“You got to help us,” I said. “Folks are after us.”
“Folks, say you?” said one of the old guys. I nodded. “Lawrence, this young fella says he has folks after him.”
“Aye,” said Lawrence. “I have ears as well, lest ye forget.”
“Hard to forget with that racket out back, eh?” He pointed to the piano player.
“He should learn some new songs, say I, instead of bashing about with the same old same old. I tire of ‘Dirty Blue Boots,’ do you not, Johnson?”
“Aye, sir. I am weary to the bone.”
“Please,” said Tally. “You got to help us. These folks after us mean business. They’re dangerous, they got knives, they got—”
“Knives, you say?” said Lawrence. “Well let them come. We fear not knives, do we Johnson?”
“Nay,” said Johnson. “I’ve been stabbed two and twenty times, and yet I walk, do I not Lawrence?”
“I would say you hobble, dear sir, and with the aid of a cane.”
“Too true. Hear hear!” said Johnson, and slapped the table. The two old men raised their mugs and drank.
This was durn useless. Cecily Bob and Mr. Hugo were probably going to be here any minute and I would be tied up and slung back in a boat, on my way once again to Boss Authority. That I simply could not abide.
“Perhaps the children would like some food?” said Johnson. “Shall we offer them some?”
“Aye, Johnson,” said Lawrence. “Splendid idea. Victuals, children?”
“We are in danger,” said Tally, slowly, deliberately. “What about that don’t you understand? This is no time for food.”
“No time for food! Danger is the perfect time for dining,” he said. “Keeps the appetite low and the heart rate high, I say!”
“He speaks facts, Johnson does,” said Lawrence. “You would do well to listen to him. As it stands, Johnson and I have just ordered dinner, and we would be delighted if you could join us.”
A short man in a stained apron and a chef’s hat came walking out of the back, carrying a giant steel platter with a barbecued hog on it. The hog had an apple in its mouth and it looked durn proud to be there, I must say. The man dropped the hog on the old men’s table with a thunk.
“Capital hog!” said Lawrence, tying a napkin around his neck.
“He looks positively delighted,” said Johnson, clapping his hands. “The finest hog yet, Stanley my good sir.”
“Caught him myself,” said Stanley. “He was out back, grunting through the waters. Charged at me, he did, with them tusks of his. Near took my arm off!”
“I should salute you, sir,” said Lawrence, “with twelve guns or more.”
“A ticker tape parade,” said Johnson. “Wouldn’t that be nice? Like we had after the war.”
“Aye, those were the days,” said Lawrence. “A hero’s welcome in every shop, a mug uplifted in every tavern. Drink, drink, Johnson. To our youth!”
“To our youth!”
They both drank deep.
A black woman walked out from the back, about six-and-a-half feet tall in her boots. She had a half-shaved head, and she wore trousers and a no-sleeved shirt. Her arms were all muscled and covered with tattoos—symbols and words in languages I didn’t know and pictures of all kinds of stuff, trees and flowers and daggers and pages from old books—like there was some great history of everything scribbled on her skin.
“Were y’all just gonna sit there yapping or were you going to introduce me to our guests?” she said.
“Aye, sorry Miss Marina,” said Johnson. “We were distracted by this magnificent oinker here.” He peered at me, adjusting his glasses. “I didn’t catch your name, lad.”
“I’m Buddy,” I said. “And this here’s Tally. There’s folks after us. We’re in serious danger.”
“Hear that, Miss Marina?” said Lawrence. “These little fellows are wanted.”
“Positively felons!” said Johnson.
“Not only wanted, these two,” said Marina. “Something smells a bit off about them.”
“Well I ain’t bathed in a few days,” I said. “Except in swamp water.”
“I ain’t talking about your body odor,” said Marina. “What say you, Harlen?”
The dog-seeming man on the cushion lifted his head and howled, long and mournful.
