057: Guitar lessons

The movers set up her appliances. Then they worked and set up her living room the way she said to, and her bed. After they left she made her bed and then went to the grocery store and got food, but she ended up taking it to Kell's, where she played with the animals and finally fell asleep with them in her little bed on the floor in Kell's' room.

He called her at midnight.

"Hi." she said, knowing there wasn't anyone else who would be calling her.

"Angel." he said, and his voice was a relieved sigh.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Where are you?"

"Actually, I'm in the pool."

"Not." he said. "Are you at my house?"

"Yeah. I'm in the little bed you made for me. Charlie is lying on my pillow, Kiyah is downstairs making margarita's, and Molly's squashing me off my sheet."

There was a silence. "In the house?"

"You don't let them in? But you had them in for a while the other day." she was suddenly worried.

"Nah, you do whatever you want, angel. I didn't think you would want them in all night. Kiyah really can make margaritas if you give him the stuff. Otherwise, he'll find the stuff. He can open the doors if they're not locked."

"Kiyah!" she called and heard a crash in the kitchen. Then Kiyah came scampering up at her call.

He was carrying a roll of toilet paper. She told Kell what he had and he told her to check the downstairs toilet and not to go in the hot tub until she'd checked it too. Sometimes he had accidents.

"How was the first day of filming?"

"We didn't film." he said. "We set up."

"Oh. I was hoping it'd go a lot faster."

"Yeah, me too. But Harold isn't Lucas, or Spielberg, or Bruckheimer."

"Is it going to be a pain?"

''No, it's going to be a lot of fun when it gets going. I practiced stunts today. Flying through rigging, gymnastics, fencing. Great fun. Wish you were here."

"I don't. I mean I wish you were here. I went to get the furniture today for my place."

"Then why aren't you staying there?"

"Om, the animals are here."

"And the castle room is there."

"Yeah." she sighed. "But I went to the grave. And I felt like I could do more good back at the facility so I went back and I asked about other wards of the state and there's this 14-year-old boy, named Shawn."

"Shawn ... bald, skinny, really pale watery eyes?"

''You know him?"

"Not well. Kind of quiet."

"He's got a lot of anger inside. But I got him to say he wanted to play the guitar and that's actually something I can offer him. I can teach him to play. So tomorrow I'm going to get a guitar and take it over there."

"How long does he have?" Kell asked clearly worried about her getting into another situation too soon.

"It could be awhile. He's stable. The nurses were indecisive. Could be months, could be weeks."

"Maille, be careful. Maybe you should wait till I'm there."

"Well Kell, the thing about these kids is that they can't wait. Remember the starfish?"

He was silent. He remembered the starfish clearly. Made a difference to that one.

"Kell?" she whispered. "It's okay. I'll be careful-er this time, not get so wrapped up in him."

He wanted to grab her through the phone and make her realize what he knew. ''It's easy to get wrapped up."

"Yeah, well. It keeps my mind off confusing feelings about the guy I'm seeing."

"That guy... does he hold a special place in your heart?"

She smiled. "Not so special."

"So, it's mostly lust you feel for him? Heartless wench."

"What did you call me? A heartless wench?"

"That I did, my lady. Not a feeling bone in your body."

"Oh, I have feeling bones all right. I felt all of them this morning." she grinned. "Some great big troll sat on me in the night."

"Troll? With black dreads and a beaded goatee?"

"That would be him."

"Yeah, well, he's heavier than sin, and likes pancakes for breakfast, and he slobbers all over your pillow if you keep him in all night. Just some advice, okay?"

"Yeah, right, whatever." she laughed before she heard the real glass crash and knew Kiyah was into something bad. There was a bunch of loud screeching by that time and she said she had to go and would call him back.

But after cleaning up the glass lamp, the ketchup bottle, and the mayonnaise jar, she put the monkey back in his cage for the evening along with his pals so he wouldn't be lonely. It was later there. She decided not to wake him.

*****