[Jennifer Cloud 01.0] The Shoes Come First

by Janet Leigh

  “Wait a minute, back up, what did the prince mean by his son shall live?” Gertie asked.

  “Be patient—it’s coming,” he said, palming his stone in one hand and tugging playfully on a strand of my hair with his other hand.

  I immediately pulled my hair out of his reach. He smiled and continued with his story.

  “Two years had passed since the prince’s death, and a girl mysteriously wandered into their village. She was beautiful, with long, dark hair and mesmerizing dark eyes; it was difficult for any of the tribesman not to take notice. The king asked her to join him one evening as he walked to the great volcano to mourn his son. The moon was full, and as soon as he left, some of the tribe entered their vessels and transported. When they left, the Mafuso tribe invaded their village, killing everyone who was left behind.”

  “That’s so sad,” Gertie said, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

  “The beautiful woman seduced the king under the full moonlight, begging him to make love to her. The old king, being a fertile tribal leader, had no qualms about fulfilling her request. Afterward the beautiful woman walked with the king to the edge of the volcano.

  “‘Do you know me?’ she asked the king.

  “‘Have we met before?’ the king asked, confused.

  “‘No,’ she answered, ‘but you knew my father.’

  “‘Who was he?’ the king asked.

  “‘Your son,’ the woman responded. The shocked king stumbled backward and fell into the volcano.”

  “Holy crap!” exclaimed Gertie. “This is some good shit—no wonder our family is so friggin’ crazy.”

  Ignoring Gertie, Caiyan continued, “Apparently, Analia, the girl the king’s son had married, was with child, and that was why the prince couldn’t let her die. He wanted his son to live. However, the Mafuso tribe had learned of the prince’s power and was behind the whole plot. Analia gave birth to a daughter, not a son, and Analia was so distraught, because she thought only a boy could inherit the gift. Feeling she had let down her people, Analia took her own life. The baby was named Jezebel and was raised by the wife of the Mafuso tribal king. As Jezebel grew older, she started to do miraculous things. She was faster than the best boy in their tribe and smarter than any of the elders. She possessed gifts that made the Mafuso tribal king’s wife wonder if Jezebel had inherited the great powers. The tribe was very evil. The Mafuso king plotted against them by raising Jezebel to hate the Ancalites. One night the Mafuso tribal king killed his wife, the only mother Jezebel had ever known. He told Jezebel the Ancalite king used his magic transporter to sneak into her chamber and kill her.

  “Jezebel vowed she would seek him out and avenge her adopted mother’s death. She waited until she was at an age when the king couldn’t resist her and then went in search of him. After she killed the king, she went for his key but couldn’t find it or his vessel. She did, however, find keys the king’s wife had hidden for the future Ancalites who had the gift.”

  “That is a very interesting story; however, I’m still confused about why I am here,” I said.

  “But the story gets better.” Caiyan stood and walked around as he continued his tale.

  “Oh man, where is the popcorn?” Gertie asked excitedly.

  “The remaining tribe returned and found all their loved ones dead. Without a king, they took a vow. They would divide their wealth and separate from one another so this could never happen again. Many of the tribe traveled to foreign lands, where they passed their gift down through their families. This explains why we are from various backgrounds and cultures. They vowed only to time travel in search of the missing keys.”

  “Why didn’t they just go back and stop the invasion?” I asked.

  “Because the Ancalites were a peaceful tribe, and it went against their code to go back and kill the Mafusos before they committed the crime.”

  “That is so romantic and twisted,” said Gertie.

  “It doesn’t explain us,” I said. “What am I doing here?”

  “Remember I told you the granddaughter really seduced her grandfather?”

  “Yes, sooo gross,” Gertie said on the edge of her rock.

  “She conceived a child,” he said.

  “Damn, this is a fertile family,” Gertie said. “Jen, you’d better be careful. You’ll be poppin’ out those puppies like my cousin Bubba’s rabbits.”

  “Me?” I questioned. “What about you? We are related, right?”

