Mitzi was excited. It was Sunday morning and Dan was getting ready in the bathroom. Despite having been shot down for a loan on the first try, Dan was soldiering on with his house hunt because that’s what Dan did. He soldiered on. Just thinking about it made her proud of him. Now they had an appointment to see a house in town near the river. It wasn’t far from Runt’s or the magazine. It was absolutely perfect as far as location went. Mitzi was practically bouncing.

  Dan had caused a stir when he told Runt and Geraldine he was going ahead with the house hunt and he intended to bring Viv with him. No one was upset, they were just surprised with how quickly he’d warmed up to the idea. Mitzi was ecstatic. She intended to move with him. Runt and Geraldine knew that and approved. It was like they were going to set up a weird hybrid parody of a human family.

  Saturday while Mitzi was at work, Dan had already looked at a few locations. He wasn’t very enthusiastic about most of them. He’d said they weren’t “vibing” right with him. She thought she understood. There was one that would do if worse came to worse. She’d pulled up his laptop and found the addresses on a realty website. They were fine. Dan was being an artist about it.

  Then again, it was his house. She was just going to be living there.

  That dampened her mood. As excited as Mitzi was about all of this, she was still a goblin. She had very few rights. She could never own a house. She couldn’t have a bank account. Rob was bending over backwards with Dan's help trying to get around that for her so she could start getting paid for her articles. What she was born as was being a problem again.

  She looked up as Dan entered the living room and the look on his face said it all.

  “You’ve been peeking.” She said.

  “Sorry. When your mood dropped it was like you were broadcasting. It gets harder to NOT hear you when you feel something intense.” He walked up and knelt in front of where she sat on the couch.

  “Do you remember when I told you this wasn’t on you?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s still the truth, Mitzi. You’re not the problem. My people are the problem. That’s why I’m glad you’re writing the articles. It’s getting it out there for discussion. It’s posing uncomfortable questions.”

  She tilted her head and looked at him, then reached out and cupped the side of his face.

  “I just don’t want you to ever have to regret this.” She said. By the One, his inner strength always seemed to flare when she needed it, like now.

  “I promise you,” Dan said softly, “nothing will make me regret what we have.”

  He seemed to consider something.

  “I’m going to figure out a way to marry you.”

  She blinked.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” Dan said with a grin.

  She pulled his face forward and kissed him. It reminded her how long it had been since they’d been truly alone.

  “I’m not letting you take that back.” She said when she was done. “I’m holding you to it. AND I want a ring.”

  “I can do that. And a cake.”

  “Do they make peanut butter cake?” She asked, eyes going wide.

  “If they don’t, we can figure one out.” He felt so happy today. She smiled. At times like this she didn’t mind a little emotional feedback.

  Dan stood and held out a hand.

  “Let’s go find us a house.” He said.

  As they rode out, Mitzi watched Natchez go by out the window. The lights made the trip longer than it really was. Dan spoke and pulled her attention.

  “Have you been sleeping well? It’s the only time the bond conks out. I know Viv has had problems since the fire.”

  Mitzi turned to look at him.

  “Yeah. The fire wasn’t that bad. We’re survivors.”

  “No dreams?” He asked.

  “No. No dreams.” She thought about that. “Well, I had a weird dream the night of the fire that you took me to meet your mother.”

  Dan ran over the curb and startled the both of them. He found a spot to park on the side of the road, then turned toward her.

  “I need you to tell me everything about the dream that you can.” He said, suddenly very serious and obvious worry pouring through the bond. She leaned back slightly. His intensity was a bit alarming. Something in her response made him calm.

  “Sorry. Just tell me about it and I’ll explain. It might be nothing.” Dan said.

  She raised her eyebrows and her ears twitched violently. She tried to recall the dream. It HAD been a month after all.

  “Uh, we were in a really nice house and your mom was on a plump looking brown couch and she was in a sort of flowered gown thing and had glasses. She was sad and kept apologizing to you.”

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  Dan went pale.

  “Then she started crying.” He said.

  “Yeah.” Mitzi said, shocked. She continued though. “I went over to comfort her because she seemed like she felt terrible. I remember it because you were holding her hand. Then she did the weirdest thing.”

  Before she could tell him about the weird thing, Dan spoke.

  “After she pushed me backwards yelling, what did she do?”

  Mitzi blinked. Now she understood why he was so concerned.

  “You were actually there.” She said.

  “Or YOU were actually there. Either way, yes. What happened after she pushed me out?”

  Mitzi swallowed. “She yelled for you to run and pushed you down as everything got dark. She said she was sorry as she did it.” She still remembered the end of that dream, right before Dan had awakened her during the fire. “She was sobbing and told me to take care of you. Then I woke up with you picking me up.”

  Dan sat there, barely seeming to breath, and the color had drained from his face. She touched his arm. He was cold.

  “Are you ok?” Mitzi asked him.

  “I... I don’t know. I think that all really happened, Mitzi. I think my mom was really there.”

  Mitzi took his hand.

  “Dreams let these sorts of things happen sometimes.” She said.

  “Do they?”

  Mitzi sighed. Humans.

  “Yes, Danathan, they do. And I’m glad they do. It gave your mother a chance to correct a mistake.”

  Dan sat stunned for a few minutes. “It… it must have been the bond. Or something. I just… I don’t know.”

  Mitzi undid her seat belt and knelt to take Dan in her arms. He held her tightly. They were going to be a little late to their appointment. That was ok though. Mitzi thought this might be a bit more important than the house.

  It turned out that even though they were late, the agent was later. Another showing had run long, so Dan just told her they’d been looking at the neighborhood. They actually did walk up and down the street a bit for a look around.

