I hate Mondays

Garfield

I didn’t sleep very well that night. Everything that had been said during the evening was running through my mind, preventing me from finding any peace. I kept rehearsing each problem and tried to come up with a strategy to finally end this whole affair. By the middle of the night, I had come to some decisions. No way was I going to set up a meeting with Mr super medium and his side-kick super-ghost, but if the police was amenable, I would try to raise Alfred’s upper body part. I was going to ask Jim to set up good wards on my flat and Andrew’s to protect Alfred better, and maybe a visit to the ghost community of Shadetown wouldn’t be a bad idea. I needed to learn more about the ghost hunters chasing Alfred, both this Damon Drake and the other one, who was using a ghost eater… Know your enemies and all that. I was also thinking about my cancelled dinner with Clyde and I was hoping I would still find a way to meet him during the week, despite the wackiness of my life. I was also praying he didn’t hear about the whole Brown Mortifer being arrested affair. The name was too famous not to be worthy of an article. So I was crossing my fingers, because if he did, I don’t think he would give me a chance to explain. He would certainly just hang up on me.

During the night my fear had turned to anger, I had said I was going to help Mr Wilbur, and that’s exactly what I was going to do. They had declared war at the police station; I was making my plans. After all, I had really good contacts within the G.C. I sometimes hanged out with some of the ghosts I had raised who belonged to it. In the end I met quite a few influential ghosts within their ranks. Accepting to be presented to them was the polite thing to do when I was mingling with their community. They usually were suspicious of mediums, but as I was quite a weird one and didn’t hunt ghosts, they didn’t mind. I already had a bit of a reputation as a ghost-rescuer. My grandfather was also known as being quite a character. I was going to call Joey too, I knew he was interested by the whole affair, remained adamant about my non culpability and had contacts at the police station as well as at the forensics labs… Maybe they could prove useful.

Those plans made, I finally fell asleep. Starting tomorrow, they were going to understand their mistake. They had awoken my Irish temper and the calculating side that turned my mother into such a fearsome business woman. They were going to suffer. For the first time, I was going to try to see for myself if what was said about the real power of the ghost community was true. And I was pretty confident about them agreeing to help me. Pretty funny that there would be something between a ghost government and a ghost mafia, isn’t it? Of course the organisation was not totally like a human one, too many differences between the living and the dead, but still…

So at seven in the morning, despite having slept only a few hours during the night, I was recharged and ready to explain the ideas I had come up with to everyone. I took a shower, dressed, woke up Jimmy and began to prepare the breakfast while he was showering. Eggs, bacon, orange juice, cereals… Jimmy was never eating enough so when he visited me, I always tried to cook a lot more so that he would replenish himself a bit. I was a real mother hen when it came to my brother and his eating habits. I also went up and knocked at Andrew’s door to relay the message to our dead residents that we were awake. I felt like a care-taker. When I went back down, Jimmy had already finished his plate. I smiled. This morning was starting good. Or at least my mood was so good that it seemed nothing could get in my way. After all; I finally knew what to do, no more indecision for the time being!

Our ghosts arrived and I exposed my ideas. Today, we had to work on putting the wards on the entire building and we would relax. I couldn’t contact Joey so I would do it tomorrow. On Monday, we had to put our plans into action. It was decided that I would phone Joey again and then Jimmy and I would try our luck at the police station while our grandfather and Andrew tried to gather some information on the ghost hunters chasing Alfred. We would only contact the G.C. (ghost community) when we had gathered a maximum of information.

On Monday morning, I first called Sadie, to ask her to replace me for the day at the shop. She had no problem with it and I reiterated my praise about her being my guardian angel, or at least my flower shop’s guardian angel. Then I called Joey. The conversation went quite well, even tough, like each time I was talking to him, I had the impression of having landed in another dimension. He was so excited by this whole affair I couldn’t help telling him to stop the caffeine. It was hard enough to understand him when he was not so exuberant. Well, he always was exuberant, but just knowing that he was finally implicated in a true detective mystery made his exaltation jumps through the roof. So what was not my surprise to learn that his uncle was actually the Chief of Police in Boston. I really had a hard time imagining a family portrait with Joey, with his eccentric multicoloured clothes and long hair, standing next to the serious looking man, with his impeccable, generally black or grey, business suit and his military cut I often saw in the newspapers. Their family reunions must be as fun as ours. Well, apparently, their difference in personality didn’t mean they had a bad relationship. Actually, if what Joey told me was true, he was his uncle’s favourite nephew.

