Understanding Ginny

I was happy to leave Max behind while he got himself together. He had a little hissy fit because I didn't do as he said. Maybe this is just a bad dream? I mean, my dreams have been very vivid lately. Maybe dinner hadn't sat well with me and I'm still asleep having a very vivid night terror.

At least that's what I kept telling myself as Henry took Max's car and drove me home.

"Henry?" I didn't know where to start, but I had a lot of questions for him and his friend.

"Tara, why don't you go inside and forgot today happened. I know Max will want to take you on a real date. Especially since this didn'tt go as planned. He sort of freaked when he noticed you weren't eating your lunch."

"So you guys ARE stalking me?! You know that's illegal, right?" I jumped back from the car that I had already climbed out of but felt like if I got too close I'd be pulled back in.

"Uh. It's not illegal for us. I mean, not in this case." 

"What the -? Seriously? Explain? Because in my, this world, stalking is stalking. And I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon."

"Max wants you to be taken care of. No, it's more than that. Max needs you to be taken care of. He wants to take care of you."

"Why? He's never cared before. I doubt he even knew my name before winter break."

Henry's face was serious. His eyebrows coming together and his eyes pleading with me to understand something. Something I couldn't know but he wanted me to know, so badly. 

"Tara, he noticed you about 6 weeks before winter break but his dad left him in charge of the... of his family. It's not an easy job he was tasked with and although he wanted to ask you out properly after his birthday party, he thought it was best to have everything in order so it would be an easy transition for you."

"Henry, do you hear yourself? What you just said makes no sense. I wasn't at his big birthday bash. He must of saw some other girl and thought it was me, but trust me, I was home with my mom." I had heard all about it though. Sounded like a great party.

"I know you were." He mumbled so I couldn't hear. 

"What?" Now they know I wasn't there. Creepy.

"Nothing. Forget I said anything. Gotta go, Tara! See you tomorrow!" He quickly sped off down the street.

I ran into the house and locked the doors. Even the deadbolts. I checked all of the windows, which stayed locked under Ginny's orders, no fresh air coming into the house unless you count opening and closing the front or back door. 

Ginny was home, as per usual, and popped her white head of hair out from her door. "You're home early." That's all she said. But she left her bedroom door open, as to invite me in. Ginny hadn't talked to me much and I wasn't permitted to go into her bedroom, so I took the chance and followed her in.

"Hi, Ginny."

She sat on the edge of her queen sized bed that had layers of quilts on it. All of which were missing stitches and patterns in some area. Patting her frail hand on a spot on the bed I knew she meant for me to sit. 

"You finally understand now." She smiled!

I nodded without thinking. Maybe it was because Ginny rarely smiled.

"Good. It's almost your 18th birthday. Your dreams will continue to get more vivid until you face the truth."

How did she know about the nightmares? I tried not to talk about them in front of Ginny at the dinner table. But it's a small house. And maybe my mom told her.

"What truth? They are just odd dreams like the doctor says. Apparently something to do with puberty." I sounded like I didn't believe it, so why should Ginny. 

"You know that these are no ordinary dreams. You're a smart girl. Have you ever believed in destiny, God, or fate?" She leaned closer to me.

I shook my head no. "Honestly, no. I would be outside with my dad a lot working on cars but when it got dark out I used to just start talking to the moon." I stopped talking, realizing how crazy that sounded.

"Ah, yes. The moon. You know many believe that the moon is masculine in nature, but it's actually Selene herself, the Moon Goddess. The divine feminine. I think she misses your talks. I hear she has big plans for you." If Ginny didn't offer us a roof over our heads I would call my mom right now and get her to an looney bin. "I can see in your eyes that you don't believe me.  Why not see for yourself?" She got up and handed me a book on Greek mythology.

She had Roman, Nordic, Eastern European, Latin American, and Native American mythology books but said this book gave the best description and understanding of the goddess, Selene.

"Don't let them scare you, like they did me. It's all part of a much larger plan, I just wasn't as brave as you are. And now that he's gone, I wish I had been brave enough to love him. Maybe he'd still be alive." Ginny started to tremble and cry.

I hugged her, even though I wasn't a touchy-feely type of person. Somewhere deep down I knew she saw the truth while others, like me, denied it. I don't know why but Max's face popped into my mind as I soothed her. 

Maybe it was because he tried to comfort me earlier today or because I was important to him like this man was to Ginny. I stayed there until mom got home. I had to undo the boltlock on the front door and I when she served up chicken ceasar salad that night for dinner and asked how my day was - Ginny just shook her head warning me to keep it to myself.

"Fine. Glad to be back at school. Mrs. Bishop wasn't upset about me being late. How was your day, mom?" I lied.

She went on and on about a new product that she loves and is selling off the shelves left and right. I washed up and we all watched a movie, as per our Monday night routine. It was Ginny's turn to pick but she allowed me to select the movie.

"How nice is that, Tara? Ginny is giving you the power to pick something out that we all could enjoy." My mom was skeptical. So was I. Ginny loved her documentaries on mythology and didn't enjoy even a classic romantic comedy. Even so I decided on something that shocked even me.

The Twilight Series.

My mom mouthed to me 'really?' and I nodded saying we could start with the second one. Ginny refused to start midway, how was she supposed to understand what was going on without the first movie to reference back to. She loves her references and learning about odd things, that's for sure.

"So I guess we have a movie for the next few nights." My mom worked late on Tuesday's and Thursday's at the mall and was happy to skip at least one night of Twilight. My mom wasn't the biggest Twilight series fan. I think anything with werewolves is off putting to her. Probably because of Ginny's obession with them.

But for the first time ever I felt a connection to Ginny, and I thought this was a way that we could overlap our interests. For the longest time I refused to see this movie because of the sparkling vampires (which they totally edited out by the way in newer versions), but now seemed like the perfect time to catch up on my werewolf lore; even if it was through the lens of a woman writing a vampire and human love story with sprinkles of Native American werewolf legends from the Pacific Northwest into it.