An Outside Job

Step aside, Hayden, I’m the mysterious one in the family now.

Mamá kept trying to get the truth out of me but she wasn’t terribly subtle about it.

I woke up to her hovering over me. “Santiago, where did you go yesterday?”

At breakfast, she asked, “Did you see Officer McArthur at the station yesterday?”

While I was showering, she shouted in at me, “What was the price of gas at the 7/11?”

I was reading in my room when she burst in and announced, “Gertrude Brentwood didn’t see you out walking when she was driving to the grocery store.”

My hands tightened on the book. “Maybe she took a different route.”

“Which way did you take?”

“Uh, the main way?”

“Gertrude said she took the main way too.”

“I didn’t see her either,” I said.

James kept prying as well. We normally shared everything with each other, which made it difficult to keep a secret this big.

Michael also came up to me at one point and said, “Hey, I just want you to know that you can talk to your mom or me about anything.”

Camila didn’t interrogate me, but she kept coming into my room asking to borrow things then looking around intently while I fetched whatever it was she wanted. One time, I darted into my room to grab my phone charger and I caught her fiddling with the latch on the trunk. She vaguely mumbled something about being interested in wood grain and vanished.

I doubted she was truly interested in anything she couldn’t somehow blow up, but I didn’t say that out loud.

The only person who treated me the exact same as before was Hayden. He went on pretending as though I didn’t exist. It was nice to have that stability in my life.

How would I explain away running off to Bess’s Monday morning?

Despite the natural curiosity of my family, nothing supernatural happened until that evening. I was reading in bed when I heard the doorbell ring and Patch go tearing down the hall, yapping. Perhaps it was my Seerish abilities, but I somehow knew that this was about me. I heard the door open downstairs followed by Camila summoning Mamá and Michael at the top of her lungs.

I listened, but nobody beckoned me. Maybe it was a pest control salesman after all? I read and reread the page in my book for a couple minutes but couldn’t shake the feeling that this was somehow about me. Finally, I dropped out of bed and peered outside.

A VW Microbus was parked diagonally across our driveway. At least it wasn’t on the roof this time.

I went downstairs and soon heard Bess’s voice. I pressed my face against the wall next to the living room.

“That would be perfect for him. He’s a good boy but he needs focus and discipline,” Mamá said.

Uh oh. Nobody wants to hear their mother say that.

“That’s what he’ll get if he works for me,” Bess’s voice responded.

“I’ll go get him,” Michael said.

Before I could even panic about being caught, he was right there, looking down at me, an amused expression on his face.

I immediately started lightly patting the wall with both of my hands as though this would make me look like I hadn’t been eavesdropping. I’m not exactly sure why normal people under any circumstances would pat down a sheetrock wall, but it’s the first thing that came to mind, OK?

Michael walked on past me, gesturing for me to follow him. He led me down the hall and into the kitchen, then yelled out, “Santiago, come here please!” We then waited a few more seconds to make it seem like he’d just found me before he nodded and we walked back to the living room.

What can I say? Michael’s an awesome stepdad.

“Hey,” I said as we entered.

Mamá sat in the loveseat, a smug grin on her face. Bess was in the rocking chair, cane on her lap.

“Santiago, I’m Bess Belfry,” she said, as though giving a practiced speech. “I’m a sweet, helpless old lady who needs a hard-working young man like you to help in my garden.”

If Mamá and Michael found her words as awkward as I did, they didn’t show it. If I was an old lady, I bet I could get away with anything.

“How many hours do you want me to work?” I asked, trying to sound undecided.

“I’ll require you to work every weekday morning from 9 until noon. In the garden. My garden. And I will pay you in bucks, the green kind printed on papers.”

Now Mamá and Michael did give each other looks.

“Sure, I’ll do it,” I said, quickly. Maybe too quickly. Should I have mulled it over more? Made a show of it? James was loads better at these acting gigs than I was.

“Wait a minute. How do you know Santiago?” Mamá asked.

I felt my jaw tighten. Uh oh.

“I met him yesterday.”

“During my walk. After the race,” I added hurriedly.

Before Mamá could say anything, Bess clapped her hands.

“Superb,” she said. “I will leave you to watching your plustick screens,” she stood up from her seat.

“Thank you. I’m sure Santiago will work hard for you,” Mamá said in a tone that was clearly meant for me.

“I’m certain he will too,” Bess said.

They led her out.

I guess I wouldn’t have to come up with an excuse after all.

I checked my phone. One day down, four days to go, and I hadn’t even started. I was going to need a miracle—or at least a whole lot of luck.