Christmas Moon by J.R. Rain Read Free Book Online

Charlie was just happy to be Charlie.
    He was about to slide open his door when he glanced down, and his crooked smile seemed to freeze in place. He blinked. Hard.
    Then threw open the door.
    I shouldn’t have been surprised when he gave me the mother of all hugs, but I was.

    *

    We were in his living room.
    I had told him that a friend of mine had helped me lug the heavy safe onto his deck, and I made a show of pretending to struggle with the safe as we moved it from the deck to the center of his living room.
    Amid leaning towers of laser jet printer cartridges, 40’s science fiction magazines, and enough clipboards to last two lifetimes, we set the heavy safe down.
    Earlier in the night, after my discovery of the safe, I gave the boys ten minutes to clear out before I called the police. Most were gone in five. I kept their weapons and ammunition, which I would hand over to Detective Sherbet of the Fullerton Police Department.
    For now, though, it was just me, Charlie and the safe. And inside, something, neither of us knew what.
    The safe was clearly old. So old that it looked like it belonged on the back of a Wells Fargo stage coach. Part of the safe’s dial still gleamed brightly, although most of it was covered in blackened soot from the blowtorch. The handle was badly dented, no doubt thanks to the various hammers I had seen lying around.
    Still, the safe had held fast, and that’s all that mattered.
    Charlie stared down at it. So did I. My compensation was in that safe, whatever it might be. Could be gold. Could be old war bonds. Could be jewelry, gemstones or pirate booty, for all I knew.
    I had been tempted to see if my own psychic gifts could penetrate the heavy steel safe, but I had resisted.
    “ I guess this is it, then,” said Charlie. He didn’t sound very enthusiastic.
    “ Do you know the combination?”
    He pointed to the upper corner of the safe, where, upon closer inspection, I saw a number etched, 14. Two other numbers were etched into other corners, 29 and 63.
    I said them out loud and he nodded. “Don’t think of them as three numbers, think of them as six numbers. One, four, two, nine, six and three. With that in mind, what are the two lowest numbers?”
    I glanced at them again. “One and two.”
    He nodded. “Good. And the next lowest?”
    “ Three and four.”
    “ Good, good. And the two highest?”
    “ Six and nine.”
    “ You got it,” he said, giving me a half smile.
    “ Twelve, thirty-four and sixty-nine?”
    He nodded. “You’re the first person I’ve ever given the key to. Not even to my own son.”
    “ How old’s your son?”
    “ Twenty-one. But it’s too soon to give him the key. My father gave it to me on his deathbed.”
    “ I feel honored,” I said, and meant it.
    We stared at it some more. He made no move to open it, and I certainly wasn’t about to. Somewhere down the hall, one of his piles of junk shifted, groaning, as boulders do in the deserts. The piano, I saw, was gone.
    The light particles behind Charlie began coagulating and taking on shape, and shortly, two very faint old men appeared behind him. I noticed the hair on Charlie’s arm immediately stood on end, as his body registered the spiritual presence of his father and grandfather, even if his mind hadn’t. Charlie absently rubbed his arms.
    “ Well, let’s get on with it,” he said, and reached down for the safe.
    As he did so, I said, “You really don’t want to open the safe, do you, Charlie?”
    “ I do. Really, I do. A deal’s a deal, and I want to pay you. Your half.”
    “ But wouldn’t you rather pass it along to your own boy?”
    “ Without you, Ms. Moon, I would have nothing to pass on to my kid. Besides, it’s really a silly tradition.”
    “ No, it’s not. It’s about family.”
    “ We’ve been keeping this thing going for years and it’s impractical at best, like a joke from beyond the grave.”
    “ I think it’s an amazing tradition,” I said.
    He didn’t say it,