Mind Games

“Of course. Donations. She said.”

More embarrassment, Ty noted.

“I don’t remember how Code Red, and you, came up in that conversation with her. Exactly. But then I thought about the new character, and ended up basing him on you.”

“Sorry, me?”

“What I mean is his physicality. His face, his, ah, frame, his build, his looks. So, his child version resembles Bray because, well, Bray looks like a child version of you.”

“You based the character—the Wandering Warrior, right?—on me?”

“Yes, more or less. More than less. And it’s getting hard to face moments of humiliation with you, so I’m getting it all out. I wanted handsome with a bit of an edge to it, but an edge that could turn on charm. I didn’t want the big, beefy build like Zed, but a tall, lanky build, long fingers, that sort of top-shelf bourbon color hair, the green eyes. And that was you, so.”

“Hold on a minute.” He checked outside, saw boy, dog, chickens, and no threat. Then he turned around and walked back to her studio. Stood studying the drawing.

“My ears don’t go like that.” He gestured to add points to them.

“They would if your mother was an elf.”

“Hmm.”

“And you have long eyes.”

“I have long eyes?”

“Yes.” She sort of bit that out, amusing him. “I exaggerated them for character, for his elfin blood, added the braid down the back of his head, the tattoo, but otherwise…”

Ty moved a little closer to the drawing. “Well, son of a bitch. I never noticed it before. That’s cool.”

“It’s cool?” She pressed her hands to her face, then ran them back over her hair. “I was afraid you’d think it was creepy. I was creepy.”

“Try being in a rock band for about ten years, you’d know creepy. Having fans camp outside your house can start out cool until you can’t go out without having them swarm. But that’s not creepy so much as inconvenient. Having a teenage girl bribe a housekeeper for the key to your hotel room, then sneak in, strip naked, and get into bed with you?

“That’s creepy.”

“God, did that really happen?”

“Yeah. Having a video game character my kid likes based on me? That doesn’t approach creepy and hits dead center of cool.”

“Good. That’s good.”

He turned back to her. “Anything else I should know?”

“I can’t think of anything at the moment.”

“Well, if you do.”

She still looked embarrassed, and he couldn’t deny he got a kick out of it.

“Meanwhile, I didn’t get a cookie yet.”

She gestured toward the kitchen. “You’d do me a favor if you took some home. And some eggs, if you can use them. I’d take Miss Leona eggs. My ladies are reliable layers, so it’s at least a couple dozen every week. Too many for me.”

He tried a cookie. “We’re definitely taking some of these home. Bray’ll go for scrambled eggs a couple times a week.”

“Great. I’ll fix you up.”

She still had Bray’s drawing on her fridge, and that touched him. He’d lucked into a nice, quiet neighbor who didn’t seem to mind a kid coming around now and then to laugh at her chickens.