by Simon Archer
Jack nodded his head and returned to his desk. The girls gathered their lunch supplies and walked quickly to the door.
“Good luck, gentlemen,” Andi chimed as they walked out.
“Thank you for lunch,” Jack and I replied. The girls were gone before we finished our sentence, however.
“Guess they didn’t want to take up any more of our time,” Jack joked.
“Yeah, they are good about not being clingy when ‘men are at work,’” I said, making air quotes. Both girls, at one time or another, had recited that phrase to me.
“Now, where were we...?” Jack stared down at the contract pages.
“You were about to hand that over,” a deep, booming voice said from the office doorway. Both Jack and I jumped and looked to the door just before Sven and Asher broke into laughter for startling us.
18
Andi
Vila and I had been around long enough to know not to ignore hunches, especially when more than one person felt the same one at the same time. We left Jack and Bennett and walked quickly down the hall to the elevator, just as it closed with Dave inside. He hadn’t seen us, however.
We looked at each other and silently agreed to take the stairs. We rushed down and reached the main floor before the elevator did. The two of us stood to the side of a large pillar in the center of the entranceway to the building and waited to see which way Dave would go. If he’d parked, he would be heading to the garage, but if he’d taken a cab, he’d go out the front door.
Apparently, he’d parked because he exited the elevator and immediately walked to his right, headed towards the parking garage door. Vila nudged me in the back, and the two of us slowly walked out from behind the pillar, paying close attention at any sign of him turning around. We did not want him to see us.
As we followed him through the hall to the garage door, I tried, once again, to pinpoint exactly why Dave felt so familiar. The first time we’d met, I got a slight sense that perhaps we’d met before, but when we were all upstairs in Jack’s office, it was like meeting someone who I’d spent a considerable amount of time with at some point but had forgotten. The biggest issue with that was I knew for a fact I’d never spent any time with him. I knew Vila felt something very similar.
Dave pushed the garage door open with much less care than when he’d left Jack’s office. We waited for the door to close, giving him a chance to get a few paces into the garage before we pushed it open, taking care to be silent about closing it behind us. Dave was standing behind an old beat-up car about five spaces down.
Vila and I darted behind a car parked in a handicapped spot right next to us to avoid being seen. We leaned out just enough to get a clear view of what he was doing.
He opened the trunk of his car and put the shadow box holding the golf club inside. But then he stayed leaning in, handling something else for a couple of moments. But we couldn’t see what it was. Finally, Dave stood up straight, closed the trunk, then turned around to lean on the car. He wiped the sweat off his brow and let out a deep breath.
A smile crept across his face that made him look more smug than happy. He stood up away from the car and started hopping from one foot to the other. His arms were up, and he shook his shoulders. Basically, he was dancing badly to no music. His motions got more energized the longer he danced.
I looked at Vila, and she opened her eyes wide at me. “This guy is nuts,” is what her face was telling me. We both were struggling not to laugh out loud at the man.
Dave danced like that for a full three minutes before finally calming down. When he was back to normal, he cleared his throat and straightened his clothes. He looked around, so Vila and I ducked back behind the car. We waited until we heard him walking before peeking out again.
He appeared to be headed to get in his car when he stopped, turned around, and went back to the trunk. He popped it open again and leaned in. We could hear some sort of metal scraping, and I hoped that whatever it was, it wasn’t anywhere near Jack’s shadow box. Then Dave’s body went stiff, and he stopped moving completely for a full ten seconds.
Vila grabbed my arm. We both felt oddly exposed. There was no way he could’ve heard us, though. He slowly straightened up and started scanning the garage with his eyes. The deliberately slow pace at which he examined every corner and parking space was strange, to say the least. Once again, Vila and I had to duck back behind the car to avoid being seen.
We listened for movement from him before we dared look again. It was a long time before we heard any. Finally, the scraping metal sound from the trunk gave us the cue to peer carefully out from behind the car once more.
He was just standing up out of the trunk. Dave closed it, quickly rounded the car to the driver’s side, and swung the door open to climb in. We heard him start the engine, and the vehicle began backing up. A few moments later, Dave drove the car out of the garage.
Vila and I stood up and traded confused looks. We didn’t dare say anything for fear of being heard, even though it didn’t seem anyone was around. Originally, Glen had driven us to the building, but we wanted to get somewhere we could talk freely as fast as possible. So, we headed back inside the building and found the nearest restroom. After checking for occupants and seeing we were alone, the two of us locked ourselves in a stall. Vila raised her hand and snapped her fingers, taking us back to Bennett’s house instantly.
“I can’t be the only one of us that found that weird,” Vila commented once we were at the house.
“Oh, you aren’t,” I agreed. “How could he seem so different from when he was here last week?”
“I was wondering the same thing!” Vila’s voice was loud and pitchy. She was getting frustrated that she couldn’t figure out why Dave gave off such a strange vibe.
“Other than being weird, though, he didn’t seem… I don’t know… bad?” I pondered. “I just haven’t decided if he feels quirky-weird or suspicious-weird.” The two of us plopped down on the couch in the living room.
