Return of the Trickster

by Eden Robinson

  “Maybe you should ask your mom for another scoop.”

  When Olive and Mave came out, Eliza taste-tested their cones and switched with Mave. Spots of fresh blood dotted Olive’s gauze.

  Mave nudged Olive. “I’m going to miss you two so much.”

  “I don’t know what we would have done with you,” Olive said.

  Mave and Olive hugged. Eliza licked the melting, pink ice cream off her hands. The watery autumn sun headed towards the horizon, blazing the low clouds orange. Traffic streamed like a river.

  * * *

  —

  Huey lay on top of Jared’s dresser, faded. He was more of an impression of Huey, lips vibrating with his sleeping breath. Did Huey need to breathe? How could he breathe without lungs?

  “I dunno,” Maggie said, giving the sleeping Huey a poke. “A helpful flying head? That’s not the magic I know.”

  “Huey kept the sorcerer away,” Jared said. “He’d bounce on it. He helped Eliza, too.”

  “Has the flying head ever told you what he wants?”

  “No. He doesn’t talk and he never shares mind to mind. I’ve tried to feed him, but he doesn’t eat.”

  “Did you ever feel tired around him? For no reason?”

  Jared frowned. “Yeah, but I worked late and I had school. And I was always watching out for David.”

  “There’s a reason he’s sleeping close to you, Jared. Things want to juice up on you.”

  “Huey has never given me that vibe.”

  “Well,” his mom said, “there’s the proof. Your feelings.”

  Eliza came in to say good night. She and Olive were sleeping in Mave’s bed and Mave was couchsurfing. She gave Jared a hug and then hugged Maggie too, who seemed to be waiting the hug out but still patted the girl on the back.

  “Night,” Eliza said.

  “Night,” Jared said.

  After she left, his mom said quietly, “You realize she’s been sneaking back some of the warding you gave her.”

  “Has she?”

  “All the hand holding and hugs? Yup. Even a five-year-old has more sense than you.”

  Jared sighed.

  “Eliza is the King Kong of juice. If you were a different person, I’d say you were sucking up to the powerful.”

  “Yeah,” Jared said. “Don’t worry. Give me time. I’ll piss her off.”

  “That’s my boy.”

  Sarah came in carrying cedar branches, which she hung in the corners of his room, with an extra branch over the spot where the toe-sucking sorcerer usually crawled out.

  “It’s better in here tonight,” Sarah said. “The creep factor is way down.”

  Maggie said, “Toe-sucker knows he’s been made. He’ll lay low for a bit.” She glanced at her son then focused on the wall. “They’ve brought Phil and Shirley back from autopsy. Sophia’s having them cremated. Shirley’s ashes are going home. Sophia’s taking Phil to Alert Bay.”

  He nodded. “Oh.”

  “She’s cleared out the coy wolves as fast as we can find them.”

  Sarah didn’t look surprised. His mom must have given her the heads-up. Planned the way they were going to tell him. Tensed and ready for him to take off again.

  “You okay?” Sarah said.

  “No, but I’m not running, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

  They exchanged a look. Jared went to his desk and picked up the Big Book, holding it out for his mom.

  “Okay, I’m blowing this Popsicle stand,” his mom said.

  “Mom,” Jared said. “There’s something in here. It’s important.”

  “I have no interest in your cult,” she said, “and you are testing the limits of my patience.”

  “I…I…it’s not…” He wanted to open it, but he couldn’t. Wanted to show her…something. His mom watched him with one hand on her holster, her finger tapping away, then turned to leave.

  “Night, Maggie,” Sarah said.

  “Night, Twitch. Don’t do anything stupid, Sonny Boy.”

  “Don’t get killed,” he said.

  “Big, angry balls, Jared.”

  When his mom was gone, Sarah said, “You really know how to push her buttons.”

  * * *

  —

  What was he missing? What wasn’t he seeing?

  Georgina wasn’t riding his mind. The sorcerer was hiding in the wall. On this rare quiet night, he wanted to relax, unwind with a cold one. Sit on the balcony and drink till he couldn’t feel his face.

