“Sami, I believe you are overreacting. The White Cloaks could care less about me. If they never walk in here, they will never know I am doing it. In fact, they might not even be in Knoxville.”
Sami pictured the spell she had cast in the plaza to shove the children out of harm’s way and shatter the massive piece of the Sunsphere that had fallen from the tower. The power that had come out of her had to have set off alarm bells somewhere. She was sure the Cloaks were on her trail.
“About that,” she started, “grab a coffee, Scott. Meet RayRay and me over at Ricky and Doris’s table. We need to talk.”
Scott was still clutching two pieces of the destroyed speaker. He reached out and tucked them into RayRay’s hands. The Incantor felt the jagged edges and inhaled.
“He broke it, didn’t he?”
Sami bit the side of her bottom lip.
“That’s an understatement.”
“Oh, I suppose the show is over,” RayRay dropped the pieces on the ground.
Sami led him over to the table where Ricky and Doris greeted him.
“Mighty fine playin’, RayRay,” Doris said.
“Yeah, buddy.” Ricky added. “The chicks in here were droolin’ something fierce.”
“Thank you guys. I am so sorry the show was cut short.”
Sami helped him take his seat and scooted into a chair beside him. As she sat, Scott screeched a chair from the next table over and plopped down.
“That’s my bad, RayRay,” Scott gulped and sipped a steaming cup of coffee.
“Dude, I like your getup there,” Ricky laughed and slapped a hand on Scott’s shoulder, “the girls will be all over you in here.”
Scott was still dressed in his elf costume from the Fantasy of Trees. It was still two sizes too small. He blushed fierce shades of red.
“Is that all you ever think about?” Doris asked him.
“Uh…yeah. Why?”
“Guys,” Sami interrupted them, “something bad happened tonight.”
“You mean bad like fly-in-yer-soup bad? Or like a tornado in the trailer park?”
Sami smiled at Scott. She hadn’t known him very long, but he was a fount of hillbilly sayings and almost never repeated himself.
“Sami,” RayRay whispered to her, “what has happened? What is wrong?”
“It’ll be all over the news tomorrow morning. When I had the Truman kids up at the Fantasy of Trees, I used magic…like…big time magic.”
Ricky exhaled a low whistle through his teeth.
“Oh, dear,” Doris wrung her hands.
“Maybe no one saw it, Sis,” RayRay reassured her.
“Zactly,” Scott agreed.
“Thanks guys,” Sami shrugged her shoulders, “but this was kinda hard to miss.”
She relayed the story of the crashing window and the spell she had cast almost subconsciously to save herself and the group of children she’d been babysitting.
“Dang, girl,” Ricky was stroking his chin beard, “that’s big.”
“You’re telling me,” Sami agreed, “I’ve never done anything quite so…well, so big. It was like the magic just knew what needed to be done and my hands weren’t my own.”
“How do you feel, sis?”
“I’m really—”
Sami stopped and huffed. I’m exhausted and using that much magic has drained me…I think...Wait, I don’t get it. I feel amazing. It was a strange sensation. She felt youthful and alive. She glanced down at her watch. It was close to eleven thirty.
“I’m good,” she stirred her chai latte and took the last sip, “this coffee is some very fine brew.”
RayRay leaned closer, “It is not the coffee.”
“Huh?”
“Matilde,” he said.
The violin. An Incantor from the Cantus Caulla had been using an artifact that had an anti-aging effect on its player and more so on any Azurian who listened. She was feeling the effects and it was intoxicating. No wonder RayRay wanted to keep it with him. She glanced over at the case sitting behind the broken speakers and mic stands.
“It’s gotta go back, RayRay,” she said, “I can’t be sure about White Cloaks, but at least one woman standing in line to meet Santa knew what I had done. She saw my aura.”
“I’ll take it back tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, Sami,” Ricky broke into the conversation, “I’ll do some pokin’ around. I got a buddy at KPD, maybe I can find out if anyone reported anything.”
They all looked at him, blank expressions on their faces.
“You have a buddy at the KPD?” Doris prodded.