“I feel the same, but there was one other thing,” Vila replied. “I got the incredible sense that there was no way in hell either of us should use magic around him.”
“Oh my God, you are right!” I hadn’t identified that I felt the same way. When the words came out of Vila’s mouth, however, I completely agreed with her.
“Has that ever happened to you before?” she asked me.
“No, never, but neither has anyone felt so familiar that I’d never met before,” I answered.
Vila flopped back on the couch and crossed her arms. She let out a long breath and sighed.
“You know,” she started. “Between our little tiff at the club about magic, and our trip home, and talking about home with Lottie… I miss Gisele. She had all the answers. If a question was asked, she would know the answer. I wish I could ask her a few right now.” She looked down at the floor in front of the couch.
Vila didn’t get sad very often. I’d maybe seen her melancholy three times total since we’d met. I felt for her. I often missed my mother, but I had a feeling it was worse for Vila. Gisele had taught Vila what it was like to be loved in a situation that rivaled horror stories. Even with the lighthearted way Vila made fun of her owner when she talked about him, her human life still sounded dark and miserable.
It was totally different when she talked about Gisele, though. The woman left an impression so loving that I had no doubt she was the reason Vila had the light in her eyes that she did. I leaned back on the couch next to her and put my head on her shoulder. There wasn’t a single thing I could do or say that would make her feel better. We sat like that for a few minutes, and then, as she tends to do, Vila shook off her memories and returned to her usual self.
“Feel like playing chess until Bennett gets home?” I asked her.
“That sounds perfect,” Vila answered. She smiled at me and then the two of us moved to the floor.
19
My head was a bit fuzzy when I first opened my eyes. The brain-fog wa
s, no doubt, from the margaritas I’d had with Jack, Sven, and Asher the night before. After Jack and I had taken Sven and Asher to my office to demo the game, they ended up staying and playing for two hours. When they finally quit, it was back to Jack’s office, and the pens came out.
Ten minutes later, the contract was signed, we’d all shaken hands, and Asher insisted on a celebratory cocktail. The original plan was to go out, but Sven wanted to play a couple more rounds of Jack’s game, so we sent one of the secretaries out for booze, and commenced with our celebration in my office. Glen showed up to see if he would be taking me home, so we invited him to stay, and he joined us. One cocktail turned into four.
By the end of our little party, it was nearly midnight. All of us ended taking cabs home, or back to their hotel, in Sven and Asher’s case. I’d gotten home and went straight to bed as Vila and Andi laughed at my slightly slurred recounting of the celebration.
I’d learned years ago that the best way to stop a pending hang-over was a shower and a ton of water. I sat up in bed and swung my legs off the edge. Other than moving a little slower than normal, I felt fine. I thanked the universe for sparing me a headache and went to take a shower.
Miraculously, or more like genie-aculously, there was a tall glass of ice water sitting on the counter when I stepped out of the shower. I emptied the glass in one chug and refilled it. After a total of three glasses, I put the cup back down on the counter and dried myself off. I wandered back into the bedroom, and my clothes were laid out on the bed for me, as usual. A few minutes later, I was dressed and walking into the kitchen. Andi and Vila were floating around the kitchen, leg-free.
“Good morning, Mr. Jose,” Andi laughed.
I grinned back at her. I wasn’t under any false presumption that I wouldn’t be thrown several teasing remarks before I had to leave for work.
“Good morning, ladies. Thank you for the water and clothes,” I replied and winked at them both.
“Coffee?” Andi asked, holding an empty cup up in the air.
“Yes, please,” I replied. Andi set to pouring my coffee as Vila pulled something cinnamon-scented off the stove. The two of them floated over together and set both my coffee and a delicious-looking plate of French toast down in front of me.
“Salt on the rim of your coffee?” Andi asked innocently. I rolled my eyes and put my head down. She set to laughing at me.
“Syrup?” Vila asked.
“Yes, please,” I repeated. I wondered if the short questions were on purpose. Vila whizzed back into the kitchen and returned with syrup.
“This is a black maple. It goes best with the coffee Andi brewed this morning,” she informed me.
“You two are too good to me,” I told them. I started in on the French toast as they hovered nearby. I looked up at the two of them when I took a sip of my coffee, then slowly lowered my cup. They stayed right where they were, staring at me.
“Can I help you?” I inquired, chuckling.
“Nope,” Andi said happily and continued to stare.
“Are you sure?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yep,” Vila piped up. When they hadn’t moved after another bite of my French toast, I put my fork down and looked from one to the other.
“Ladies,” I started. They blinked at me wide-eyed, like they had no idea what I was going to ask. “Is there a reason you are hovering over me like hummingbirds near a honey-feeder?” They glanced at each other and started laughing. They both traded their mist for legs and sat down. “Do you want to fill me in on what is so funny?”
“It’s nothing really,” Andi laughed.
“Yeah, we were just trying to tell if you were going to be cranky or not,” Vila added, giggling.
“Why would you think I was going to be cranky?” I had no idea where their logic came from most of the time, so I don’t know why it shocked me when I hadn’t expected their answer.
