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Fiji had wanted a late evening walk alongside the river for reasons she couldn't explain at the time. Bobo had agreed because at the back of his mind he thought it might be romantic, the riverside being the venue for the Midnight annual picnic for one thing. Perhaps, they realised later, there was some witchy reason for Fiji's choice of venue; despite Bobo's hopes it had not turned out to be romantic at all but he could look past that given what did come out of their stroll.
The walk had been nice enough until they were circling back towards Midnight and Fiji spotted the man. She grabbed Bobo's arm and pointed with her free hand. The stranger was sat on the handrail of the bridge, legs dangling over the drop, pondering the murky water far below.
"Maybe he's just out here for some quiet," Bobo suggested but Fiji gave him a look and dragged him to the bridge and up the metal steps. Surely the man must have heard them approaching but he didn't react until Fiji spoke.
"Hey," she called gently, loud enough to be heard but not enough to spook him. "Sir?"
He glanced over at her. Caucasian with tousled dark hair and a lot of piercings, Bobo noted. Dark circles under damp eyes.
"Sir?" the man repeated incredulously.
"Are you all right?" Fiji asked, refusing to be put off by his scepticism.
"If I say yes will you go away and leave me alone?"
Fiji shrugged helplessly and kept on trying to connect with him. "My name is Fiji. This is Bobo. What's your name?"
"Manfred. Bernardo. The great Bernadro," he said and gave a harsh laugh.
"Nice to meet you, Manfred," Fiji said. "What are you doing up here?"
"What is it to you?"
Fiji looked to Bobo who had nothing to offer. "I help people whenever I can," she said.
"You can't help me," Manfred said.
Bobo found his voice. "Look, whatever's wrong, I'm sure it's not that bad."
Fiji glared at Bobo. "You can't say that," she hissed. "What if he's been told he's got a terminal illness, or lost someone?"
"Right." Bobo tried to look contrite. This was why'd he kept silent to begin with. Putting his foot in it was not going to help anyone here.
Fiji took a few slow steps toward Manfred. "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do? Even if it's to listen. I'm a good listener and I won't judge you."
"No closer," Manfred said and Fiji stilled. Manfred returned his gaze to the water and shook his head. "My grandmother died two weeks ago."
Bobo swore quietly, sorry he'd said things weren't that bad. He'd expected a lost job or dumped by a girlfriend. From the way Manfred said grandmother it sounded like he and his lost relative had been incredibly close.
"I'm sorry," Fiji said. "That must be painful."
Manfred let out a long breath. "We knew it was coming. Cancer. But now I'm alone. My mother...let's say Xylda was more like my mother than my mother ever was, and she pretty much raised me. The worst thing is she's supposed to be here and she's not."
"I spent some time with my aunt who mentored me," Fiji said. "She died a few years ago and I still miss her dearly every day. I can only imagine how much your loss hurts."
"I feel lost," Manfred said. "She was always the one making plans."
"You don't have to make any decisions right now," Fiji soothed. "Especially drastic ones."
Manfred focussed his gaze on her as if seeing her for the first time. "I guess you're right."
"Why don't you come with us to my Wicca shop and I'll make some herbal tea?"
Manfred raised an eyebrow. Bobo scoffed. Fiji had been doing a good job with this Manfred but tea wasn't his, or apparently Manfred's, idea of something worth not jumping into the river for.
"I've got beer back at my store," Bobo offered. "If chamomile tea isn't your thing. Or what was that awful thing you tried to give me yesterday, Feej?"
"It was fennel," she said sharply. "Good for the digestion."
"In the sense it made me want to throw it back up and I'd be cleansed?"
Fiji rolled her eyes but Manfred laughed, put at ease by the friendly bickering. To Bobo's relief, Manfred began to ease himself off the railing, though he paused to ask, "You're not going to call the cops on me the moment I step down? Have me committed?"
Bobo shook his head. "Believe me, we don't tend to call the cops if we can ever avoid it."
Manfred got back onto the safety of the bridge. Fiji gave him an encouraging smile. She pointed. "This way," she said, and Bobo led the way down the steps, Manfred following, with Fiji bringing up the rear.