  The house in question was a very old townhouse on South Commerce Street and Mitzi immediately loved it. It was three stories with an attic, one story was a half buried basement. It had a freshly painted red door. It didn’t look very big from the outside as they walked around it. They finally sat on an antique wooden park bench that was right against the outside of the house on the sidewalk.

  “So,” Dan said as they waited, “you haven’t seen the inside and you already want it, huh?”

  Mitzi bit her bottom lip. The bond cut a shocking amount of small talk sometimes.

  “Pretty obvious, huh?” She said. Dan was interested in it, but he was tempering his excitement.

  “Let’s see if it’s enough space before we get too gung-ho on this. We’ll have Viv with us too.”

  Mitzi nodded. The house was beautiful. If she had her way, she’d be back at Goblin House getting their luggage.

  “Well, it’ll be huge inside. We don’t actually have any furniture.”

  She felt Dan’s amusement before he said anything.

  “Did I not mention that Howie said I can have all the furniture from mom and dad’s if I can get somewhere to keep it?”

  “No you did NOT!” She said, genuinely surprised.

  “Well, I got hit with a lot that day.” He smiled. “I’ve got till October to figure something out.”

  Mitzi grabbed his hand. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out!”

  Dan just squeezed her hand and chuckled.

  “Well, you saw some of the furniture in that dream.” He shook his head. “And that is a thing I just said. Holy shit.”

  Mitzi laughed at that. Dreams didn’t seem to be as important in the wide world as they were in the Everywhen. Dreams were messages from the One.

  A sleek red sports car pulled up on the street and parked, and an older white woman got out. She reminded Mitzi of some of the folks that came into Runt’s on a week night and drank entirely too many margaritas and would talk loudly about someone in their office.

  “Hey there, y’all! I’m Constance! You’re Rob’s friends?” She sounded VERY southern, but friendly. She didn’t seem to react to Mitzi being a goblin. She had either been forewarned or she didn’t mind. Whichever it was, Mitzi would take it.

  Dan stepped up and shook hands with her.

  “Yes ma’am. I’m Dan, this is Mitzi. Thanks for coming out. Rob recommended you highly.”

  “Well he’s just a sweetheart, isn’t he?!” She said VERY enthusiastically. Mitzi got the impression this was her game face. She didn’t show anything from the inside while on the job. Probably for the best.

  The tour took about thirty minutes. There were two bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, which Mitzi nearly flipped out over. Two bathrooms was just crazy to her. The main level consisted of the den and kitchen. The bottom level was a lovely furnished basement… thing. It had its own fireplace and Mitzi could already see how to turn it into a space for Dan’s art and her writing. The whole thing had plenty of room but felt cozy. She fell even harder for it.

  Dan, for his part, went over the place with a fine tooth comb. He asked questions about small blemishes and cracks. He was very particular, which was good because it could have a bugbear den underneath it and Mitzi still would have bought the thing.

  In the end, Dan told the realtor he’d call her ASAP as he had one more house to look at and they parted ways.

  “You don’t have anything else scheduled.” Mitzi said.

  “Nope. Dan said as he opened the car door for her. “But I don’t want to seem too desperate. Just like she’s going to tell me when I call that she has another couple looking at the thing.”

  “It’s like a strategy game.” Mitzi said as Dan sat in the driver’s seat.

  “Exactly!” He said. “Also, I really need to see if I can get a loan somewhere. I don’t want to have to turn to Shelly.”

  Dan had told Mitzi about her offer. She had thought more than once about asking him to take her up on buying a house, but she understood why he didn’t. It was still an option in the end. Mitzi was suddenly glad that Candy was in jail and couldn’t screw this up for them.

  Dan was in his cubicle on Tuesday working on an ad for Runt’s, funnily enough, when he got a call from the realtor.

  “Hi, Constance! How are you?” Dan asked, picking the phone up.

  “Hello, Dan! I’m real sorry, but that house is kinda off the market. We’ve got someone with everything lined up already.”

  Dan’s heart sank. He actually had fallen for that house. Worse, Mitzi was going to be crushed.

  “Well, that happens I guess.” Dan said with a sigh. “Hopefully it’s someone who’ll like it as much as we did.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “I shouldn’t be telling you this.” Constance said. “I want you to understand that I shouldn’t, and I didn’t. You understand me? But I like you two and you’re Rob’s friends.”

  Dan realized he was looking around as if someone was going to be hearing her on the other end of the line.

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  “Do you know Louise Bonelli?” Constance whispered.

  Dan’s face froze. He DID know the name. She’d owned the tavern. She’d SOLD the tavern and tried to blackball Runt and the brood. It had come out that she was Candy’s aunt and had a vendetta against the goblins. She had a hate-boner for the magazine. She wanted Dan ruined for sending her family to jail for attempted manslaughter. The woman was waging an online war to try and get Candy released until trial.

  “What’s she gonna do with it?” Dan asked quietly.

  “The original idea was to tear it down, but it’s historic. Not on the registry, but it’s old enough that there would be an uproar. She’s turning it into an AirBnB.”

  Dan sat there stunned. “She didn’t put in a bid until after someone told her I was interested, did she?” he asked.

  “She did not.”

  “And someone at your office there is friends with her.”

  “The owner.” Constance said. “They were both Queens in the Tableaux when they were young. She does a lot of Louise’s realty work.”

  Dan just closed his eyes. He didn’t want to move from Natchez, but it was starting to look like he might have to.

  “Constance, thank you for not telling me any of this.” He said. “I know how much trouble you could have gotten in if you had.”

  “I’m sorry about all this. I hope the rest of your day goes well.” She said, then hung up.

  Dan just set the phone down on his desk. He looked, and realized the desk seemed really nice and laid his head down there as well.