“That’s what I thought.” Marina walked toward me, her boots clomping on the hardwood floor. “There’s a tinge around you, like crushed flowers, like the month after a funeral. A sad smell. Melancholy. Boy, I daresay there is magic afoot here. You’re hexed, you are. And there’s something particular about her.” Marina pointed to Tally. “But no, that’s not what I’m smelling. That’s not it at all.”
She grabbed my knapsack.
“There are cards in here,” she said. “Parsnit cards.” The lanterns in the room dimmed, the candles flickered, and a cool wind seemed to sweep across the floor. “You’ve brought Parsnit cards into Marina’s Place?”
The tables began to shake, spilling drink all over the two old men. They hollered, grabbing onto the pork so as it wouldn’t slop off on the ground.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We didn’t know. We didn’t mean anything by it.”
“There will be no apologies,” said Marina, her voice low and booming, her eyes gone black and empty, her hair standing on end as if lightning struck. “Those infernal cards are not allowed here, and that is well known. Who would dare to bring a Parsnit deck in my house?”
Fire flashed inside the room and smoke billowed up from beneath the floorboards, like it was rising from the swamp, like Hell itself had gathered about us and was seeping in through the floor.
“It’s okay, Marina,” said a man’s voice. “Those cards are mine.”
A silhouette leaned against the piano in the back of the room, lingering in the shadows a little bit. He seemed tired, grizzled, a few days’ beard growth on his cheeks, a little slouch to him. But when he walked toward me he had that same strut I recognized, the one I tried to imitate my whole life, and when he smiled that big gold-toothed smile at me, there wasn’t any doubt who I was looking at.
“Pop!” I said, and ran toward him.
He picked me up and spun me and held me close to him, same as he had when I was just a kid, same as he had my whole life. I loved my pop so much in that moment I didn’t hardly have words for it.
“How the heck did you get down here, Buddy?” he said. “I thought you were a goner. I thought when Mr. Hugo blew that skiff up, I’d lost you forever.”
“You kidding? Not me, Pop,” I said. “I found my own boat. I came after you. Me and Tally here.”
He walked over to Tally.
“You help save my boy’s life?” he said.
“Yep,” I said. “She saved my life twice already.”
“Well then, little lady,” said Pop, bowing low to her, “I am forever in your debt.”
“Nah,” said Tally, all awkward-like. “We saved each other.”
“That sounds about like what real friends do,” said Pop. “I should know. I got at least one of them left.” He glanced over at Marina, who glared fierce back at him. “This place is safe. Marina’s got magic guarding it, keeping ill-intentioned folks out, and that magic’s even stronger than the witch’s bond holding her in here. But that being said, I think it’s best if you and me hit the trails, Buddy.”
“Whatcha mean?” I said.
“I don’t know if you noticed,” he said, “but old Bobby Felix is on the move, he is. This whole swamp is his for the taking, and I for one am not going to stand here and be took. The magic will hold, but not for long, and not for the likes of me, being in dutch to Bobby Felix like I am.”
“But that’s why you’re going to make a stand, right?” I said. “You’re going to challenge him to another game of Parsnit, a rematch. I brought your cards and everything.”
“Well, Buddy, not exactly,” said Pop. “There’s some extenuating circumstances that complicate this grand
scheme of yours.”
“You ought to tell him,” said Marina. “You ought to tell your own boy the whole story.”
“I know the story,” I said. “Sinclair told me.”
“Y’all met old Sinclair, eh?” said Pop.
“Yeah,” said Tally. “The Creepy. He almost ate us. He almost ripped us to pieces.”
“Well that’s what I’m talking about,” said Pop. “It’s all my fault, you know that? And that’s why we got to get you out of here.”
“No way,” I said. “Boss Authority just got lucky. He beat you once, no big deal. You can beat him this time, I’m sure of it. I mean, what have you been up to the last five years except training, getting every bit as good at Parsnit as a person can be? That’s why you didn’t come back home, right? That’s why Mom had gone and left you, took me with her. She was sick of being second fiddle to a card game. She just must not have understood how important it was to keep fighting for your home, even when bad folks have taken it over. You didn’t give up hope, but she did. That’s why I’ll never forgive her. That’s why . . .”
