Hunting the Fairy Tale

Chapter 89 - When August Blows In

Hunter

Willow is looking a lot better this morning.

She happily cooked for Paisley and me and is now in the process of putting breakfast on a tray for my parents as well. She even picked some flowers and arranged them in a small glass vase. This girl never does anything by halves, which is just one of the many reasons I cannot get enough of her.

I thought it weird when I didn't see my dad in the kitchen or out at the garage this morning. Usually, he's an early bird, and Ma is the one loving a lie-in on Saturdays. Sometimes, he lets her persuade him to stay in bed a little longer, but if she's sleeping, he slips out.

I went up there earlier, and he was fast asleep and Ma was on her way down with my brother to ask me to keep an eye on Frankie for a while.

"Let me take that," I say, getting to my feet when Willow is about to pick up the heavy tray, ready to take it up to my parents. French toast covered in syrup, some bacon, juice for Ma and coffee for my dad. I smile, looking at the neatly made-up plates. She'd gone to a lot of trouble to make some of my dad's favourites, hoping that it would cheer him up a little bit.

I guess we've all been feeling the heaviness of his mood the last couple of days. My dad being gloomy is an extremely rare thing, which is why it hits all of us so hard when it happens. Something really bad needs to happen to bring him down like this. I barely saw him yesterday, and Thursday night, he'd been extremely sad when he came home from the chief's house and we had a long chat. 

He's worried about Tan. We all are.

I hope that things will start to move in a good direction, and we'll soon be able to put it all behind us, and Dad will go back to telling dry jokes and Tan to being an ass.

"We can be off when you guys are ready," I tell the girls, my eyes lingering on Paisley a little bit longer. She's supposed to do her ballet evaluations today, but she's sitting at the table, picking at her breakfast, looking like a wilted doll with haunted eyes. I'm going to drop both of them at the Davenports' house, where Willow is going to help her get ready.

"Okay, you'll let me know when you're done dancing so I can pick Willow up again?" I try again, hoping for some kind of reaction from her.

'No," Paisley says, looking up from her plate. Finally! "We'll take the bus unless you want to come to Miss Phoebe's Antiques and Retro shop with us." She pops her last bite of French toast in her mouth, gathers her dishes and gets to her feet too.

"Uhm... no," I grimace, lifting the tray off the counter. That place is like a horror house from my worst nightmare, and Paisley knows that. "There are too many breakable things in there."

"We're going there afterwards?" Willow smiles, finally looking excited about something again.

"Unless you want to hurry home," Paisley shrugs. She's acting like she doesn't care, but I can tell that she's hoping Willow will hang out with her after the dance. Willow is exactly what Paise needs in her current frame of mind.

"No," Willow says, her bright smile causing me to smile too, and I can see Paisley's grin peaking out as well. "I'm in no hurry at all. That sounds like a splendid idea."

I'm having mixed feelings about this. 

I'm really happy that Bubbles and Missy are becoming close, and it's fun to see them interacting so comfortably with each other. I know that they both really need this friendship, but I'm a little frustrated too. I'm not sure why, though. I guess I just haven't had much chance to hang out with Willow lately, and I miss that.