Page 25 of Dreams and Reptiles

“‘What Lives Next Door.’ You make it sound like a horror movie.”

“It might be. I wouldn’t know. I only have my imagination to go off of and the sight of being stalked by John Wayne across the field.” He was laughing at that point. “My mom told me I could outrun him, then she smacked me and locked me out of the house.”

“Your mom sounds awesome. She live nearby?”

“She has a condo in Sunnyvale, but like I mentioned, I’m trying to convince her and Aunt Judy, Derek’s mom, to move into the cottage at the front of the property. They both hate driving in the Bay Area, love to gamble, and deserve to be pampered. This way they’re close enough for us to spoil them.” He opened the bedroom door and gestured for me to go ahead of him. “We have arrived.”

The room contained a queen-sized bed, small dresser, nightstand, and a small mass of dark bodies writhing in the corner by the window.

“Awesome. I can totally help you with this.”

“Somehow I didn’t think ‘awesome’ would be your reaction.”

“Normally, it wouldn’t. Finding bugs like this in a house is often a recipe for disaster, but see? These guys are crickets, which happens to be the food of choice for my chameleons and other reptiles. I can scoop these guys up, and we can find the source of moisture that drew them here in the first place, unless you plan to open up a cricket supply store in your dream house?”

“That’d be a no.” He had his arms crossed over his chest and was doing some sort of wiggly, heebie-jeebie dance. “What do you need?”

“Got any to-go containers?”

“Be right back.” He took off at a run for the door and called out “maybe” before disappearing.

He was so damned funny, but then he’d offer up some piece of vulnerability right after saying something riotously hilarious. It kept me on my toes.

I was thoroughly hooked on Francis Liang.

I poked around the pile of crickets and found them feasting on some leaves. “Hey, Francis? Did you have this window open at some point?”

He came trotting back into the room. “My mom slept in here when we first arrived. Maybe she did? I know these windows need new screens. You think that’s what brought them in?”

I laid my palm on the floor. “It’s warm. They like warm environments. They may have come in through the window, but they stayed for the⁠—”

“Radiant floors. Gotcha. I need to make sure I check the thermostats. I guess it got left on. Oh, I didn’t notice that before.” He pointed to a dark spot under the windowsill. “Maybe I need to have someone come seal that up?”

“Probably a good idea.”

He stood bent over next to where I was crouched, and I could see directly down the neckline of his shirt, and he knew it.

We both chuckled knowingly.

“I’ll collect these critters for you and make my creatures very happy.”

“You’ll make Mom happy, too. She’s going to be sleeping in here again. Well, she won’t if I tell her about the critters. Shoot. Maybe I should move her to the other room. Can’t expose her to too much nature or she’ll for sure not move here.”

“That’s cool you two are close.”

“Are you close with your mom?”

“I am,” I said, as I scooped up the crickets. “She was happy to stay at her high-falutin’ retirement villa in Florida, though. I don’t know why she wasn’t tempted to live with my reptiles.”

Francis snickered. “Shocker.” But he was obviously humoring me. I had hope I could lure him over to the cold-blooded side. “Mom seems open to being here. I think it would be fun for her and my aunt, honestly.”

“For sure. With the various casinos and resorts out here, they’ll have plenty to keep themselves occupied. Not to mention, Foggy Basin puts on a bunch of festivals and activities.”

“Yeah, and she and my aunt can help me with some of the retreats that are coming. They also love to cook, but they’re much more efficient than I am. I don’t mind taking hours to make a meal, but Mom doesn’t tolerate my lollygagging.” He smiled wistfully when he talked about his mom.

“And your dad?”

All his wistfulness withered away.