It was my job to notify the next of kin. Now that a necromancer had taken possession of the body, the police were no longer obligated to inform the family, and that legal obligation fell on the necromancer maintaining the body. I honestly doubt the original necromancer that had turned Noah into a zombie had bothered to tell his family (bad guy necromancers never do) and so that meant that I needed to take care of it. And the sooner the better. Families always seemed to get pissy if I didn’t tell them promptly.

“Orchard Hills? That’s clear across town.”

Shit, it’s going to take forever by bus.

(sigh)

Wait, what time was it?

I checked the time on the tiny screen of my phone. Oh, if we hurry, maybe –

I tugged Noah’s sleeve to get him moving.

“Come on, we need to get going.”

“I’m still eating.”

Noah coughed some more, as he took bite.

I huffed at him.

“You don’t have that much left, just cram it in your mouth.”

He shook his head “No”, and took another dainty nibble.

Gods, we would die of old age before Noah was done with that thing.

“Here, just give it here!”

I grabbed his hand holding the burrito and nommed the whole thing into my mouth. Then I turned and dashed towards the pier. It was only a few blocks away, if we ran, we should make it in time.

Noah complained as he ran after me.

“You bit my hand!”

“Shut up!”

Of course, my mouth was still stuffed with a third of a burrito, so it sounded more like, “Muh Mup!”

We rounded a corner and blitzed across a busy street that lined the waterfront. Car horns blasted at us and we nearly got ran over by a minivan that didn’t want to wait, but we made it to the dock.

The ferry dock wasn’t all that big, the pedestrian ferry that crossed the bay could only carry about fifty people anyway. The ferry was probably the cheapest way to get across the city fast, there was just one little problem with taking the boat across the water, there was only a few sailings a day, and if you missed it, then you just had to go without or wait hours for the next one.

There was a ticket dude guarding the gangplank that lead to the boat, and he looked like he was itching to close the gate as we ran up. I waved my TRAMP card, as I huffed and puffed down the floating dock to where we could climb on board the ferry boat.

TRAMP card stood for Transit Rail And Marine Pass card, and whatever city leader thought that was a great name for their mass transit pass, really needed to be kicked. And to make it even more clear that mass transit was for poor people, there was a silhouette of a Ye’ Ol timey hobo with a bag on a stick on the card.

I swiped my card on the little reader next to the gate, and quickly went through the list of options of why Noah should get a discounted ticket.

Senior? – Nope.

Under six? – Nope.

Preggo? – Nope.

Student? – Bingo.

Noah could totally pass for a student.

“Student, student! He’s totally a student!”

The ticket dude looked Noah up and down, then shrugged.

“Sure.”

We managed to sneak on with only paying about half of Noah’s fair. Sweet! Too bad he couldn’t pass for being a little kid, than I wouldn’t have to pay anything.

We hustled to some seats near the back of the boat. We were the last people on the nearly empty ferry, before it took off from the dock.

“Uh Kari, I’m not actually a student anymore.”

Noah was looking at me with those honest, obviously sheltered rich kid, eyes.

“Oh, gee, you’re not? Oops, my mistake. Well, we’ll remember that for the next time.”

I honestly didn’t care, I just wanted a cheaper ticket.

Noah chuckled and gave me a shoulder bump.

“I always get into so much trouble with you.”

Considering we had just met a couple hours ago, we had gotten into all of nothing together, but if Noah wanted to believe that I was his “bad influence” childhood friend, than I was fine with that. I’d certainly been called worse.

We bounced along on the water in silence for a while. Noah was staring out the window at the scenery floating by. I was slumped back into my seat and trying not to think too hard. The ferry ride was a little too long and quiet with way too few distractions for comfort.

Leaning my head on the back of the bench seat we were silently sharing, I stared at the ceiling. Light bouncing off the water outside our windows was reflected into the ferry and painted the ceiling with blobs of light and shadow. A couple of points of light formed into circles and drift towards me across the ceiling. For the tiniest of moments my stupid brain was tricked by the light show, and I thought,

'Mom? Dad?'

But as the ferry zipped along the waves, the reflected lights and shadows wobbled, reformed into different shapes, and that feeling of recognition was lost. I couldn't help but sniffle a little bit. 

Noah shifted next to me in his seat.

"Hey, Kari? Are you okay? If you're upset about something, we could talk about it."

That got me sitting up in my seat. Noah had a shitty enough morning as it is, I mean he was dealing with being frick'n dead, the last thing he needed was having to deal with my shit too.

I shook my head and slapped a smile on my face.

"Nope, I'm totally fine."

I pushed myself to my feet.

"Come on, our stop is coming up soon."

I headed out a side door of the ferry cabin to the deck, making my way towards the front of the boat. I was lying, we weren't even half way through our ferry ride, but I needed to get up, I needed to move, I needed distractions.

It was windy out on deck and I wrapped my dad's coat tighter around me. The scent of my dad had worn away years ago, but I still pressed my face into its collar and breathed in deeply anyway. Noah sidled up to me.

"Kind of crazy weather, right? It almost feels like spring."

I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but that was just weird.

"Umm, it is spring."

