Soul Inheritance Read Free Page B

the long, hot line. The air was thick and muggy and her exhaustion showed with every bead of sweat that worked to wash away her carefully placed makeup. Finally making it to the narrow ticket window Katherine peered through the grimy Plexiglas.
    “ Three adult all day tickets.”
    A short, stout man peered back at her through the small hole in the glass. He seemed somehow familiar, though she didn’t know why. Nigel stepped in, took her arm, moved her to the side.
    “ Thirty-two dollars,” the short man grumbled, stretching toward the hole to be heard. Nigel paid and was immediately lost in the crowd.
    “ Did he finally get a job?” Mitch asked, brows raised.
    “ No, he didn’t.” Katherine wondered how much he’d taken out of the ATM this time and made a mental note to cancel the card on Monday. “That’s okay; let him enjoy it while he can,” she smiled at her father, who smiled back.
    “ It’s about time.”
    The crowd moved them toward the turnstiles and up to the red aluminum gates that flanked each side of the ticket booth. There Mitch offered up his hand to be stamped. Katherine followed suit as she had every year since she could remember. An icy, wet hand grasped hers tightly. Startled she shifted her attention from her father to the long fingers, gray with talon like claws. The stamp held in its other hand dripped of a thick red liquid, much like her head the night before. Strangely it was not the claw that alarmed her, but the sight of blood.
    “ What the hell…” she looked up to see the face from the night before, but only for a moment. As she backed into the person behind her the view changed. It faded like the dreams sometimes did. The image morphed and warped until it transformed into a tall, thin man with a mustache and goatee. He glared belligerently at them.
    “ Come on lady, it’s just a little ink for Christ’s sake. It washes off.” He gave a grunt, roughly pressed the stamp into the back of her hand and let go. “Next.”
    Katherine stumbled forward with help from an impatient Italian-looking woman.
    “ Are you okay? We don’t have to do this today, honey.” Mitch took her by the arm, pulled her out of the flow of traffic.
    “ No, I’m okay. Just a little tired, that’s all. I haven’t been sleeping. And I’ve been…” she looked back at the attendant, then to her father.
    Mitch’s brow furrowed. “Been?”
    “ Well, I’ve been seeing things,” she paused. “You know, in dreams, while I’m sleeping. It causes me not to sleep good. Afraid I’ll dream I guess, or, or…” she realized she was rambling.
    “ What kind of dreams?”
    Katherine stared blankly. She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but rational acceptance of what must sound irrational was not it.
    “ Can we talk about this over dinner? Please, I just need to have a good time with my Dad.” The suck up almost always worked. Mitch studied her before he answered.
    “ Just tell me one thing first.”
    Shrugging she looked up into the eyes of a concerned father.
    “ I’ve never known you to lie to me. Not even as a kid. Don’t start now.” She shot him an indignant look. “Did Nigel do this?” He swept her carefully arranged hair aside, gently stroked his thumb over the edge of the bruise and winced at the gash.
    “ No, Dad. He didn’t.” From his expression she thought he’d been hoping it had been Nigel. It seemed strange, but she took her father’s hand and smiled weakly. “This is our thing. Every year we do this and have a blast. Nothing’s gonna ruin it. You never know when it might be the last time.” A strange, puzzled expression crossed her face as she looked into her father’s eyes. “Oh, God, dad. I don’t know why I said that.”
    Concern flashed over his features, then relaxed into a grin. “Its okay, it’s true.” He turned and led her toward the gallery.
    Time passed easily with games of goldfish toss, which no one really wanted to win, except perhaps the littlest