Awakened

by K. G. Duncan

  “Have you ever wondered why it’s a dragon that you called down from that tornado storm? Why is it a dragon, and not something else? Like, say, another person? Wouldn’t that be easier for the rest of us? Easier for you?”

  Abby shook her head, “I didn’t call the dragon—she chose me, and I chose her. She already existed within me. Always has. I just didn’t know it until we got together over a little storm. And it ain’t about what’s easy. It’s about what it is. And sometimes what it is can’t be explained. It is just plain hard.”

  Stump’s smile widened. “Ah, and this you know with such conviction. Such certainty.” Abby smiled back at him, and nodded, understanding slowly spreading. Stump continued, “It isn’t always ours to ask why, but to simply know that something simply is. And you, my dear, most definitely are! And that is the foundation, the constant that you must always remember. No matter what world you may pass into, no matter what time—you are the constant, Abby. You are the one who always remains the same and true to herself.”

  Abby closed her eyes as Stump’s words sunk in. He continued, “And the fact that you chose the dragon, or that the dragon chose you…”

  “We chose each other!” Abby opened her eyes and corrected stump’s narrative with a wicked smile.

  “Right,” Stump chuckled. “Well, that’s the part that this world maybe still needs to figure out—what you need to figure out first! Worlds collide, and one only crosses over when there is deep and powerful purpose at hand.” Stump nodded, more to himself than anything else. “Deep and powerful purpose, yessir!” He looked down to gaze directly back at Abby. “Yes, ma’am! Most people would say that there are no dragons in this world, and yet, here you are. You might accept it as completely normal. But for everyone else, you have come from another world.”

  “I’m beginning to understand,” Abby said, still smiling. “You have taught me something, and you have helped me considerably, you silly old bear.”

  “I love Winnie the Pooh! How did you know?” Stump screamed into the night, and they both laughed riotously. “Let’s continue this conversation later. Enough of the lessons for now. You have discovered what it means to be the constant one. The foundation. That is certainly enough for one night. I think it’s time we should have another bite to eat and tell each other more stories.”

  “Oh, second breakfast? My favorite!”

  “Right, whatever you just said,” Stump laughed and shook his head, and started to put out their plates from their earlier hot dog feast. The plates were mostly clean, anyway.

  And so the evening went. They dined on the day-old pastries that the coffee shops and bakeries always throw out (if you know where to find them), and Abby spent half the night talking about her many sojourns and adventures in the bayou swamp lands. Stump had not spent any time at all out in nature, which Abby found absolutely unpardonable for a native of New Orleans and the grandson of Granny Jane, so she right there and then made a promise to him that she would give him a personal tour of her favorite places. Stump proved to be an exemplary audience, politely asking for clarifications or expanded nuances of particular details. He was riveted by her stories and vivid descriptions. He laughed and hooted when Abby told him about Olivia’s brief encounter with the gators, and he demanded that she tell the story all over again so that he could commit it to memory.

  Before she even realized it, it was late in the evening, and heavy eyes beckoned for sleep. Stump told her not to worry. He would stand guard against the “hobgoblins and hooligans of the night.”

  So, feeling very unwashed and slightly sticky, she curled up on Stump’s old blanket and fell asleep. She woke once in the night—some sound or commotion had caused her to stir—and she looked around in the dim light to find Stump standing, peering through the bushes, baseball bat in hand. He turned back to glance at her, smile and wink, before returning his attention to whatever lay beyond the bushes. Abby soon fell back to sleep, and the rest of the night passed without any incident.

  Abby woke late in the morning to find Stump had been away and returned with plates of red beans and rice (“from the Mission,” he had said.) Her growling stomach gratefully received the meal. It was still hot and surprisingly good.

  Not much later, Stump dozed off to sleep, and Abby started feeling restless. A whole day and night had gone by, and there was still no word from Olivia. Her absence did not bode well, as far as Abby was concerned, and she had half a mind to find her way back to Houma before the deep doo-doo she was in got any deeper.

