45 Mabel Walks With Tommy
Tommy had worked hard on his arithmetic, something he was quite good at, and the weather was so good, he deserved a break. And so did she. "Tommy, how about we take a walk down to the store and gets some ice cream? My treat."
"Yeah. Let's go." He jumped up from his desk and stopped, looked off to empty space. "It'll be OK, Ray."
Christ. He was getting into one of his one sided dialogues with Ray. "Ray doesn't think it's a good idea?"
"Ray says we need to have…someone with us."
"We can bring Ray…and Tommy I'll be with us, too."
"Yeah, Mabel, but you're not…"
"I'm not a what?"
"Nothing. Ray. It's OK. I'll pretend I can't see them."
"You'll pretend you can't see whom?"
"Ghosts, Mabel, ghosts." He looked off. "You said no one's watching."
"Who…?"
"Bad guys. We should be OK. Let's go. Quick, Mabel. Let's go. If we hurry we can go and come back…"
She and Tommy walked toward the front door. Tommy opened it and…Daisy was there.
Tommy looked down at the floor. "Ray. You told on us."
Mabel felt guilty. She couldn't put a finger on it, or maybe she could. Daisy turned her attention from Tommy to her and she was frowning and shaking her head.
Daisy said, "Now don't we have a rule about not going anywhere without one of us going with you?"
She knew Daisy was basically her own age, maybe a few years older, but God Damn she could be intimidating, and she couldn't understand why. She felt like she was a little girl and she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She blurted out, "But, Daisy, we were just going down to the main street and get some ice cream."
"Mabel. You don't need to understand the why of everything but you do need to follow the rules. And we have a rule don't we? A rule we agreed to."
"Yes, but…"
"There's no but about it. You go outside one of us must be with him. It's simple." Daisy's cold facade eased up replaced by a bright smile. "So let's go. I'll take you."