Saturday, February 14, 1998
To say that the next two days were awkward would have been putting the torturous experience in unduly polite terms.
Henry had taken over training Jenny and Marcus. During the day, Jenny worked on her disguise, trying to mimic a healthier version of Roland’s deceased daughter. During the evenings, Marcus had to change over to his own disguise, and he suffered horrid aches and pains in his face and limbs. He wanted to hum a spell to heal faster, but he was so frustrated thinking about Laura and Kevin that the music in his head was muted.
Laura came out whenever Marcus did, and she felt terrible guilt over tricking him. Because she felt guilty, so did he. But his motivations for the sentiment were based more on his actions than hers.
Jenny wasn’t faring much better. Tommy wouldn’t come around her on orders from Matilda, and Kevin was avoiding her because he too felt guilty for not mentioning his age.
Jasmine avoided everyone except during meals, and she looked like she was trying to compress bits of coal into diamonds between her tightly clenched teeth.
The older shapeshifters offered Jenny pitying expressions at every meal, but there were no attempts at polite conversation made with her. Everyone talked around her, and Jenny felt uncomfortable saying more than two or three words at a time.
She even stopped using words to label herself. Instead of saying “I’m going for a walk outside,” she just said, “going out,” in a soft voice before she left.
It didn’t matter, because no one acknowledged her anyway.
When, on the third day, it became clear that Jasmine was gone, there was a tangible sense of relief that at last a crisis had come up that would let the family move past the awkward silence.
Jenny had just finished getting dressed when Henry knocked on the door, his face full of frustration as he walked into the guest room. “She’s gone again.”
Jenny almost asked who, but only one “she” in the house had a habit of leaving when something was displeasing her.
She pulled on her shoes and went downstairs with Henry. In the kitchen Matilda sipped a cup of black coffee. Her wrinkled face was full of dour emotions, but when she looked up at Jenny, she made an effort to relax her face.
Waving Jenny over to the table to take a seat, Matilda said, “I want you to relay a message to Marcus for me. I need to apologize to him, and to you, for not saying something sooner.”
Jenny blinked twice without comprehension before she started to pout. “You’re bringing this up now?”
“Jasmine ran away because she was angry with us, and by us, I mean you too. If I tried to bring the matter of Kevin’s age up with Jasmine anywhere within earshot, she was going to explode. She’s been building a fight in her head, and no one will indulge her. So, now she’s going out to punish us for being hypocrites.”
Jenny was shaking her head at the absurdity of the statement, and at the same time, Matilda was nodding hers. “Yes, I know it’s unreasonable jealousy, but Jasmine had hope that she might have a chance to offer herself to Marcus.”
Jenny sighed as she had a thought, “So, you’d sent Kevin to act as a chaperone to keep me safe?”
Matilda grimaced shamefully as she nodded again. “He’s always been such a good boy. I didn’t think…” Sighing she dropped her head. “The two of you wandered out of my range, and by the time I realized what was going to happen, you and Kevin had already passed the first blush. After that, I couldn’t bring it up. Not without causing a major fight.”
She propped her head on her hand, covering her eyes by palming the bridge of her nose. “What good is living so long, when all life is for me, is watching other people fight?”
“Is it always like this?” Jenny didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “Is this the best a shapeshifter family can do? None of us can trust each other, so we all lie or omit details to suit our needs?”
“I’m afraid so, dear. We’re all aliens to each other, except for our companions.” Matilda sighed as she read Jenny’s thoughts. “Yes, dear, I suppose you have a point.”
Jenny had been thinking that she didn’t feel comfortable with either of her companions.
She considered complaining about being given the chance to voice her thoughts, but it was a trivial matter, a tangent that she wanted to follow so she could avoid feeling uncomfortable.
“What am I supposed to do, Matilda?” Jenny’s slumped posture almost matched the old woman’s. Jenny felt old, and worse, she felt guilty. “I’ve got two companions, and even if neither of them feels wrong in my heart, in my head…I’m so confused.”
“Of course you’re confused. We’re only meant to have one companion, and even that can become a problem if companions don’t agree with each other on a decision.”
Matilda said more, but Jenny had stopped listening. Once Matilda realized this, she shook her head and declared, “Never mind.”
She sent everyone out in groups to hunt for Jasmine. Tommy and Matilda would search the airport in Pueblo, while Jenny and Kevin were assigned to handle the bus stop. Henry and Diana would drive to Goodnight, where Jasmine was fond of working for “mad money.”
Jenny didn’t expect that they would be able to find Jasmine if she didn’t want to be found. Matilda had a very slim chance of finding Jasmine using telepathy, but if her range was so short, she would literally have to walk right past Jasmine to know it.
There was a part of the logic that felt wrong to Jenny, and trying to find the flaw occupied her mind for most of the trip.
Kevin was lost in his own thoughts, so the car filled with grim silence while Jenny drove to the station.
Kevin spoke up when she parked the car. “I didn’t mean to lie to you.”
Jenny nodded, turning off the ignition before she sat back. But she couldn’t answer him, not even to say, “I know.”