“Buddy, you shut your mouth about your mom right now,” he said. “She didn’t give up on this place. She didn’t give up on me. I let her down. I let both of you down.”
“I don’t understand, Pop,” I said.
“That last Parsnit duel with Bobby Felix,” he said, “the one I lost good and square, the one that doomed us all. I was pretty overconfident, you understand?”
“Arrogant is the word I would use,” said Marina.
“Fine, fine,” said Pop. “I was arrogant. I was as arrogant as the day is long. I figured there wasn’t any way on earth I could be beat, especially not by puny little Bobby Felix. So when he set the terms of our duel, I accepted them outright. What he made me bet . . . what I agreed to bet . . . well. Buddy, I don’t know how to say it. I was just so sure I would win. I didn’t even think. I didn’t even consider the cost.”
“What did you bet?” I said.
“I bet the lives of my friends,” he said. “I bet Marina’s exile to this house, never to set foot in the swamp again. I bet Sinclair to become the Creepy, a folktale passed down to scare kids to death.”
“What about you?” I said. “What did you bet about you and Mom?”
“I left your mom out of this, I did,” said Pop. “Bobby Felix wouldn’t have nothing to do with harming your mom, and that’s a fact. Your mom crying and pleading with Bobby Felix is the only way I left with the blood still in my veins.”
“You mean you bet your blood, Pop?” I said. “Your own lucky blood?”
“More or less,” said Pop.
“Tell him,” said Marina. “The boy has a right to know. Tell him the exact wording of your witch’s bond.”
“According to what I pledged,” said Pop, “I bet every drop of my blood on this earth. Every single drop.”
I heard Tally gasp over in the corner. The two old men sat staring close at me, and the pianist had stopped his banging. They were all keyed in to this conversation, all of them hanging on every word. I heard a bat chitter on the ceiling of Marina’s Place, and all else was still, all else was silent, all else understood what I still didn’t.
“But Pop,” I said, “that means the next time he sees you, you’re done for. I get it. And that’s why you got to leave.”
“It ain’t me I’m worried about,” he said. “It’s you. See, I bet all my blood on this earth, every last drop. You’re half me, aren’t you? Half that blood in your veins is mine, at least in magic terms. Boss Authority has every right to drain you dry, Buddy. That’s why your mom fled the Riverlands, to keep you as far away from Bobby Felix’s power as possible. That’s why I left my Parsnit deck with you that night, instead of lugging it along. I was hoping that maybe I would have a chance of survival if I hid out in Marina’s. Heck, Buddy, that’s why I had you hexed by the most powerful witch in these lands, Marina here, to curse your blood, so it wouldn’t be any use to Bobby Felix.”
“You had me hexed, Pop?” I said.
I couldn’t believe it. There wasn’t any way. My pop would never do that to me. He would never.
“I did, Buddy,” said Pop. “I had your blood hexed so maybe Boss Authority would let you alone. Hexed blood is a mighty dangerous thing.”
I was mad now, I was durn furious.
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You’re telling me the reason my life’s been so terrible these past five years is you, my own daddy? You’re the reason I couldn’t make a friend, why I couldn’t so much as kick a ball without twisting an ankle? Why I nearly burned Mom’s bakery down on accident, almost killing the both of us? It’s your fault my whole life has been one durn miserable disaster after another?”
“Buddy,” said Tally. “It’s okay. If he made the hex, he can break it. Right?” She turned to Marina. “That’s how a hex works. It’s no problem for the person who made it to break it.”
“I got it right here,” said Pop. He pulled a piece of dried vine looped in a knot that hung from a string around his neck. “This here’s the hex. All I got to do is snap this vine in half and you’re free, Buddy boy, with half the luckiest blood on earth and half good-witch magic to you. Heck, your blood is more valuable to Bobby Felix—more powerful that is—even than mine. So I ain’t gonna snap this vine. No sir. That hex is what’s kept you alive this long. I’m sorry it has been a trial on you, I really am. But there was no other choice, Buddy. There was no other way of keeping you safe.”
