Undercover with the Undead

by Susan Harper

  The embarrassed woman booked her party and then dragged the kids out of the shop. “Could you imagine?” Jefferson grunted.

  “No, I couldn’t,” Felicity said with a laugh.

  “Are you okay?” Jefferson asked.

  “Jefferson, I’m fine. Nothing’s even broken. Help me pick the suit display up, though. It’s heavy,” she said, and they each grabbed an end. They heard the carpet rip as they pulled it up, and Jefferson cringed.

  “Aw, man! The corner of the display was hooked into the carpet. There’s going to be a hole in our carpet now,” he groaned and then looked at Felicity as though she was just going to break down.

  Felicity rolled her eyes. “Relax, would you? It’s just a little hole. It’s like an inch from our rug, anyway. We’ll move the rug over a tad until we can fix it. No biggie. I’ll be right back. You fix the book display, and I’ll go get some scissors from the back so we can unhook the display from the carpet without making a bigger hole, okay?”

  “Okay,” he said.

  Felicity shook her head as she walked into the storage room in search of her scissors. I guess I should be proud of myself, Felicity thought. She had put up with a lot lately, and she was handling it like a champ. Losing Brian, having to sell the home the two of them had shared, having to move back into her parents’ house, her car breaking down, another murder in town, and all of the little daily annoyances she had had to put up with… Now where are those scissors? She glanced up and grunted when she saw the handle of the scissors hanging off the top shelf. Of course. Instead of getting the step ladder, Felicity just reached up on her tip-toes and snagged the handle.

  As soon as she did, the top shelf came down—and with it three poorly shut cans of paint leftover from a bit of remodeling they had done a good while back. The paint coated everything on the shelves beneath it, and, mostly, it coated her. She paused for a moment, contemplating what she had done to deserve this. It was in her hair, and she could even feel it seeping into her underwear. She was calm and merely frustrated, but then she realized she was wearing a shirt Brian had gotten her when she had dragged him shopping one day. It had been a fun day, and now it was ruined—coated in red and purple paint. She gritted her teeth, and she let out a loud, frustrated scream as she attempted to wipe paint off her face and slick her hair back to keep any from getting in her eyes.

  The door to the storage room flung open; Jefferson had obviously heard the crash. “Felicity!” he exclaimed, and he started to come near.

  “Go get a towel!” she snapped at him.

  “Right!” he said, and he scrambled to locate some towels in the storage room that were not coated in paint. He handed her some so that she could wipe herself down, and he scrambled to clean up the shelves and the floor and any merchandise that had gotten coated. He offered her a reassuring smile, but she was not in the mood now.

  “I really love this shirt,” she moaned.

  Jefferson frowned. “That’s the one Brian gave you, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” she said, stretching it out before her. “It’s ruined!” She took a deep, calming breath. “But it’s just a shirt.”

  “Maybe the paint will come out?” Jefferson suggested hopefully.

  “Maybe,” she said. Felicity heard her phone buzz. She and Jefferson tended to keep their cellphones in the back unless they were using them. She glanced over. “Well, at least those weren’t below the paint buckets. That would have been a bummer having to replace our cellphones.”

  “I’m glad you see a bright side in this,” Jefferson said with a slight chuckle as he continued to clean up the mess. Her phone buzzed a second time. “You want me to answer that?”

  “No, it’s just my texting notification. I’ll check it once I get my hands clean,” she said and did her best to do so. She slipped out of her paint-coated shoes so as not to drag more paint across the storage room. “This is going to take us an hour to clean up,” she said.

  “I’ll go lock up, and then I’ll come back and help,” Jefferson said and headed out of the storage room to lock the main entrance to the shop.

  Felicity felt her hands were clean enough to check her phone. She pulled up the main screen and saw that her parents were texting one another back and forth; she recalled how the day before she had received a group text from her mother about dinner, and based on the content, she realized her parents had no idea she could read the messages:

  Mom: Have u signed them?

  Dad: Yeah

  Mom: What now?

