“Close the bloody door,” he ordered the one that wasn’t holding me. “We don’t want to involve the neighbors in this.”
“Now Mr. Fast Car,” he continued as he walked over to me, cradling Adam like a football, “that’s some sweet wheels you have out there. Who the hell are you to deserve such a peep show? We don’t care much for rich, white men taking advantage of our women.”
“I don’t care much for you threatening her and the twins,” I said without thinking.
Jerred turned and gave Adam to the one who closed the door and then spun to face me. Shazan must have know what was about to happen as she cried out just as he pulled back and let me have a round house punch to the face. I barely had time to realize what was going to happen and brace myself against the wall when a flash of light filled the room and Jerred crumpled to the floor.
“What’d you do to him?” the one holding Adam yelled. He dropped Adam and charged at me, looking to drive me through the wall. Once again the light flashed and the punk fell at my feet with a thud. But this time I figured out what it was. The jade pendant that Grandmother had given me in the hospital was protecting me. When it saw a threat, it some how neutralized it. I wasn’t sure if the effect would be permanent or not but I was sure happy to have the help.
Now the two that had me pinned to the wall were undecided what to do. Without Jerred to give the orders they were rather like sheep without a goat. Shazan seemed to have come to the same conclusion. “Let him go, you morons, or you’ll be next!,” she yelled at them.
That was all the help I needed. As they focused on her I pushed away from them, grabbed the necklace and pointed the jade pendant at them. There were two almost simultaneous flashes of light and the pair went down like I had hit them with a sledge hammer.
I picked up Adam who had stopped crying and seemed to be observing the action with some interest. I ran over to Shazan and cradled her in my arms as best I could while holding Adam. For a brief moment I just wanted to stay there holding them and forget the rest of the world existed. Finally I broke away and gave Adam to Shazan. I went over to Jerred to see what condition he was in. When I knelt over him to check for a pulse I couldn’t believe how cold he felt, almost like ice. I couldn’t find a pulse, but then again I couldn’t stand to touch him for very long either. The other three were the same, like they had been fast frozen.
“Do you have any idea what happened here?” I asked her.
“Grandmother’s protection,” she mumbled quietly. “There are some things Thomas that are beyond our comprehension, and perhaps that’s just as well. I must leave now or Grandmother will surely end my existence.”
I was stunned. “You think Grandmother would kill you because these losers are frozen?”
“No. But she would find out eventually that I wanted to leave with you and the twins. For that she would have no sympathy and no mercy. I would be gone in a puff of smoke or flash of light or some such end; just like these poor souls.” She knelt down and cradled a baby in each arm. “You do make beautiful babies Thomas,” she sighed. “I will miss them.”
“But where will you go? Won’t Grandmother find you? How will you keep yourself?” I had many questions and no answers.
“Grandmother cannot find me if I don’t wish it,” she replied enigmatically. “You need to look after the twins until she comes for them. I must leave tonight. Your use of the pendant will surely have aroused some curiosity in the guardians.”
“How will you travel?” I asked.
“I’ll take Jerred’s car; no one will be looking for it. We just need to check that there aren’t any drugs in the trunk. After we parted company I heard he started dealing.”
I started to turn Jerred’s pockets out, looking for his keys and found a wad of bills that would choke a horse. Eventually we had keys to a very nice Celica and over a hundred thousand in cash. “If they’re not dealing,” I said, “they’ve been very lucky at the casino.”
“Will you check out the car for me while I pack?” she asked.
“Sure, be back in a bit.” I left with the keys. The car was clean. Evidently Jerred kept better care of it than most anything else in his life. I backed it into the driveway and went inside.
I was playing on the floor with the twins when she reappeared with her bags. “You know, I really don’t have to leave immediately,” she said sliding on to the floor beside me and hugging my neck.
“Shazan, I’m just a man. If you keep this up we will make love, no man I know could resist you for long. I’m asking a favor, if you care for me at all, take the car and the money and start over somewhere our paths won’t cross again. I’m not sure I could say goodbye to you twice.”
She gave me one long kiss and I thought I was a goner, but then she got up, picked up her bags and left. I didn’t get up to see her out. I held the twins and listened as the Celica fired up and headed down the road to somewhere.
Since I thought that Vicki might call, I decided I had better take the twins to my house for the night. In the morning I would try to get in touch with Grandmother. I figured I owed Shazan at least a half day head start. I started gathering all the baby paraphernalia together and had a twenty year flashback of doing the same for our boys. Boy was I glad we were through that phase of our lives.
Vicki did call. We chatted a bit about her conference, but I didn’t mention the events of my day. I was too tired to answer all the questions that would come up. After we said goodnight I put the babies in their car seats on the floor in my bedroom, managed to get my clothes off and fell soundly asleep.
I woke the next morning to the quiet murmuring of the twins. They weren’t crying; it was almost like they were talking to each other. I got up and did the usual change, feed, play routine with Adam and Eve. As much as I was glad to be past the baby stage in our lives, I did enjoy my morning with them. Finally I got around to calling Grandmother; boy did I get an earful.