  By mid-day, Abby’s stomach was grumbling, she really wanted a shower, and even worse, she needed to go to the bathroom—number two this time. She thought about waking Stump, who was still out cold, snoring like a severely congested grizzly bear, but then she remembered that he had probably been up most of the night protecting her, and she thought better of the idea. So, driven mostly by hunger and the need to relieve herself, Abby quietly stepped around Stump and emerged from their little clearing.

  She paused to assess her surroundings and found it quiet and mostly uneventful. There were a few older people nearby the dumpster—homeless by the look of them, but they weren’t paying her no never-mind. She glanced up at the sky and could see dark clouds forming. There was a sniff of rain in the air. She decided it wisest to move right away or she was going to get wet. She headed south beneath the Expressway overpass and away from the Superdome. Traffic was light on the surrounding streets, and she turned down Claiborne Street, walked past a Home Depot, then double-backed to go inside.

  Home Depots have toilets.

  She found the bathroom and was shocked to see her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, her face streaked with dirt, her blouse soiled and rumpled, and she pretty much looked like the homeless child that she had become. She washed up, ran her fingers through her hair as a makeshift comb, and at last deemed herself presentable. As she left the Home Depot, the greeter person at the door, a middle-aged woman with gold-rimmed batwing glasses, eyed her suspiciously and said,

  “Shouldn’t you be in school, young lady?”

  Abby returned her stare but had to smile, the woman’s face was pinched so severely in disapproval as to be comical. She waved bye-bye as she walked through the glass exit doors, whistling the “Hole in my Bucket” song that Stump had relentlessly seared into her brain.

  As she walked away, however, her chipper mood was replaced by a darker thought. Of course, she should be in school! She should also be home at night sleeping in her own bed with Momma Bea and mean old Henry watching Wheel of Fortune on the TV. And she could take a shower! A sweet, sweet shower.

  She made up her mind right there and then. She would be home by dinner time tonight. She just needed to get to a phone and make the call. Momma Bea was no doubt worried sick! Abby was already in a heap of trouble. And the longer she went a-missing, the deeper in it she would be. Her lessons and meditations on the multiverse and crossing over like Granny Jane could wait for another time. She would go back to the Superdome parking lot and say goodbye—a temporary goodbye—to Stump, and thank him, of course. She paused and felt the truth of Stump inside of her. She just knew they would meet again and continue their conversations. But for today, she would wait until sundown for Olivia to come back.

  If she came back. The more she thought about it, the more deeply disturbed Abby became. That Olivia had still not made an appearance could only be a disaster. She knew her friend, and she knew that Olivia was always a girl who kept her word. The only reason that she hadn’t come back was because somebody or something had prevented her from coming.

  Another loud grumble from her stomach brought her back to a more immediate concern: Food! She started walking faster now, leaning forward with her head down to counter the stiff wind that had kicked up. Rain for sure was coming. She glanced up to see a bus just pulling out of a stop a few blocks down the road. Some folks had just gotten off, a group of young pr
ofessionals, and they were laughing and walking across the street into a Rally’s. Mmm. A Burger and a Shake. Her step quickened and her stomach gurgled in response.

  Standing at the counter, she reached in her pocket and found that she had less than 5 dollars. Momma Bea had given her more than enough for one lunch on the day of the museum trip. She hadn’t been planning on a second meal. A quick survey of the lunch menu, and Abby could see that she needed to make a choice: She had enough money for a cheeseburger, or she could get fries and a vanilla shake. The young woman behind the counter looked at her like she was a little bug behind a magnifying glass.

  “I’m not usually one to dawdle,” Abby explained with a weak smile. The woman’s expression did not change. Not exactly hospitable, Abby thought.

  A few minutes later, Abby had a window table and was watching the rain drip against it, sucking sweet vanilla ice cream shake through an inadequately narrow straw. The choice was easy, actually. And she made sure that the woman saw her take extra catsup for her fries, her innocent smile as beguiling and charming as ever.

