Tobias flashed a broad smile. “Then we are agreed. You will stay here.”
“Alright!”
Inanna crawled over to Marc and wrapped her arms around his leg. Tobias sat back on the sofa, pleased.
Marc’s excitement soon became grave concern: he didn’t have his phone, his wallet, and most importantly, a passport. Leaving Dubai wasn’t going to be as easy as Tobias made it sound.
Inanna said something to Tobias in their language. Tobias gestured at the television. “Inanna wishes to know the purpose of this black rectangle.”
Marc chuckled. “Oh, the TV? We uh, use it to see things.”
Tobias looked uncertain. “See things?”
“Right. Like we watch the news, or sports, or videos, or all kinds of stuff.” Tobias stared blankly. Marc realized he wasn’t explaining the concept very well. “It’s probably best if I show you.”
Marc tried to get up, but Inanna maintained her serpentine grip. Tobias gestured to her to let go and she grudgingly obliged. Marc walked over to the television, felt around the edge of the unit for the power button, and switched it on. The TV logo appeared on the screen and was replaced by a news program. Tobias and Inanna were fascinated.
A female wrapped in a hijab spoke to the screen. Marc felt around on the edge of the screen again until he found the volume buttons. He pressed them until the woman’s voice emanated from the television screen. She spoke in a language that Marc assumed to be Arabic. Tobias and Inanna exchanged glances. Inanna spoke to Tobias with more than a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“She asks who this woman is, and why she speaks to her Marc?”
Marc laughed. “Oh, she’s not talking to me, exactly. Here, watch.”
He looked around for the cable box. It sat on a glass shelf under the television. He found the channel buttons and pressed one of them.
A commercial for a luxury hotel appeared on the screen. Random images of food being served, a suite door opening and revealing the accommodations, a wealthy couple checking in at the front desk, and a smiling doorman were all part of the montage. Inanna’s hand was cupped to her mouth. Tobias leaned forward intently. “Who are these people? What is their message?”
“Um, they want people to stay at their hotel. It’s called advertising.”
“I wish to speak to them.”
Marc seized the opportunity. “Well, funny enough, you can call them with the phone. But these don’t work. I think something’s wrong with the base unit.” Tobias was lost. Marc picked up the remote handset and pressed it to his ear, then held it up for both to see. “We use phones to talk to people that are far away.”
“Phones?”
“Yeah, practically everybody has one.”
Tobias spoke with Inanna, then turned to Marc once again. “You do not use phones to speak to Inanna.”
“Um, no. Actually, I have no idea how we do that. I just know it’s in my head, somehow.”
Tobias smiled. “You do not need a phone.”
“Okay.”
“You do not need that black rectangle.”
“Okay.” Marc switched off the television.
“Much has been lost. Soon it shall return.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you, Marc, for teaching us. We wish to know your ways.”
Marc shrugged. “I guess.”
“We shall teach you our ways as well.”
“Okay.”
Tobias stood and clapped Marc on the shoulder. “We shall be brothers.”
“Okay!”
Tobias smiled, and clapped twice.
“Come, let us dine.”
Servants emerged from the hallway and set food on the long dining table.
CHAPTER 57: STRANGE ARRANGEMENTS
Gracie sat in the driver’s seat of Marc’s car and unbuttoned the left breast pocket of her top shirt, then she slid the stylist’s business card in there for safekeeping. She wasn’t sure how to make it happen, but she was very interested in making an appointment as soon as possible. She wondered if Agnes could magically send her long distances without having to come along too. Agnes sat quietly on the passenger side, waiting for her to start the car. Gracie sank back in her seat and let out a long puff of air.
“She’s way out of my league.”
“Hm?”
“Hottie McGee. I’m way too young for her, and I can just tell, she’s way more than I can handle.”
“Are you?” Agnes tipped her head forward a bit and smiled.
“Yeah… no… I don’t know.” Gracie pressed her palm to her forehead, then pulled it back, feeling the strange sensations of her freshly cut and faded hair.
Agnes patted her on the thigh. “I thought you were going places.”
Gracie let out a snort. “Well, yeah, but… well, come on, Agnes, look at me! And look at her! What chance in hell do I have?”
“From what I saw, a big one.”
“Yeah, but she lives here, and she’s got her own business, and we have to get back… and I’ll probably never see her again…” Gracie threw her head back. “And now I don’t even have a job!” Tears welled up in her eyes.
Agnes turned slightly in her seat. “Hey.”
Gracie exhaled. “What?”
“I believe in you, Gracie. I brought you with me for a reason.”
Gracie sniffed. “Yeah, to torture me.”
“No, I brought you with me because even though there are things I can do that you can’t, there are things you can do that I can’t. Look at me, Gracie. I prefer the background, I know you like to make fun, but it’s true, I don’t want to be noticed. I don’t want anyone to call me special.”
Gracie gave a small laugh. “You do blend in.”
“And even though I can sometimes travel long distances in an instant, that doesn’t mean I know what to do when I get there. You’re not afraid of new things, Gracie. Anyone else would have had difficulty adjusting to being across the country in the blink of an eye, but you just adapted.”
