We had been in Illinois for two days now. I was with Uncle Sam in a small motel room. Daddy was with Grandpa John, and they had been gone since yesterday. No one would talk to me about what they are doing, but they were all very tense about it. I had overheard Grandpa John talking about visiting a church to "get a refill", and I thought I had heard Daddy say the word 'demon', but I didn't want to ask. I wasn't supposed to eavesdrop, and I didn't want to get a spanking, so I didn't say anything.
"I'm done," I said, and Uncle Sam came over and picked up the tablet. He and I had started working on home-schooling stuff. I had just taken another vocabulary test. I watched him tapping the screen, and then he looked up at me. "Great job, Charlie, you only got one wrong!" he smiled at me.
"One wrong!" I frowned, "But I never get words wrong!"
He leaned down and showed me, "You switched the i and the e, it's easy to do that with some words."
I folded my arms, "Hmph."
He chuckled, and ruffled my hair. "You're not always going to get 100 percent, kiddo," he told me, "I think this is a good place to stop, want to go to the park before dinner?"
I sat up. "Yeah! Can we call Daddy and find out when they're coming back?"
Uncle Sam looked uncomfortable. "Uh, no, I don't want to interrupt them," he said, "They'll be home soon, I'm sure."
"But- I need to know if Daddy's okay!" I said, and I felt like crying. We hadn't heard from them since the night before, when Daddy had called to say good-night to me.
Uncle Sam squatted down in front of me. "I know you're worried, but trust me when I tell you that they're okay. Dad and Dean have handled situations like this before, and they're fine."
"What is it—the situation?" I wiped the tears that had come to my eyes.
"Well, it's —you don't need to know about it," he stood up, "Get get your shoes on, and we can go."
Uncle Sam drove us to a park that was near the motel that had a big playground. I ran around for a long time, and Uncle Sam pushed me on the swings, and then he sat next to me and swung too. He looked funny when he leaned back and stuck his long legs out.
After we ate, Uncle Sam noticed that there was a store that sold games next to the restaurant. We went in, and he let me pick a new game for my 3DS. I chose a game where you worked in an animal hospital. You picked out the animals that you wanted, and then took care of them in different ways. You could give them baths, or examine them, or play with them. Each animal reacted a different way to the things you did, and it made me laugh. Uncle Sam had to take my 3DS away at bedtime because I didn't want to stop playing.
I woke up when I heard Daddy's voice. I sat up, saw him, and bounced out of bed to run over and hug him.
"Whoa, hold on, " he said, holding his arms up. I stopped and stared at him.
Daddy's shirt front was covered in red, and he had speckles of red on his arms and face too, and some on his pants.
"Daddy, what-" I gulped, as I realized what it was, "Is that blood? Is that your blood?" I started to cry, feeling scared.
"No, I'm okay, I'm fine," Daddy said in a calm voice.
"Wh-why do you have blood on your shirt?" I asked, "Someone else's blood?" I squeaked.
"It's—well, we, uh, there was a fight," he said uncomfortably, "Everything's fine though, we...came through it okay. Let me go get in the shower, and then I can see you."
He went to get clothes out of his duffle and then went into the bathroom.
"Uncle Sam who was he fighting?" I sniffled, "Did he hurt the other person? Why was there so much blood?"
"Come here, honey," Uncle Sam pulled me into his arms, "Listen, I know you're worried, but...sometimes we have to...deal with supernatural...creatures...and get rid of them. Because they're hurting people. You know what rabies is, right?"
I nodded.
"Well, if there was a dog with rabies, you have to put it down, right? Because there's no cure for it, and it's dangerous for people to be around, and it will die. So...the dog has to be put to sleep. And that's...that's what we do sometimes, with some...creatures."
I looked at him. "You-you kill them?"
He nodded.
"Did Daddy kill... whatever it was?" I whispered.
"I don't know, Charlie. I haven't talked to him about it yet," Uncle Sam hugged me, "Let's get you back in bed, and you can talk to your Dad when he comes out of the bathroom."
I laid in bed waiting for Daddy. When he came out of the bathroom, Uncle Sam talked to him quietly on the other side of the room for a few minutes. Then Daddy came over and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Hey, kiddo," he said. I sat up and put my arms around him.
