Chapter 40
Benjamin’s departure left Lola a little disappointed. Near noon, the most important person in the Grande family, Alice, also started to get busy. She was going to prepare lunch. The Great Dane, who has been staying outside, also appeared in the kitchen on time. It would not miss the food Alice prepared for it.
“Is it Jim?” Lola discovered Jim when Alice was cutting potatoes. “I heard my grandmother mentioned it. It’s a poor guy.”
Lola had heard about the story of Jim. Pooky Quinn, the guy whom no one liked very much, forced the dog of Grande Funeral Home to be his pet, and poor Jim was abused by him. After Pooky was sent to the mental hospital for treatment, Mrs. Quinn apologized and then returned Jim to Grande Funeral Home.
Seeing Lola trying to approach Jim, Alice quickly dissuaded: “It has a strange temper and doesn’t like people approaching it. Don’t touch it!”
“Oh.” Lola looked at the Great Dane curled up in the corner pitifully and gave up her intention to touch it. “Hopefully, it can forget that unpleasant memory.”
Lola apparently attributed Jim’s strange temper to “Pooky’s abuse’. Alice could only smile and then place a bowl of boiled broth in front of Jim.
“I can help.” seeing Alice was moving around in the kitchen busily like a rotating lantern, Lola suggested.
Alice accepted Lola’s kindness, but she didn’t think the girl, who could only make sandwiches, would provide any help, “Mhm, you can help me stir eggs.”
“Okay!” Lola put on the apron and picked up the whisk.
After a while, Alice discovered that Lola’s movement was very slow. The whisk was circling as slowly as the snail in the bowl that had eggs inside. The yolks and the egg white were still clearly separated. Alice noticed that Lola was clearly distracted and there was a concerned look on her new friend’s face.
“Lola, what’s the matter?” Alice took the bowl from her friend’s hand and asked while setting it aside. The food could wait. After all, there was only the old Hank in Grande Funeral Home, so Alice was not in a hurry. It was very rare that someone would make Banshee feel friendly. So Alice wanted to help her new friend.
“Uh…” Lola pressed her lips and shook her head, “I was a little worried about Kyle.”
Before Lola officially introduced her brother yesterday, Alice had already ‘seen’ Kyle in the death of ‘Connor’. The banshee frowned, and she could tell that in the scene she saw, it was just an accident caused by impulse.
The scene that the Banshee saw was from the beginning when Connor pushed Kyle provocatively to the end when the death occurred, which was when Kyle’s shoulder in protective gear hit the most important place in Conner’s body. What happened before and after this was not clear to Alice. But the banshee, who had become a friend of Lola, favored that Kyle did not do anything wrong.
“What’s wrong with your brother?” Alice took Lola’s hand and tentatively asked.
Lola’s eyes shifted to the side: “Have you heard of the story about Pooky Quinn? I heard that before he went crazy, he always said that he had seen the people that are already dead.” Lola was deeply worried: “Kyle has been very gloomy after returning home yesterday. I heard him saying to himself repeatedly, ‘He is not real.’ But when I asked him, he would deny it. Is this a sign that he is going crazy?”
Alice was a little relieved. The people Pooky saw were just Jim, and it was the people in the Grande Funeral Home that made him go crazy. The scenes he saw were actually illusory and not real. And that “Conner” Kyle saw actually really existed, at least, in the judgment of the vampire and the werewolf. It was no different from ordinary people.
It wouldn’t take long for Kyle to accept the “fact” that he didn’t make a big mistake and Connor was still alive.
“It may be the pressure after the game.” Alice smiled and comforted, “I remember you said that he always wanted to perform well, get a scholarship, and then continue to be a rugby player. Maybe it’s just that the right-wing position gave him a little pressure.”
Lola sighed and picked up the big bowl of eggs again, changed to the image of a little sister gloating over her elder brother’s misery, “He can now forget about it,” Lola leaned over Alice’s face: “During dinner yesterday and after my father knew that he was only a winger, he forced him to apply for law school again. Ha, I think he will lose his mind completely soon!”
Alice has already adapted to Lola’s super-fast emotional changes, so she simply smiled with her.
It made me wonder that after two years when Lola herself faced the life arranged by her parents, would she still be able to “laugh”.
Leaving Grande Funeral Home, heading north along Highway 27, and turning east at about the middle of Barton Southern District. On one of the intersecting dirt roads, the mill that would become the Grande Funeral Home’s branch would be located here.
