I shook my head as I poured water into my kettle. “Who taught you to think so highly of me?” Although, I think I knew the answer.

      “I suppose my Father did.” She conceded.

      “Yes, ha-ha, that boy really did never grow old. Always followed me about like a little boy. Well, I suppose that’s fitting, but considering our circumstances, he could have taken the chance to grow up some. How is he, anyway?”

      “Dead,” she said bluntly.

      “Besides that, I meant.”

      She cast me a quizzical look, “um, what else is there to dead? Buried in the ground, pushing up daisies, worm food?”

      I almost felt shock, “So you mean he is actually deceased? How did this happen?”

      “I don’t know, that’s why I came here, perhaps you know…”

      I absorbed it, so sudden was this news that I nearly forgot where I kept my tea bags. “So Charles is really gone for good. I am almost sad that I never was informed until now.”

      She jumped up and shouted, “Almost sad? Really? You were his best friend and you are almost sad?! AFTER ALL--”

      “SIT DOWN!” I roared, and she obeyed. I forgot about how persuasive I was. She looked at me with furious eyes as I set down her coffee mug on a coaster. “Now,” I continued, and moved to sit across from her, “You really don’t know what I am. I am almost concerned about how you will react.”

      “What you are is a FREAK!” She bellowed.

      “Some would say that.” I looked at my cup of tea and realize I couldn’t drink it. “Now, like I said, you need to calm down, your emotions make me tense. There is no reason to try to provoke a fight or prove your self a threat here. Let’s start over, my name is Riley Copper.”

      “Riley…Copper? That isn’t a normal last name.”

      “I took my surname on later, I used to be a Copperfield, but now I think copper fits nicely.”

      “…okay…” she said sarcastically.

      I waited patiently.

      “What?”

      “I told you my name, we are getting to know each other, so what is your name?” 
 The girl just rolled her eyes and with sarcasm said, “Hello, my name is Jael, pleased to meet you.”

      “Alright, if you didn’t want to do this just turn back into my cat and leave, you came to see me if you remember.”

      “NO, no, sorry, it’s just, I’m sorry.” Jael sighed, “I am ready now. So I am Jael Lafleur.”

      I smiled, “You are the daughter of Charlie Lafleur and Ellie Helton. Your parents were quite a couple. It was everlasting love if even I had never seen it.”

      “I wouldn’t know…” she said

      “You didn’t know your parents?”

      Jael just shook her head and sipped some tea.

      “Then how do you know about me, the ‘great’ ‘adventurous’ and ‘bold’ Riley?”

      “From my dad’s journal, it’s all I have.”

      “Ha! Charlie’s stupid little diary. At least it is in loving hands.”

      “He wrote a lot about you, but a lot of things seem like he left them out. Whole words and paragraphs are gone, but there are no missing pages.”

      “That is to be expected of him, Charlie believed in keeping a good secret or two. So, moving on, let’s hear more about you. Who raised you, where have you lived, what have you done? When did you learn about your gift? How much do you know about Charlie’s secrets?”

      “You want me to just spill my life story out for you here, right now?”

      “Yes, I don’t have but another hour or two, so be quick.”