  Dad: I don’t know, Sam.

  Mom: ?

  Dad: I’ll bring the divorce papers by the lawyers office tomorrow but don’t tell her yet

  Mom: No I don’t think we should

  Dad: Oh my God, Sam! Felicity can read this! Call me!

  Felicity’s stomach dropped. She slammed her phone down and she could feel her knees starting to shake. She sat on the cement floor of the storage room, and suddenly everything just felt so heavy. My parents are getting divorced? That was not something she ever thought she would have to deal with—especially not now! She was a grown adult. Surely if they had been unhappy, this would have happened a long time ago?

  Felicity felt herself starting to cry, and she couldn’t stop it. She missed Brian. She wanted to drive back to their house and curl up in bed with him and tell him about what she had just read, but she couldn’t. “Hey!” Jefferson’s voice called. “Good news, I found more towels under the front counter!” He entered the storage room, and Felicity instantly felt embarrassed. She tried to wipe her tears with her sleeve, but she wound up just wiping red paint all over her face. “Felicity?” Jefferson’s voice beckoned, and he was down on the ground next to her in an instant.

  In a fumbling, hyperventilating sort of way, she was able to tell Jefferson about the text messages, but she didn’t stop talking there. She admitted out loud for the first time since the funeral how much she missed Brian and how angry she still was about that. Felicity finally let herself go, let herself cry about it. It was just too much. Brian, the house, her car, work, Eleanor, the paint, and now her parents. She felt like a blubbering idiot, but Jefferson just reached out and hugged her. “You’re covered in paint now too,” she moaned.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “I don’t care. It’s just paint.”

  She cried for a minute, and she rested her head against Jefferson’s chest. It felt good to just unwind for a moment and sulk on the floor of her shop’s storage room. It was ridiculous, in fact, that she hadn’t broken down like this yet. It was no wonder her friends were constantly asking how she was. She couldn’t keep holding it together forever. It had only been a matter of time before she needed to just let go.

  This is so stupid, she thought, thinking about how much she had struggled with herself. That it took several buckets of paint and her parent’s text messages to finally let her get herself worked up about Brian. She laughed slightly, and Jefferson gave her a towel to wipe her tears as he sat on the floor beside her. Her laugh was evidently contagious because Jefferson got a bit of the giggles himself. “You look ridiculous,” he told her and attempted to help her clean herself up.

  “I feel ridiculous,” she said and then smiled somewhat sadly at him. “Thank you, Jefferson.”

  He nodded and then exhaled loudly. “You should go home.”

  “I’m not going to leave you here to clean this mess up yourself,” she said.

  “I insist.” He smiled. “I’ll take care of the storage room and the carpet and display cases. Go home, take a shower, and go to bed. You’ve had a rough day…week…year… Just go home and sleep.”

  Felicity kissed his forehead and then laughed. “Oh, I didn’t realize I had paint on my lips! It looks like someone wearing lipstick kissed you on the forehead.”

  Jefferson just laughed. “I think I’ll survive. You’re the one who is covered. Go home. I got this.”

  “Thanks, Jefferson,” Felicity said. She headed out back where the event van was wai
ting for her. She sighed a bit, realizing her parents were probably going to want to talk when she got home. She was not looking forward to that.

  Chapter 10

  Felicity turned up the radio in the event van as she slowly headed home, probably driving at least five miles under the speed limit—an all-time low for her. The thought of going home to her parents after receiving those texts made her sick to her stomach, so she appreciated some of the alone time she was getting in the van, even though she was incredibly uncomfortable covered in now drying paint. She was sitting on a trash bag just in case any paint on her backside was still wet, and she was leaning forward to keep her back away from the seat.

  When she pulled up into the driveway, she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Divorce. That was something kids dealt with when it came to their parents. After being married for nearly thirty years, Felicity never thought her parents would go through something like that. She took a breath and headed inside. The front door was unlocked, and as she entered, she saw both of her parents sitting at the breakfast nook waiting for her. They both looked incredibly stressed.

