Talking it out

David sighed as he tugged the giant, antique lawnmower out of the backyard shed and into the overgrown yard. He went back in the shed and emerged a moment later with a red plastic gas can and began filling up the mower with a scowl. It was a gorgeous day out, with blue skies and a cool breeze. Perfect for sitting inside in the AC and playing Warcraft. Too bad his dad had other ideas.

As he topped off the mower's gas tank he shouted back to the house.

"Hey, Maddie! I'm not doing this alone! Dad wants you to weed wack."

"Ugh, fine," Madison groaned. "But I have homework too, so once I'm done I'm not staying out here just to keep you company." She slipped on some beat-up sneakers so she wouldn't wreck her good pair and made her way out to the shed to find the trimmer. Brushing aside some cobwebs, she found it and dragged it out into the sunlight - it was old and heavy and she kept telling Dad they should get a new one, but he pointed out that this one still worked fine...

Except that today, for some reason, it didn't. She had a little moment of exultation that maybe it had finally died, but then decided probably they should at least try to fix it or else Dad would just tell them to do it anyway. "Hey, come help with this," she called to her brother.

David had pulled the mower over to the corner of the yard and was just about to pull-start it when his sister called over to him. He looked up and frowned, but let go of the handle and headed her way.

"Shit, did that stupid thing finally give up the ghost?" he asked as he squatted down next to her.

"God, I hope so," she muttered. "It just won't start, and I don't know why, it's not out of gas."

David sighed.

"Fuck, give me a sec."

He slouched off towards the garage and returned a minute later with his dad's tool box, sitting down cross-legged on the grass next to the bulky weed-wacker. He took out a phillips-head screwdriver and started unscrewing the plastic casing from the machine's engine, handing the screws to Maddison as he did. After a moment he paused and looked up at her pensively. He had wanted a chance to talk to her for a while, but he wasn't sure how to broach the subject. This seemed as good a time as any.

"You know... it's kinda weird. Getting back to normal. I mean... stuff like this. After what happened a few days ago."

"Oh..." Madison hesitated, looking around just in case anyone might be listening, but of course there was no one in sight. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Everyone else just seems to be going on with their normal lives, and they have no idea... well, except the rest of them who were there. And I don't know if some of them had 'normal lives' to start with..." She thought of Noah in particular, and the secret he had been hiding, but didn't mention him just yet, in case David got weird about all of that. "Cecelia seemed awfully calm about finding out there were things like ... whatever that was in the world, and Addie and Lil actually seemed excited over it all." She shook her head in amazement.

David shrugged, leaning back against the corrugated tin shed.

"Well... I guess I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited too. I mean, yeah, it's scary and all, but if that thing is real then that means that book of grandad's is for real too. And there is all kinds of weird and cool stuff in there, even just based on the drawings. If Mr. Winters can actually help me translate it, who knows what we could learn."

"Yeah, I still can't believe you didn't tell me about that book!" she exclaimed. "Was that the only weird thing you found in Grandpa's attic, or are you secretly hiding a collection of pickled pig fetuses or something too?"

David laughed.

"Pssh, no. That was the only weird thing. I mean, other than the normal old-people weird things like pictures of dogs playing poker and taxidermied raccoons and shit. I always thought he was a normal guy, you know? A little distant, maybe, but I figured it was just 'cause he and dad didn't get along. Then I found that book and I thought maybe it was a prank or something. I almost threw it away, but something about it just... it felt like I needed to keep it. Like it was mine."

He shook his head and sighed.

"I don't know if that makes any sense. But then when I saw that blue fucker, I knew I'd seen somehing like it before. In the book. It's just... weird."

"Taxidermied raccoons is almost as bad," she said with a shudder. "But I guess that book already came in handy... sort of. And if you could find out what it says, maybe it would be even more useful. But why was it in Grandpa's attic in the first place? It's not his handwriting, right? And I think it looks too old even for him. So he must have gotten it from someone else. Was it in a box or something, packed away, or what?"

David opened up the inner casing of the engine and set it aside.

"No, that's the thing. It was in his desk, in a locked drawer. I found the key for it on his keyrack in the living room. Dad wanted me to look through his desk for property and tax records and shit. This wasn't something he had hidden away. It was something he wanted access to."

He shrugged and looked up at his sister.

"Like I said, weird. But I guess you know all about weird, huh? I mean what with your dreams."

Madison shrugged awkwardly, scuffing her toe in the dirt. "That's usually just dumb stuff, though. Like... dreaming it'll rain the next day, so I take an umbrella even though it's sunny in the morning, and then it rains and I'm the only one who doesn't get soaked on the way home. Or I see a really cool dress in my dream, and then the next time I'm shopping I find the same one. Stuff like that. Probably the most useful was dreaming about a test I had coming up, and then the questions on the real test were the same. It's never been this weird before."

"It's still pretty weird." David looked up at the awkward expression on his sisters face and frowned.

"I mean... the dreams are weird. Not you. Besides, it seems pretty useful, you know? I mean, maybe if we run into something like that again..."

"I don't think we can really avoid it," Madison said reluctantly. "Especially if you're going to stay friends with Noah..."

David cocked one eyebrow at his sister.

"Of course I am. I mean... he's pretty much the only friend I have. Or at least he was. Besides, it's not his fault. I mean, yeah, at first I was freaked, but... he's still Noah."

"No, I know... of course he is, I didn't mean you shouldn't stay friends with him!" she said hastily. "I just meant, well, if he's, you know... and the rest of his family too, then... it does mean things are going to be different."

"Well yeah... I guess."

For a long moment he was quiet as he looked at various springs and wires. Maddie could see that his mind wasn't on the repair, though. Finally he spoke without looking up.

"What do you think about Addie?"

"What do I think about her?" Madison looked puzzled for a second as to why David would be asking. "She's fine, I guess? I mean, kind of weird, obviously, but she seems nice en... oh. Oh my god, you like her!" She grinned, trying to hold back outright laughter.

David desperately tried to not respond to his sister's laughter, but he could feel his cheeks turning red despite his efforts.

"What? No. I just... she seems cool."

He looked up at his sister and saw from her grin that she wasn't buying a word of it.

"Fuck you."

"Aw, it's okay - I won't tell her," Madison promised, still smirking. "Maybe you can ask to draw on her arms sometime."

"Maybe you can die in a fire. Besides, at least I'm not the one making googoo eyes at Lassie."

"What? I'm not... I don't know what you're talking about!" Madison protested. "And anyway, Lassie was a girl dog. It's kind of implied in the name."

"Yeah, well, all the dogs that played her were male. Look, seriously... you can't say a word to her about it, ok? She already thinks I'm a freak. Lil, either. Those two are thick as thieves."

"You are such a nerd," she said with a slight eye-roll. "I already said I wouldn't say anything - it's not like I hang out with them all the time or we text each other between classes or they're over here lying around playing stupid Call of Duty and hogging the xbox so nobody else gets to use it. Not that I know anyone who does that."

"It's not Call of Duty, it's Battlefield 3. There's a difference. Besides, all you ever use it for is Sims and Netflix."