"I missed you, Daddy, I was worried about you!" I told him.
"I know, sweetheart. We're back now, and it's okay," he put his arms around me and squeezed me.
I looked up at him. "Did you kill it?"
He blinked in surprise. "Charlie, I'm not...going to talk about it with you," he said uncomfortably, "Just trust me when I tell you that it's over, and we set out what we went to do," He smoothed his hand over my hair, "We need to go back to our old motel near Lisa's, you have to go back to the hospital and get some more testing done. Dr. Miriam still wants to take your blood every so often."
"Aww, do I have to? I hate needles!"
"Yes, you have to. We can see Ben and Lisa again, and decide what we want to do," he kissed the top of my head.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we can decide if we want to stay there, or move somewhere else. If we stay, we can look at renting a house."
"A house? To live in?"
He nodded.
"That would be cool, I've never lived in a house before!" I said excitedly, "Hey, couldn't we move in with Ben and Lisa?"
A look crossed Daddy's face. "No, uhhh...what would Grandpa John and Uncle Sam do? There isn't room in their house for them."
"Oh, yeah. So we'd all live together?"
"Yeah, we'd try to find a place that would fit all four of us," Daddy told me.
"That will be fun!"
Daddy chuckled. "I've lived in rental houses before, it's not all it's cracked up to be."
"But I only ever lived in the 'partment with my mommy!" I said, "so it's exciting for me!"
He ruffled my hair. "I understand. Now you need to lay down and go to sleep, and we'll get on the road tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy," I hugged him again.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
"Ben!" I cheered happily, as we came into the house. I ran up to him and hugged him, then I hugged Lisa. Lisa hugged Daddy, and then Ben went over to Daddy and hugged him too.
"I missed you guys!" Ben said as Grandpa John ruffled his hair.
"It's nice to be back here," Daddy said with a sigh, "I forgot how nice the motel is."
We had been back in Indiana since last night, and Lisa had invited us over for dinner this evening.
"Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," Lisa said.
"Let's go out front, Charlie," Ben said, "I got a new skateboard!"
"Don't forget your helmet and pads," Lisa called.
"I won't, Mom," Ben rolled his eyes. I followed him out to the front yard. He put the skateboard down on the side walk. "Watch me do an Ollie!" he said, getting onto the board. He moved his legs and all of a sudden the board came up off the ground, with his feet still on it.
"Uh, that's an Ollie?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said proudly.
He pushed off the ground skated down the sidewalk.
"Aren't you s'posed to wear a helmet?" I asked hesitantly.
"Nah, I'm just gonna be right here," Ben said confidently, "Watch this!" He tried to do another Ollie, and the board fell down before his feet landed.
"Hey," his friend Tyler called from across the street, "I got a new X-Men game for my X-Box, wanna come see?"
"Cool!" Ben called. He glanced at me. "Let's go, Charlie!"
"Um, I'm s'posed to ask Daddy before I go somewhere," I said.
"It's X-men, Charlie! It'll just be for a second!" Ben glanced at me again, and then crossed the street.
"Ben, wait!" I called, hesitating again. Last time we had left without asking, both of us had gotten spankings. I wasn't eager to repeat that experience.
"Be right back!" Ben called over his shoulder.
I saw Tyler throw a glance at me, and thought I heard him say something about "big baby" before they went into his house.
Sighing, I turned and walked back into Lisa's house. Everyone was in the kitchen, either sitting or standing around the island. They were all drinking beer.
"What's up, Charlie?" Daddy put his hand on my shoulder.
"Where's Ben?" Lisa turned from the stove, holding a plastic spoon.
I flushed. "He, uh, he went...uh, Tyler came outside and asked if we wanted to go see his new X-Box game, and Ben...said yes," I glanced at Daddy sideways.
Lisa got a mad look on his face. "How many times do we have to go through this?" she muttered to herself. She put the spoon down on the stove. "Dean, keep stirring this, would you? I've got to go get my stubborn, bull-headed child."
She stalked out of the room, shaking her head and muttering to herself. We heard the front door close.
"I feel bad 'cause I got Ben in trouble," I said.
"Well, you did the right thing, Charlie," Daddy said, "You know that you're not supposed to go anywhere without asking first, right?"
I nodded, "Yeah, that's what I told Ben."
