There was no sidewalks in this part of town. There was no street lines or markings either. The streets were mostly paved, but they hadn’t been maintained in decades, so the cement had huge gaping cracks and potholes. On the plus side, that made the traffic go really slow in this neighborhood, which was good when you were forced to walk along the street gutter to get anywhere. This place used to be a semi-decent working dude neighborhood with lots of small industrial workshops decades ago, but after the big smelter closed down, all the jobs and money disappeared. The whole area was abandoned to the junkies, hookers, sweatshops and chop-shops. This was Ferryman’s Wharf, my home.

The stubby two and three story buildings were in a variety of phases of falling down, and most were so plastered with graffiti that it was impossible to figure out what the businesses used to be. The street we were headed for was lined almost entirely with buildings that had big rolling garage doors directly on the street and a little office in front.

Noah was whipping his head around like crazy, his eyes open wide to the point that they were almost buggy.

“Uh, Kari, are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“Yup! This is home!”

I held up my free hand in a “Ta-da!” motion, pointing out a building in the middle of the block. It was a little two story, flat topped, cement block building. The terracotta paint was pealing off everywhere and the garage door was so rusted it’s a wonder it could open at all. Crowded around the open garage was a herd of cars in varying stages of being dismantled. Stacks of tires littered the sides of the road in front of the building and the cement ground was covered in oil stains and auto parts. Beside the gaping maw of the open garage was a windowless front office and off to the side was a creepy looking set of cracked wooden stairs leading up into the darkness of the building.

Noah was staring. He wasn’t smiling. He looked a little shocked, and not in a good way.

“You live in an auto repair shop?”

Technically a chop-shop took cars apart, not put them back together, but sure, we could pretend that it was a mechanic.

“We live above the shop.”

That didn’t seem to improve Noah grim impression of the place.

I gave Noah’s still linked hand a little tug to nudge him into motion, and pulled him closer to home. As we walked up to the building, the old guy that ran the chop shop below us gave me a little wave.

“Ah, Kari. You bringing a friend home?”

The old guy was wiping his hands on a rag as he waddled over to us.

“Yeah, this is Noah, you’re going to be seeing a lot of him.”

“Eh? You’re boyfriend’s moving in? Is Jiro going to be okay with that?”

“Oh, no no, he’s just a friend. I seriously don’t have a boyfriend.”

I turned to Noah to laugh it off, but look who was blushing like crazy!

Dude, when people see you turning bright red like that, no-body is going to believe that you’re not my boyfriend! Seriously, what is up with Noah.

“Anyhow, we need to get going.”

I yanked Noah’s hand to get him moving again and headed for the sketchy stairs.

The old guy called after us.

“Okay, nice meeting you Noah.”

We walked through the door and I held my breath, hoping that the family wouldn't be too much of a shock for Noah. I mean, it’s not like everyone here was a bunch of jerks or anything, but they did take a little getting used to. And considering how soft and squishy Noah was, I was just a little worried they might just trample him a bit.

"Big Sissy!"

The joyful squeal of a six year old, and the fast pitter pat of running little feet, hit my ears before I was attacked by a flying hug.

"Teeny Sissy!"

I hugged the little girl wrapped around my waist, and she gave back with just as much enthusiasm.

Martina “Tina” (Tee-nah) Marchen

Eternal Age: 6

Height: 3.9

Build: slim child

Hair: golden blonde, chin length, big bouncy curls

Eyes: Bright blue

Skin: standard white

Nationality: German

Looks: super cute

Job: being cute/daycare attendee

Tina was my "little sister", or at least she thought she was. She was actually my first human zombie. I raised her five years ago when I was just fifteen. Technically she was eleven years old now, but in her mind she was six and always would be. See, there was something a little off about Tina's memory, it only lasted about four months. It's not like at the stroke of midnight on the day of the fourth month everything in her little head disappeared, it was more like forgetfulness. Slowly, little by little the memories faded until at about four months they were gone. Like a stroke patient, she could perfectly remember her happy life with her mom before she died, it's everything after her death that she struggled to hold on to. After all these years of searching for an answer, I still haven't figured out why Tina was like this. Maybe it's because she was my first zombie and I screwed up some how, maybe Tina was just too young for zombification, maybe baby brains just weren't meant to be preserved like this. Who knows. All I know is that Tina loved her big sister, and I was lucky to have such a cute little sister, even if we weren't actually related.

I scoop my Teeny Sissy up into my arms, and propped her on my hip so she could wrap her arms around the back of my neck.

Tina tilted her head of golden curls as she peeked at Noah with her bright blue eyes.

"Who's this?"

I bounced Tina on my hip as I talked.

"This is my friend Noah, he's joining the family today."

Tina’s voice was half muffled as she cuddled her cheek into my shoulder. She gave a shy little wave to him before latching her hand back around my neck

"Hey, Noah."

Noah waved back just as shyly.

"Hey, nice to meet you."

Okay, Noah gets extra points for not trying to boop Tina's nose or pat her head even though she is the cutest little kid on the planet.

Tina actually hated it when strangers tried to boop her nose. For such a cheerful kid, she gave out very limited nose booping privileges. Basically only me, her mom, and Angie had nose booping rights. Hmm, and maybe Jiro, but he wasn't the type to boop someone's nose, so it was kind of a moot point with him.

I tried to tilt my body, so Noah could see her cute little face better.

“This is my baby sister Tina.”

Noah wiggle a finger at her.

“Hey Tina~.”

Tina, being a little less shy giggled and wiggled a finger back.

Oh my gods, these two were just too adorable. See, this was the welcome home for Noah that I was hoping for. Leave it to my super cute little sister to make this moment awesome! Things were going so well.

“Wow, I didn’t know you had a little sister.”

“Yup.”

Noah muttered his words in an almost silent breath, I nearly didn’t hear them.

“I wonder how I missed that.”

Okay, change of subject.

“So Tina, how was your day? Did you have a good time at daycare? You’re home a little early, huh?”

Tina was clearly confused by my rapid fire questions, and just kind of tilted her head at me.

“It was okay.”

She shrugged her tiny shoulders.

“Uncle Jiro’s making all your favorites for dinner Kari!”

“He is? Wow!”

I bounced Tina a little higher. Yeah, things were going really well. Dinner was going to be awe-some~.

Tina poked her stubby little finger into my cheek.

“Why is he making your favorites? Is it your birthday?”

“Ummmm.”

There’s only one reason Jiro would be making all my favorites today. It had to do with the text I sent him hours ago, after I left the therapist’s office. Jiro was like an old granny, he believed the surest way to heal a heart was through food.

But I really didn’t want to talk about what I needed healing from. I had been on a pretty good streak of distractions and avoidance for quite a few hours now, and I wasn’t about to break that to deal with shitty things like reality.

“Nope, it’s not my birthday. Maybe Jiro’s making all the good stuff to celebrate Noah joining our family?”

When the truth isn’t to your benefit, just play stupid.

Tina was tilting her head at me again. Yeah, she had been around me enough to know that something was up, no matter what I said.

Then Tina’s eyes popped wide open as she seemed to notice something about me. She looked around my shoulders and head, craning her little neck this way and that, and then she furrowed her tiny little brow in confusion.

“Hey Kari, where’s your mo –“

Shit, mayday mayday, change in subject! Big, big change in subject.

“Teeny why don’t you show Noah your latest artwork? I bet he’d really like it.”

“Yeah!”

Tina wiggled excitedly in my arms. Her kindergartner brain instantly latched onto this new subject, and totally forgot about the old one. She frick’n loved showing off her latest drawings to people.

I put her down on her feet again so she could run off to her room and stop asking inconvenient questions.