  She glanced over by the bathroom door. A pay phone was on the wall, and that was a good thing. Now that everybody had their own cell phones, the coin-operated public phones were hard to find. She took out all of the change in her pocket: sixty-seven cents. Was that even enough to make a phone call to Houma? Was it cheaper to call at night? Abby had no idea. She wolfed down the last of her fries, grabbed her shake and headed out. Stump would know. And she needed to get back to him anyway. It wasn’t nice to leave people without telling them where you were going or when you’d be back.

  And that was the one thought that repeated in her brain as she strode with purpose, in a light rain, back toward the Superdome. Don’t leave folks without telling them where you were going or when you’d be back. And that was exactly what she had done—to everybody.

  “Is he like this all day?” Olivia asked quietly. She was squatting next to Stump, who was still out like a drunken walrus, snuffling and snoring in oblivious abandon.

  Abby had just parted the hedge and whisked her way into their clearing, startled to see Olivia calmly waiting there. Her concern over Stump had been unfounded, apparently. Obviously, he did like to sleep in the daytime, like he said.

  “All day, every day,” Abby responded with a wry smile. She squatted down next to Olivia. They spoke softly over Stump’s snoozing body. “He really is just a big harmless old bear.”

  “Yes, indeed,” Olivia said. “You’re lucky that he found you…or that you found him. I’m not sure which.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Abby sighed. “We were meant to find each other. In this moment. This time and place. That is a truth I feel inside my very bones.” She glanced over at Olivia, whose frizzy red hair was neatly pulled back with a hair comb. She was freshly scrubbed and radiant, in a Saint’s jersey and matching gold and black sweat pants.

  “Not fair,” Abby intoned. “You’ve taken a bath and smell like coconuts. Me,” and here Abby paused to take a dramatic whiff beneath her armpit. “I feel like a wet hound dog, and I smell like rotten eggs.”

  Olivia laughed, “Like one of them Chinese eggs been buried in cow shit for thousands of years.”

  “Aw, c’mon! Abby laughed despite herself. “I’m not that bad!” She pushed Olivia off of her haunches and on to her butt. Her friend had pulled her jersey up over her nose and was waving the air in front of her with dramatic intensity.

  Stump snorted then grumbled something about duck fat lattes before rolling over and resuming his snoring. Both Abby and Olivia had to bite their hands to keep from laughing too loudly. In a few moments, they settled down and just stared at each other. Abby plopped on to her butt and took a deep breath. At least inside of her sanctuary it was warmer, and it was dry. She listened and could hear the rain tick against the leaves of the hedge and patter metallically off the nearby dumpster.

  They both suddenly tried to speak at once, and Olivia waved her hand again and said, “Oh no, I insist. You first. Dragons before beauty!”

  “Yeah, right.” Abby drawled before sobering up. She looked long and hard at Olivia before starting in. “What took you so long? I’ve had like a billion butterflies in my stomach for the past day and a half! I thought you had been grounded or put in jail, maybe tied up somewhere because I know that only something like that would keep you from coming back to me.”

  “Well, you got that right!” Olivia exclaimed. “Believe me, I would have come back right away, but I couldn’t.” Olivia was suddenly very solemn, so serious that Abby felt her gut tighten like a corded knot.

  “It’s bad, A.B.. Real bad,” Olivia continued. “I was practically grounded for life just as soon as I got home. And well, that was just about what I expected. But what’s really bad is that you can’t go back home—not for a while anyway.” And here Olivia reached across and squeezed Abby’s arms. The knot in Abby’s stomach got a lot tighter.

  Olivia took a moment to gather herself before continuing. “I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just gonna say it straight out. They’ve taken your momma and that old sour-faced Henry away. The police, I mean. They blocked off your driveway with that yellow tape like it was some kind of crime scene.”

  “They took Momma Bea away? What for? She ain’t done nothing wrong!” Abby was suddenly angry and boiling up on the inside.

  Olivia held up her hands and shushed Abby. “Now hang on! Hang on! I ain’t even close to finished yet! Let me tell you what else I know.” Olivia paused and bit her lip before continuing. “Them police… They were all over your neighborhood. And they weren’t alone neither. There was these folks from the county and the state. Maybe even the FBI! Doctors and special investigator agents. They even came to my home and asked questions. Scared my momma half to death!”