He fidgeted, waiting for a response before his head swung around, his gaze moving out the passenger window. “I guess I should have waited around for someone my age to show up and take an interest in me, but I don’t know if I have that luxury. We’re an endangered species, and—”
It was the wrong thing to say, and Jenny snorted bitterly, cutting him off. “Oh, I see. So this is all just a matter of survival? If that’s the case, why didn’t you go play with Jasmine? With all the side jobs you do, surely you can afford her rates.”
It was a acidic comment, one meant to sting him. But when he pouted, Jenny’s mouth went sour. The words returned to her from his eyes with more bitterness, and she had to look away from him.
She opened her door before he could find a comeback, walking fast to the front entrance of the bus depot. He was jogging to catch up, and she wanted to be inside, to keep him from talking.
Eventually they would need to talk. But she was too hurt then, and too confused to deal with the problem maturely. And, after all, she did have to be the adult in the situation.
Kevin grabbed her wrist and yanked her around fast. Jenny lost her balance, and she slumped against him, falling into his waiting arms. Then his mouth was on hers, his lips pressing down insistently.
He wasn’t trying to be romantic. He needed to get a reaction from Jenny, and he couldn’t make her talk. He couldn’t make her understand his needs, and he couldn’t stand being dismissed as unworthy of having an opinion on the matter.
All around them, people began to murmur, and Jenny raised her hands to Kevin’s chest to try and push him away. He clamped his arms around her, one in her lower back, and the other looped around her shoulders.
He was panting, scared and on the verge of crying.
Unwilling to hurt him emotionally, Jenny melted in his embrace.
His iron grip on her relaxed, and he stepped back, his grey eyes searching hers. “It’s more than just a matter of survival, and you know it. You wanted me before, so why should this matter?”
“It…” Jenny lowered her voice, waving around at the humans. “It matters to them, and they get to make up the rules. If they knew—”
“Who’s going to tell them?” Kevin stepped closer, his eyes pleading with her. “Will you spontaneously confess all of your crimes, just because of me?”
She started to object, “I don’t have any past—”
“So you haven’t looked the other way on a murder before?” Kevin asked, silencing her. “Or how about obstruction of justice? Aiding and abetting fugitives?”
“I get the point,” Jenny said.
Angry, Kevin shook his head. “I don’t think you do. How is this crime worse than what you’ve already done?”
“Because I accepted the risks involved with those other crimes with full disclosure about what I was walking into. You made me commit a crime by omitting the truth.”
“Oh, I made you do it.” Kevin folded his arms across his chest, his face cooling into indignation. “I guess it was me following you around the house all day.”
“But I wouldn’t have done that if I’d—”
“Liar,” he spat, and before she could say anything else, he walked away.
Jenny ran after him, her heart thumping too fast.
She bumped shoulders with a man carrying a jukebox, and the CD in the drive motor spun, the reading laser skimming randomly before it began playing a song.
Jenny didn’t remember the song being an instrumental version, but she didn’t hear the singer, Meatloaf, singing about paradise being found by a dashboard light.
The music reached a crescendo with three rapid crashes on the cymbals, and Jenny felt the words erupt from her chest, “Stop right now!”
Kevin spun around, glaring at her.
Desperately, she sang at him, “Don’t make me prove my love!”
He smiled, a faint trace of humor glimmering in his eyes as he inhaled. “That’s not gonna work on—!” His voice warbled off pitch, but he was singing. “Shit!”
He grinned in a look of helpless frustration, already caught in her spell. Kevin drew in another breath and sang louder, “Do you love me? Will you love me forever? Do you need me? Will you never leave me?”
Jenny danced to the music and sang, “Yes, I wanna stay with you for the rest of my life! But I’m offering pain. I offer trouble and strife!”
The crowd around them danced and clapped, and the music from the boombox swelled over the intercom speakers as the magic took over.
“Do you want me? Will you keep me forever?” Kevin swayed back and forth, doing some serious white boy swaying while he sang, “Will you lead me? Will you try to teach me? Will you help me plan the journey for the rest of my life? I’ve offered my heart, don’t you hand me a knife!”
Jenny danced closer to him, not noticing how many people were also dancing. Kevin didn’t notice either, because he only saw Jenny, heard only her voice. He heeded her siren call, overcoming his insecurities and his poor singing.
He sang, “So let me know Jenny! Don’t brush me off anymore! Will you take me? Will you keep me forever?”
Jenny turned away from Kevin, putting her finger to her chin while she adopted a thoughtful expression. “Let me sleep on it. Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.” She looked over her shoulder to smile at Kevin. “Let me sleep on it. I’ll give you an answer in the morning.”
She might have completed the song and cast a bewitching enchantment on Kevin.
But then a bus drove through the wall.
The driver of the blue Oooooooklahoma! chartered bus had been mesmerized by the sight of people dancing around the bus depot, and he’d gawked with an open mouth, unable to recognize that he was also turning the wheel where he was looking.
In his daze, he ran over sixteen people, two puppies in a pet carrier, and one box of five free kittens. Nine people in the depot were crushed by falling debris from the collapsing wall, among them a legless war veteran who had just been thinking, This is the happiest day of my—
So it wasn’t all bad.