  “I’m more from the poor Irish side of the family, obviously, since I didn’t inherit any gift.”

  “Ladies, I am trying to explain the reason why Jen is here,” Caiyan broke in. Gertie and I sat back and waited to hear my life’s destiny.

  “As I said, there was another child conceived, and this is where the bloodline for the brigands began. Filled with greed, they spent their time stealing and murdering. They had keys but no vessels, so they started tracking down Ancalites and taking their keys and vessels, which has filtered down to the pillaging we have today, I’m afraid.”

  In frustration Caiyan tossed aside the small rock he had been caressing between his palms. “They are constantly trying to steal the keys and are in search of the king’s vessel.”

  “So, are there others on our ‘team,’ I guess you would say?” I asked Caiyan.

  “Yes, and you will meet them in time. This is a very dangerous job; you could be killed.”

  “What happens if someone gets killed?” I asked, uneasy.

  “You will die in this time and in your own. If we are able, we transport you back and make it look like an accident.”

  I gulped. “Is this what happened to my aunt?”

  “I am not sure, lassie.” But his eyes filled with regret, and his brogue thickened.

  “How do I tell my vessel where to go?”

  He pondered the question a moment. “Normally, to time travel, the transporter must be summoned by a defender.” He thought the idea over in his mind, then an amusing expression crossed his face. “You think of me.”

  “What?” I almost yelled it.

  “Jennifer, were you thinking of me when your key started to activate?” he asked with the corners of his mouth starting to turn up.

  “No! Absolutely not,” I stammered.

  “Yes you were!” Gertie blurted out. “Remember, you were denying love at first sight, and then I asked you about sleeping with a guy on the first date and…”

  “OK, Gertie, we get it,” I said, cutting her off. “I might have been reminiscing a little.”

  “When the moon is full, the brigands will go back. There is one family in particular who still carry the Mafuso name. They are after the king’s vessel. Some brigands are still a part of the Mafuso family. Others have split away and go back to steal and sometimes murder people for their own gain.”

  “What about that guy in Scotland?” I asked, my ears turning a little pink with embarrassment from recalling our first encounter.

  “Rogue is an independent brigand. He works for his own selfish gain.”

  “How do you know where these bad guys are going?” asked Gertie.

  “We have ways to identify when brigands have taken the time passage. The defenders will travel back to catch them. To bring another defender or transporter back in time, I request the presence of a specific person, and that person will be summoned.”

  Caiyan sighed, then shook his head. “Usually the transporter is the one being summoned, not the one who causes the time travel. Your gift is very strange. You can think about me, and your key will activate. We must have cross connected. I was trying to decide whom I should summon for my transporter and imagine my surprise when my key started to glow. I wasn’t sure what that meant. It has never happened before.”

  “Why is the Mafuso family after the king’s key and vessel?” I asked.

  “Remember, it’s rumored to be pure gold, and it was the original, so possibly more powerful. There are many who believe if you have all t
he keys, you will have all the power, just like the king.”

  The flames on the fire were starting to die down as I digested my dinner and all the new information. I could feel a chill in the air even though we were in southwest Texas.

  “Where are we exactly?” Gertie asked.

  “I know what I have told you,” he said. “We are in Presidio, Texas, in the year 1915.”

  “How do you know where we are and what we are supposed to do?” I questioned.

  “Over time things became a little more civilized. We formed an alliance with the British Secret Service, which led to a pact with the CIA from the United States, since many of the gifted are in your country. They gave us the name WTF.”

  “What the Fu—?”

  “Gertie!” I interrupted her. Then we both started to laugh hysterically. I think we might have been suffering from post-traumatic stress caused by the unbelievable, but we laughed until our sides ached. Caiyan shook his head and laughed at us.

  “No, it stands for World Travel Federation. We are considered top secret. Although there are some out there, like you, who don’t recognize their gift right away or choose not to use the gift. When the moon is full, we know the brigands will go back. The BSS works with the CIA to try to figure out where they will strike next. We have worldwide support because they know if we were to fall in the wrong hands, we could be used as a weapon.”