He tilted his head at me like a confused puppy.

"In December?"

I could feel my forehead crumple into a frown.

"It's March."

Noah chuckled a little, as if I was joking.

"What? No."

I was nodding my head.

"Does it look like December to you?"

Noah started looking all around as if he could find the answer somewhere on the deck of the ferry.

The different faces he went through as he tried to wrap his head around the time difference was actually pretty funny. First he scrunched up his face in thought, then his bunny eyes grew really big in shock, then he tilted his head to one side as if he was confused about something, then he scrunched up his face, thinking again.

I stopped walking towards the exit of the boat, we weren’t near our dock anyway, and turned to Noah.

"So the last thing you remember was sometime in December?"

He nodded.

"December tenth, I would swear that's today. It feels like no time has passed at all."

For newly minted zombies there's often a little memory loss, but it's usually a few hours before their deaths, a day at most. But three months? No, that means that whatever necromancer had first turned Noah, they had held on to him for three whole months, and then just ditched him.

Zombies aren’t like wind-up toys, they can’t just get made and then keep going on their own. A necromancer had to “maintain” them. Meaning, the necromancer’s magic is constantly attached to the zombie and is continuously feeding power into the spell that keeps the zombie active. It’s like the zombie has an invisible power cord, and the necromancer was the power outlet. The zombie had to be plugged into the necromancer’s magical power at all times. Once that magic link is severed the zombie instantly becomes just another dead body. That’s what wiping is, it’s just breaking the link between the necromancer and the zombie.

So, some necromancer fed Noah magic for three months, and then just ditched him? Kristy was right, there was something very weird about Noah's case.

Hmm, I wonder if I could poke Noah for more info on the case? I mean, I'm no super detective, but you can't blame a necro nerd for getting curious.

Noah half muttered under his breath. 

"I wondered where all the holiday decorations had gone."

Oh, the holidays, he missed them. For Noah there had been no warm hugs, no holiday dinners together with family and friends, no sharing presents with people that know you so well.

A new wave of achy sadness washed through me, but for Noah. 

"Your family must have been so worried when they couldn't find you for the holidays."

Noah's movements suddenly became stiff, his smile stayed in place, but was tense.

What was up with that reaction?

I gave his sleeve a little tug.

"Don't worry, I'll get you back to them soon."

He ruffled his hand through his fluffy, fluffy hair.

"I wonder what they'll think of my changes."

He chuckled under his breath.

"They'll probably freak when they see my hair."

I tilted my head to one side, confused.

"What do you mean? Haven't you always looked like this?"

Noah gave me a look like I'd just grown a third head.

"Umm, Kari, I know we haven't seen each other in a little bit, but even you wouldn't forget that I had brown eyes and hair. I was totally normal looking before."

I frowned.

"One, normal is relative. And two, someone probably just died your hair while you were dead somewhere else. Give your noggin over here and let me check."

Noah took a step back away from me.

"Wait, Kari I-"

I pounced on Noah and wrestled his head into my arms.

I combed my fingers through Noah's hair, but there was no signs of a dye job, it was snowy white clear down to the roots.

Oh my gods! His hair was so soft.

It was like stroking a chubby fluffy kitty. It was silky yet light and fluffy, and it had just the right amount of curl to make it bouncy and not all soft frizz. I could cuddle this fluff all frick'n day long.

That's when I realized that I still had Noah in a headlock and was still petting his head.

Hmm, maybe normal people didn't do this?

(Pet, pet)

Hmm, yeah I should probably let him go.

(Pet, pet)

It's what a normie would probably do.

(Pet, pet, pet)

Noah’s voice sounded a little squeaky and muffled with my arms still wrapped around his head.

“Umm, Kari?”

I ran my fingers through his luxurious floofy hair a couple more times before releasing his head. Noah stumbled a bit before he could stand up right. When he finally popped back up again, he stared at me with big shocked bunny eyes.

. . . .

What? What? This was a totally healthy and normal reaction to anything super floofy. And I would do it again too. 

His shoulders started jiggling and he gave a single snort. And then suddenly, like fireworks, Noah was bursting with giggles. He covered his face with his hands, but it did nothing to muffle the joyous sound.

Noah just barely managed to get out a few words between his bubbles of laughter.

“Pft, I guess (hee-hee) you like (ha ha) my hair?”

I gave him a dead serious face and a single nod.

“Never change it.”

It took Noah a few minutes to get over his giggles, the whole time he shyly hid behind his hands and turned away from me. Like a bunny hiding their nose under their paws. Was it wrong of me to think about petting his head again while he was distracted?

The boat turned towards the shore again and other passengers started shuffling towards the deck so they could get off. Oh, looks like this was our stop too.

I started milling towards the crowd at the end of the boat, where the exit was.

“Seriously, Noah, your hair’s just fine the way it is, you should keep it just like that.”

Noah’s voice was close behind me in the crowd.

“Maybe my hair isn’t so bad, but what am I going to do about the freaky eyes? It’s not like I can wear sunglasses where ever I go.”

I threw over my shoulder at him as I climbed down the gangplank to the dock.

“What are you talking about? You got the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”