"Where are we going?" Manfred asked.
"Midnight," Fiji said. "A small town but it's home."
Manfred nodded. "You said you own a Wicca store?"
"Yes. Inherited from the aunt I was telling you about."
"You work magic?"
Fiji gave him a sideways glance. "Sometimes."
Manfred didn't seem fazed by this. After a long thoughtful moment he said, "What would you say if I told you I see spirits?"
"That we're too far from civilisation to get a decent scotch," Bobo quipped.
Manfred smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.
"You mean ghosts?" Fiji asked.
He nodded, wary again, hands tensed.
"I'd say you'll fit right in with the rest of us weirdos," Bobo said. "Midnight is a special place."
Manfred relaxed again, shoulders dropping. "I think maybe I saw the name mentioned in one of Xylda's journals but I didn't know if it referred to a person or a place or something else entirely. She could be cryptic."
"You must miss her so much," Fiji said.
Manfred nodded. "I'd ask her what she meant, but I can't see her spirit. She said she'd stay and watch over me once she passed." This he directed at the sky, as if Xylda was listening from above and might respond.
His she's supposed to be here and she's not made more sense now.
"So you normally see dead people?" Bobo asked, because weird was what passed for normal in Midnight, but this was a new kind of weird. He pulled out his phone.
"I'm a medium. Sometimes spirits reach out to me, sometimes I try to contact them and they respond." Manfred frowned at the sight of Bobo typing. "What are you doing?"
"Googling you is all," Bobo assured him. "The Great Bernado. That's some photo!" Fiji peered over his shoulder and smiled.
"Yeah." Manfred gave an embarrassed laugh. "Pays to have a persona in my line of work. I'm the real deal but not all the time, you know?"
Bobo shook his head, swatted at a low flying moth. "Not really."
Manfred frowned, tried to explain. "I can't always get a psychic read on someone or contact the deceased I've been asked to. Sometimes I have to resort to trickery and guesswork. But I swear the Bernardo bloodline are powerful mediums - well, it skipped my mother, but I got the gift. Curse. Power. whatever you want to call it."
Fiji tipped her head. "I guess I see that. I'm a witch but sometimes the best I can do for someone is herbal bath soaks or a protective amulet."
"Or some awful tasting tea," Bobo added.
Fiji gave him a playful shove. "No more tea for you! Not even that one you like."
"That's so mean," Bobo said with a fake pout.
Manfred gestured to the traffic light up ahead. "That's Midnight?
"Home sweet home," Bobo told him. "See that building, that's my pawn shop."
Manfred nodded. "I left my camper van a couple of miles back," he said, hesitant again. "I guess I should go back for it so maybe just the one beer."
"Fetch it tomorrow," Bobo said. "Hell, I'll give you a ride. I've got a house that's available to rent so it's empty right now. You can stay in there tonight. Gratis."
"I don't want to be any trouble." Manfred looked as if he might bolt.
"No trouble," Fiji assured him. "I can bring some bedding over for you. It would make me happy if you stayed."
"We can drink more beer," Bobo coaxed. "Maybe even open my scotch. I have a single malt I got when I visited Dallas a couple months back."
Manfred gave in. "Okay. It's not like I have better plans."
*
Two beers in, while Fiji was off making up the bed in the decently furnished rental house, Bobo asked, "I'm only asking, not planning on anything whatever your answer is. But I'm curious. Were you going to jump if we hadn't come along?"
"No," Manfred said, then, "I don't know. Xylda wasn't there despite what she'd said and I'd been driving all day. I pulled the van over. Cried some more. Begged Xylda to show herself. Got out and started walking. I didn't know where I was."
Manfred toyed with the bottle. "I felt I was heading in the right direction when I got near the bridge, weird as that sounds."
"I've heard much weirder."
"If you and Fiji hadn't shown up I don't know what would have happened. I guess I'm glad you did," Manfred said.
"We are too." Bobo reached for the empty bottle and Manfred relinquished it. "I'm having a scotch, want one?"