  “A weapon?” asked Gertie. “Whoa, that’s heavy.”

  “Can you imagine what would happen if someone went back in time and murdered the Queen of England or one of your presidents?”

  “Oh my gosh, you mean like Lincoln?” I questioned in horror.

  “Yes, and Kennedy.” He picked up the canteen of water and poured some into a cup. He took a drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “That is why Lee Harvey Oswald was killed so quickly. He was a brigand. Of course, his real name was Oswaldo Mafuso.”

  “What about Marilyn Monroe?” asked Gertie.

  “No, she did that to herself. But there have been quite a few we couldn’t save.”

  He ran a hand through his thick hair, making it stand up a little at the crown. Most men would look disheveled, but Caiyan only oozed more sex appeal with his tousled appearance. He hesitated like he was telling us too much and then proceeded on with the conversation.

  “When we travel, we go with nothing. You can only return people through the transporter. That is why you are so valuable. We have to figure out what the brigands are after and then stop them before they muddle up history.”

  “Like in Scotland,” I said. “You hit that guy with a rock, but how did you get him back if I am supposed to transport him?”

  “Oh yes, Rogue,” Caiyan sighed. “He is a clever bastard.”

  “You know him well?”

  “Yes, he works alone. We have fought many times. He always seems to get away. He’s a slippery one, that fellow.”

  “He got away?” I questioned, alarmed. “I thought you catch them and put them in jail?”

  “Sometimes they get away,” he said, sulking.

  “You’re not very good at this hero stuff, are you?” Gertie said.

  “It’s not as easy as hitting them on the head with a rock. I got lucky I was able to stall him long enough for Mary, Queen of Scots, to get away.”

  “Mary?” Gertie put a finger to her lips, which she did when she was in deep thought. “But she never became the Queen of England, if my history serves me right.”

  “True, but Rogue was going to capture her; she had information on the location of one of the keys.”

  “If you are lucky enough to catch these prisoners, I am supposed to take them to some place in Cuba, right?” I asked.

  “We have a prison in Gitmo,” he answered.

  Looking wide-eyed, Gertie asked, “Why Guantanamo Bay?”

  “Gitmo has a reputation. Prisoners don’t want to go there, but really an underground prison exists to house these types of criminals. In the past our ancestors have traveled to save tragedy from happening in our present world. The problem is our society developed, and we couldn’t just kill people and risk getting arrested and stuck rotting in a jail from the past. We decided we needed help from the government, and presto, the WTF was developed. The prisoners stand trial for acts against the government, and then they are sent to prison. We have ways to force them to remove their keys, but it is almost impossible to find their vessels.”

  “What happens after they are sent to prison?” I asked.

  “Some are rehabilitated and then released. They are usually never returned their key.”

  For a split second, I thought I saw Caiyan’s key glow. But maybe it was a reflection from the fire. For the first time, I felt a longing well up inside me, like I was significant. I was needed for something besides deciding what type of shoe was going to be in style next spring. It made me feel special, and damn it, if people were counting on me to save someone, I was gonna do my best. A noise pulled me out of my self–pep talk. It sounded like the drain in Mamma Bea’s sink after she washed her hair. The last of the water would go swirling ‘round and form a tiny tornado, then it would get sucked out, creating a slurping sound.

  “Wait here,” Caiyan ordered as he slowly got up and eased through the trees.

  “Are we gonna wait?” Gertie asked.

  “No way,” I responded, getting to my feet. We crept down to the trees at the base of the river and peeked through the bushes. There was a man getting out of a bathtub. It was the old claw-foot type of tub, complete with a floral wraparound shower curtain.

  Gertie peeked over my shoulder. “Is that a bathtub?”

  “Yes, hush, they will hear you.”

  Gertie scooted next to me and found her own spying spot.

  Caiyan walked up to the man, and they shook hands like old school chums.

