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The kids got loaded up with food, with Sara taking the “Healthy” option of a salad, and managed to scarf down their meals on the way home. As for me. “Well I couldn't eat while I was driving, because that wouldn’t be safe. Now I’m really hungry, so you three are going to have to carry everything in while I eat.”

That got me a dark look from Sara as she got Aran out of his seat, but Ami just raced to the back of the truck and opened up the rear door to grab a hold of the bag with the bread in it before heading over to me to hold out her hand “Keys please.” Then she headed over to unlock the patio doors.

The boy grabbed a hold of a double bagged bunch of meat which he managed to pull free to plop onto the ground and then began dragging it until he got stuck at the steps.

The eldest looked at me with her arms crossed while I just stared her in the eye and took a bite of my first burget.

She finally huffed at me and then a hold of one of the handles of the bag of meat, taking up all the weight while Aran walked along beside her holding onto the other dangling handle.

I finished off my last bite of my first burger just in time to call out “Good teamwork, good hustle.” before she made it into the door.

Somehow it took just enough time for the kids to empty out the truck for me to finish my meal. Funny how it turned out like that.

Of course that gave Ami time to begin reorganizing where I kept stuff as she started putting things away where she thought they should go. Foiled again, but in my defense, they outnumber me.

She still needed me for the tall shelves, as least without risking going all poltergeist by using magic, and I could at least always put everything back to were it were supposed to be after she went to sleep.

Speaking of which. “Okay kids, let Aran pick out something to watch for a while, and then you can do what you want after you get him to bed. I’ll be up to read to him if he doesn't conk out before I get there.”

Sara gave me a suspicious look. “What are you going to do while we’re upstairs.” Ami began pushing her sister toward the stairs, or trying at least. “If he’s smart he’s going to call his girlfriend.”

The eldest looked over her shoulder at her sister in confusion. “Since when has he had a girlfriend?”

Ami switched to pulling on Sara’s arms. “I’ll explain upstairs.”

Giving me a last bewildered look, Sara let herself get dragged out.

“Clever girl...”

I waited until I felt like the two girls were upstairs and checked the room for the boy. Then decided to step outside. I hadn’t seen any fast food wrappers get taken out of the car so I was going to have to go outside anyways. Plus I liked to move around a bit when I was nervous.

Adora picked up on the second ring. As a younger man I might have obsessed over what that might have meant. Now, I just assume that is simply how long she took to pick up, the important thing was that she did, and sounded happy to hear from me. “Hello John.”

“Hi Adora, do you want to hear from me talking to you, or talking to the Sheriff.” She hesitated then decided. “Talk to the sheriff and let’s get that out of the way.’

I stopped, realized I had somehow already walked all the way out to the river, and decided to head back toward the front of the house. Plenty of space to walk around on a circular drive when most of your mind on the phone.

I also wanted to check on the oil situation, but I made a mental note to wait until we hung up, so I that paying attention to her was my primary focus. “The kid’s aunt, the witch showed up and wanted to take Ami. Sara changed her mind.”

Adora voice got a little more serious. “Debby said it sounded like a car crash.”

I stopped and looked a the car, and the ten feet of skid marks from the tires getting shoved sideways. “Pretty much. Sara hit her aunt. Her aunt hit her car, and the car hit the rim around the middle of the circular drive. No one got hurt, other then the car. Some black magic sort of thing going on.”

I head Adora take a deep breath, then let it out. “She’s that strong.”

“Yeah, both of them. There’s more.”

The sheriff made an inquisitive humming noise. “Hit me.”

“The Aunt. Rosaria. She tried to do something to my mind, and it was like there was nothing I could do about it. It didn’t even occur to me to try. Not until Ami got me to use a sort of mental self control thing I used to control my temper when I got mad as a kid. I taught it to her and she figured out it did a lot more for self control then just deal with anger issues.”

“That sounds useful. Any chance you can get me a picture of the aunt. I’d like my people to know what, and who, they might have to deal with.”

I started another circle around the drive. “Got plenty of video of her on the camera’s. Hell, I can send a clip of Sara dropping a proverbial house on the wicked witch to my son, He’d probably get a kick out of it. You want a copy too? I’ll still look for some good face shots of her as well.”

Her voice started to sound a lot warmer. “That sounds good john, now talk to me.”

I stopped and looked back at the car. “That sounds good...”

“John, are you okay? You sound distracted.”

I gave my head a good shake. “Sorry. Not important. I just realized the Aunt promised to do something about her wrecked car, and that I’m pretty sure their isn’t a chance in hell that she’ll follow that up. So I got what may be a missing and reported as stolen rental car wreaked in my front driveway.”

She laughed. “I’ll send you a number for my grandson in law, he can haul it off, then call the rental company to say it was found on the side of road.”

I smiled and started another circle of the driveway, the first of a few dozen more that night. “Thanks, that will be great. But right now, how did your day go?”

We didn’t really get around to defining what the two of us were doing in regards to each other, but we did talk, and Aran never did get his bedtime story.