Avery the Immortal: Part Seven (special preview)

A small smile spreads on my lips. “Stop trying to make me feel good.”

“Nah, I would never.” Iggy takes the ice cream and my spoon. He eats a few mouthfuls before waving the spoon at me. “Now, what’s your long story?” He asks. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t destroy ever apple tree in a one hundred mile radius should I hear that song again.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “It’s a guy.”

“Oh shit,” Iggy laughs as stuffs another mouthful of ice cream in.

I take a very deep breath and let it out slowly. I stretch my legs from inside the hoodie and I lift up my chin. “He was important, precious, I just couldn’t see it at the time. But he did everything for me, he loved me, and I didn’t do what was right by him.”

“So you’re the ass?” Iggy points the spoon at me again. 

I smile. “Yeah. I was that almost certainly.” I turn to Iggy as he eats. “I don’t know where he is, I don’t even know if he’s safe. But hearing that song reminds me of him. How he’d sing it in the shower or while cooking dinner.” I sniffle and tuck my head down in preparation.

“How long have you been looking?” Iggy asks.

“When did the war end?” I mutter under my breath. “Before then but-” I stall for a second as I do the math up in my head. “Well over fifty years.”

Iggy chokes and drops both the spoon and the ice cream. “What?” He hacks and beats on his chest. “Fifty years? Are you fucking pulling my leg?”

I shake my head. “Why would I joke about that?”

“Because you looking fucking twelve!” He wheezes, clutching his hand over his chest. “You tell me you’ve been looking for someone from world war two?”

“We were both soldiers,” I say absentmindedly. 

“He’s gotta be in his seventies by now,” Iggy snaps at me. “Have you just been looking for the same young soldier or have you tried the nursing homes?”

It suddenly hits me, all this time I had been looking for Bill as he was, not what he would be. “Oh,” I gasp softly. “Oh no.”

Iggy grimaces but his gaze is gentle. “You really didn’t think of that?” He squints his eyes. “I know you still look like some fresh peach, whatever the hell you are, but if your Bill is human then he’s probably seventy or older.”

“Oh uhm-” my mouth and throat were going very dry. What if I had already found him and just ignored him? All this time, I was so blindly stupid I had been looking for Bill in all the wrong places.

“I hate to even say this to you now, but he could already be gone, Avery.” Iggy reaches out and touches my hand.”

“No,” I whisper, hanging my head down. “I can’t accept that. Not until-” I cover my head with my arm as the tears start to fall.

Iggy sighs trading seats and sitting right beside me. “I’m not as good as Mama with this comforting thing but.” He pats the top of my head. “There, there.”

I suddenly let out a laugh and look up at him. “There, there? Are you serious?”

Iggy throws up his hands. “What else can I do? I doubt they make a card that says anything on this subject.”

“There, there?” The laugh continues to grow until it’s rolling from my gut.

Iggy joins in with me laughing. We’re both shuddering and guffawing and tears are streaming down my cheeks. After a while we both calm down and lean back in the chair. I take a deep breath and shake my head.

“I always knew there was a very high chance he was gone,” I confess. “I just wasn’t strong enough to admit it at all. You know?”

“I know,” Iggy nods. “I was the same way.”

Inside the phone rings and Iggy stands up. “I’ll go get it. Must be Mama.”

“Tell her to bring home food if she’s heading back!” I shout after him. I nestle back into my hoodie, bringing my knees to my chest as the evening grows cooler. 

Iggy steps back out a moment later. “Mama says she’s going to be gone for the night, so we’re going to have to fend for ourselves.”

“Dammit, I was really hoping she’d bring back some fast food and I could’ve had her soda,” I grumble.

“You know, you can always go out?” Iggy offers. “I’d love to, personally, but I don’t think my makeup skills are strong enough to hide all this.” He swings his hands around his everything. 

I frown and slouch my shoulders. “Do you know how to cook?”

“Burnt things,” Iggy says with a shrug.

I scoff and grumble under my breath. “Fine. I’ll go in. What do you want?”

Mama took the good truck, leaving the old car behind in case of an emergency. It was hard to crank, and if you wanted it to stay running you couldn’t turn off the engine, you had to leave it running. So when Iggy and I finally got it going, I drove into town to get food at the diner.

I leave the car running outside while I rush in and order. As I’m waiting for my food someone taps my shoulder from behind by Old Allen.

“That your car, Avery?” He points out the window where the car is smoking like an addict.

“Oh no!” I wail and dart outside. I turn the car off immediately, coughing and gagging the entire time. As I get out of the car seat and I can hear a bunch of people around me, but the black smoke is so thick I can’t see anybody through it.