“The last four masters we had all liked to drink,” Vila began. “While you don’t drink at all like they did, every single one of them was always cranky the day after a party.”
I took another drink of my coffee and put my cup down.
“So, under the assumption that hungover people can be cranky, you hovered over me, which would make some non-hungover people cranky, to see if I was cranky?” I tried to follow their train of thought.
“Exactly!” Andi chimed. “We were going to place bets, but deep down, we both knew you wouldn’t be cranky.” The two of them were smiling at me with their elbows on the table, and their faces held in their hands.
“Why do I feel like I’m being studied as we speak?” I asked them, looking from one to the other.
“We just find it fascinating!” Andi replied
“What? What do you find fascinating?” I took the bait.
“What alcohol does to humans,” she answered matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean? You’ve drunk before. What’s to wonder about?” As soon as I said it, I realized I’d never seen either one of them actually take a drink of alcohol. They must have known what I was thinking because they simply stared at me without answering.
“You must have drunk before you became genies, right?” I couldn’t imagine they’d never taken a drink.
“Nope,” Vila said.
“But, Andi, you talked about dinner parties with that old word for alcohol when Lottie was here the other night.” I tilted my head and raised my eyebrow, certain I’d caught her in a fib.
“I said there were dinner parties with alcohol. I didn’t say I drank any of it. I was the queen-in-waiting, I wasn’t allowed to have alcohol,” Andi responded. She shot me an amused look that made it so she could have left all the words she’d said out and replaced them with a loud duh.
“Vila, you weren’t a princess,” I stated.
“Nope. I was a servant,” she laughed. “You think that if a princess can’t get a drink, that a servant would be handed a bottle to guzzle?” She was making fun of my lack of knowledge of their human lives as well.
“I’m beginning to see why all the hungover people you’ve known were cranky.” I shook my head at the two of them. “They were all with you when they were hungover!” I joked.
They started giggling and stood up from the table.
“Where are you going?” I asked out of curiosity.
“All the way over there to the kitchen,” Andi said dramatically.
I rolled my eyes at her and went back to eating. I wasn’t going to beat them at a game of wits at that time, that much I knew. When I was done with breakfast, I took my plate to the kitchen. The two of them were huddled over a box on the floor. I tried to see inside, but they were in the way. I set my plate in the sink and leaned against the counter. Whatever they were looking at had them so distracted that I wasn’t sure they even heard me come in the kitchen.
“Whatcha doin’?” I asked in my best ‘I caught you’ voice. The two of them jumped up and turned to face me. They instantly slid together so that I couldn’t see behind them.
“Nothing. Just a little cleaning and such, you know…” Vila trailed off, her eyes darting around the room. I crossed my arms and stared at her. When it was clear she wasn’t going to look at me, I turned to Andi.
“Another ‘is he cranky’ game?” I asked her.
“Well, no. Not really. I mean, I love that you aren’t cranky, and if you could just hold on to that for a little longer, the whole morning will go incredibly smooth. Then you’ll be off to work, and we’ll be here just--”
“Andi!” I cut her off. I’d never heard her ramble like that before. “What’s in the box?”
Andi stared up at me for a long, awkward moment. Then she threw her arms up in the air.
“Oh, why not?” she said, more to herself than me. She stepped aside and pulled Vila with her so I could see the box.
It was glowing. At first glance, other than the glow, it simply looked like a box with the top cut off, so I bent down to look closer. It was then I saw what t
hey were trying to hide. The bottom of the box was covered with newspaper shreds and huddled in a corner was a tiny, extremely ugly, baby bird. There was a small ball of light, radiating heat, floating in the corner above the bird. I glanced up over my shoulder at the girls as I stood up and kept my gaze on them as I turned to face them.
“Have a new friend, do we?” I asked them straight-faced. I hadn’t quite decided if I should mess with them about it.
“It fell out of its nest in the tree in the backyard. We found it under the hammock last night just before you came home. We couldn’t just leave it out there…” Andi was rambling again, and I was trying my hardest not to chuckle. “So, we thought that if we could just keep it warm for a little while that maybe we could put it back in its nest but then we watched all night, and its momma bird never came back, and well, we couldn’t just put it back then because it would surely starve…”
I couldn’t stand the run-ons any longer and finally broke out laughing. Andi stopped talking and went back to staring at me. Vila, however, decided she would continue the over-explanation that, for some reason, they felt I needed to hear.
“We think it is a baby robin, and it doesn’t make any noise. They don’t take too long to get big and learn how to fly, and if we keep the paper changed every day, there’s no smell to the box. Even the heat ball we made for Chester is super low-glow, so it won’t disturb anything at night…” She hardly took a breath and was making me laugh even harder.
“Chester?” I burst out. “Chester? You named the thing Chester?” I’m not even certain why the name was so funny to me. Perhaps it was just the goofy nature of it when associated with a bird that they were acting like I was going to throw out in the cold. I walked out of the kitchen and back to my chair in the dining room, still laughing.
Neither Andi nor Vila said a word. They were staring at me like I’d gone mad, however.
“Is that why you wanted to see if I was cranky?” I asked, chuckling but finally able to control my laughter.
