After Candy leaves the cemetery, she decides to call her cousin Kianah to let her in on the whole Braydon Murphy mystery.
To her surprise, Kianah knows a lot more about Braydon’s situation. Kianah’s mother Carmen was a writer who wrote an autobiography on her oldest brother Trenton. The autobiography included a chapter on Braydon Murphy who once lived with Trenton.
In Carmen’s research, she found that Braydon was forced to live in secrecy after witnessing a crime and being put into police protection. It was later decided that the only way to fully keep him safe was to change his whole identity. That is all that Carmen was able to find out. She was never able to put this information in the book, because she feared that it would put Braydon in danger.
Candy hangs up with Kianah feeling mixed feelings. On one hand, she is annoyed with Kianah for not telling her all of this sooner. While on the other hand, she is relieved that Braydon had not committed some horrible crime that forced him into hiding.
In addition, Candy is concerned about Kianah herself. Kianah sounded a lot weaker on the phone than Candy has ever heard her. She hopes that Kianah has not caught some sort of flu. Candy reminds herself to stop by and see Kianah some time this week to make sure she is feeling well.
Gwen begins her first day of work at the cemetery. She’s so used to keeping things to herself, that she hasn’t even told Candy that she has a new job; knowing that Candy probably wouldn’t approve of her working at the cemetery.
Gwen walks up to the cemetery with a little less confidence than she imagined. As the evening darkness begins to engulf the blue skies, the cemetery does not look very welcoming.
Death himself stands high on his perch as Gwen enters the grounds. He appears to beacon visitors to the place of the unknown. Gwen is definitely not ready to follow him.
She is scheduled to work three hours here at the cemetery. Just imagining how dark it will be after her shift is over causes her to gulp down large nervous breaths.
Even the trees look creepy out of the corner of her eyes. “These are only bodies”, she reminds herself, “it’s the living that should give you cause to be afraid.” She says before stepping inside the mausoleum.
Spencer goes into the sitting room to enjoy a bit of TV after work. He is soon joined by Kianah’s daughter, his cousin, Lindsey. “When did you get here?” He asks, amused at how she sat down as if she was at home.
“Oh I came home with Gwen,” she says in a nonchalant manner as if it’s not unusual for her to be at the Pratt home sitting down watching TV.
“Nice house, by the way,” she says, “I especially like your bedroom.”
“Um, so what did you do, give yourself a tour of our private lives?” He asks; intrigued by her bold intrusion.
“Why, is that a problem? We’re family.” She says as if that makes it OK.
“Family or not, people usually have respect for other people’s privacy.” Spencer says without sounding too annoyed.
“Oh, I never really thought about it like that…duly noted.” Lindsay says, but Spencer can detect sarcasm. Spencer actually finds himself admiring Lindsay’s bold sassiness.
Lindsay makes her way into the kitchen and strikes up a conversation with the repair woman who came to fix the Pratt’s dishwasher. Sarah is visibly uncomfortable with the extra bodies in the kitchen.
Lindsay makes herself at home once again at the dinner table. Spencer cannot resist making a wise crack at her after he sees her conversing with the repairwoman, “Aspiring to be a plumber are we?”
Quick witted, Lindsay retorts, “Better to aspire to something than to be a nothing like you.”
Candy almost chokes when she hears Lindsay and Spencer’s blatant rudeness towards each other
Candy gives first Spencer, than Lindsay disapproving looks that they both completely ignore.
“I have an idea mom, let’s hire Lindsay as our personal plumber. She’d make a fine addition to our staff,” Spencer says letting his snobby attitude take over.
Candy doesn’t even get to respond, before Lindsay comes up with a response, “Oh trust me cousin, you don’t have enough money to afford me on your staff.” Candy decides that she’s heard enough. This is one battle that she’s sure will take care of itself.
While most people would be angry with Lindsay’s comments, Spencer has quite the opposite reaction. “This girl is tough. I like her.” Spencer says to himself.
“I need to remember to have the doors reinforced so that any riffraff off the street cannot just walk in.” Spencer says in pretend angry.
“I’d be careful with that cousin…that would keep you out, wouldn’t it?”
Lindsay finishes her meal and gets up to leave the dinner table, “Well cousin, it’s been fun. Let’s continue this later. Love you!” She says not at all offended by what she knew was playful banter, before heading to another part of the house. Spencer loves her sense of humor which constantly borders on being inappropriate.
In the meantime, Sarah goes outside to empty the trash when Mimi walks up to her. “Hi, I’m Mimi,” she says, “I wanted to introduce myself at Candy’s party, but I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Oh no need to introduce yourself. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.” Sarah answers.
“Candy tells me that you are doing a terrific job here with the house. She says your cooking is fantastic!”
“Thanks, but it’s hard to follow up after someone like you. I’m sure my cooking doesn’t hold a candle to yours,” Sarah says modestly.
Mimi really likes Sarah, then again, Mimi likes everybody. She politely listens to Sarah go on and on talking about how well Mimi took care of the Pratt household.
“Thank you Sarah. I think you and I would make great friends. Let’s keep in touch.”
“I’d like that,” Sarah says. Mimi is so easy to like.
Candy comes outside after hearing Mimi’s voice. “What a pleasant surprise! Good to see you Mimi!” Candy says genuinely happy to see her friend.
Candy invites Mimi inside. “I’m glad you’re here, I received some pretty bad news today,” Candy says before going on to describe her encounter with her uncle Braydon and his recent death.
“Let’s go somewhere so we can really talk.” Mimi says.
A few minutes later finds Gwen leaving the mausoleum after finishing her first day of work at the cemetery. As she leaves, her skin is paler then normal, because she’s so spooked.
She runs as fast as she can through the cemetery. Everything around looks and sounds threatening; including the spooky black fish in the pond and the creaking mausoleum door. She doesn’t as much as glance at death keeping watch on his post at the entrance.
Rena has also finished her first and last shift as a music fan.
Now that she may be expecting, she decides that the music industry may not be a great job for a new mother. She wants to find a career that will allow her to spend a lot of time with her child. Rena thinks about looking into interior design, another passion of hers.
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