Caomhnóir – Manny - 12

“Now I see where you got the idea for what you’re doing on Jakie’s wall,” Hamlin said once they were in Manny’s loft. He looked around for somewhere safe for Romper to be and then told him to sit and stay before asking, “Whose place is this by the way?”

“Mine.” Manny crossed to the kitchen area, saying as he did, “Make yourself comfortable while I get coffee started. Unless you want something stronger.”

“Coffee’s fine. And since when can you afford a place like this?”

“That’s part of the answer to your question, so if you don’t mind I’ll wait till we’re settled before telling you.”

He came over a couple of minutes later to where Hamlin sat stiffly upright on a chair. Handing him one of the cups of coffee he was carrying, he said, “If I remember right, you take it black,” as he sat down in the chair facing Hamlin’s. Putting his cup down on the side table after taking a drink, he leaned back, looking at Hamlin. “This is going to take some suspension of disbelief, but I have the feeling you’re half way to doing that already.” 

Hamlin smiled slightly. “More than half way I think.”

“Might as well start with the obvious then, no I haven’t changed at all in the past three years. Well, physically that is. I’ve looked the way I do now for the last almost five hundred years.”

“Damn,” Hamlin whispered.

“Damned is more like it, although given what I do I consider it more like doing eternal penance.”

“How, I mean, what—? You’re not a ghost. Or at least if you are you’re not like any that I’ve ever heard of.”

“Nope, not a ghost. There’s a word for me and others of my kind. It’s Caomhnóir, which is Gaelic for Guardian. Why Gaelic? No clue. After all I’m Dutch so why aren’t I called a Gardiaan or a Voogd? Okay, I’m rattling here, aren’t I? But I’m nervous and, quite honestly afraid.”

“Afraid that I won’t believe you, or that I will?”

Manny gave a small shrug of one shoulder. “Both. If you don’t believe then you’ll think I’m totally insane and walk away. If you do, then you’ll leave because the idea of being stuck with an immortal is more than you can handle.”

“I can’t argue with the logic of either option, but just so that you know, I don’t think you’re insane.”