Free Shadowshift by Peter Giglio

*
    In the living room, things are once again calm. Tina places keepsakes on shelves while Kevin flattens the boxes he has carefully preserved.
    A stack of cardboard in his arms, Kevin says, “Heading down to the basement. Be right back.”
    “Okay,” she says, staring at the porcelain cat figurine she has just placed on a bookshelf.
    The intensity of her stare captures Kevin’s attention. He stops and asks, “Do you want to get a cat?”
    “Oh, God, no. I’m allergic, and I can’t stand cats—they’re…ugh, they’re bitey and scratchy things, and they stink. If you want to get me a pet, get me a dog. Dogs I understand. And Hannah loves dogs. She loves all animals, and they love her.”
    He chuckles and points at the object holding her fascination. “Well, you certainly seem to like that cat.”
    “Hey, Einstein, it’s not real,” she says. “Besides, my grandmother gave it to me. She’s the only person who understood me when I was a kid. She encouraged my writing, and she told me I needed a cat, that all great writers have them. That’s when my mom jumped down her throat. She spent the rest of the day berating Grandma, telling her how thoughtless she was, all because I was allergic to cats, as if that was somehow Grandma’s fault. Hell, Grandma didn’t know about my allergy because my mom hardly ever let her come around.
    “But Grandma let my mom’s abuse slide. ‘Like water off a duck’s back,’ she’d say. And the next time she visited the house, she brought me this.” Tina picks up the figurine and presses it against her chest, then returns it gently to the shelf.
    “Looks perfect there,” Kevin says.
    “I’m glad you like it,” she says. “Chet didn’t. He hurled it at me once, when we were fighting.”
    Kevin cringes. Images of a man abusing Tina flash through his mind. Chet never hit her, Tina has said, but Kevin has a hard time believing that’s true. Any man who launches items at his woman in the heat of an argument is capable of causing bodily harm. And from the other things Kevin has learned about Tina’s ex, he knows Chet was certainly no stranger to violence.
    “It’s a miracle it didn’t break,” Tina says distantly. “I think Chet hated that it meant so much to me. That the person who gave it to me loved me more than he ever could.” She turns to face Kevin. “Is that strange?”
    “You said he had a hard childhood.”
    “Maybe,” she says. “But there’s something I never told you.” After a long pause, she continues: “I met Chet’s father a few years ago. He tracked me down. Called me. Wanted to meet. Of course, I didn’t want to meet him, but…he wanted to see Hannah.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Yeah, it was a tricky situation. So I left it up to Hannah, and she chose to meet him.” Tina’s gaze returns to the cat. “Hannah never had grandparents around to spoil her, and who was I to deny my baby the experience? Not that I thought any good could really come of it.”
    “So what happened?”
    “I was wrong, and he was nice. Really nice. And genuine. When Hannah wasn’t in earshot, I challenged him about the number he did on his son, the monster he created.”
    “And?”
    Tina shrugs. “And he looked pretty fucking confused.”
    “Shit.”
    “Don’t get me wrong, Ray Mitchell could have been full of shit. He could have been a great manipulator, like his son. But…I don’t know…there was real pain in his reaction. I believed his denial. And that made me realize what a monster Chet really was. He also told me that Chet was adopted, which is something Chet never mentioned.”
    “Do you think that gave Chet more reason to hate his father?”
    “Who knows with Chet. He could rationalize anything.”
    “Does Hannah still have a relationship with her grandfather?”
    “She talked to him a couple times over the phone, and she said she liked him. But he died last year. Cancer. I was on a tight deadline with my publisher, so we didn’t go to Ohio when it