By that time, Pop had come in, stomping snow off his boots. Considering my driveway and the backyard had been shoveled clean, that meant he had been walking around the house, examining the scene of the doppelganger's mad scramble to get away from Kurt and Jane.
Maurice flew into the living room and did something. From where I was
sitting, I could see him flying back and forth across the front door, up and
down, diagonally. He never tried to open the door, but he must have found out
something, because he was scowling when he came back into the kitchen and got
close enough I could see his face. A head less than an inch tall didn't really
reveal much detail until he was nearly up to my nose.
"You got glowing streaks in the air, going around the
house," Pop reported, once he had hung up his coat and pried off his
boots. "I don't think ordinary eyes can see it, but ever since last
summer, I can kind of squint and see things." He shrugged. "What's
weird is the lack of footprints, except where it looks like something had a
wrestling match for a few seconds."
"What did you see on the front door?" I asked Maurice.
"Something was trying to get in." He shook his head and stomped
across the table to the doll-sized table and beanbag chair I kept on hand for
when he visited. All the plastic Barbie-style furniture wasn't very
comfortable. "There were fingerprints or whatever all around the frame,
and along the walls, like it was trying to ooze through but couldn't find a
hole. What's really weird is there is no energy, no magic keeping anything out.
Unless your really good construction and insulation works against spookies like
they work against bugs and weather."
"Nothing you can sense," Angela gently corrected him.
"Whatever this thing is, it seems to obey certain ancient protocols …
which still doesn't seem to help us identify it."
"Kurt and Jane are chasing it. Maybe they'll find out some things to help us," I said.
"Okay, honey, what happened?" Pop picked up the carafe of tea now that the coffeemaker had finished brewing, and brought it over to the table.
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