Call my family entirely too trusting, but it was the reason we could actually pull this off. My family lived near a fairly large truck stop. I worked there occasionally, but during the holidays my family would periodically go out and give truckers cookies for the road or other such items. We had truckers over for dinner quite often as well as various passengers.
I honestly knew more about hitchhiking than most people. I left my sister with a snack and her homework, distracting her so the boys could sneak out, then headed over to the truck stop and returned home an hour and a half later with two hitchhikers. Most of the time was spent getting the appropriate costumes from the thrift store and visiting with truckers I knew while the boys tried to look their part.
As it turned out, Chaz could look nearly human. The reason he never did was because the process took time, energy, and was very realistic. He couldn’t use any of his Ghost abilities while he was human looking and changing back took quite a while. Chaz was essentially defenseless, and being human was a little uncomfortable.
Still, in the end the plan worked out. Chaz played a quiet kid who had just grown out of foster care and was stuck wandering the world and unsure of himself. Mills was a kid who had gotten disowned by his parents and so put on a tough exterior. They had run into each other and were now traveling together, under Mills’ influence, toward Hollywood in hopes of making it big.
My mother always does what she can to help kids who come across as good kids but down on their luck. I knew she wouldn’t want to have these good hearted boys getting caught up in the questionable streets of LA. My mom actually lied and said that no truck drivers were heading toward LA for at least a week.
The upside was that if the boys were willing to do a few odd jobs they could stay in our basement and eat dinner with us. They really got on my mother’s good side when they agreed and then washed the dinner dishes. But it wasn’t until my mom was getting the younger kids to bed and the twins were setting up the cots in our apartment like basement that I actually got a chance to talk normally with Chaz and Mills.
“Nice family,” Mills said and Chaz nodded in agreement.
“Well, we probably have about five to ten minutes,” I guessed.
“Then here’s everything in a nutshell,” Mills said. “My grandfather has no idea that two of my cousins have completely turned, which makes getting home and explaining it to him really difficult.”
“I think they’re blaming you,” Chaz pointed out.
“No surprise there,” Mills sighed. “I’m also considered a child still by family age.”
“So, what happened?” I prompted.
“I got to work part-time in my grandfather’s factory,” Mills answered. “I noticed something on the monitors and decided to check it out when no one else would. They were raiding the year store room, taking the hours, and I interrupted it. And there was a little fight. And I got walloped. But that walloping actually resulted in the containment breaking on the Christmas case. Hours scattered and there you go.”
“So they panicked and kidnapped you?” I guessed.
“Something of that sort,” Mills sighed. “And I panicked a little as well. When something major is lost, the power in its wake is incredible. Sometimes it forms on its own, but other times it needs a boost. I used it to pull out a Ghost of Lost and then begged him to help get the hours back before it’s too late and all that jazz. But that kind of complicated the situation. We are both in big trouble if we don’t get the hours.”
“As a Ghost, I had to discretely register to keep the theft from being publicized,” Chaz added. “Ghosts of Lost aren’t exactly…welcomed, or allowed.”
My face must have been one of great confusion because both guys smiled, though Mills was the one to speak up. “Ghosts of Lost are actually pretty strong, but they must be approved.”
“So, it’s not that you’re acting illegal,” I said to Chaz. “It’s just that you are illegal.”
“Pretty much,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Well, I’m good with that.” And I really was.
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