Once Upon a Changeling

by V. J. Chambers

  Well, I was probably “R,” wasn’t I? Good to know Cindi had such high opinion of me. Doormat boy, huh? “D” or “L.” Dave and Luke, undoubtedly. Two of the guys that Leesa had mentioned. As much as I was interested in who Cindi really was, and what she’d actually thought of me, May was too late in the year. I paged back. Cindi hadn’t written an entry every single day, but only when she’d wanted to, so there were usually only three or four entries a week. It only took me a few seconds to find the September entries.

  I picked one and started to read.

  “September 5

  “Dearest, most precious Diary,

  “Today Mom almost caught M and me in the pool house. If she found us, she would go ballistic. Anyway, I managed to sneak him out the back and I was safe.

  “R was really sweet to me today. He bought me a bracelet—”

  I remembered buying that bracelet. Cindi really had liked it. She’d cried when she opened it.

  “—and I felt really guilty, because I’ve been sleeping with M behind his back, and he’s such a good guy. I should probably dump R and date M, but my parents can never know about M. Never.”

  “M,” huh? Probably Mike Schultz. That was the other guy that Leesa had said that Cindi had slept with. And his first name started with an “M.” Leesa had said that Mike had been with Laura during September, but that obviously hadn’t made any difference. Mike Schultz. The traitor. I closed the book and shook my head.

  Then I heard voices. Cindi’s parents. They were home.

  I closed the door to Cindi’s room as quietly as I possibly could and resolved that I would just sit inside the room and not make any noise at all, not one, until Cindi’s parents went to bed or something. They would never know that I’d been here, and it would all be okay. That might have worked, if it weren’t for the fact that my car was parked right outside of their house in plain sight.

  They knew I was there, and they marched right up to Cindi’s room, pulled me out, and called the police, who came and arrested me for breaking and entering.

  As the cops were taking me to the station, I considered the fact that my parents thought I was at the library and that I was grounded. This wasn’t good. This really wasn’t good. I spent a good deal of quiet time in the back of the cop car. The cops badgered me on the way over, but they’d read me my rights, and I wasn’t an idiot, so I knew that exercising my right to remain silent was in my best interest. When the cops realized I wasn’t going to talk, they left me alone. Then it was quiet. I spent that time thinking about what I’d done and how stupid it had been.

  Hadn’t Puck told me to let her handle things? Hadn’t she volunteered to take over practically everything? Puck was like a superhero or something. She had magic and pixie dust and other stuff like that. Why couldn’t I have listened to her? She was way more capable than I was. And why did I ever think that breaking into Cindi’s house could ever, in any universe, be a good idea? It was an awful idea. I could just shoot myself for ever having it and trying to carry it out. I’d accomplished nothing, and now I was going to jail. Jail. I had been arrested.

  Arrested! That kind of thing didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t a criminal. I was a good kid. At least I had been until my girlfriend had given birth to a baby in the bathroom at the prom and tried to strangle it. Now, who knew? Maybe I wasn’t such a nice guy anymore. Maybe I was desperate. Desperate to find the answers. Desperate to try to piece my life back together. And maybe that desperation had changed me. Had sucked the niceness right out of me.

  When we arrived at the police station, the cops took me into an interrogation room, even though I fully intended to continue to exercise my right to remain silent. They left me alone for a while, and then another cop came in and sat down with me. He asked me what I was doing in the house. I didn’t say anything. He asked me if I missed my girlfriend. He’d apparently talked to the sugar sweet nurse from Cindi’s facility, because he mentioned that she said I still visited Cindi regularly. Had Cindi asked me to get something for her?

  Finally, I couldn’t take it. “I just found out she was cheating on me, okay? I want to know when. I want to make sure that the baby is mine. I was trying to read her diary.”

  The cop raised his eyebrows. “Huh,” he said. “Good luck, son. Cindi’s parents have decided not to press charges.”