I never did find out exactly when Grandmother knew the twins were not with Shazan, but she walked up one side of me and down the other for not calling the moment I had taken her babies. She had been frantic with worry over what might have happened to them and I was responsible. Eventually the ranting changed to chastisement and then to the questions that I was not looking forward to answering.
“Where is Shazan?” she demanded to know. “How could she have left her babies? What had I done to make her run away from such a comfortable home?”
“Have you been to Shazan’s?” I was finally able to ask.
“No, I’ve only called. If she was there she would answer my call,” came the curt rebuff.
“Well let’s meet at her house in half an hour,” I suggested. “I’ll bring the twins. There’s something you need to see there.”
“Why can’t you bring them here?” Grandmother’s question was more like a veiled command.
“You need to see what’s at Shazan’s with your own eyes,” I replied. “Half an hour, can you be there?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll get Norman to drive me. But I hope it’s worth the trouble,” she answered grumpily.
I hung up and went to get Adam and Eve ready to travel. I wondered idly if Grandmother would have the patience to look after her two young charges, she would definitely need it.
I was just pulling into Shazan’s driveway when Norman rolled up in his Jeep. He had told me once, when he drove me to the hospital, that he wanted to take the Jeep off-road and see what it could do. I doubted that that would ever happen; he had enough trouble navigating on pavement.
I got out and went over to open Grandmother’s door. “The kids are sleeping,” I said. “I don’t think we’ll be long here so I’ll leave them in the car.”
“What is so important for me to see that you had to drag of my comfortable house to see?” she demanded.
“You need to see for yourself
,” I said noncommittally. “I didn’t believe it when I saw it so it’s hard for me to explain.”
We entered the house together. Norman had decided to have a smoke outside and watch over the twins. Nothing had changed from the night before. The four “frozen” bodies were still as they had been left, lying of the floor of the living room.
“Who did this?” Grandmother asked with her head cocked questioningly at me.
“I’m not sure exactly,” I answered. “For the first two no one did anything. Each one had tried to hurt me, and there was a flash of light, and you can see for yourself what happened. Then I figured out it was the pendant you gave me that was flashing, and I just pointed it at the other two and they got frozen as well.”
“Really? They did nothing to you but the pendant took them anyway?” Grandmother seemed unsure that I was remembering correctly.
“Actually, they were more interested in Shazan at the moment, but they weren’t really doing anything.”
“There were no others?” asked Grandmother.
“None that we saw,” I answered.
“Where is Shazan?” Grandmother’s question had a sharp edge to it.
“I don’t know,” I said. “She drove off after the last two got frozen.”
“Just like that, with no explanation,” Grandmother seemed to be passing from wonder to disbelief.
I tried to think of a plausible story that didn’t involve Shazan’s attempted seduction and I hit on using Jerred. “She was afraid you’d find out Jerred was back in her life and punish her some how. She seemed frightened of what you might do, so she left the children with me and ran.”
“Stupid girl,” said Grandmother giving me an appraising look; something like a Grandmother lie detector. She seemed to buy my story, for now at least.
“Get in your car and follow us,” she commanded. “We’re going to my house to follow this some more.” I noticed she locked the door as we left.
We eventually arrived at a huge house, mansion really, in an older, but still upscale part of town. Norman signaled for me to park by the front door as he put his car in the garage. I had finished getting the twins’ car seats unhooked and was waiting when Grandmother opened the front door.
“Come in,” she smiled. “The nurses will get the children.”
Sure enough, two ladies dressed in white uniforms came out as I went in. Each one took a car seat and one grabbed the bag I had been using to cart around the requisite twenty kilos of baby supplies. They whisked past me again in the entry and disappeared up the winding oak stairway to the second floor.
“Norman is waiting for us in the study,” she said.
I followed her through several large rooms and into a spacious but cozy study. There were a number of overstuffed chairs, a pool table of mammoth proportions, a bar and a beautiful teak desk and hutch that looked to be hundreds of years old.
“You’ll have a scotch,” Norman stated more than asked.
“With some ice if you have some,” I replied. I wondered again how these two seemed to know so much about me.
“Give me your pendant,” Grandmother ordered, “I wish to try a test on it.”
I slipped the necklace over my head and handed it to her. She took it to the hutch and placed it in what looked like a large silver bowl inlaid with emeralds and jade. Immediately the inside walls glowed with a smoky light. “Come here,” she said.
When I got close to the bowl I could see vague shapes sliding around in the bowl. I counted four distinct ghosts.
“Here are Jerred and his friends,” she explained, “trapped in the ghost world of the jade. As long as they remain here, their earthly bodies will remain frozen, waiting for their spirit’s return.”
“I really don’t believe in magic and spells,” I told her. “Surely there’s another explanation.”
“Thomas, I see you can be as stubbornly western as you are kind and honorable. Please sit down and enjoy your drink, I have a story to tell you that will be hard for you to believe, but I swear every word is the truth.”
I took the drink from Norman and sat in one of the lounge chairs. Norman took the one next to mine while Grandmother sat across from me on the sofa.