  “Oh sweet Jesus!” exclaimed Gertie in her loud whisper voice that used to get us in trouble at church. “He looks like Keith Urban, the hot country singer.”

  I pushed a leafy branch out of my way to get a better view. I thought he looked more like Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo cartoon, but as I watched him walk, he definitely had a kind of swagger. He was dressed in brown pants and a dark-green button-down shirt with a brown leather vest and a strange-looking cowboy hat. It reminded me of Crocodile Dundee. He seemed to be having an intense conversation with Caiyan. He shrugged his shoulders and moved his hands in an “I don’t know” manner as if Caiyan had asked him an important question he couldn’t answer. I felt Gertie put a death grip on my leg.

  “Here they come; let’s get out of here,” she said as she took off toward the camp. Her skirt brushed up against the bushes, making a definite sound not likely from an animal.

  I froze, hoping they wouldn’t look in my direction. I slowly backed up and had turned to hightail it back to camp when I heard, “Hold it, lassie.” The stern words were from Caiyan. “I told you to stay put.” The two of them sauntered over to me. I turned around slowly, feeling like I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar. The two of them stood over me, arms across their chests. Both were eyeing me like I was an ill-mannered child.

  “Should we put her in a time-out?” asked the new man.

  “It wouldn’t do any good, I’m afraid. She has a knack for getting into trouble.”

  I opened my mouth to refute this, but he spoke before I could get the words out.

  “This is Brodie; he’s a defender from Australia.”

  “G’day, ma’am,” Brodie said with a million-dollar smile, extending his hand. “I hear you’re up to some trouble.”

  “Hi, I’m Jen, the new transporter, and I’m no trouble at all.” I shook his hand, giving him my best smile in return, even though Caiyan was not smiling.

  “So McGregor tells me,” was his response.

  We walked to the camp, and there was Gertie, stretched out on her bedroll pretending to be asleep.

  As we approached, she stretched and yawned. “Guess I fel
l asleep.” She looked up at us. “Oh, hello, who is this?” she asked, sitting up and batting her eyelashes.

  “Brodie,” he responded as he stepped forward and offered his hand and pulled Gertie up on her feet. “The boss man is definitely not going to like the fact that a civilian is here. No sirree Bob.” Then the pot of beans suspended over the campfire caught his attention. “What’s on the barbie?”

  Caiyan looked at Brodie, rolled his eyes, and said, “We’ve already eaten; help yourself.” He turned back to us and said, “I have asked Brodie to come here and help me, since there seems to be a new student among us and another who shouldn’t be here.”

  Great, I thought, now all we need is a big brown dog and the Mystery Machine, and the gang’s all here. Scooby-dooby-doo!

  Brodie sat down on the rock next to Gert and scrounged up some of the leftover bread. “What’s our MO?”

  “MO?” I asked.

  “Modus operandi or method of operation,” Caiyan answered.

  “I haven’t seen anyone, but I have a feeling Mortas is here,” Caiyan said to Brodie.

  “Not Mortas,” Brodie groaned. “He is such an arrogant arsehole.”

  “Who is Mortas?” I asked.

  “He is one of the craftier Mafusos,” Caiyan explained. “He is the oldest grandson of the Mafuso family. He started traveling aboot the same time as Brodie.”

  “He’s a real whacker. Been a pain in my arse ever since.”

  “What’s a whacker?” Gertie asked.

  “I shouldn’t say in the presence of ladies, but a real dickhead.” Brodie added, “The old Mafuso bastard only sends him on the more involved missions.”

  Caiyan stood and stretched. This time I knew his key glowed ever so slightly. What was this man up to? His jeans were sculpted around his taut leg muscles. Focus, I commanded myself. My cad sensors told me something was amiss. Caiyan excused himself to “stretch his legs.” Brodie was scraping the bottom of the beanie-weenie pot quite loudly. I thought I heard a motor rumble in the distance. The can scraping got louder, and the horses started to whinny.

  “I need to use the, um, bushes,” I said. I stood up and started toward the trees, making sure I went in the opposite direction as Caiyan.