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Your name is Joe Egbert and you don’t know what to do.
An old man you don’t know has a hand on your shoulder while you kneel beside him. His hand is as big as your face and engulfs your entire shoulder, making you feel even smaller than you already are. His grip is firm but shaking, just like the rest of him. You think he must be sick because his face is so pale and he’s panting like he’s been running for his life. His eyes are wide, confused, and haunted. He holds onto you like a lifeline.
Mama is near you but her attention is centered on the little girl laying flat in front of her. The girl is still and quiet and your mother presses her fingers along her neck before she drops her head to rest it on the girl’s chest. Whatever Mama hears there, it makes her relax a little and then she’s patting the girl’s cheeks and speaking to her softly, telling her to wake up as she continues to press her handkerchief to the girl’s bleeding nose. Your eyes keep darting to the girl’s ears because Mama wiped the blood from there too, but there’s still a smear of red along the rim of one. There’s more at the corners of her eyes and lips, and her fingernails are caked in it. You don’t want to know why.
“What’s her name?” Mama asks without looking up and for a moment, you think she’s talking to you.
“Jade,” the old man replies. He sounds so dazed.
“Jade, honey, you need to wake up now.” Her voice is clear and gentle, coaxing in a way you know well. She wakes you up the same way and you’re not sure how you feel about that. You’re not sure how you feel about any of this except terrified. “It’s time to wake up, little one.”
As Mama keeps working on the girl, you look at the old man. His shock is slowly leaving him and behind it is an empty kind of grief you don’t like seeing. There’s still a bloody trail from one of his eyes and red rims the edge of one nostril. It reminds you of the stories Seamus tells you after church about demons and bad omens.
The old man lets go of you and shifts onto his knees so he can crawl closer to the girl.
“Jade,” he calls, reaching to pet her hair. “Come on, girl, open those pretty eyes for me.”
His voice seems to get to her. The girl gives a quiet groan and shifts a little before her eyes flutter open for a few moments. Red pools at the corners again but it’s lighter, mixed with tears. The old man takes her hand in his, smiling down at her even as she slips away again, but she’s breathing nice and strong and Mama doesn’t look worried anymore.
You’re still in shock. Because the old man and the little girl appeared out of no where right in front of your face not ten minutes ago.
The old man isn’t familiar with the area, doesn’t know much about the city, and has no idea how they got there. Mama offers to let them stay until Jade wakes up and then leads them all back. You make sure to get hold of her hand and sneak peeks at the old man and the girl in his arms. He’s got deep lines along his mouth and eyes, the kind you only get from spending most of your life laughing, and somehow a frown just doesn’t look right. Then again, neither does the blood. He scares you and you don’t know how he did that trick. The appearing thing.
When Mama opens the apartment door, you zip in and grab up your piano book, the one Mama’s teaching you from, so you can stuff it in the space under your bed. You don’t know why you want to hide it, but you’ve got the worst fear that if the old man can appearify himself, he might be able to disappearify things, too. You tuck away the hopelessly lumpy rabbit Mama made for you when you were a baby. The piano you can’t do anything about but you resolve to keep an eye on it.
Mama leads the old man into your room just as you’ve finished and he lays Jade down on your bed. You don’t like her being there because you’ve only had the bed for two months now, since your birthday, but you know it’s the right thing to do. Mama has always told you over and over to be good to other people and help them whenever you can and you don’t want to disappoint her. You’d hate to do that.
“Joe, go get a few towel and fill a bowl of water for me,” Mama tells you as she sits down at Jade’s side and touches all over her face and neck. You fetch it for her quickly, and then a kitchen chair after for the old man. Mama hands one towel to the old man and then begins cleaning Jade’s face and hands carefully. Without the traces of red, Jade doesn’t look scary. She looks sick. Mama gently pats Jade’s face like she does to wipe away your sweat when you have a fever. Watching her fuss over some other kid… You hate it. So much.
Jade sleeps the whole day. She and the old man are still there by the time Dad gets back. He and Mama talk in low tones near the door. You know what it means when they do that because they’re careful not to fight in front of you but their faces are strained and unhappy. Twisting around to see your bedroom, you glare at the old man’s shape still sitting next to your bed. It’s his fault they’re unhappy and you hate him for it. You wish he would just take his little girl and go away. Instead, they stay the night and you sleep between your parents in their bed.
Near dawn, you wake up hearing crying. Dad has already left for the shop but Mama is warm against your back, her arms snug around you. For a while, you just lay there listening. It bothers you, the crying. You hate how it makes your insides clench up like you did something wrong. When it gets too much, you carefully pull yourself out of Mama’s embrace and scurry off the bed.
It’s still dark enough that you stumble here and there finding your way back to your room. By the time you get to the door, you can hear the old man’s voice and you freeze. You can barely make out the two of them, the way the old man is rocking Jade in his arms as she clutches to him.
“It’s all right, my little darling,” the old man says softly. “It’s all right. She’ll never find us here. You did so good. So good. Jade, girl, we’re safe and you never have to see her again…”
Jade’s words are wobbly and muffled against his body but the old man only continues to soothe her. And after a little while, you back up and go to your parent’s bed again. You climb up and wiggle into Mama’s arms and let the sound of her heartbeat calm you down.
Maybe you don’t hate Jade and the old man. Maybe it’s okay that they’re here in your house, in your bed.
When she wakes up, you tell Mama that Jade and the old man should stay. She promises to think about it.