“Tarnation’s that?” Michaels went still at the sound of his father’s voice. Next to him, Diana’s eyes flew open wide. Adam stared, jaw hanging slightly open.
“There’s no…” Erilon laughed softly.
“I mean, score one for whoever made the memory card.” Laura laughed softly as she paused the video. “Daddy, you’re gonna love this next part. I’ve only watched the first two…” She laughed again. “Mostly in shock, but there’s almost a hundred of them, most of them only a few minutes, so…”
“Play it.” His legs wouldn’t hold him. Fortunately, Adam’s reflexes were good, and he got Michaels to a chair. “That’s my dad, that’s…” He laughed, even as he wiped a tear from his eyes. “That’s my daddy.”
“My honored dead.” Laura’s eyes were wet. “I was safe the entire time.” She laughed. “I was with Grandpa.” She closed her eyes, and her laughter made her words hard to understand. “And now we sort of know what happened, let me just…” She hit play.
“It’s a camera, see light goes into—“
“I know what a camera is, Sunshine.” The soft southern drawl was unmistakable. He’d could imitate it, and did sometimes when quoting his father. Laura tapped her phone again, and the image showed on the larger screen. Suddenly he was glad she’d spent a ridiculous amount of money on that phone. “You’re telling me that thing’s a—“
“Grandpa calls me Sunshine.” Laura giggled into Adam’s shoulder. Diana’s hand found his, and Michaels pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. His demon hobo girl was Sunshine to his father. Seemed right.
“It’s also a phone, and a video camera, oh, and it stores the photos. Also, I can surf the web, play games, send text messages, and it’ll even tell me where I am and pull up a map for me, you know, in the real world.”
She lifted the camera, and for the first time, his dad’s face was visible. Michaels felt his breath hitch. Arliss had died young, never reaching forty. He was dressed in military fatigues, with a rifle slung over his shoulder, and was looking at Laura with a bemused expression. “That’s some voodoo bullshit, that’s what that is.” He shook his head as he chuckled.
“No, seriously, it’s a digital camera. It takes and stores pictures.” She started tapping the screen, then held it up again, gesturing for him to approach. “I’ve got a bunch. Look, here’s Dad and Diana.”
“That’s Diana?” His father pointed at the screen. When Laura nodded, his father looked back at the screen. “She’s a stone fox.”
“Grandpa.” The phone lowered as Laura laughed. Next to him, Diana laughed to, and he couldn’t keep himself from joining her. “That better be a compliment.”
“I’m just saying, he messes this up, I’m getting the entire Corps to haunt his ass.” The camera came back up to show his dad shaking his head. “When’s she due to pop?” His dad’s eyes were bright, and then they went wide as he shook his head. “You tell your daddy to stow the family naming tradition. Shut the fuck up and let her name the baby, she’s doing all the work.”
They both started laughing again, though Adam had the decency to try hiding it. “Ladies and gentlemen…” Laura held up her phone to get a better angle. “You heard it from on high, my grandpa, the OG, the GOAT himself.”
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