CHAPTER 2

There was a pit in my stomach as we pulled into the driveway. The house sat as it normally did, with its single story and gray-blue siding, the lawn that needed a trim and the giant pine tree in the center of the front yard. But it felt different. Foreign. 

My mother was a cheater? She was the kindest woman you could hope to meet. And that's not just me speaking as her son. Everyone she interacts with would tell you that. I find it hard to believe. But Aaron seems convinced. 

You could literally feel the pressure building as we walked up to the front door. Aaron was seething with a silent anger. You couldn't easily read it on his face, but you could sense it. As if the hair on the back of your neck was raised, detecting some primal predator that you couldn't quite see. 

He opened the door quite dramatically, swinging it open and letting it slam against the wall with a loud thud. 

"Mom!" He called out. "Where are you?" 

No answer. Her car was in the driveway. She was home somewhere. 

I follow him into the living room, where there lies a shaggy brown thing with no eyes and a large, lolling tongue. 

"What the heck is that!" I shout, yet again surprised at the foreignness of its appearance. 

"That's Juju. Don't worry about her."

"Juju? Your imaginary friend Juju?" 

"Not very imaginary, is she." He says sarcastically, still intent on finding mom. 

He shouts for her again. 

She calls a response from the kitchen. He leads us into the kitchen where she sits at the dining table, cluttered as ever, typing into her keyboard. Work. 

I expect him to yell at her. Or throw something. The vibes he gave off as we walked in were that of a rage. But he's calm. He walks over, and sits at the seat across from her. It's still her mother, after all. Our mother. 

"I have something important to talk about." He says. 

"Can it wait?" I need to finish up the payroll." Her eyes never leave the screen, and her fingers continue to type away. 

He takes the multiple cardboard boxes crowding the seat next to him and knocks them off, motioning for me to sit next to him. 

The crash of their falling, something porcelain and probably valuable, still doesn't warrant her attention. 

"Mother." He says, more serious. "I need your full attention. This is a serious matter." Yet her eyes still don't leave the screen. 

"Mom!" I shout, annoyed again at her impassivity. Quite often she gets lost in her work, in her screens, like a zombie shutting out all external stimuli. 

"Sorry, what? I'm trying to do work right now. You guys can see that." 

"This is more important than your worthless excel sheets." Aaron spikes. And when she doesn't respond to that either, the air grows thick with… something. As if lighting might strike from this very room. I look at Aaron, wondering if he can feel it too. And his eyes are glowing. Not bright white light, but a subtle shine in the iris, as if his blue eyes were reflecting the light of the sun. 

Suddenly, the clutter on the table goes flying to the left, as if a great force shoved them away and into the wall. 

This gets her attention. And mine. She shuts the laptop. And I try to shut my gaping mouth, but no dice. 

"Aaron Lawson Night." Uh oh. The full name. "What is so urgent you need to interrupt my business with this caucus racket. And with your brother here? What on God's green earth are you thinking?" 

"He can see." Aaron says plainly. 

"Are we gonna ignore what just happened?" I ask incredulously. "Everything just went flying! The wall is gonna need to be repaired and repainted."

They ignore me. Instead they stare at each other. My mother is smart. Very smart. When she was a kid she scored higher than Einstein on the iq tests, and they had her in various special programs growing up. My brother inherited this intelligence, as evidenced by his own scores and academic prowess. Which was all the more puzzling as to why he pursued a business degree at some bootleg university. 

"Juju," my mother calls. "Come in here." 

The brown thing happily trots into the room on four, no five, legs. Five? The heck?

"Is she here?" She asks Aaron. His only response is a short nod. "Logan. Point to Juju for me."

I point to the creature. To which my mom needed no confirmation from Logan that I was right.

 All she said was "It's not what you think. I loved your father." 

"Fat chance," Aaron spits. "This is quite literally impossible."

"I'm telling you, it's not what you think." 

"It's never happened. Never." 

I'm still caught up on the fact that Juju is real. Or that I'm going to have to repaint the wall. 

Amidst my mother adamantly denying any foul action on her part, I ask Aaron. "How do you know it's impossible?" 

He looks at me, eyes narrow. "Because it's never happened before." 

"And?" I ask. "Who says you just haven't heard of it happening?" Maybe I just didn't want to accept that my mother was unfaithful. Or maybe I found her defense convincing. Whatever the case, I wanted to exhaust other options.

"I swear to you both, on my life, I would never do such a thing. I would never cheat on your father. He was the love of my life." Mom's eyes begin to tear up. "To think that you would even suspect me of doing so hurts me so much." 

Aarons expression hardens at this. "What do you expect us to think? This is unheard of."

"I expect you to trust your mother." 

"I'd expect my mother to understand"