"Sure." Manfred leaned back in the sturdy leather armchair that had only been in the pawn shop for a week. "You always take in strays?"
Bobo laughed. "Midnight has a way of drawing in the lost and the different," he said. "We've all been strays at some point. Olivia, Lemuel, the Rev - I don't know how you feel about religion given your gift but the Rev is a decent man and a good listener if you want to talk more. He'd never call the cops on you, believe me."
"Maybe," Manfred said cautiously.
"We'll show you around tomorrow," Bobo said as he poured the drinks. "Joe and Chuy will be glad to meet a new neighbour. They have a peke, if you like dogs."
Manfred took the proffered whiskey. "I'm a neighbour now?"
The door opened and Fiji entered. "Bed's ready, and I put a few basic groceries in the kitchen. Here's the key," she said, placing it on a dining table Bobo had been trying to sell for several months.
"Thank you," Manfred said. "You're really being too kind."
"There's no such thing as too kind," Fiji said. "Now what was that about being a neighbour? That house has been empty too long."
"Everything's moving a little fast," Manfred said.
Fiji nodded. "Sorry. We just get excited when we meet someone like you. Unique."
"Of all the people here, we've never met a medium before," Bobo agreed.
Manfred gazed around the store. "You know I don't usually like places like this," he mused. "No offence, Bobo. It's just there are often memories attached to older items. Echoes of the past, remnants of spirits. They can buzz at me, whisper or even shout. It can get overwhelming. But there's nothing. As if my powers are turned off."
Bobo downed his scotch. "Has that ever happened before?"
"No." Manfred shook his head in fresh despair.
No wonder Manfred felt lost.
"Maybe that's why you can't see your grandmother's spirit," Fiji mused, perching on a tall wooden stool near the counter.
"Then she didn't abandon me," Manfred said, thinking aloud. "It's my fault."
"You're grieving," Fiji said. "That can muddle your thoughts and your everyday senses, let alone your supernatural ones. Maybe you just need time."
Manfred gazed at her earnestly. "You think so?"
She spread her hands. "I'm not an expert in psychics. But I can do some research. There are some crystals we could try to strengthen or reawaken your gift, if you'd like."
Manfred nodded, looked away. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because that's what we do," Bobo said softly. "Midnighters look after their own. And with that gift of yours and the way you said you were drawn to the bridge, I think you're one of us, at least partly."
Manfred swallowed. "I've never belonged anywhere," he said tightly. "Xylda and I spent our lives on the road."
"Nothing wrong with travel," Fiji said. "But it might be nice to have somewhere to call home."
"Yes," Manfred said. "Maybe it would."
*
Four days later Manfred darted into Fiji's store and pulled her into a tight hug. "It worked!"
He let her go, brandished the striped polished stone he wore around his neck. "I just talked to Xylda. You were right, this crystal helped me reconnect to my gift."
"Oh, Manfred! That's wonderful!" Fiji beamed at him, glad to see him so happy.
"She was thrilled I was here too. Apparently she wanted me to come to Midnight. So thank you, for everything. I have to tell Bobo," Manfred said. "And then I can go and do some actual psychic work on my websites."
In celebration, dessert was on Manfred that night at Home Cooking. By this time Olivia had run a full background check on Manfred and reluctantly accepted he was no threat, and dug into her apple pie with relish.
Fiji and Bobo shared a giant slice of coffee cake that Fiji claimed she couldn't otherwise finish. The Rev and Joe had apple pie too, while Chuy had chosen a fruit salad but with a huge helping of whipped cream.
Manfred had even offered Lemuel to feed from him and the vampire had leeched a tiny amount of energy in acknowledgement of the trust being shown.
Manfred raised his glass."I can't believe how much this place already feels like home. I propose a toast, to old friends and new," he said and everyone clinked their glasses in agreement.
Manfred wasn't finished however. "Thank you all for welcoming me here, but especially you, Fiji and Bobo. You took pity on a strange man on a bridge and I can never thank you enough."
"Midnighters take care of their own," Bobo said, adding with a grin, "even when we don't yet know you're one of us."
Midnight worked in mysterious ways.