  The first arm came through the ceiling, dots of glowing yellow-green. Bob the Octopus lowered himself slowly.

  Jared felt for Sarah, but her mind was dreaming. Bob hovered above Jared’s bed, the suckers suddenly dark in the darkened room. He didn’t feel alarmed, but, as his mom said, feelings weren’t proof.

  A single sucker lit up and then went black, blinking. Then another and another, on and off in sequence, leading towards Bob’s sharp black beak like runway lights on a landing strip.

  Bob’s mind was full of things Jared couldn’t grasp: tasting light, breathing water, sinking to the dark depths of an ocean teeming with things far stranger than Bob.

  Bob began to spin clockwise, tentacles stiff like the spokes of a bicycle. His beak chattered like castanets and then he made a sound like a fart in a full bathtub, a bloop.

  If you’re going to eat me, just do it. I’m getting dizzy, Jared thought at him. And nauseous.

  All the suckers went dark. Then a single light stuttered, some alien octopus version of Morse code, a signal Jared couldn’t read, yet Bob repeated it over and over as the night spun towards morning. Intense loneliness washed over Jared. Not his, but Bob’s. Apparently that was universal. At first light, Bob’s arms became wiggly again and he shot upwards through the ceiling.

  21

  DOUBLE TROUBLE

  Olive’s sister and brother-in-law showed up in the morning and moved Olive and Eliza’s travelling suitcases into their Toyota Sienna minivan. Mave went to help and Jared felt guilty about sitting around, so he went to see if he could do anything. When he was rolling a suitcase out of the elevator, Mave came in and took it from him.

  “Why don’t you go keep Eliza company,” she said.

  As he walked up the stairs, he could feel Sarah’s headache as she woke. He didn’t want to feel it anymore and it stopped. Which was new. Maybe he was getting hold of his own brain.

  In Hank’s apartment, Eliza drank hot cocoa with marshmallows for breakfast, ignoring her oatmeal. He sat beside her until her mom came to collect her. She held his hand as they went downstairs. The rain had settled into a steady drizzle, the clouds low and grey. Olive gave Jared a hug goodbye. Eliza tried to hand him her stuffed Olaf, but he put it back in her hands.

  “Stay safe,” Jared said.

  “Love you,” Eliza said, hugging him.

  “Love you back,” he said.

  Olive did up Eliza’s seat belt. Eliza waved and waved and the minivan honked before they pulled into the street and drove away. Dead Aiden flickered into view but didn’t follow them. He turned to glare at Jared, then Dead Aiden was in front of him, a furious whirl. He shoved Jared and he stumbled.

  “You turned them against me,” Dead Aiden said.

  “Are you okay?” Mave said.

  “Tripped,” Jared said.

  Dead Aiden’s head whipped back and forth so hard he blurred. Jared knew he was trying to be intimidating, but behind him, Bob sank down from the sky, twitching. Dead Aiden blinked away.

  Thanks, Bob, Jared thought.

  * * *

  —

  Dead Aiden followed Jared to a meeting. Kota felt something and kept looking behind him, but he couldn’t see the ghost. They had coffee at their usual place after, but Kota was not in a sharing mood and they simply drank up and went
straight back to the apartment.

  “Later,” Kota said.

  He wasn’t driving his not-boyfriend’s truck and headed for Commercial Drive and the bus. Kota hated taking public transportation, so even if he wasn’t talking, he’d made the effort to be there for Jared, and that meant a lot.

  Halfway up the stairs, Dead Aiden emerged from the wall. Cold hands shoved him and Jared tumbled backwards, ass over teakettle. He lay at the bottom, panting, his back spasming in protest, an overwhelming shriek of muscles bent in ways they weren’t meant to bend. Dead Aiden waited at the top of the stairs.

  “Bob?” Jared said.

  Dead Aiden vanished.

  Jared unbent himself and stood. His back cracked as he straightened, pain radiating like knives jabbing him. He wondered if he would have survived the fall if he wasn’t a Trickster. There might be some perks to it after all. He decided to take the elevator.