“What?” Ricky held up his hands in surrender, “it wasn’t nothin’ bad. Just a parking ticket.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Scott,” Ricky diverted the conversation, “you want to come with? Ya know, for moral support?”
Scott shook his head. “I’d do it, but tomorrow I’m busier’n a one-legged cat in a sandbox.”
Sami giggled.
“No worries buddy. I’ll take care of it, Sami.”
“Sorry, Sami,” Scott said to her, “I got three labs tomorrow and I’ll be up late tonight gettin’ ready for ‘em.”
“It’s okay. I have my shift at the animal hospital in the morning.”
“The exotic hospital?” Ricky's tone sounded dirtier than it should have.
“Yeah. That’s the one. Somebody brought in a squirrel monkey and everybody’s all gaga over it.”
“Sweet! Can you steal it for me? Chicks dig a monkey!”
“No, Ricky. I cannot steal the squirrel monkey.”
“Dangit.”
Sami turned to RayRay.
“What about you? How you gonna get out to the farm and take Matilde back?”
“I can drive him,” Doris chimed in, “nothing to do tomorrow. Nothing to do any day since I lost my Arthur.”
The old lady talked about losing her husband often, but no one knew what had happened to him. Sami wondered if she’d ever feel that kind of love. She shrugged her shoulders. All in good time.
“Thank you, Doris,” RayRay said, “would you like to leave around eight o’clock?”
“That sounds just fine, dear.”
She stood and double-checked to make sure her hair net was still in place and buckled her nineteen seventies-style purse closed. It wasn’t vintage in a good way…just ugly. Sami thought it looked like something they’d carry at The Farm where her parents lived.
“Guess I’d better get back to the house,” she waddled toward the door, still talking over her shoulder. “Nobody there to feed the cats anymore.”
“I’ll walk you out, Doris,” Scott said. “Catch up with you tomorrow, Sami?”
“ Sounds good.”
“I had better get going too.” RayRay said. “Jeff will drive me back to campus.”
“Okay, call me when you get to The Farm tomorrow. Love you, Bro.”
Sami realized in mild amusement that she was now sitting alone with Ricky.
“What you gonna do with the rest of your night, Sami?”
His grin was one tooth short of leering.
“Not on your life, Ricky.”
“What??” he said in a defensive tone, “I was just checkin’.”
“I’m outta here too,” she said.
“Cool,” Ricky rubbed his hands together, “the odds are getting better for me every minute!”
Sami shook her head.
“Don’t forget to bring me that monkey!”
She laughed and walked out into the snow.
“That was a little scary!” Patrick said to Joe as he returned from his jog down to the Mast General Store.
They did indeed sell boxers. He was now wearing a clean pair that read: With any luck, a buck in the truck, not that anyone else could see them. His stomach had settled now that he’d emptied it from both ends and he found that he was thirsty again.
“What was scary?”
“The White Cloaks. They came while you were gone.”
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“Wait, what’d they do? What’d they say? Did you tell ‘em I was the one who found her?”
Patrick picked up a piece of Chex mix from the bowl in front of him.
“They didn’t say much. Just wanted to know what I saw and I gave them your phone.”
Joe looked incredulous.
“You gave them…What the hell did you do that for?”
“They needed the pic of the girl.”
Joe opened his mouth and started to complain. But he quickly closed it. This was good. The Cloaks would realize it was his phone that the photo of the girl was on and would reward him for his service.
“Good work, Pat.” He clapped the big man on the shoulder, “Let’s get another beer. And none of that Ghost Pepper vileness either!”
The bartender sat two beers on the bar in front of them. Joe took a tentative sip and waited. No burning sensation. He took a bigger gulp and grabbed the bowl of Chex mix out of Patrick’s hand.
“So, what’d they look like?” he asked crunching a pretzel.
“Tall. Very tall and skinny, not what I expected.”
Joe shrugged his shoulders. He smiled as he thought of the promotion this would bring him.