Gracie looked straight ahead and ran her fingers around Marc’s steering wheel over and over. “I guess.”
“You did. I don’t know what happened to Marc, or why his apartment burned down. All I know for sure is, he’s alive, and involved in something very bad. He needs us, Gracie.”
Gracie swallowed hard. “Bad, like what? And I thought you said he had a girlfriend.”
Agnes nodded, and frowned. “I’m not so sure about that. Whoever he’s with doesn’t want to be found. I only caught a glimpse of her, but she is doing something to stop me from seeing the full picture. At least, I think it’s her.”
“Like, she has weird mystical powers like you do?”
“They’re not that mystical.”
Gracie gestured out the window. “Um, hello.”
Agnes shifted in her seat. “I will teach you.”
Gracie’s eyes widened. “Teach me what?”
“Why did we go to that hair salon? It wasn’t for a new hairstyle, was it?”
Gracie turned pink. “It kinda was.”
“Be honest with me.”
Gracie rolled her eyes. “Fine, I saw the stylist out front and thought she was hot. I just wanted a closer look, that’s all.”
“What about your clever plan that involved getting half of your head shaved?”
“I wanted her close to me.”
Agnes took a breath through her nose. “Fine. We went to the hair salon because you wanted to go there.”
“So what?”
“We’re here because I wanted us to go here.”
Gracie shook her head and held her palms up. “And…?”
“Everything we do, no matter how mundane, is driven by our intentions. You eat breakfast because you intend to. You watch TV because you intend to. You walk around because you intend to.”
“Still not getting it.”
“Why don’t you walk out the door one day and say ‘today, I’m going to be in Chicago’, and spend the day there?”
>
“Because I don’t have air fare, or a car, genius.”
“And yet, here we are.” Agnes leaned forward and looked Gracie in the eye. “Because I intended for us to travel here.”
Gracie snorted. “So, what, from now on, I just say, ‘screw this, I’m going to LA’ and poof, I’ll be there?”
“Purity of motive.”
Gracie gave Agnes a withering look. “What?”
“If you truly want to learn as I have learned, there are three guiding principles that will light the path: Purity of Heart, Purity of Thought, and Purity of Motive.”
“Agnes, I’m not joining some whack job cult.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“And not that it’s any of your business, I’m capable of some mighty impure thoughts.”
“I know.”
Gracie grimaced and shoved her sister. “Okay, well this has been really educational, but we’ve got to get home soon before Mom and Dad flip out.”
“Alright.”
“So, what do we do with Marc’s car? We can’t exactly put it back in his parking spot.”
“Why not?”
“Um, his apartment burned down? Sooner or later, they’ll tow it away.”
“Then they tow it away. He’s got bigger problems.”
“And then, how do we get back home?”
“Put the car back in the lot, and I’ll get us home.”
“How?”
Agnes gave a knowing smile. “Intentionally.”
CHAPTER 58: TRIP REPORT
Gene and Sharon drove back to the office in silence for a while. He took over the driving, as Sharon was too distracted and annoyed to be trusted behind the wheel. She shook her head and exhaled sharply. “Trash for cash. You called it, Gene.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t get it. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. If it was something of value, I could see it. I wouldn’t like it, most likely, because that would mean a huge mess for us to clean up so some homeless people can scrape together a few bucks.”
“Yeah.”
“But if they’re storing all of it in that warehouse, well number one, that’s got to reek.”
Gene snorted. “Yeah, I bet.”
“And number two, that’s got to be a huge health and safety violation, doesn’t it?”
He nodded. “I don’t see why not.”
“I don’t know what kind of bribes are being passed around over there, but even if the cops look the other way, it doesn’t mean we have to.”
“What do you mean, ‘we’?”
“Come on, Gene, we’ve got to report this! You were there. You saw how much crap they were hauling around. The rats alone have got to be a public health nightmare.”
Gene blew a puff of air up through his mustache. “Yeah, alright.”
They returned to the office just in time for the place to empty out. Sharon led Gene to the Superintendent’s office, which was blacked out. “Crap.”
He shrugged. “We’ll tell him tomorrow.”
Sharon sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “Yeah, okay, fine. I’ll come get you.”
“Great.”
The two parted ways. Gene stopped by his office to pick up a few things. Sharon went directly to her car and fired up the engine.
She would stop off at home for a change of clothes. She wasn’t ready to hand off what was rightfully her investigation. She wanted more to show the Super in the morning than just some hastily snapped photos and a GPS map.
CHAPTER 59: TOUCHDOWN
Gracie approached Marc’s apartment building, then gunned the engine and kept driving. Agnes gave Gracie a concerned look. “That was his parking spot.”
“Was.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
Gracie exuded an air of grim determination. “You were right, Agnes, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Hm?”
“Cops, Agnes. They were parked out front of the building.”
“And that means we can’t park Marc’s car?”
“Not when they know his apartment burned down and his car was gone. Which means they’re either looking for it so they can break the news to him, or they want to ask him a few questions about where he was when his apartment burned up.”
“Oh.”
“That reminds me… turn his phone off.”
“Why?”
“Nobody knows we have it. And if anyone calls looking for him, how’s that going to sound if we answer, genius? Shut it off.”