"Good girl, Charlie," Uncle Sam patted my back and smiled at me.
"I didn't, uh, want to get in trouble again," I said, "But I'm worried he's gonna be mad at me."
"Ben did the wrong thing, so he's got nobody to blame except himself," Daddy said, "Don't you worry about that."
We heard the front door open, and then Lisa' voice. "-told you to wear your helmet and pads, and you didn't do that either!"
There was the sound of a swat, and Lisa said, "Get your behind upstairs right now, young man!"
We heard footstpes pounding up the stairs as Lisa came into the kitchen. She walked over to the counter and grabbed a wooden spoon out of a canister that was sitting next to the stove. "I'm sorry to say that Ben will not be joining us for dinner tonight," she said tersely. She left the room, sighing.
Daddy and Uncle Sam looked at each other. "I guess Ben's going to get his butt blistered," Daddy said.
"Why did Lisa take that spoon?" I asked, confused.
"For spanking Ben with," Daddy told me.
"With a spoon?"
Daddy nodded, "It's wooden, so it packs a wallop. Same as a paddle or a wooden hairbrush."
I gulped, feeling worse for Ben. "So he's gonna get spanked with it?"
Daddy nodded. "Lisa's talked to him many times about just wandering off to his friend's houses, and he keeps doing it, so she needs to let him know she means business."
A couple of minutes later, a wail drifted down the stairs. I felt even more bad for Ben, and looked down at the ground.
"You know, you didn't let Ben lead you into trouble, you left and did the right thing." Grandpa John said to me, "That's a lot smarter than these two knuckleheads were sometimes," he grinned at Uncle Sam, "You boys were always getting into trouble together."
"We were partners in crime, Sammy wanted to be like his cool big brother," Daddy said.
"Only until I was old enough to realize that you weren't too smart about things sometimes," Uncle Sam retorted, "And then I tried not to get into trouble any more."
"Yeah, your mouth did that enough for you when you got older," Daddy chuckled.
Lisa came back into the kitchen and tossed the spoon on the counter. She grabbed her glass of wine and drank the whole thing down, then walked over to the fridge and poured another glass. "I hate having to be the heavy," she said, "but we've been over this time and time again and he just doesn't learn."
"It is rough," Daddy agreed, "Hopefully he'll remember next time. Did I stir this enough?"
Lisa looked in the pot. "Yeah, you did. Let me check the meat, it should be ready now."
Lisa had made a pot roast with gravy and mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.
"I haven't had a pot roast in ages, this is great," Grandpa John said, "Thanks for making this," he smiled at Lisa.
"I figured you all have been on the road and eating so much diner food that you needed some good home-style food," Lisa smiled at Grandpa John. Daddy reached out and squeezed Lisa's hand. "It was just what we needed," he smiled at her too.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
I set my pizza crust down on my plate. "I'm full," I groaned, "Can we go to the park now?"
"No, the park closes when it gets dark," Uncle Sam said. Daddy and Lisa were on a date, and Uncle Sam was watching Ben and me at our motel.
I turned to look out the window. "It's not that dark."
"No, Charlie," Uncle Sam said.
"Can we go out for ice cream?" I asked, leaning forward, "Pleeease?"
Uncle Sam gave me a look. "You just said you were full!"
"But you said you'd take us for ice cream!" I reminded him, "C'mon!"
He sighed. "All right," He stood up and picked up our paper plates. Ben grinned at me and gave me a high-five.
Ben bounced on the back seat of the Impala as we drove to the Dairy Queen. It was different having Uncle Sam being the one driving and having Ben in the back with me. When we got out, Ben started to dart forward, and Uncle Sam put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "Wait, don't just go running off," Uncle Sam said, a little sternly.
Since it was Friday night, the restaurant was full of people. There were a lot of couples there on dates. It took a while to get to the front counter and order.
Uncle Sam led us to a small table in the far corner. Next to us was a pair of teenagers who were holding hands and looking in each other's eyes. The girl picked up her spoon and fed the boy a bite of her ice cream, and then they leaned forward and kissed.
"Ewww," Ben said, rolling his eyes.
"Do you think that's what Daddy and Lisa are doing?" I teased.
Ben frowned at me. "Ew, no, gross! Shut up!"
"I was just kidding," I muttered, feeling hurt.