5
Tik Tuk
Early the next morning, Sami walked into the Avian, Exotic Animal, and Zoological Hospital off the main campus at the University of Tennessee’s veterinary program. This department was responsible for the care of pet birds, backyard poultry, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, chinchillas, rats, and reptiles, as well as other exotic species. Sami found the animal she’d been hoping to see sleeping in one of the cages. The monkey, whose patient tag read Saimiri Sciureus, was lying on its side, curled into a tight ball, with a tiny pink blanket wrapped around its body.
Sami picked up the clipboard hanging on a peg under the cage. The owners had brought the monkey in because it was acting lethargic and unresponsive. She knew these little creatures were inquisitive and generally thrived better with a large space to explore…not a college dorm room or studio apartment. Shaking her head, she pulled on a pair of blue latex gloves and gently picked up the monkey. She laid it on a nearby examination table, leaving the pink blanket wrapped around it. The pink blanket meant that she was a girl. The monkey inhaled and let out a long sigh. Her eyes fluttered and Sami thought for a second she might wake up, but she tucked her head back into her hands and started snoring.
Careful not to disturb her, Sami checked her heart rate – a little slow, but well within the normal range. Her lungs sounded fine too. So, why was this girl so sedentary?
“When in doubt, Google it,” Sami said to herself.
She rolled over to the computer on her stainless steel stool. She slid the gloves off so she wouldn’t transfer anything to the keyboard and a few clicks later she had a Wikipedia page up about squirrel monkeys.
“Cute little things,” she muttered as she clicked through the pictures.
Squirrel monkeys have little fuzzy gray-brown heads with pink Yoda-like ears sticking out. Ink-black eyes wrapped in a pale fur mask over a darker snout and mouth make them look like mini bandits. As she read, a tiny little moan drifted out of the monkey’s throat.
Sami wheeled back over to her.
“What’s wrong, little girl?”
She knew that squirrel monkeys were vocal creatures and had extensive communication with each other warning about predators and such, but the sound that came out of this one’s mouth was something different.
“Mikway.”
These were clear consonants and vowels, not a monkey’s chattering noise. Sami leaned closer and the monkey’s eyes opened. They were bright green and flecked with flashes of gold. It looked right at her. A tiny chocolate brown hand reached up out of the blanket and stretched toward Sami.
“Mikway,” the monkey said again.
Because she had no idea what else to do, Sami repeated the word back to the monkey.
“Mikway?”
The monkey’s head lifted off the table in surprise. It smiled at Sami and nodded its head.
“What’s a mikway?” Sami asked it.
The monkey took its hand and moved it toward its mouth. It made chewing motions with its jaw.
“Oh, food? Right. You need food.”
Sami knew the monkey had been on an IV drip the night before and had refused any food, but she thought she’d try again. She walked over to the miniature refrigerator, pushed aside her lunch bag and pulled out an apple, an orange, and a banana. Thinking it the obvious choice, she peeled the banana and held it out to the monkey.
“Mikway,” Sami smiled.
The monkey grimaced and turned its head.
Sami tried again, first with the orange, then the apple. The little monkey wanted nothing to do with either. The poor thing stared up at her, repeating her one word.
“Mikway.”
“I’m sorry, little one,” Sami said in exasperation, “I’m not sure what that means.”
The monkey sat up, the blanket falling away, and squinted at her. Sami felt like the thing was sizing her up. She looked so…intelligent. It was the eyes. They stared deep inside hers.
The monkey leapt down from the table, startling Sami, but then ambled over to the desk. She ducked underneath and scrounged around in the trashcan. Seconds later, she emerged with a look of triumph on her face. It quickly turned to disappointment. Holding up an empty candy bar wrapper, she shook it at Sami.
“Mikway.”
Sami felt her mouth fall open. The squirrel monkey sitting on the floor in front of her was holding up an empty Milky Way wrapper.
“You gotta be kiddin’ me. You want a Milky Way?”
The door to the lab opened and another grad student took a step inside.
“Mikway!” the monkey screeched with excitement and leapt into Sami’s arms.
And that’s when it happened.