Agnes rooted around in her knit bag and found the phone. She checked the screen for any messages or other clues. Nothing. She held the power button down until the phone went black.
Gracie looked around anxiously. “We’ve got to ditch this somewhere.”
Agnes thought for a moment. “We want him to get it back, don’t we?”
“Yeah, I guess, why?”
Agnes pointed to a building coming up on their right. “There.”
A brightly lit building advertised BEER - WINE - SPIRITS. Gracie parked the car under a sign announcing that all unauthorized vehicles would be towed at the owner’s expense, no exceptions.
“Are you effing kidding me?”
“They’ll keep it safe for when he comes back.”
“Yeah, and they’ll charge him a flipping fortune to get it out of car jail.”
“Don’t worry so much about money. Just give me the keys when you get out.”
Gracie huffed, removed her seat belt, and tossed the keys into Agnes’s lap. Agnes removed her seat belt and got out of the car. She pointed the key fob at the car and pressed one of the buttons. The amber parking lights flashed twice in rapid succession and the locks clicked shut. She dropped the keys into her knit bag.
Gracie hopped around, shaking off the cold. “Where to now, genius?”
Agnes waved her along. “This way.”
Gracie walked along, arms folded tightly across her chest. Agnes showed no sign of being affected by the cold.
“Sheeze, Agnes, I knew you were an ice queen, but damn.”
“Hm?”
“Aren’t you freezing? You’re not exactly dressed for this either.”
Agnes smiled. “I choose not to be.”
Gracie blew a stream of vapor. “Oh, okay. Purity of not freezing my ass off. Alla shazam, I’m toasty warm.”
They walked along past a row of sandwich shops and nail salons. Gracie put on a brave front but soon broke down and rubbed her hands together vigorously. She held them up to her reddening ears. “Dammit, Agnes!”
“We’re here.”
They ducked into a variety store. Gracie’s ears hurt with the sensation of cold skin meeting heated air. Agnes led them to the linens department. She hunted around until she found a plain white queen-sized fitted sheet for $10. Gracie held up a powder blue set priced at $25. Agnes shook her head and started to walk toward the front of the store.
“But this one comes with two sheets and pillowcases.” She tossed the pack on top of a bin filled with economy pillows.
“I need Marc’s wallet back, please.”
“I thought we established that Marc was short for Marcie.”
“Please, Gracie.”
Gracie huffed and pulled Marc’s wallet out of her back pocket. She clapped it into Agnes’s outstretched palm. Agnes opened the wallet and removed the remaining $20 bill. While they stood in the checkout line, Gracie picked out a pack of gum and put it on top of the fitted sheet. Agnes raised her eyebrows.
“Marc wants me to have minty fresh breath.”
Agnes removed the gum and placed it back on the shelf. “We owe him enough as it is.”
Gracie put the gum back on the conveyor belt. “What’s one more buck?”
“Very well, I won’t argue.”
Gracie grinned.
Agnes declined the offer of a shopping bag. She slipped the fitted sheet into her knit bag along with the change. Gracie swiped the gum and absentminded
ly tore open the pack as they left the store and popped two pieces into her mouth. She offered the pack to Agnes, who declined. Gracie shrugged and stuffed the pack into her front pants pocket.
“Now what?”
“Now we go home.”
Agnes led Gracie around the back of the store. She pulled the fitted sheet out of her knit bag and removed the packaging. She carefully put the waste into a nearby dumpster. She unfolded the sheet and let it billow in the breeze.
Gracie snorted. “What’s with you and blankets, anyway?”
Agnes offered her a corner to hold onto. She pointed to a snowdrift on a berm behind the store. “Sit here.”
Gracie winced at the grubby curb at the edge of the berm but figured she could toss her pants in the laundry later. She obeyed, and Agnes sat down lightly beside her. She instructed Gracie to wrap the sheet tightly around the two of them, so they’d look like part of the snowdrift to anyone who happened to be looking in their direction. Gracie clutched her knees and bent forward, trying to warm up.
“Where to, Gracie?”
“Home.”
“You said you wanted to aim for someplace close by. Where do you want to go?”
Gracie could barely think. Her ears were starting to get numb. “I don’t know, the backyard. Pioneer street. Just, not here.”
“This is important, Gracie. We’re going to go where you want to go. I need you to concentrate and describe that place.”
Gracie groaned. “Okay, okay, alright! There are some shrubs near our house. Right now, they’re half covered in snow. Whenever I see them when I am walking home I know that I’m almost there, and it will just be a few more minutes. They’re stupid. It’s a stupid landmark but it’s mine, and I like seeing it. It’s just three round shrubs bunched together. One big one, and two smaller ones, like Mi—” Gracie let out a yelp. “Ow!”
Agnes sat upright. “We’re here.” Gracie looked around. They were sitting in the snow beside three shrubs, half covered in snow. “After you.”
Gracie got to her feet and staggered toward home. The pair arrived home five minutes later. Gracie was first through the door. “Well, that was a fine day out.”
Mother emerged from the kitchen. “Oh, my.”
Gracie tousled her hair. “You like it?”
The Spaces Between Us Page 22