[Alan Funeral Home], which was located in this area, was very puzzled. Why did the Bartron Police’s Southern District Branch not cooperate with them, but chose the Grande that was further away? Outside the mill, which was now under construction, Anthony, who was asked by reporters, answered this question.
“The Grande is now the only funeral industry in Barton that still has the traditional funeral process. Between tradition and emerging new trends, Barton citizens should have the right to choose, and we, the Barton City Government, must protect the citizens’ right to choose. So we decided to support the traditional funeral industry. This cooperation is one of our initiatives.”
Reporter: “Will this uniqueness result in the superiority of Grande Funeral Home, and cause them to raise the price and select its own customers? We all know that recently, Grande Funeral Home only held Mr. Quinn’s funeral. Ordinary citizens do not have the financial resources like the Quinn family. Anything to say about this mayor?”
Anthony frowned, looking at this reporter, ‘is this guy here to cause troubles?’
“Such questions, you should first consult the relevant legal provisions before asking me.” Anthony waved his hand, and the people around him immediately dispersed the reporters. Anthony did not even forget to remind them before turning: “Don’t take pictures.”
This was not a cover for Zach, but because it was a property of the Grande Funeral Home. Without the consent of the owner, taking photos at random would cause lawsuits.
The reporters who never knew the contentment retreated helplessly, and they decided to go to [Allen Funeral Home] and see if they could dig up some stories.
Zach watched Anthony, who asked his guards to wait outside and then walked into the mill, and said with a smile: “Anthony, if you don’t please those fellows, they will not say anything good about you in the newspaper tomorrow.”
“You heard it?” Anthony said impatiently: “You should get rid of this bad habit of eavesdropping on other people’s conversation!”
“My friend, you always think badly of me.” Zach aggrievedly said, “it doesn’t require any special skills to hear those conversations.” Then Zach looked at the person standing on the side, “Right? Madison.”
Anthony’s brows frowned, and he ignored the seemingly reserved person and dragged Zach to a more secret place.
“What the hell is that guy?” Anthony came to a place that seemed to be an office, staring at Zach, “Don’t you dare think that I don’t know, Madison Cook, the name on the suspicious list compiled by James! ”
Anthony’s expression was not friendly, “And I have checked the name! This identity is forged!”
“Relax, Anthony.” Zach patted his friend, looking around the interior. The wall around was covered with the turquoise-hued stone that were covered with green mosses, which was not unlike a derelict building,
“He is a human being.” Zach gave up looking for a place to sit down and explained: “It’s just a special human being.”
“What? Shaman? Hunter? Psychic? Or like Alice? What is he?” Anthony asked persistently: “I thought you don’t like these people, why would you accept him?”
“Not them.” Zach waved his hand: “Relax, he is harmless. Moreover, he is good for us, you will want him to stay here.”
“Why! You better explain.” Anthony believed in Zach’s judgment, but he was still a little bit angry because he knew that once Zach said something like this, he would need him, the mayor of Barton to do something that violated the law…
“Have you noticed his hair?” Zach asked with a smile.
“White, I heard that someone would do this when they were young. This is nothing special.”
“No, when this place is completed, when he takes office, his hair will turn back to normal black.” Zach smiled mysteriously: “This is his ability. When the future of him and the things around him changes, his hair will change.”
Anthony’s eyes were wide open in confusion. He didn’t quite understand, “That’s it? What is the point of that? Does he have the ability to see the future? Or is he capable of changing the future? ”
“That’s the beauty of it.” Zach lit a cigarette: “He can’t see anything and can not change the future, just like ordinary people. But he can tell everyone around him what is affecting the future.”
The white smoke slowly lifted into the air. Anthony thought for a while and sighed, “You have found a warning light for yourself. Apart from Alice, you have found another layer of protection for yourself.”
Zach’s mouth was smiling, but his eyebrows were pressed together.
“Sounds like a very unreliable ability!” Antony could not help bashing Zach when he saw his complacent look, “Fine! But why do you want him to come here? You know that I hope you can establish contact with the Barton Police’s Southern District Branch. Do you know how much effort I have spent in order to let Cologne that guy use you!”
Zach first thanked Anthony, he naturally knew Anthony’s help, but he didn’t want law enforcement to go in and out of the Grande Funeral Home freely, and he didn’t want Benjamin or Alice to leave home and come to work at this place, and it was even more impossible for himself to come and work here.
“Madison is an interesting guy, we can trust him.”