“My mother went by many names,” she began, “Lady of Mt. Tai, Heavenly Jade Maiden and Primordial Lady of the Emerald Cloud were a few of them. She was, and is, perfected as a heavenly immortal.”
I looked from her to Norman to see if either one of them was secretly smiling at the joke that was obviously being played. Both looked as sober as a Mennonite minister on Sunday morning.
Grandmother continued, “To a Doaist, honor for the elders and ancestors is expected of a child, to disobey is one of the worst sins a son or daughter could commit. As was usual for the Chinese, my mother had arranged a marriage for me to a deity I had never met. However, before the time I was to be wed, I met Norman and fell in love. He was abbot of the Jade Spring Temple and the most kind, humorous and loving person I had ever met. We managed to keep our affair secret until I became pregnant. My mother was outraged, I think more by the embarrassment than any real sense that I had done something wrong. She took my baby when I delivered and I never got to see it, I don’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. She cast Norman and I out from our kind and placed a horrible curse on us. She vowed that neither of us could conceive a child and, worse, that we could never make love to one another again.”
She sat silently with her head bowed for a while. I glanced at Norman and he was wiping a tear from his eye.
“Because of this we have learned to value simple displays of affection, holding a door open, a smile first thing in the morning, the gift of a flower, all the little ways a spirit can be lifted up.” Grandmother looked at me and said, “That’s why, when you helped me into the car at the mall it meant so much to me. That’s why I bullied Shazan into having your babies. Yes I made her do it, but I think she likes you anyway. She left to get out from under my control but it will be temporary, she is bound to me by birth and I will find her when I need her again. I think we can give him the keys Norman.”
“If we give him the keys we had better give him the number too,” he replied.
“I suppose,” she said walking back to the desk. She took a wooden box out of one of the drawers and a business card from the jade and silver card holder. “In this box are keys to the fifty-two houses we have for visitors, the card has the number to call to arrange for a private jet. There will be no cost to you and no need to call us to arrange a visit to any of these places; they are available to you anytime.”
“Grandmother, I don’t know what to say or how to thank you,” I stammered.
“Those babies upstairs are all the thanks we need Thomas,” she answered quietly. “Now if you’ll excuse us we’re going to start becoming the parents we never could be. Let yourself out when you’ve finished your drink.”
She came over and kissed me on the forehead and then took Norman by the hand and the two of them headed out to be parents for the first time in a thousand years.
Basements
David Nickle
Mr. Nu was in the basement of his small workman’s house on Larchmount when our firm’s team came for him. At first they thought he was barricaded down there — possibly sitting on a cache of weapons, or explosives, or biological agents. Possibly, on something worse.
They had swept the two above-ground floors and found nothing there — almost literally.
This by itself, put the team on guard — even without the incriminating weight of our firm’s considerable file on him, the paucity of personal effects in Mr. Nu’s dwelling was suggestive of a life led to a particular end, of a particularly quiet march … to a particular end.
The basement was only accessible by one staircase off the kitchen. Marisse, the team leader, was confident that he would not flee.
But that was not a comfort, either. If Mr. Nu were of a desperate frame of mind — if he were under instructions to avoid capture at all cost — being cornered in the basement with no exit but one, might lead to acts similarly desperate.
These were thoughts upon which Marisse did not wish to dwell.
Later, before an ad-hoc panel of her superiors in the Peel Room at the Marriot, she faced questioning; “Why did you not send a team to the basement immediately? Why did you search the remainder of the house, when the infrared imaging indicated with some certainty that Mr. Nu was not in the kitchen or the bedroom or the upstairs bath?”
Marisse had no satisfactory answers. She grew quiet, almost sullen. On the hotel notepad, she doodled images of cubes, stacked upon one another in such a way as to make it impossible to tell whether the boxes were stacked like a giant pyramid, or a precarious overhang of packing crates. Benoit demanded that she respond as a professional, and she mumbled something softly, then leaned toward the microphone in the middle of the table, reached across and turned it away from her, and to Benoit. “You respond,” she said, and Benoit became angry enough that I had to intervene.
“Marisse completed the mission,” I said, sliding the note pad from Marisse and underneath my laptop.” Don’t forget that, Bennie.”
I caught her eye for a moment, attempting to draw out some connection and put her at ease; we had known each other for many years at that point, and sometimes confided in one another on matters personal and professional. But not tonight.
Tonight, nothing.
The apprehension, when it came, occurred without serious incident. This much we confirmed during the meetings at the Marriot. Marisse, her team, did complete the mission. No one was injured, not agent, nor civilian, nor the target: Mr. Nu.
Mr. Nu arrived at Sandhurst Circle with just the clothing he wore: a dark brown T-shirt, a pair of greenish cotton briefs and low white socks made from a material designed to transmit perspiration during exercise.
He had been there only a month when I attended the Marriot; a month and a day, when I made my way up the highway to Sandhurst itself. To see Mr. Nu’s new home.
Tesseracts Fourteen: Strange Canadian Stories Page 17