  What?! He’d interrogated me anyway? He’d kept me here and asked me all those dumb questions? I could have strangled him. Of course, I didn’t do anything of the sort, and I tried to mask my anger as best I could.

  Finally, after all that, I got a phone call, and I got released. I knew one thing was for sure. I couldn’t call my parents. So I called Puck.

  She answered the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hello,” I said. “Is this Puck?”

  “It is. Who’s this?”

  “It’s Russell.”

  “Hi Russ. What’s up?”

  “Uh, I need to ask a favor.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need a ride. My car is on Bird Key.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m, um, I’m at the police station in town.”

  “What?”

  I told her what had happened.

  “Russ, you idiot!” she said. “I told you—”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  But she came to pick me up anyway. And took me to get my car. I still think it’s miraculous that no one had it towed. I wouldn’t have put that past Cindi’s parents.

  “So,” Puck asked as we drove, “do you know why they dropped the charges?”

  “Nothing was stolen. I guess at that point it was probably more of a hassle for them to press charges than it was for them to just let it go. At any rate, they scared the hell out of me. I won’t ever try to go back there.”

  “Did you find anything out?”

  “I found her diary.”

  “Oh good. Let’s see it.”

  “I didn’t bring it with me.”

  “Great,” she said sarcastically.

  “Hey, you get arrested and see what you can sneak out of a house,” I said.

  “Sorry. So, did you read it?”

  “Some of it. I think she was sleeping with Mike Schultz in September.”

  “Did it say that?”

  “Not exactly. She only referred to people with their first initial. I was ‘R.’ There were a ‘D’ and an ‘L,’ which I think were Dave and Luke, because Leesa said they were sleeping with Cindi at one point.”

  “And Mike?”

  “Leesa also named him, but she said he was out of the picture because he was dating Laura at the time. But I don’t think it mattered to Mike.”

  “Just the initial ‘M’?” said Puck. “There are so many people that it could be. It could be Matt Jones or Malcolm Fields or Mason Combs.”

  All those guys used to be people I considered close friends. Could Cindi really have been sleeping with so many guys?

  “Promise me you won’t do anything drastic in regards to Mike Schultz?” she asked me.

  “Jesus, Puck.” I rolled my eyes. Puck hadn’t been thrilled when she’d heard I’d gotten in a fight with Dave.

  “Russ, I just worry about you.” She glanced over at me from the driver’s seat. She looked concerned.

  She worried about me, huh? “Listen, you know that Dave was going to key my car,” I said. “Dave started it. I didn’t. As long as Mike leaves my car alone, I’m cool with him.”

  “You better be,” said Puck. “Don’t leap to any conclusions. We’ll get to the bottom of this, Russ. I promise. But we have to work together.”

  She was right. I’d been stupid. I had to do better.

  My dad and I have a tradition. Every year since before I can remember, he and I have gone to play basketball together for his birthday. When I was little, I could hardly dribble the ball, and my dad used to lift me up on his shoulders so that I could make a basket. As I got older, my basketball skills improved. Last year, I
almost trounced him, but my dad is unbeatable on his birthday. If it hadn’t been for my dad, I may never have gotten interested in basketball. Before the kid, I used to want to spend my future watching and writing about basketball. I couldn’t imagine a life for myself without it. And I owed that to my dad. He’d brought my biggest love to me. I planned on doing it with my dad again this year.

  The past couple of years, I’d done it as a kind of gift to him. I’d even rented the basketball court at YMCA for the day, so we had a whole court to ourselves to play. I was kind of excited about it this year. The year had gotten so twisted up and strange. Nothing was normal anymore. Something like this would really be comforting. It would show me that even though some things changed, other things were the same. And it would give me chance to hang out with my dad. He and I hadn’t really spoken a lot lately. This was gonna be great.

  The only problem was that the Sub Stop had me scheduled to work the day of my dad’s birthday. It even fell on a Saturday this year. It was so perfect. I’d already rented the gym, so it was just a matter of getting out of work. I wasn’t going to work on my dad’s birthday. No way.