The gold flecks in the monkey’s eyes glowed as it touched Sami’s skin. She felt the power in her swelling and churning and getting…hot? Her forearms began to tremble and the ancient swirling patterns she knew so well, traced up her arm in searing white and yellow light. Struck with terror at the sudden, very obvious show of magic in front of the human in the room, Sami jerked her head up and began to form some sort of explanation in her mind. It was a fancy glow-in-the-dark tattoo she’d gotten at a rave last night or something like that.
But, she never said a word. The grad student that had opened the door and stepped in…was frozen. Literally, standing as still as a mannequin, the guy didn’t even blink. No, wait, that wasn’t exactly right. He was in mid-blink and Sami leaned close to look at his eyes. The lids were moving, but they were closing at an incredibly slow speed. She watched in amazement as the guy blinked. It took almost thirty seconds for his eyelid to close completely.
“I’ve somehow stopped the world…or slowed it down.”
But as she thought about it, the monkey chittered in her arms. It wasn’t frozen. She and the monkey were still moving at a normal speed. Maybe she hadn’t slowed the whole world down, maybe she’d somehow sped up.
She glanced up at the industrial clock hanging above the door. The second hand was moving, but like the grad student’s eyes, it was moving very slowly. She watched as it ticked its way from the four to the five. It took what felt like two or three minutes.
A whooshing sound swirled in Sami’s ears and she had the sensation of stepping off a moving sidewalk like those at the airport or an escalator at the mall onto stationary ground. She stumbled and almost fell.
“Are you okay?” the grad student, whose name tag read Dave, asked her.
“Yeah, yeah. Needed a little snack.”
She tossed the empty candy bar wrapper into the trashcan and smiled.
“Skipped breakfast,” she blurted with a laugh. “Shouldn’t have done that.”
“Right.”
“Okay, then, I’m gonna get little Mikki back into her cage and go grab some lunch.”
Dave gave her an odd look and shrugged his shoulders.
“Mikki?”
“Oh uh, yeah.” Sami said, not sure why she’d chosen the name.
The monkey inhaled and Sami knew she was about to speak again. She covered her tiny mouth with her hand and laughed.
Underneath her fingers, Sami felt the monkey say in a muffled voice, “Mikway.”
Dave’s eyes squinted in suspicion. He looked at the monkey and back at Sami.
“Whatever,” he said as he opened the refrigerator, grabbed a brown paper sack, raised his eyebrows at Sami and walked back out the door.
When he was gone, Sami set Mikki down on the table. She picked up the clipboard and scoured it again. Stats, vitals, random diagnoses, and at the very bottom the words – surrender to shelter.
“Yeah.” Sami tore the sheet off and slid the clipboard across the stainless steel table. “That ain’t happening.”
She laughed and thought back to what Ricky had said about stealing the monkey. She slid the monkey into her backpack.
“Keep quiet for a minute and I’ll get you out of here.”
Mikki, the name seemed to be sticking in Sami’s mind, put a tiny finger up to her mouth. She was a smart little thing.
Sami walked down the hall and out the front door. Jogging across the parking lot, she didn’t see anyone watching her leave or following her. She slid her backpack off and laid it down in the passenger’s seat of her red Volkswagen Beetle. Mikki seemed to be quite content to stay curled up inside as they cruised down I-640. Taking the next exit onto Cumberland Avenue, she saw the Pilot gas station on the corner and smiled as she turned into the parking lot.
She pulled the backpack on and walked into the store. Whistling like an idiot, she grabbed a bag of bite-sized Milky Way candy bars and pretended to look over the other candy. She walked to the back of the store and opened the drink cooler. She was about to grab a Coke, when Mikki poked her head out of the backpack and began screeching and pointing.
“Deepee, deepee, deepeeeee,” the monkey insisted.
Following her outstretched hand, Sami saw she was pointing at a Dr. Pepper.
“This one?” she held up the bottle for Mikki to examine.
The monkey gave a wide grin and shook her head.
Spell Song: An Enchanting Urban Fantasy Page 3
