Chapter 4

The next day when I called Sookie, we agreed to hang out after my shift, which ended in the afternoon. The day was quite stressful; it was Daphne's first day and, as I had known, she wasn't doing too well. Terry, the cook, was so stressed by Daphne's incompetence that I was worried he'd have a heart attack. It didn't help that apparently, the other cook, Lafayette, hadn't shown up for work in weeks, leaving Terry with more than he could carry. Sam, who seemed especially grumpy, yelled at Daphne in frustration several times. I felt bad for her, especially since the yelling didn't make learning the ways of waitressing any easier. I helped her out throughout the day when I could, but I would be lying if I said she wasn't annoying me too.

Close to the end of my shift, Sookie came in to see me. She was off that day, so rather than her uniform, she was wearing a jean jacket and plaid shorts. The moment my shift ended, she pulled me down the hall to talk to me.

We got into a pretty personal conversation and she started talking about her life, her telepathy, her vampire boyfriend. When she told me about her recently deceased grandmother, I told her how sorry I was. She expressed her appreciation, but didn't dwell on the sad topic and moved on to tell me about her boyfriend's new "progeny," Jessica.

"So basically you're like a stepmother to a vampire?" I teased.

She laughed as she said, "Okay, you did not just call me that."

"Mm-hmm," I said playfully. She smiled at me.

"What about you? What's your story?" Sookie asked.

I told her how I grew up in Alaska with my mother. I tried to spare her the details about my father leaving us, and focused on telling her about my life with my mom. I explained how I had been experiencing visions from a young age. I told her about the car crash my mom was in just days after my acceptance into college, and how I decided to attend school anyways, because I knew it was what my mom would want. And then I explained why I came here, everything that was going on with my father and how I didn't really have a plan at this point.

"Have you found yourself a place to stay yet?" she asked.

"Not really. I can't afford anything right now, but hopefully with this job I can save up so I can move out of the motel at some point," I explained.

Sookie looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.

"Lissa?" she started. "Would you like to move in with me?"

"What?" I said shocked. "Wow, Sook, that's so generous of you. But I don't know, I don't want to intrude, you only just met me and all…"

"You wouldn't be intruding!" she told me. "And I know we just met, but it feels right, don't it? I mean, you're like the first real person I met who I feel I can relate to." She looked at me as I thought it over. "So-? So, what do you think? 'Cause I've been trying to get my act together to move into Gran's room for the past couple weeks, and your moving in might be the kick in the butt I need to do it."

Before I got a chance to think, there was a loud clatter outside. Sookie and I rushed to see what was going on and peeked out the door.

"Daphne!" Sam yelled, gesturing to the mess of plates and food on the floor. "That's right on my feet. How am I supposed to ignore that?" Daphne scrambled to clean it up.

"I'm sorry," she said, clearly humiliated.

I nudged Sookie as we walked past the mess. "If you wanna make it to Bill's tonight, you better get out of here before Sam asks you to stay."

"You're probably right," she laughed.

As we headed towards the door we were stopped by a familiar face.

"Oh whoa, whoa, whoa!" the lady stopped us. As I turned to face her, I recognized her as the woman from my vision, the one who gave Daphne the advice. I looked at her cautiously. "Is this the infamous Sookie?" she asked.

Tara appeared behind the woman and nodded. "Uh-huh. Sookie, Maryann. Maryann, Sookie. And this here's… uhm…" She was trying to remember my name so I helped her out.

"I'm Lissa, it's nice to meet you" I said.

"Oh, likewise," Maryann smiled, keeping her gaze on Sookie. "Well, you're very special, you know. I mean to have been through everything you have in your life, not to mention the last few weeks, and to emerge through all of it walking, let alone smiling, it's- Well, it's simply astonishing."

Sookie looked at her politely, but I could tell she was weirded out, and probably trying to read her mind.

"I see what you mean about her, Tara," Maryann finished. "She has an old soul, doesn't she?"

When Sookie snapped out of her trance, she gave the strange woman a big smile and asked, "Oh, sorry. I'm usually good at placing people's accents, but yours I can't get a handle on. Where are you from?"

"Cape Cod," Maryann chuckled. "Best potato chips in the world." Tara laughed and Sookie and I joined in, but I could tell my new friend was thinking the same thing I was. That something was up with this lady.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but Lissa and I are running late," Sookie said. She turned to Tara. "Call me, I miss you too much." They exchanged smiles and then Sookie and I walked off.

"That was weird, huh?" I said when we were outside.

Sookie nodded. "You know what's even weirder? Her thoughts are in another language, one I can't quite place…"

"Huh," I said as we stood there contemplating it.

"Well, anyways," Sookie said "what do you think about moving in?"

I made a face and asked, "Are you sure I'm not intruding?"

"Of course not! So, is that a yes?"

I thought it over. "Yes." Sookie squealed, but I interrupted her. "But only until I can afford a place of my own!"

"This is gonna be great!" she said, hugging me. "And I was thinking, I could probably teach you how to control your visions. I mean, if you're anything like me, you could be able to block out the visions if you don't want to see them. I know I hate hearing everyone's thoughts and opinions all the time."

"You can do that?" I asked excitedly. Oh how great it would be to not have to have a vision every time I shook someone's hand, I thought.

"Maybe," Sookie said. "I'm optimistic. Okay, so we can go pick up your stuff at the motel and then come back home and then I kinda promised Jessica I would spend the night with her. Do you want to come?"

"Um," I said, taken aback. "Well it's just that I've never really met a vampire before."

Sookie looked shocked. "Really? I think you should come. Once you meet Bill, you'll feel comfortable around vampires, I swear."

"Okay, I guess," I said unsurely.