  I’d asked the manager to reschedule me, but he’d said no. He said that if I wanted out of work that day, I was going to have to trade shifts with someone. I’d been spending the past three days asking everyone I worked with to trade shifts with me. No one would. Missy’s kids were in a play that day. Nick had a hot date. Jim just said no. Jim was like that. Rude. Mary was working at her other job. I was working my shift today with Marissa and Ken, neither of whom I’d asked yet. I was going to beg the both of them. Get down on my knees, the whole bit. If they didn’t respond to begging, I probably was going to have to quit, because this thing with my dad was pretty important to me. I could get another job if I really needed to. Besides this Sub Stop thing had given me experience, so I’d be able to get another job easy.

  Marissa shot me down right away. “Can’t,” she said.

  “Please, Marissa,” I said. “I have to do this for my dad. It is his birthday.”

  “Can’t,” she said.

  “Can I ask why?” I asked.

  “I’ve got a doctor’s appointment,” she said.

  “Oh, geez, Marissa, this is my father’s only birthday. Reschedule your doctor’s appointment.”

  “No,” she said. “And I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Ken came in afterwards, and when I asked him, he was iffy, but after I did the get-on-my-knees bit, he said yes. I was relieved. My day with my dad was not ruined. I hadn’t lost my job. All was right with the world. That night I ended my shift in time for dinner, so I actually got to sit down with the rest of my family. And the kid. Or the changeling, I suppose.

  It was nice. My mom had made French fries and salads. My dad had grilled steaks. Emily and I set the table and poured drinks for everyone. We all sat down. My dad said grace and we started to pass the food around. I felt warm and fuzzy inside. I liked my family. And it was really cool to have dinner like this. All of us together around a table. Most families didn’t do this. I was lucky. Really lucky.

  “How was work today, Russ?” asked my mom.

  “It was all right,” I said. “Didn’t start out too great, but everything turned out okay.”

  “Oh?” said my mom. “What happened?”

  “Well, I wasn’t sure I was going to get someone to cover my shift on dad’s birthday. But I found someone. So now we can play basketball like we always do,” I said.

  “Great honey!” smiled my mom.

  My dad looked up from his steak. “Oh, Russ, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I’m not going to be able to play basketball with you this year.”

  “Why not?” asked my mom.

  “I’ve got a busy schedule with work and everything,” he said.

  “On Saturday?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  “But I already rented the gym,” I said.

  “Sorry, son,” said my dad.

  He wouldn’t look at me.

  So. Some things did change. The kid had made everything change.

  “So you couldn’t snag the diary?” Marcos asked. Despite all his talk, he was still coming to eat lunch with us. Today, our illustrious cooks had whipped up some sloppy joes with tater tots and a side of canned spinach.

  “No,” I said. “But I’m not sure I really want to know what it is exactly that Cindi really thought of me. She wasn’t so nice in what I read. The more I find out, the more I’m convinced our relationship was just a façade. It was a show she put on for her parents and other people. I made her look good.”

  Marcos nodded. “That’s rough, man.” He leaned over the table to steal one of my tater tots.

  “But we do know that Cindi was sleeping with somebody with the first initial ‘M,’” said Puck.

  Marcos dropped the tater tot on the floor. “Crap,” he said, staring down at it. “Did it say the initial ‘M’ in her diary?”

  “I think it’s Mike Schultz,” I said.

  Marcos reached over to get another one of my tater tots. “Why?”

  I pulled my tray back so he couldn’t reach. “Go buy your own lunch if you’re hungry,” I said. “Leesa said Mike and Cindi were sleeping together. Don’t worry. Puck already gave me a lecture about not going after Mike. I’m not gonna say anything to him. I’ll just try to find out by snooping around a little.”

  “I thought Puck was doing the snooping because she was in possession of pixie dust,” said Marcos.

  “Yeah,” I said. “How’s that going, Puck? Are you doing better than Marcos and I did?”

