Familial Spirits

Renee sat by her mother’s bedside, listening to the machines across from her beep and chirp and ping like they were having a conversation.

She had been reading her mom a story from a book she’d had since she was a teenager but stopped when it became clear that her mother wasn’t listening.  There were good days and bad days with her mom, though lately it was difficult telling them apart.  Mostly it had become a series of long silences punctuated by brief periods of lucidity.

Jesse would be home from school soon and she wanted to be there when he got back.  It was the only sliver of normalcy Renee could provide in the chaos their lives had become.  Not that Jesse saw it that way, at least she hoped he didn’t.  Her brother seemed like the same goofy smiley kid he’d always been.

Except for the part about him thinking that their father was haunting them.