I couldn’t believe it. This whole time, years and years, I thought Mom had wrecked my life. I thought Mom had run out on Pop, that she’d been jealous and mean. But it had been Pop’s fault all along. Everything bad was his fault. He had hexed me, he’d made our home unsafe, he’d . . . he’d bet my own blood against Boss Authority. Pop had risked my life, not just his, and he hadn’t even asked me, it hadn’t even occurred to him that he’d lose. How could my own daddy be so reckless, how could he risk my life like that, and the lives of all his friends, without hardly a thought, without a single worry in his mind?
“Did Mom know?” I asked.
“Of course your mom knew,” he said. “And she was durn furious at me for it. Said her magic was more than enough to protect you, if I’d just trust her. But I had to take care of it myself, you understand? I had to make absolutely sure you were spoiled for Boss Authority. I begged her not to tell you, and I guess she kept her word.” He shook his head. “That’s just like Samantha Annie. She was probably up all hours of the night trying to break that hex on you, I wouldn’t doubt it. I bet she never let up trying, even if it was useless.”
That’s what Mom was going to tell me after I burned the bakery down, wasn’t it? That was the talk we were going to have the next day, the one where I wouldn’t like what I was going to hear. Mom wasn’t mad at me at all. She was mad at Pop.
“You can hate me all you want, Buddy,” said Pop. “We got years and years for that kind of thing. And it’s okay, I deserve it. But for now, we got to go, and quick.” He grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the back of Marina’s. “There’s a side door, a whole escape route I figured. If we hustle we can clear the swamp in a few days, take to the road after that. Any luck, we can get free. Any luck we’ll be clear before Boss Authority knows otherwise.”
“What about Tally?” I said.
“She’ll be fine,” said Pop. “Marina will take good care of her, won’t you, Marina?”
“Now just wait one second,” said Marina.
“No time, no time!” said Pop.
“But what about the swamp?” I said. “What about all the folks getting taken by Boss Authority? What about everyone who’s gonna suffer after he gets all his power?”
“Right now, Buddy,” said Pop, “my only concern is you. Call it selfish, call it good parenting, call it whatever you want. I got one duty as a parent, and that’s to get you to safety.”
I yanked my hand from his and stood tall as I could to face my dad
dy, to stare him right in his eyes.
“Well you already blew that,” I said. “You blew that five years ago. I don’t think you got any right to tell me what to do anymore. I don’t think you got any right to say a single word to me one way or the other.”
Pop looked like I’d just sucker punched him one in the gut. He looked grizzled and tired, and for just one second that sparkle left his gold tooth and his smile failed, it withered right there on his face. I saw him clearly then, maybe for the first time. How skinny he’d gotten, how haggard and hungry. How his hair was thinning in the front, all the scars on his arms, a fresh gleaming one on his cheek. Pop was old, he was, and he looked beaten. He wasn’t one bit the legend I’d made him in my mind. No sir, my daddy was a person, same as any other. A sorry person, at that. I’d never seen a sadder sight in all my life.
The dog-looking fella leapt onto his feet and gave a growl.
“What are you smelling, Harlen?” said Marina. “What do you sniff out there on the wind?”
“Must be the pursuers!” said Lawrence. “Up, up Johnson! We may yet be of use!”
The two old fellas hobbled to their feet and the piano player got to hammering away and my daddy stood stock-still, a look of terror on his face like I’d never seen before once in my whole life. Tally grabbed my hand and I held hers tight, grateful for her yet again, grateful to feel the little hairs sprouting up on her palm as the spider in her began to show itself.
The lights flickered again, and this time it wasn’t of Marina’s doing, no sir. This time it was something else.
The doors flung open, and there he stood, Bobby Felix, Boss Authority himself. Cecily Bob and Mr. Hugo to his left, Drusilla Fey on his right. They had come finally to Marina’s Place, just waltzed right in through that magic like it was nothing. They had finally come for my pop.
The Rambling Page 15