  “Screw you,” she said. “I’m doing fine. I just haven’t found anything out yet.”

  “You gonna check out Mike Schultz?” asked Marcos.

  “Yeah, of course,” said Puck. “And Russ and I still need to go back to the vampire bar and find Robin.”

  “Well, my schedule’s wide open,” I said. “My dad and I aren’t hanging out on his birthday anymore. He totally blew me off. And I already rented the gym and everything.”

  “That sucks,” said Marcos.

  “Yeah,” said Puck, making a sympathetic face. “I’m really sorry, Russ. I know that was a big deal to you. I thought you said it was a big deal to him too.”

  “I thought it was,” I said. “I guess I was wrong.”

  We were all quiet for a couple of seconds.

  “I don’t get it,” said Marcos. “Puck has pixie dust. How come she’s not finding out anything at all about what we want to know?”

  “Good question,” I said. “What exactly are you doing, anyway, Puck?”

  “No one knows,” she said. “I’ve been asking tons of people. They’ve all been very honest, but nobody knows a damned thing about Cindi. She was apparently good at keeping secrets.”

  “She was,” I admitted. After all, she’d kept pretty much everything from me, and I’d never known. Never.

  “I think you might want to let Russ and I help you again,” said Marcos. “We were doing just as well as you.”

  “No,” said Puck. “Now, nobody is trying to pick fights with Russ. I’m keeping things much more peaceable. You’ve got to see that.”

  I chuckled. “It’s not our fault that Dave Lawrence is a total asshole,” I said. “Our questions didn’t make him do that. He’s just special that way.”

  Puck laughed. “Maybe we’re just hitting a brick wall here. Maybe nobody knows who the baby’s father is.”

  Marcos sighed. “Maybe we should give up.”

  “We can’t give up,” I said.

  “Maybe we need to try some other way of finding out,” said Marcos. “No more interviewing people.”

  “What else can we do?” asked Puck.

  “Get Cindi’s diary,” said Marcos. “It might have clues in it.”

  “There’s no way we’ll get her diary now,” I said. “Her parents are going to have her house on major lockdown from here on out.”
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  “Well, then, maybe not her diary,” said Marcos. “Maybe something else. Maybe we need to read letters she wrote.”

  “That’s no different than her diary,” I said.

  “Or email,” said Marcos. “Do you know Cindi’s email address?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “She had two of them. The school email and her personal Gmail account. But I don’t know her passwords.”

  Marcos suddenly looked a little shy. “That’s okay. I’m kind of good at figuring stuff like that out.”

  “Marcos, you fix cars and you’re a hacker?” I grinned. “When God was handing out talent, you lucked out, huh?”

  “I’m not a hacker,” said Marcos. “I just can sometimes figure out stuff like that on a computer. Give me the email addresses. I’ll see what I can do.”

  I gave him the email addresses.

  “I’m not gonna give up,” said Puck. “I’ll keep talking to people, but in the meantime, Russ, you and I need to find a time to get back to the vampire bar. The Equinox is approaching faster than we need it to, and we need to find some answers and fast.”

  I didn’t disagree with her, but we weren’t able to find a time to get to the vampire bar until next Saturday. Since my dad and I wouldn’t be playing basketball together, I didn’t have anything to do that day. We planned to go in the evening.

  The week drug on, and nothing much happened. I tried to go to the gym and un-rent the basketball court for Saturday, but they wouldn’t let me. They said, “We don’t have adequate time to re-rent the gym, so we’d lose money. We had it reserved for you.” They said I could tell them that I wasn’t going to use it and they’d re-rent it, but they wouldn’t give me any money back for it. Bastards. So, I said I’d use it after all.

  That Saturday, I got up early, put on my gym shorts and a t-shirt, got the kid ready, and I took him to the gym. We sat in the middle of the court, him in his car seat, me Indian-style in front of him.

  “If you really were my kid,” I said to him, “I’d teach you how to play basketball.”