Part 12

          The next day, I call my sister, and talk her into an afternoon of shopping. (This isn't exactly difficult - she's in college only about an hour away from me, there's a decent mall between us, and she's a fashion addict.)  I'm not really a mall-person, but I need to get out.  I need to breath air that isn't tainted by the breath of ghosts.  I need to get some distance between myself and the Masons, what I saw yesterday... I just can't actively cope with yet.  An awful lot of awful things have been piling up, and there's nothing I can do about any of them.

          I only have to wait around the entrance to J.C. Penney's for about twenty minutes before I spot Alison crossing the parking lot toward me.  We hug and exchange hellos and I find out the name of the guy she's currently dating, the usual little pleasantries.  Then we spend a good couple of hours wandering around every clothing and jewelry store in the mall, spending--- well, actually, not spending quite as much money as I'd feared we would.  The up-side of my sister spending so much of her life shopping, is that she's gotten awfully good at it, and can accumulate more than she can comfortably carry for the price I'd expect to pay for a single sweater.  The down-side, of course, is that every item I even consider purchasing has to undergo her unreserved critique.  But today, at least, I hardly mind.  It's good to get out and do something frivolous for awhile, to have a few hours where the biggest concern is whether the stripes on that sweater are wide enough to not make me look rounder than I want to.
          Eventually, we end up in the food court, with smoothies and only-slightly-dubious Japanese stir-fry.
          "You have a boyfriend yet?"
          I laugh and roll my eyes.  "No, leave me alone."
          "Why?"
          "Small town.  Not many decent options in my age-range."
          "Online dating?"
          "Crossed my mind."
          "And?"
          "Haven't had time."
          "Why, all you do is work anyway."
          At this, I laugh, and take a long sip of my smoothie.  "I've been really busy with a new art project."
          "Yeah, Mom told me you were.  You're such a nerd."
          "Someone had to take after Dad."
          "Sucks to be you."
          "Not really.  Nice to not have the added drama of dating in my life."
          It's her turn to laugh and roll her eyes. "True.  ...you seem kind of worn out though, have you been working a ton or something?"
          "No more than usual, really.  It's the art project, I've been working on the drawings and doing so much research, and... well, the research hasn't been all that happy lately."
          "But it's all people from a hundred years ago or whatever, right? And the house isn't even there any more? So how can it make you so sad?"
          I smile ruefully.  "I know, it sounds crazy.  But, it's like, when you're really into a movie or a book, and bad things happen to the characters, it makes you cry, right?  Same thing here.  I've learned so much about these people, that I really feel like I know them, so when something bad happens... it's like it's happened to a friend, you know?"
          "Yeah... well that makes sense.  Still, you're so weird."
          "Well, yeah, no-one's disputing that."