“Are you his only one?” I couldn’t resist asking.

“No, actually, uncle Dylan thinks I am quite fun. We often go fishing together. He even recognizes that I might not be as traditional as the others members of the family, but it doesn’t change the fact that I am smart. He likes my weirdness.” He answered, not at all offended.

I laughed, “Well, maybe I am beginning to like your uncle then. Seems there is more to the man than that serious and boring side of him we see in the newspapers.”

“You have no idea.”

“So, I suppose you are telling me that because he would accept to help us if you asked? You seem pretty confident, and you know, Joey, I don’t want to intrude on your relationship with your uncle. It’s true that I wanted to know if you had contacts who would agree to support us at the police station, but I didn’t think you had such high contacts.”

“Actually, I have already talked to him…”

“That was fast. Why would you have already…”

“Well, they interrogated you and made you their prime suspect, and I know that you wouldn’t do something like that and there were too many discrepancies. It was obvious that someone was setting you up, so…” He sounded kind of shy over the phone and I smiled.

“You called your uncle, the Chief of Police of Boston, just because I was being interrogated? It’s kind of sweet, Joey, but it was a bit of an overkill, don’t you think? They released me because they couldn’t accuse me of anything, you know. There was no need to call your uncle.”

“I know, and he told me he wouldn’t interfere just like that, even if Shadowtown is in his jurisdiction. Furthermore, he is not going to help a suspect just because I work for her, even though he really wants to meet you, Boss. But still, I am glad I told him what I knew, and now that I have all the details, I am still going to call him. I am sure that he will agree about you trying to raise Mr Wilbur’s half body. There is nothing to lose. It’s a sound and logical plan. It is reasonable. I think he’ll give the order to let you do it, Boss.” I had stopped listening after that striking little piece of information he gave me.

“What do you mean, ‘wants to meet me’?”

“Well, I told him some of your stories you know, Boss. You could say that you are kind of a legend in my family. I mean, you know I asked to work for you after this whole affair when you helped the police in Washington. I explained it to you already, didn’t I? That my cousin working there as a detective told us what you did there. And I thought it was cool my part time job could consist in working for you, even as a florist, Boss. As it is, I often share your stories about rising the dead with my family, and how you have helped so many ghosts even though you are clumsy and…”

“Stop babbling, Joey, and thanks for the clumsy part…”

“Well, it’s true, you are kind of…” He began.

“Want me to give you a shovel so that you can dig that hole even deeper?”

“Yes, well, I mean, no, I mean…”

He was suddenly really embarrassed. I burst out laughing over the phone.

“I got it, Joey. And it’s true, I am a klutz. But still, the Chief of Police of Boston wants to meet me? I really am more famous than I thought” I sighed.

“You are not mad, Boss?” Joey asked tentatively.

“No, Joey, I am not mad. Moving on. So you think your uncle will take care of the authorization for the whole rising problem? That’s really good if it is the case. Now, if you have the time, I’d like to ask you one more thing. Could you also try to find information about the ghost hunters I told you about? One is Damon Drake, he seems to be pretty well-known. I still don’t have the name of the other. I only know that he work with a ghost-eater. I heard you are quite good at researching people with your computer.”

“Well, that’s also part of a detective job, even if I want to be on the forensics team, I learned how to get these kind of information.” He replied, his tone full of pride and confidence.

“That’s what I was hoping for. Thanks a lot Joey. A shame this whole business is not linked to the shop, I would have given you a raise!” I laughed.

“You are so stingy, Boss. But you know, the whole affair is payment enough for me.” He joked.

“I am not surprised you think so, Joey. And stop calling me ‘Boss’! Thanks again. I’ll see you later.” I finally hang up, but the moment I had put back the receiver, the phone rang again.

It was a client, not for a floral composition, but for a rising. My mother had given them my phone number. She called me just after to inform me that a lot of people wanted me to do a rising for them. They had apparently seen my name in the newspapers. I had already decided that the visit to the police station would have to wait. After all, if Joey’s uncle could really help us, it would save us a lot of troubles but it still had to be confirmed. Now, it was sure that I would have to take care of some risings first. The morgue was awaiting me. My mood once again pummelled down.

Just like Garfield, I really hate Mondays.