  He found Sarah curled into the recliner. He’d never seen her with sunglasses before. They were Mave’s large Jackie O ones.

  “Dead Aiden’s mad he got left behind,” Jared said.

  “Ha,” Sarah said. “Serves him right. Neeka’s coming over to banish him. She didn’t want to do it in front of Eliza.”

  “She better be careful. He’s pushing people.”

  “I’ve never had a migraine before. Everything’s so loud. And bright.”

  “Where’s Mave?”

  “She’s taking a bath. She says pee off the balcony if you need to, but don’t disturb her.”

  Jared snorted. He wanted to know what Sarah was thinking, but he didn’t, and he made himself listen to his own heartbeat to ground himself.

  “Have you seen the fireflies around?” Sarah said.

  “No,” he said. “I’ll tell you the second I see them again.”

  “ ’Kay,” she said, radiating disappointment.

  Jared was through with the day already. He went to lie down and saw the Big Book on his desk. He opened the cover and found himself sitting at the desk. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there. Georgina. Damn it. He couldn’t seem to tell his mom, so he took his cellphone from his back pocket, thinking he would take a picture of the letter from Georgina to show her.

  * * *

  —

  “Jared,” Mave said, shaking his shoulder. “You have a perfectly good bed right beside you.”

  She had a white towel wrapped around her head and was in her Canucks bathrobe. She smiled at him. Jared had fallen forward onto his desk, his phone under his cheek, cracked.

  “Damn it,” he said, trying to turn it on.

  “It’s under warranty, or it should be,” Mave said. “Do you have the receipt?”

  “Mom does,” Jared said.

  “I’ll text her,” Mave said. “Just rest, Jelly Bean. Okay? I’ll make us some sandwiches.”

  “I’m missing something,” Jared said. He rested his hand on the Big Book. He began flipping through the pages and then forgot why he was doing it.

  Mave closed the book and led him to the bed. She lifted the blanket for him. Dead Aiden pressed his face against the window, sizzling like something touching an electric fence.

  * * *

  —

  He woke to laughter. When he followed it to the living room, he found Neeka on the couch flanked by her two nieces, the twins with identical eyes in matching faces, the ones he’d first met when they were blasted. Lala wore camouflage shorts and a Raptors jersey cut into a crop top, the bottom of her black sports bra showing. Her rainbow-haired sister wore a flouncy pink dress and a black jean jacket with sparkling letters that spelled out Eat the Oppressors. Mave sat kitty-corner to them in the recliner, her face covered in green mud, her hair thickly plastered to her skull and covered in a see-through shower cap. Sarah’s wooden dividers were closed and non-blinking. He felt for her, but she was deeply, deeply asleep.

  “There he is,” Mave said. “Good morning, sunshine!”

  “Hey,” Jared said.

  “Mave has been getting to know Lala and Lola,” Neeka said. “And they’d like to get to know our baby Trickster.”

  Jared glanced at Mave, who laughed.

  “Isn’t he, though?” Mave said.

  Lala and Lola studied him with undisguised curiosity. He didn’t sense them prying into his mind.

  “I’m sick of my nickname,” Lola said. “Call me Lourdes.”

  “Mom named me after one of her best friends,” Mave said. “I hated my name for so many years, but now I love it.”

  “Lourdes and Lala,” Lala said. She shrugged. “Meh.”

  “Lola and Lala sound like Muppets that teach you about co-operation,” Lourdes said.

  “Lola’s sexy. Lourdes is your aunt with a hairy chin.”

  “It’s my name.”

  As they argued, Neeka said, “Your mom sent me to deal with your phone.”

  “Really?” Jared said.

  “Do you want to come and pick out a new one?” Neeka said.

  “I’m kind of brainless today. The same model is fine.”

  “Okay, so help us clean Olive’s apartment.”

  “Sure.”

  Neeka smiled at Mave. “Catch up on your writing. Ignore the world.”

  “I appreciate this so much.” Mave went to the kitchen table and grabbed a set of apartment keys she handed to Neeka.

