Dead Living (Spirit Caller Book 5) Read Free Page B

me.”
    “I don’t mind,” I said quickly.
    “I knows that, maid, but I’m allowed to have a say in it, too.” Mrs. Saunders sipped at what was most likely a gin-laced instant latte. I’d gotten her hooked on lattes. “Millie is all alone in that old folks home of hers, and I’m here, and if you want the truth, my love, I’m lonely. Now, don’t look at me like that. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. You comes over here every day and takes care of me. Jeremy is here every day, now that he’s better. Everyone is good to me. I’m not saying that. But I don’t want the worry of this big house anymore, and I wants to leave it when it’s still my idea and not some fool doctor’s.”
    “Oh,” I said quietly.
    There wasn’t much to say to that; she was right. Mrs. Saunders had earned the right to live wherever she wanted. If she wanted to move out into her granddaughter’s house to be with her best friend, that was her right. My feelings didn’t matter at all in this.
    “So you’d move in with Amy?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. Dammit, Rachel. This is about the old woman and not you.
    “Well, I gots some good news on that one. The Newfoundland government has a grant for family members to renovate their houses to let elderly relatives move in, so they don’t need to live in a seniors’ home. I got one for Nan. They approved me for ten thousand! Can you imagine? Ten thousand dollars!” Amy waved her hands. “Oh! And I got the one for us to get new siding and windows! They match us half of it, up to ten thousand. We’ve been saving for three years to afford those suckers, and now we can get them!”
    Mrs. Saunders nodded enthusiastically. “And me husband’s pension is going to give me two thousand to renovate Amy’s bathroom, so that I can have all of the handles and the special tub I needs. Two thousand, maid!”
    I chuckled. “That is a lot of money! You can build an extension on your house for that, Amy!”
    “That’s what we’re going to do. I talked to the old man about it and we’re going to build on a little apartment for Millie and Nan. I checked with the government fellow and he said it was okay. We have to pay for it all upfront, but then we give them the receipts and they pay us back.”
    “Well, let us know if we can do anything. And, we’ll still come visit and help and all that,” I said.
    “You’re acting like I’m moving to China, not down the blasted road,” Mrs. Saunders said severely.
    “True. I could probably bike down to visit you every day, until the weather turns,” I said.
    “I don’t understand either of you,” Mrs. Saunders said. “Amy here walking three hours a day. You biking everywhere. Back in my way, we didn’t have time for all that foolishness.”
    “That’s because you had a dozen youngsters to look after, now,” Amy said.
    “You have like forty kids, Amy!” I said severely.
    Amy waved me off. “Half a dozen or so.”
    “Or so? If you forget how many children you have, you have too many.”
    “I don’t like some of them right now, so I’m pretending they’re not mine.”
    “When you going to give me some babies, Rachel?” Mrs. Saunders asked, a twinkle in her eye.
    Now was not the time to tell her about me and Jeremy, so I smiled and said, “When I find out, you’ll be the second person I tell, right after my mother.”
    “That mother of yours don’t need to know right away,” Mrs. Saunders said with a big grin. She took another sip of her gin-latte and smacked her lips. “This is some good stuff.”
    I went back to my dishes, as Amy and Mrs. Saunders discussed the logistics of moving her. Mrs. Saunders wanted her own bedroom that was big enough for a comfy chair and a tiny television, in case she wasn’t in the mood to be out and around everyone. Then, she wanted a tiny little living room to share with Millie and for them to entertain company.
    Mrs. Saunders was in her nineties, and she had a busier social