23)

Gruncle Mark’s and Cousin Macy’s bite marks had healed up by the following morning, while Macy’s husband’s wound was still there. It wasn’t a definite sign that the curse had failed to infect him. And once Macy had become a werewolf she could try to bite him again on the night of a full moon in the shape of a wolf, which might increase his chances.

He had shrugged off the attempts to reassure him at breakfast. "Worst comes to worst, I get a forever healthy wife that stays young while I get old. That’s not a terrible deal.” His wife threw a biscuit at him.

Gruncle Drew caught it before it the ground when Rick dodged it, then he ate it while giving his niece a dirty look. “I made these for my family with all my love, don’t use it to try to hurt people. Shame, shame Macy.”

She flipped him off.

I liked the women on my Dad’s side of the family. They’re ornery.

Me, Ami, and my Mom had made a game of making it a point to immediately look up some of the old timey words the old man used and then read them out loud.

Ornery: Bad tempered and combative. Or stubborn.

Grandpa complained we were ganging up on him and he looked to my Dad for support. Dad just shook his head. “Choose your battles to win the war.” Then Mom tried to poke him in the ribs. “You lost the war a long time ago Gaijin Baka.”

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The last day of the family get together involved the little kids, which today meant that Ami had decided to go running around with the little girl next door, Milinda. While the older people sat around sipping drinks and talking about old times.

To which I didn’t have much to add, but I wanted to hear about the lives of these people who were now my family, including the ones that weren't around anymore. Just because I would never meet them, didn’t make them any less my own.

The Sheriff arrived in time to help make lunch, this time stepping out of her patrol car in a sundress she had changed into before taking her long lunch break. I had seen her bike parked out by the garage when I went for my morning run, so she had come over the night before.

I had also noticed Saku, who had shown up to run along with me that morning despite me leaving her inside a locked door that morning. She disappeared into the woods now and then as I ran, only to reappear ahead of me to run along for a while before disappearing again.

Teleportating pet dog. Yep. That’s a thing now.

I had been talking with Graunt Lois when Adora sat down with us. “John, my John, didn’t ask me to talk to you about this, but I had been married before.”

My Graunt gave her a guarded look. “My Abe was a werewolf as well, but not as strong as me. We married back in nineteen forty six and I watched him grow old faster them me for fifty seven years before I lost him.”

She looked off in the distance. “I am me, and you are you. I had more time with Abe than most people have with their beloved, and I will see more years without him. But I at least, have never regretted seeing each new day.”

Looking back to my Graunt, she said again. “But as I said, I am me, and you are you. So now let us share embarrassing stories about your brother.”

Old women are evil, I would not want to hear the details of my brother’s… Romance, while Graunt Lois openly laughed about what Adora had to share. Which drew over my Mom and my Grandmother.

Soon I had to flee, getting clear just in time to look up and see my Grandpa’s and Dad’s worried looks.

I looked them each in the eye, each in turn, and nodded. Yes, it is exactly as bad as you are worried about.