The Haunted - Jessica Verday [81]
Caspian shook his head. “No. I know that’s not true.”
“But how can you know?” I said. “Last time I checked, she wasn’t exactly hanging around here to give us her opinion.”
“I know because of the type of friendship you had. I saw it firsthand.”
“You did?”
He looked sheepish. “I told you before that I saw you here at the cemetery, and… sometimes I would follow you guys.”
I watched him closely. Fascinated by his admission.
“I mean,” he said, “I didn’t like peek over your shoulder or anything. But sometimes when you would sit by Irving’s grave, I sort of stuck around. It was like I was a part of it too.” His face suddenly changed. “Your expression said it all. Your laugh spoke volumes.” Caspian looked down at his hands. “I could tell how close you two were. She loved you.” My eyes grew moist, and a tear leaked out before I had the chance to wipe it away. “You think so?”
He nodded, and a quiet laugh escaped me as a memory surfaced. “You know, this one time, on Easter, Kristen thought it would be neat to hide some eggs for the people that ‘lived’
here. We were like ten, by the way.” I laughed again. “So we took three dozen painted eggs and hid them all around. But when we were done, all the hiding places looked the same, and we couldn’t remember where we’d put them.”
“It took weeks for poor John, the caretaker, to find them. A couple of them must have been eaten by animals, because we never did find them all. But every time the wind blew, you knew you were close to one. The stench of rotten eggs was horrendous.” He laughed, and I joined him. “Of course, now I feel bad for all the people that just wanted to come visit their loved ones, but it was pretty funny at the time.” Caspian grew silent and studied me with a serious look on his face. “Your love for Kristen shines through when you speak about her.”
I nodded and spread my hands wide. “She was the best.”
“Tell me about her brother.”
Leaning back, I looked up at the underbelly of the bridge overhead, feeling the vibrations of a passing car rumble through me. “He was her devoted big brother and she was his baby sister. Even with an eight-year age difference between them, they were super close. They had their moments, of course. But they were few and far between.” He leaned back too, and I glanced over at him. “It’s weird, right? I can’t imagine having a brother or sister. I mean, Kristen and I were close, but to have someone who shares your blood ?” I shook my head.
“I always wanted a brother,” Caspian said.
“Me too,” I admitted. “Someone to take care of the bullies and stand up for me at school.
When I was younger, Mom and Dad talked once about adopting a baby. But then they just sort of dropped it. I don’t know what happened.”
He caught my eye. “What happened to him? To Thomas?” Sadness filled me. Even though it had happened years ago, it was still hard to talk about.
“He died of a drug overdose. Everyone thought it was accidental, but I think Kristen’s family…
they knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That it might not have been accidental.” I waited a moment for that to sink in, for the heaviness of it to reverberate. “See, Kristen’s brother had an addiction to pain pills. When she was three, Thomas was holding her, and he sat her down for a minute on this table. She started to fall off, and he caught her and put her on the ground, but then he tripped over a chair leg and fell out the window.”
Caspian cringed, and an ache went through me. It was an awful story to tell.
“They were living in a third-floor apartment at the time, and he fell all the way to the ground. He only needed twelve stitches for the cuts on his face and hands, but he broke his back.”
Caspian nodded once. “So that was why he had the pain pills.”
“Yeah. He had two surgeries, but he needed more, and they couldn’t afford it at the time.
So he took pills when it got to be too much to handle.
“Poor Kristen. She always thought it was her fault. No matter