But the falling roof crushed the front half of the bus. Eighteen passengers were killed, including the driver, and the backlash from the spell being interrupted exploded the CD, killing the man carrying the boombox when the door of the drive shot up and cut off his arm. The speakers exploded next, and roughly two percent of the survivors would later go on to become serial killers with phobias about musicals.
All told, it was the worst automotive disaster in the history of musicals.
***
The ride back from the bus stop was also filled with uneasy quiet, but for very different reasons. Jenny and Kevin were upset by the catastrophe at the bus depot, but neither of them wanted to broach the subject.
It seemed so improbable. After all, what sort of magi cast their spells by singing? There probably wasn’t a name for something so silly.
Probably.
Their nervous tension over the musical disaster was compounded by other concerns once they got back to the house and found out no one else had returned.
They sat in the living room without looking at each other. By then Kevin had given up on trying to argue with Jenny. But he remained near her, reminding her that there was something that they needed to clear the air about.
The problem was, Jenny had no clue of how to resolve the situation. The seemingly obvious answer would be to push Kevin away and accept that Tommy was meant to be her companion.
But she couldn’t. Kevin’s interest in living a life free from scams or sex work was more in line with her thoughts, where Tommy saw no problems with continuing to work as a criminal.
Jenny could see herself being a working partner to assist Kevin with his projects, and, assuming that Matilda had finally passed on from old age, the money they made would be more than enough to support them. With some conservative investments, they might even be able to retire right at 200 and celebrate their last 200 years together.
Jenny was struck by an odd thought then. I have at least 380 years ahead of me. So why am I so upset over one decade?
But she knew why; because it was one decade in the wrong direction, and even by shapeshifter standards, Jenny was robbing the cradle.
Matilda’s sigh surprised Jenny, and she spun to watch the old woman with wide eyes.
Resting her purse on the floor at her feet, Matilda sat down on the couch beside Jenny and took her hand. “It depends on which half of the family you ask, dear. The Hookers would claim that you were late by three years or so, and the Grifters would insist that you were early by one.” She paused and added. “No, dear, it won’t make you feel better if I wait for you to say something first.”
Matilda waved Kevin over and took his hand.
Jenny hadn’t expected to have Matilda enter her mind, and there was no defense against the swiftness of the intrusion. One instant, she was sitting on the couch, and the next, she was kneeling on the floor.
Kevin was made to kneel in the same way.
Matilda said, “I wouldn’t normally do this, but I think it will be easier this way. Jenny, fetch Marcus for me.”
Jenny fell back into the corridor, pushed away from the pilot seat of her mind by the old woman’s telepathic command.
Marcus was pulled out of his room, and he walked past Jenny, his confused gaze meeting hers for an instant as they passed.
Jenny shrugged. She had a hunch of what was about to happen, but nothing definitive.
Marcus shifted bodies, but not sexes. He wanted to feel relief at that, but the act of being held in place against his will was unnerving.
Reading his thoughts, Matilda said, “You need to bond with Kevin, and you’re not gay. Neither is Kevin, so that’s not going to work out well. At least, not without years of practice, and I can already tell neither of you wants to be the top man on the totem pole, if you catch my meaning.”
She leaned over to rest her hand in the middle of Marcus’ chest while she continued to talk. Her other hand went over Kevin’s chest. “I’m going to force you to feel something extremely pleasant, and then you’ll be able to merge with only a kiss, instead of all that…stuff.”
Matilda shuddered and shook her head. If Marcus had been in control of his body, he might have snorted or laughed at her. It didn’t seem right that a gender-swapping shapeshifter could suffer from homophobia.
But he wasn’t in control, and instead of laughing, he drew in a deep breath as his chest began to warm up.
Kevin’s mouth fell open as he drew in a surprised breath too, and his eyes started to glow with an intensity that washed out his irises and pupils. The light rising in his throat flooded his mouth an instant later, and then Marcus was leaning forward.
At the last moment, Matilda closed his eyes, and then his lips made contact with Kevin’s. Something wet exploded between his legs, and his voice rose from his chest as a groan that seemed impossibly deep for him. Kevin’s voice was also much deeper.
Then Marcus realized that his hearing was playing tricks on him, because every sound was processed by his overworked brain at a much slower rate.
The moment of contact ended, and the world sped back up. Matilda settled Marcus back on his haunches before she released him. When he opened his eyes and looked at the old woman, she was covered in a sheen of sweat and panting.
She smiled and said, “No, I didn’t strain myself holding you in place. In order to make both of you climax, I was masturbating.” Marcus gagged, and the old woman cackled. “You’re welcome.”
... I write dark fiction in a variety of genres. My blog contains my rants and rambles, and some short fiction that can only be found here.
I can be pretty fucking offensive, so viewer discretion is advised.
Oh she is such a stinker, they might have been able to do without being told how she did the trick.
And boy that music number was good and the end just hit my dark humor spot so hard. I almost had tears from giggling to much, talk about a weird mix of events.
Matilda is more of a stinker than you think, as you will soon see.
And the musical disaster was one of my favorite scenes in this book. It’s the perfect combination of light and dark in my opinion. ^_^