By the time he understood just where this agony was coming from, he sensed that it was easing up, and that made it all that much easier to understand. Simon shook his arms and legs as he headed from the last building and walked several blocks over. Time for food and he was tired and cranky and sore because, even though the direct pain was leaving, an ache remained, something so deep that it hurt.
He headed for Mama’s, intent on getting a hot Italian meal and maybe some more to go home with. He was tired, and he doubted that he would see Kate tonight, and that added to his bad mood. He wanted more of a relationship than she was willing to have, yet it still shocked him that he was the one to say it. But here he was, the one waiting on every call, waiting on every moment that she might give him.
And when he finally rounded the corner and came up to Mama’s, he pushed open the front door and stepped inside, realizing the weather outside was turning ugly. Inside it was warm and cozy, and Mama, with one look at him, raced over to fling her arms around him in a big hug. He allowed himself to relax and to give her a hug back because this woman truly came from heart. She would feed the world and never charge a penny if she could, but they had bills to pay, like everyone else.
“Oh my,” she said, “it’s so good to see you.”
He smiled. “It’s been a few days.”
“You think we haven’t noticed?” she asked, giving him an eyeful.
He smiled. “Sometimes work gets in the way.”
She nodded. “I get it, but you forget who you’re talking to. You’ve got to realize that you still have to eat, even when you’re out working all the time.”
“I know. I know,” Simon admitted, “and I’m here now because I’m really hungry.”
“Of course you are,” she agreed, “if you haven’t had a decent meal in days.”
He thought about it and then nodded. “You know what? I think you’re probably right.”
“Tsk-tsk.” Mama made her way to a back booth, as she seated him, and then took off into the kitchen. She returned with a glass of wine, one of his favorites, and placed it, along with fresh bread, in front of him. “Get started on this,” she ordered. “How do you expect your body to keep up with your workload if you don’t look after it?”
Bemused, he just let her carry on, as she completely arranged his dinner tonight. He didn’t mind in the least, finding it comforting in a way, almost like having a mother, something he didn’t remember at all. It broke his heart to see how appealing it was to have that mother figure in his life, even if only for a moment. He hadn’t thought that he would ever be so weak, then had to remind himself that it had nothing to do with weakness and everything to do with family—a relationship he didn’t have much experience with. So, if he missed it or felt like he was missing it, then maybe that was just enough of an explanation, and he didn’t need to feel guilty on top of it.
When she finally returned, she asked, “The special?”
“I wasn’t even sure you would ask me what I wanted,” he joked.
“Well, I wouldn’t normally,” she replied, “but we have a really nice special tonight.”
She proceeded to launch into a description of somepartigiano thingamajig. Finally he laughed and said, “It sounds marvelous. Besides, I’ve never had anything of yours that I didn’t love.”
She gave him a beaming smile, snatched the menu, and took off again. It was true that he hadn’t had anything in mind when he arrived, and he’d eaten here enough times that his words were completely honest. She’d fed him so often that there probably wasn’t a meal he wouldn’t like in her place.
He sat here, relaxing with a glass of wine, and started to unwind, feeling the aches and pains leaving his body. A bit of a chill remained, which he suspected was more of a psychic chill than anything. Leftover from a vision. He figured this was what his grandmother had referred to as the willies.Frissons. He hadn’t understood then, but now he understood it all too well. It wasn’t long before Mama returned with a huge plate of food. She put it down in front of him, and he wanted to laugh. It was just so ridiculously large. No way he could possibly eat that much.
He stared at it in shock and asked, “Are you joining me?”
She went off in a fit of laughter. “Nope, nope, nope. But, if you have too much, we’ll send it home with you. And what about your girlfriend?” she asked suddenly, her hands on her hips. “Or did you scare this one off too?”
He looked at her in surprise. “I haven’t scared her off,” he replied cautiously, not sure where that was coming from.
“Well, good,” Mama replied. “I like her.”
He snorted. “I’m glad to hear that. But it’s not like I’ve beenintentionallychasing anybody off.”