  Abby was suddenly very still, but her mind was racing. “What kind of questions were they asking?”

  “I’m getting there.” Olivia snapped, losing her patience. “I was about to tell you, sheesh! Can’t a girl tell her story in her own way?” Olivia shrugged and stared back at Abby imploringly.

  Abby waved her hand, half-way exacerbated herself. “Go on, then,” Abby said trying to calm herself.

  “The first thing, of course,” Olivia continued matter-of-factly, “is that they was all looking for you! They wanted to know where you got your weapon…”

  “I ain’t got no weapon!” Abby interrupted, beside herself.

  “Well, yeah,” Olivia smirked and shrugged, “You gonna go downtown and tell them that? Tell them what really happened?” Olivia paused and waited, staring at Abby who just bit her lip and glanced away.

  “I didn’t think so!” Olivia resumed, leaning forward earnestly. “But listen! They was saying things like you assaulted Julia. You know, that it was you who attacked her. As if that is even close to what happened! But that’s what they’re saying and apparently that little witch, Julia is saying it’s true. So now, you are officially some kind of fugitive. You might be a danger to others or even to yourself. Hang on!”

  Olivia held up her hand as Abby gathered her breath to interrupt. “Let me finish, okay?” She glared back at Abby until her friend nodded for her to continue.

  “Thank you. Now, that’s not all. So, after they talked to just about everyone in your neighborhood, took away your momma and Henry, and put up that awful crime scene tape all around your house, I heard my momma talking to her friend. They said that your momma and Henry were arrested for criminal negligence and some kind of fraudulent activity over your adoption papers… and they also was saying that they could go to jail for reckless child endangerment—whatever the hell that means. And even worse. Back in school today, Balt Luster, that big cry-baby, he was all coming up to me like he ain’t never been nothing but the best of friends, and he said that the police had also spoken to him and his family. He told me them county officials were telling his mom t
hat your folks might be accomplished to your crime! That they helped you do it or forced you into doing it because they abused or molested you and did unspeakable things to make you into some sort of crazy child.”

  “Accomplice. It’s an accomplice to the crime.” Abby corrected Olivia, before continuing. “But that’s just plum crazy. Those things might have happened to him—for sure they did! But nothing like that ever happened to me! Oh, Henry, he likes to drink and run around town doing god-knows-what, and he sometimes looks at me all creepy-like, but he never done anything to hurt me. And Momma Bea? Why, that’s just full-on fabrication to say those things about her. She’s the most decent human being I know!”

  She paused to catch her breath and wring her hands. “Oh, Olivia, this is terrible. Just terrible.” Abby scrambled to stand up. “I got to go talk to them. I got to get Momma Bea out of there…wherever it is that they got her. Oh Olivia! What am I gonna do?”

  Olivia had stood up with her and was tugging on her arm to keep her from running out of their camp.

  “Hold on now, young ladies.” They both froze and turned back to see Stump had risen to a seated position and was fixing them with a glittering gaze. Apparently, he wasn’t as asleep as the girls thought he was. “Don’t be going all willy-nilly, you hear?” He beckoned for them to sit down, which they promptly did.

  Stump cleared his throat before continuing, “Now, first things first. You!” And he pointed at Abby. “Stay seated and be quiet. You’re not going anywhere just yet. And you!” He looked at Olivia, and he smiled to ease the tension in the air. “Little miss grounded. I got questions for you.”

  Both girls sat down. He waited a few moments to glance back and forth between the girls, who remained silent. Satisfied, Stump held Olivia’s gaze and continued, “Now, about your story—that’s all well and good. I believe everything that you said. A little girl goes missing, and well, that tends to get the attention of all kinds of folks, and you bet. County and state officials are gonna want to be involved. Especially around here in these days. And all those other things that you heard folks talking? Mostly nonsense and idle speculation. Folks like to gossip in the absence of facts. But I want to know something else, Miss Olivia Fist. You say you was grounded, that the police was everywhere and all over the place?” Olivia nodded.