  He stuck his feet in his sneakers then followed Neeka down the hallway to Olive’s old place. The twins walked behind them, quiet for once, Lourdes/Lola’s dress rustling. Neeka opened the door. Jared listened for Bob or Dead Aiden but didn’t hear them.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be any good helping you banish Dead Aiden,” Jared said.

  Neeka said, “We’ve bound him to the apartment building. He won’t last much longer the way he’s burning through his energy.”

  “Okay,” Jared said. “Then you really do want me to clean?”

  “Your mother asked me to put more security on you,” Neeka said. “Meet your bodyguards.”

  “Oh, come on,” Jared said.

  “I don’t get anything off him,” Lala said. “Are you sure he’s a Trickster?”

  Lourdes/Lola moved in close and sniffed. “Underneath the regular stuff, he smells like a summer day just before a thunderstorm.”

  “Like lightning,” Neeka agreed. To Jared, she said, “They’re going to taste your blood now.”

  “Ew.”

  “We’re not thrilled about it either,” Lala said.

  Neeka rummaged through her purse and brought out some alcohol wipes, a box of bandages and a pocket knife, which she flipped open and wiped clean.

  “Hand,” Neeka said, and Jared stuck out his arm.

  She swabbed and then pricked his pinky finger, scraping off a tiny drop for Lala and then another one for Lourdes. They swished it in their mouths as though they were tasting wine. Neeka swabbed the pinprick again and put a Band-Aid over it. She brought out two tiny zip-lock bags and clipped a little of his hair into them, giving one to each of the girls. Then she brought out nail clippers and trimmed his nails into another zip-lock bag. She finished one hand and then gestured for him to give her his other.

  “We don’t need that many parings,” Lourdes said.

  “I know,” Neeka said. “But I need to even him up. It’s bugging me.”

  “She has control issues,” Lala said.

  “Kinda noticed,” Jared said. “Are we done?”

  “Lala, you take the bathroom. Lourdes, you are on kitchen duty. Jared, you’re coming with me to get the Rug Doctor.”

  “Come on!” Lala said. “I thought cleaning was just a cover! I’m not a fucking maid!”

  “That’s not what I signed up for!” Lourdes said.

  Neeka went still. She quirked an eyebrow.

  “Fi
ne,” Lala said. “Waste years of martial arts training and weaponry expertise on scrubbing the fucking toilet.”

  “I need to go home to change,” Lourdes said.

  “I told you the plan and I told you to dress appropriately,” Neeka said. “You do your job. Now.”

  Lourdes bit her lips until they disappeared.

  “I’ll check your work when I get back, so don’t bother slacking off. You will do it as many times as it takes to get it right. Jared, let’s go. We’re wasting daylight.”

  * * *

  —

  Neeka attracted attention even with her hair in a messy ponytail and wearing her cleaning grubbies, as she called them—tattered sweatpants and an off-the-shoulder T-shirt. A gangly, pale clerk at Safeway ran to them when he saw Neeka studying the rug-cleaning machines. He upgraded her to the large one and threw in more carpet shampoo at no extra cost.

  “Thank you, Greg,” Neeka said. “You’ve been most helpful.”

  “Any time,” Greg said. “I wrote my home phone number on the back of the receipt in case, you know, you need help with the deep cleaning.”

  “I appreciate that,” Neeka said, and Greg lugged the cleaner to the minivan for them then lifted it into the back.

  Neeka smiled and Greg wiggled like a happy dog. As soon as they drove away, her smile dropped.

  Jared watched the passing scenery as they drove to the cellphone store.

  “I like you,” Neeka said. “I don’t like many people.”

  “Okay,” Jared said. “I’m sensing a ‘but.’ ”

  “The world is becoming unstable. We feel it the way humans feel the wind. I’m doing my best to prepare my family. I think you could help us survive.”

  “I don’t know how much use I’d be.”

  “You aren’t strong, that’s true. You aren’t the smartest person in the room. But you were willing to bleed yourself of everything to keep Eliza safe, and she’s not even your kid. That’s rare.”

  Jared had thought she had got him alone in order to lay down the law. He turned to her, confused.

  “I’d like to keep you alive,” Neeka said. “But you need to tell me when people like David target you.”