Ascension by Bailey Bradford (desktop ebook reader txt) 📕

sister had just shouted ‘mother fucker’ in Spanish loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood.

Adela didn’t watch her mouth, though, cuss words tumbling out as panic twisted her features. Martin ran over to her, whooshing through Ro again, which made them both gasp, but he grabbed his sister.

“Stop, before Dad comes out and sees this!” Martin said, giving her a shake. “He’s already stressed to the point I’m worried he’s going to have a heart attack or stroke or something!”

Conner got his arms around Ro quickly, whispering to him even though he didn’t think Martin and Adela could hear him. “Give them a few minutes. They’re badly rattled.” Normally, Conner would have been kind of amused by their expressions, but he was learning that his sense of humor was warped and he didn’t care for it much at times. “They can hear you, I think, maybe even sense you. It must just be your dad that’s blocking us somehow.”

“Ro?” Adela rasped shortly thereafter. “Ro, are you here? Are you—?” She glared at Martin. “I feel like a fuckin’ idiot.”

“Adela, your mouth,” Ro said quietly. “Mama would whip your butt for that.”

Adela froze, not even breathing at first as she stared at them, or at least in their direction. Martin sniffled and cupped his hands over his mouth.

Finally Adela shook herself and said, “Mama always did have a double standard for you boys and me. A lady shouldn’t cuss.” She rolled her eyes then promptly burst into tears.

Martin stopped covering his mouth and instead hugged his sister, but it was Ro he addressed. “How…? How can we hear you? Why are you here? Is Mama with you? Are you in Heaven or—?” He stopped and huffed. “I guess you’re not in Hell, but why can’t Dad hear you? I know he’s angry, but that’s just because that guy showed up here the morning after you died and told Dad he’d, uh, that y’all had, uh. Uh.”

Conner wasn’t far off from being shocked, which was hard to do to him. “That guy, the JD guy, came to talk to your dad?”

Ro squeaked and his siblings almost wet their pants, Conner would bet.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Martin chanted as he started backing up again. “He is here, Adela!”

“So shut up so we can hear what he has to say for himself,” she scolded, crossing her arms over her chest. She tapped her foot. “Well, Ro, why were you having nasty sex with some scuzzy guy in the alley? You know he showed up here telling Dad that you two were fuck buddies and he was really going to miss the way you took his—”

“Stop!” Ro tried to double over, as if he was going to retch. Conner held onto him and rubbed between his shoulder blades, trying to comfort him. “He came here and told Dad…”

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Adela said, her voice full of wonder. Martin was standing, staring with his mouth gaped open. “So it’s true, about the spirits? I mean, I didn’t not believe Uncle Sev, but it’s different. Now it is real to me. Can I touch you?”

“No,” Ro said faintly. “I don’t know how to do that yet. It took a lot to just move Martin’s hair.”

Adela looked at her younger brother and scowled. “Yeah, if he’d ditch that stupid emo haircut he might actually be cute.”

“Whatever,” Martin grumbled, still looking shell-shocked.

“What did Dad say?” Ro asked, sounding gutted. “God, I can’t believe JD did that.”

“Why not? You said he hurt you.” Conner hadn’t forgotten. He was going to see to it that JD paid for doing so, too. “And remember, before you answer, they can hear you, too.”

“Dad said he showed up drunk, very drunk and maybe stoned from drugs, too. He looked like he’d been crying, and he told Dad it was his fault you died, because he’d been too rough when y’all had—” Adela made a lewd gesture with her hands. “Done it.”

Ro scowled at her. “You can cuss like a sailor but you can’t say ‘when y’all had sex’?”

She wrinkled her nose as she grimaced. “Yuck. Not when it comes to my brothers. That’s just disgusting. Anyway, Dad didn’t say anything to anyone else, but he made JD leave and threatened to have him arrested if he came back around. He didn’t want people knowing his son was being a cheap floozy in the alleyway. His words, not mine, bro.”

Ro groaned and sank against Conner. “He hates me now.”

“He doesn’t. He hates what you did, and feels guilty that you were so lonely and lost that you did it,” Adela corrected. “He thinks that if you hadn’t been obligated to stay and take care of him and Mama, or at least keep them company, you wouldn’t have been giving yourself away to a scumbag like JD, and you wouldn’t have ended up dead.” Adela took a deep breath then continued, “Dad actually begged and pleaded with Doc Hamlin not to do an autopsy. He didn’t want anyone else to know about that. Doc Hamlin said he wouldn’t do one, I don’t know how he got around it. Maybe because the cause of death was obvious. I didn’t ask. I just know that Dad is a mess, and like Martin said, maybe dangerously so.”

“We can’t lose him too,” Martin said. “You need to stay away from him, Ro. I’m sorry, but you do.”

Conner wanted to argue, but Martin wouldn’t hear him, and anyways Adela was nodding and so, God damn it, was Ro.

“Yeah, yeah you’re right. I already hurt everyone by being stupid.” Ro tugged on his arm until Conner released him. “Look, I won’t come around again. I can’t get close to Dad anyway. I can’t hear him, he can’t hear me. I’m sorry, for all the good it does. I love y’all.”

“We love you too, but it has to be this way for now.” Martin stood beside Adela, who murmured her agreement. “I hope to see