  “Felicity!” her mother exclaimed and came running up to her, looking quite wide-eyed. Felicity braced herself for some sort of talk regarding the text messages, forgetting her current condition for a moment. As her mother drew closer for a hug, she abruptly pulled back. “Oh my goodness! What happened to you?”

  “Felicity, are you all right? Please tell me that’s paint!” her father demanded as he rose from his seat and came nearer.

  “Yes, Dad, it’s paint,” Felicity said, her shoulders slumped.

  “Did you, um…” Her mother fidgeted slightly. “See our, um…”

  “Text messages?” Felicity asked. “Yeah. Why didn’t you two tell me you were getting a divorce?” Then suddenly Felicity recalled her father pulling in the driveway early one morning. “Oh my gosh, Dad, have you not been staying here?”

  The man’s face turned red. Suddenly, all these little things started popping into Felicity’s head—small things she had noticed that raised an eyebrow but she had thought very little of. Noticing a few little things missing in the house and assuming her parents were just redecorating… No, her father was just taking things to wherever his new place was. Sheets left out on the couch one night; no doubt her father had been sleeping on the couch if he did actually stay here. Now Felicity became angry. How long had they been keeping this from her?

  “Felicity,” her dad began. “After everything that’s happened this year…with Brian…”

  “Oh my gosh!” Felicity shrieked. “You two have been just pretending everything was all hunky dory for me, haven’t you?”

  “Felicity, we’re worried about you,” her mother said. “Please, let’s just talk about this.”

  “Talk? What is there to talk about? You two are splitting up, and you didn’t even have the decency to tell me! You’ve been playing a weird charade around me. That’s so messed up,” Felicity said, shaking her head. “Look, I’m covered in paint from my hair to my socks. I’m going to go upstairs and shower. I’m done talking about this tonight, all right?” She stormed past them, recalling last Sunday morning when her dad hadn’t been home and her mother had scrambled for an excuse. It made her furious.

  She stomped her feet on the way up the stairs, a small part of her hoping some of the paint would come off and ruin the carpet as a very petty means at revenge for this secret they had been keeping. It didn’t. Her shoes were the one thing that she had managed to get pretty clean. She wasted no time getting into the shower once she got upstairs. She was quite eager to get all the paint off her. The red and purple paint mixed in the water, and after what felt like the longest shower she had ever taken in her life, she felt a little calmer.

  She was still angry, of course, but she was not raging. She threw on some pajamas and pulled her wet hair back before throwing herself down on the bed. Felicity thought about calling Autumn to vent, but instead she called Iris.

  Since Iris had been in school, the two of them hadn’t spoken much except for family gatherings and occasional text messages or sending each other silly things they saw online. Felicity missed her. “Yo!” her sister squealed into the phone when she answered. Felicity smirked slightly. “Felicity! You never call me, what’s up?”

  “Hey, Iris,” Felicity said and exhaled heavily.

  “You okay?”

  “Do you know about Mom and Dad?” she asked.

  Iris was quiet for a moment. “Yeah. You found out, huh?”

  “How long have you known?” Felicity asked.

  “They told me at Brian’s funeral,” Iris said. “And I told them it was a bad idea to keep it from you, but they insisted I keep my mouth shut. I’m sorry, Felicity. Now I feel bad for not saying anything. How did you find out?”

  “They forgot we were in a group text together,” Felicity said.

  “Oh my gosh, that’s almost funny,” Iris said.

  Felicity chuckled slightly. “I guess so. I was really mad, so I don’t really know any details. Do you know why?”

  “Drifted apart. That sort of thing,” Iris said.

  “That’s crazy,” Felicity said and moaned.

  “Honestly, I don’t think they’re going to go through with it,” Iris said. “They’ve been wishy-washy with it.”

  “They signed the papers,” Felicity said.

  “Great. That would be the fourth time they’ve done that since February,” Iris moaned. “Just wait. They’ll have the lawyers rewrite the papers again, and they’ll be back to square one.”