"Ben, don't say shut up, that's rude," Uncle Sam said.
"Sorry," Ben muttered. He shifted on his chair after a minute. "Hey, I gotta do the science fair at my school next week, will you guys come and see it?"
"Sure, Ben, that sounds interesting," Uncle Sam said, "I did a couple of science fairs when I was younger. What's your project?"
They spent a long time talking about science stuff, and I got bored. "Can we go now?" I asked, "I'm done, and listening to you guys talk is bor-ing."
"Science can be fun, Charlie," Uncle Sam said, "Once we decide if we're going to stay here or not, we can maybe try and set up some long-term science experiments."
"Science is bor-ing," I rolled my eyes, "I'd rather read."
When we got back to the motel, Ben and I started to play together on our 3Ds games. We sat on opposite ends of the sofa, facing each other so that our games could "see" each other.
Uncle Sam got a call from Grandpa John, and he set his laptop up at the table. Grandpa John was at a library doing research.
"Okay, I'm looking at the site...yeah, I see the table...electrical storms. This is all from the past couple of weeks? Yeah, it does seem like it's ramping up," Uncle Sam glanced over at us.
Ben and I were playing a game where you made a character and then had to travel through levels finding and getting different things like gems and flowers and mushrooms. Each item was worth a certain amount of points. Some of them were rare, and worth a lot more points.
"Hey!" I said to Ben, "You got the last mushroom, lemme get that one!"
Ben made his character run ahead of mine and grabbed the mushroom. "All right, 20 points!" he said gleefully.
"Not fair!" I grumped, "you better not do that again!" Just then another mushroom appeared. I tried to make my character run faster than his, but he made his character jump over me.
"HEY!" I yelled as he grabbed the mushroom, "Cut it OUT!" I kicked my leg at him in frustration. "That's not FAIR!"
"Hey!" Ben kicked me back, "I can't help it if you're just a slowpoke!"
"Charlie and Ben!" Uncle Sam's voice was loud and deep, and it startled me. His voice was big when he got loud.
We both looked over at him. He was frowning. "What's going on over there?" he asked.
"Ben keeps stealing the mushrooms, he- he's not playing fair!" I complained.
"It's fair, you just gotta be fast," Ben shrugged.
Uncle Sam sighed. "Since I don't really know what you're talking about in the game, I can't comment. But I better not see either of you kicking each other again. And stop being so loud, I'm on the phone and I can barely hear Grandpa John."
I glared at Ben and he stuck his tongue out at me. We played for another couple of minutes, and then he kept making his character run ahead and get things before I could.
"You're mean, I'm not playing any more!" I turned the game off and closed it, slamming it down on the coffee table.
"Hey!" Ben yelled, "You can't just quit like that, we just got to the next level! I'm gonna lose my points!"
"Tough!" I yelled back, "I can quit 'cause you're being a meany!"
"Jerk!" Ben leaned over and pushed my shoulder.
"Hey!" I lifted my hand to push him back, and all of a sudden Uncle Sam was there, taking my hand.
"All right, stop," he said sternly, "do both of you need to be in trouble?"
I gulped. "N-no, Uncle Sam."
"I've already talked to you about being loud, and it needs to stop. And keep your hands—and feet—to yourselves," Uncle Sam turned to Ben and gave him a look. Ben blushed.
"Put the game away since you can't stop bickering, and find a movie to watch." Uncle Sam picked up the remote and turned on the tv.
"Hey, Transformers!" Ben sat forward, "They're cool, let's watch that!"
"Transformers are dumb, who wants to watch a show about robots?" I jeered.
"No they aren't!" Ben flared.
"Yuh-huh!" I said, shoving his shoulder.
"ENOUGH!" Uncle Sam boomed. Both Ben and I shrank down. Uncle Sam put his hands on his hips. "Charlie, go get ready for bed."
"Whyyy?" I whined, "It's Friday, I get to stay up late!"
"I just told you to keep your hands to yourself, and here you are pushing Ben right after I said that!"
"Daddy said I could stay up late!" I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I'm sure he meant if you behaved yourself," Uncle Sam gave me a look, "Young lady, what did I tell you to do?"
"Fine!" I got up and stomped into the bedroom. I changed into my pajamas and brushed my teeth, then came back out to the living room.
