“Gran, this is Gabriella. Gabriella, this is Gran,” I said, back behind the counter.

Gran sat on a stool next to the Gabriella and bestowed a huge, maternal smile on the girl. “It’s very nice to meet you, Gabriella. Did you enjoy the pie?”

The girl stared at the counter and whispered, “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Oh, hush you now with that ma’am nonsense. You just call me Gran, everyone does.”

“Yes, Gran,” said the girl, even more quietly, if that were possible.

“Oh, come now girl, let me get a look at you,” said Gran.

The girl didn’t move, so Gran reached out and gently turning the girl’s face up. She brushed the hair out of the girl’s face and Gran’s breath actually caught for a moment. My mouth dropped open. I had never, in my entire life, seen Gran startled by anything.

“My word,” said Gran, “what a beautiful child.”

I glanced over at the girl. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her before. She’d kept her head down most of the time and her face hidden behind a curtain of hair. Gabriella looked, well, frankly, a little terrified at Gran’s scrutiny, but she was lovely. She had huge dark eyes and full lips, with high cheekbones and a nose that hovered between dainty and perky. That loveliness caught me off guard, which probably explained why I missed what Gran saw at a glance. Gran reached out and gently brushed a spot on the girl’s face.

“Now, who’d want to go and do that to such a pretty face?”

There was a blue discoloration on her cheek where a bruise was fading out. I had a moment of existential fatigue. The universe saw fit to bring something beautiful into being, so, of course, some jackass had to try and ruin it. It wasn’t something that could inspire anger in me anymore. It was just too common. It was everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, if someone was dumb enough to do that shit in front of me, I’d intervene because some things you just don’t let happen. Standing there in the diner, though, the moment long past, I just felt bad for the poor girl. It was probably her father, or maybe a boyfriend who didn’t like that she had friends or something equally stupid. It was a hard world sometimes. I fixed the things that Gran pointed me at, but I couldn’t hope to fix everything. As Gran would say, that way lies madness. Confronted with the bruise, Gabriella tried to leave, but she was simply overpowered by Gran’s personal presence. I disappeared into the kitchen so Gran could do her thing and I wouldn’t be there muddying the waters. The cook gave me an obligatory glare.

“Hi Larry,” I said, nodding to the demon.

“A little warning the next time you plan to show me to someone. I almost burned some Texas Toast, you jerk-off.”

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“Quit your bitching. It was only a couple seconds.”

Larry tried to muster some angst, but his heart wasn’t in it. Larry hadn’t been a particularly effective demon even when he’d been doing it full time. When other demons had been in line for vindictiveness and extra helpings of evil, I think Larry must have been getting a library card or something. The forces of darkness hadn’t even made a token attempt to free him, which tells you how much of a loss it was. His one redeeming feature was that, when he wasn’t masquerading as a balding, middle-aged short order cook, he looked the part of the demon. I mean he looked scary, with horns and a tail and claws that went on forever. Like I said, though, he wasn’t a very good demon. He paid sticker price for his last car.

“Heard things went sideways on you in Tucson,” said Larry as he scraped the grill.

“Yeah, your family was in town.”

“Oh? Who was it?”

I shook my head. “We skipped the part where they tried to scare me with their names, and I actually scared them with mine. We went straight to the fighting. It was kind of weird. I have no clue what they were doing there.”

Larry frowned at me. “They took a shot at you without even finding out who you were?”

“At the time, I figured it was because I walked in at the wrong time.”

“Now?”

“I don’t know. I think they picked a fight so I wouldn’t have a chance to find out what was going on.”

“Maybe they recognized you,” offered Larry. “You aren’t, let us say, unknown to my kind.”

I nodded. It was plausible. I let my eyes wander around the kitchen and I saw a sleeping bag by the walk-in freezer. I frowned at Larry.

“Are you sleeping in the freezer again, Larry?”

Larry looked away. “Gran said it was fine, as long I don’t make the food spoil again.”

I opened my mouth to mock Larry a little, but I heard the bell over the door. “Saved by the bell, demon-boy.”

Larry flipped me off as I left the kitchen. It’s always nice to get home and back to where things make sense. I went out and took orders from a couple of road crew workers who had made the diner a regular pit stop. I made small talk, asking them questions about how things were going. They complained about motorists and slave driving supervisors, but neither of them seemed to be taking it too seriously. I nodded sympathetically and kept an eye on Gran and Gabriella. Gran had put her arm around the girl’s shoulder at some point and Gabriella looked to be crying. Larry rang the bell. I settled the two plates in front of the road crew guys, who dug into their respective mounds of fries between bites of their Gran burgers. Gran mixed some kind of special seasoning mix for the burgers and refused to divulge the ingredient, let alone the ratios of the ingredients, to anyone, even me. I hung back, polished surfaces that didn’t need polishing and got the construction guys refills on their water a few times. One of them noticed Gran and the girl. He gave me a questioning look, but I waved it off. Once the road crew guys left, Gran caught my eye, and I made my way over.

“It’s getting late, lad. I’m not comfortable letting Gabriella walk home. Would you mind taking her home in your car?”

I blinked, then nodded. “Be happy to, Gran.”

For the most part, I only drove my car on Gran’s business. The car had a reputation in and of itself. It turned up where unspeakable wrongness was going down. It vanished after the unspeakable wrongness had been put down with prejudice. I figured it out. This was Gran’s way of sending a message to all those with eyes to see. Gabriella was under her protection and, by proxy, mine. I was down with that. Gran told Gabriella to wait in the booth, and then followed me into the back. I took off the apron and hung it up before I put my coat back on. Gran waited with a patient expression.

“There’s something I want you to do for me, Jericho. A message I’d like sent.”

She told me, and I smiled at her.