  “Don’t get your hopes too high, Iris,” Felicity said.

  “I know,” Iris said. “Are you doing okay?”

  “I’ve been better,” Felicity admitted. “I keep trying to act like I’m over what happened, but I’m really not.”

  “You know you can call me any time, right?” Iris said. “You’ve always been there for me. I know I’m the dopey little sister, but I’m just a call away, you know?”

  “I know. Thank you, Iris,” Felicity said and then exhaled. “I think I should probably go back down and actually talk to Mom and Dad, huh?”

  “Probably. Knowing them, they’re downstairs getting each other worked up about you finding out,” Iris said. “You should probably go let them know you’re okay, or they’ll lose their minds.”

  “Will do,” Felicity said. “I’ll call you again soon. We shouldn’t go so long without talking.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Love you, Iris.”

  “Love you too.”

  Felicity hung up the phone and took another long, deep breath before heading out of her old bedroom and down the stairs. She found her parents sitting on the couch watching reruns of the last season of Zombie Zone. “Felicity?” Her mother sat upright and spun around on the couch.

  “Hey,” she said and slowly made her way over to her parents. She plopped herself between the two of them, and grunted with amusement to see that they had popped some popcorn. “You two just hanging out?” Felicity asked. “Kind of weird for a couple getting divorced.”

  “Well, we got used to it trying to hide everything from you,” her father said, and her mother reached around her and smacked the man in the back of the head.

  “I’m okay,” Felicity said. “I’m sad. I really am, but I am okay. I’m not teetering on the brink of a mental breakdown. I’m not happy about it, but you didn’t have to hide it from me.”

  “We’re sorry,” her mother said. “We’re just worried about you.” Mrs. Overton sat with her legs crossed as she tapped her fingers nervously against her knees.

  Mr. Overton was a bit more stoic, blankly staring at the television. Felicity glanced at the television. “Didn’t know you two liked this show,” she said.

  “Your father watches it,” her mother said. “He told me they had reruns on, and I wanted to do some preliminary research on the show.”

  “Come up with anything good?” Felicity asked
.

  “We’re on the last episode that aired during the last season,” her mom said. “Bridget…er…Eleanor, her character keeps popping up in this last episode.”

  “Really?” Felicity asked. “As more than an extra?”

  “She had a couple lines a minute ago,” her father said. “Nothing much. Probably one of the more prominent extras.”

  They sat and watched the show, snacking on popcorn. To her surprise, Felicity didn’t feel too uncomfortable hanging out with both of her parents knowing they were getting divorced, so she supposed it could be worse. They could be fighting and making her cringe. Felicity watched with a keen eye as the final scene came up.

  Alisha and Phillip’s characters were speaking in front of the rest of the supporting cast to the group of travelers they were with, trying to decide whether or not they were going to push through this enormous herd of zombies they saw up ahead. “I know you’re all scared,” Phillip’s character said.

  “Of course we’re scared!” Eleanor’s character rose, and Felicity watched curiously. “We’re all scared! But we’ve followed you idiots this far.” Eleanor’s character looked out over the crowd. The camera focused on her face as she held up her weapon, a hatchet she had picked up in the last scene. “We have a living enemy chasing us from behind and a dead one out front. I’d take my chances with the dead. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since all this mess has started, it’s that our circle of trust is getting smaller. I trust you two. I’ll follow you, and I hope the rest of you will too. We are powerful. We’ve proven that to ourselves. I know that together we can do this.”

  Alisha and Phillip’s characters nodded approvingly and picked up their weapons. The season finale ended with the group slowly moving down a highway; the camera panned out, and the audience got a full view of the enormous herd coming their way. The screen went dark. It was over. “Whoa,” Felicity said. “That was quite a little speech for someone who was just an extra.”

  “True,” her mother said. “Almost like the show was setting her up to become something more than that, right? I bet they had plans this next season to make her a more prominent character.”