"I'll let you watch the third Harry Potter movie," Uncle Sam said, "Ben likes them too. But if either of you start bickering again, that's it."
"Okaaay," I went and sat down on the sofa again.
Ben grinned at me and said quietly, "Young lady!"
"Stop it!" I hissed, but I knew he was teasing.
We both fell asleep on the sofa, and the next thing I knew, Daddy and Lisa were there. Daddy carried Ben out to Lisa's car, and Uncle Sam carried me to my bed.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
Grandpa John got very involved in doing lots of research. I heard him talking to Daddy and Uncle Sam about "signs are starting to crop up again," but Daddy wouldn't explain what that meant. I saw a photo on Uncle Sam's laptop of a cow that was all torn up and bloody, so I figured they were trying to hunt some creature.
Daddy and I spent time with Ben and Lisa, getting together every couple of days. We went out to eat a lot because it was fall, and getting dark earlier. Sometimes Uncle Sam came with us, but he was helping Grandpa John a lot. Sometimes they drove to libraries that were a couple of towns over to look things up. There were lots and lots of newspapers and books and stacks of papers all over their room now.
Daddy had driven his car around to the back of the motel so he could change all the fluids. He said he had to "top everything off" before the weather got too much colder. He didn't want me to help this time because he said some of the stuff he was working with was dangerous. Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were in their room doing research and talking on the phone to people. I was watching t.v. and lounging on the sofa.
Daddy came into the room. "Come on, kid, let's go to the park," he said. He was wearing a dark blue shirt that I had never seen him wear before.
"Okay!" I said happily. I slipped my shoes on and went with him.
I quickly fell into step beside him, he was walking fast. I reached for his hand, and he jerked his hand away and looked down at me.
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"Holding hands," I said, feeling a little hurt. We usually held hands when we walked places together.
"Oh," he gave me his hand, and we walked in silence.
"Daddy, where'd you get that shirt?" I asked him, "You haven't worn it before."
"Well, I, uh...went shopping the other day," he said quickly.
I didn't remember him going shopping recently, and I was going to say something, but we arrived at the park. I dropped his hand and ran to the swings.
"Daddy, push me, please!" I called to him.
He stood under the tree off to the side, looking around.
"Daddy, pleeeeease?" I wheedled, "come push me!"
"No, girlie, I'm good here," he glanced around again. It seemed like he was looking for someone. I noticed that his pants were different too, they were a light tan color. He was standing differently too, his hands were in his pockets and his shoulders were different.
Some other kids came on to the playground, and I started to play tag with them. We ran around a lot, until I was huffing and puffing, and then I noticed that Daddy wasn't under the tree any more.
"Daddy?" I called, looking around. Where had he gone?
Just then I saw him, walking up the sidewalk towards the playground. He looked angry.
"Daddy, where did you go!" I exclaimed, running towards him.
He stalked towards me, and grabbed my arm, bending down and pulling me close to him. "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?" he gritted out, "Coming here on your own?"
I looked up at him. "I—I wasn't on my own, you were with me! You- you asked if I wanted to go!"
"Now you're going to make up a story?" Daddy smacked my butt, so hard I stumbled forward.
I cried out and reached back to cover my butt with my hands. Tears came to my eyes as my butt began to sting. He straightened up and started to pull me along.
"Let's go," he said tersely.
"Daddy, slow down!" I said, "Wait! You said let's go to the park!" I looked up at him, and I realized something. "When did you change your shirt?" Now he was wearing the same red and green plaid shirt he'd been wearing earlier in the day.
"What are you talking about?" his teeth were clenched, and a muscle jumped in his cheek.
"Your shirt was different!" I told him.
He stopped, and leaned down. His eyes flashed green fire at me. "Stop- with- the- lies," he said, "You're just getting yourself in more trouble, little girl. When we get back to the room, you're getting a spanking, and you can bet that you'll be getting the paddle as well."
Tears filled my eyes. "But Daddy-"
He gave me a shake. "I don't want to hear any more!"
Something was wrong. Daddy had brought me to the park, and now he was acting like he hadn't. I didn't understand what was going on, and I didn't want to be in trouble, or get paddled. I hurried along with Daddy as he walked, trying to figure out what to say to him to convince him that I wasn't lying.