by DM Fike
“No.”
He clicked a box with his mouse. “No new illnesses?”
“No.”
He continued through the usual questions. How about hospitalizations? New medications? Physical aches? She answered no to everything until he asked, “Any changes that would cause you stress?”
Avalon’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. James sensed her hesitation and moved away from the monitor to face her. “Is something wrong, Avalon? Do you have a new boyfriend? Failing grades? Drinking?”
“Grades,” she admitted. “Failing grades.”
“You’re on academic probation? It happens to a lot of students. If you work hard next semester, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Avalon couldn’t quite meet his gaze. “I dropped out of school.”
Even though she expected a negative reaction, it still stung when James frowned. “Why?”
How could he ask that question? “C’mon, James, you know why. Your office got an upgrade, for starters.”
The frown twisted into pain. “You know I’m sorry about the fire. I wish it hadn’t happened.”
“I know, I know,” Avalon wrung her hands. She didn’t blame James for the accident. “I’m not trying to guilt you or anything, but Dad’s dead now. I’m reminded of him when I’m on campus. And Mom…” She took a deep breath. “College was Mom’s dream. She wanted me to help people. I enrolled in all those biology and chemistry classes to be like Dad. Change the world.”
“Those are pretty heavy expectations for a young adult.”
“It’s not even about their expectations.” She blinked back tears. Now wasn’t a time to cry. “It’s about me. I’m trying to please them, but they’re not here. They’re not anywhere. They’re ghosts, and my heart isn’t in it. I’m stuck. I don’t know what I’m doing.” She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I wish my life had some real purpose.”
James placed his hand over hers. “You have purpose just by being who you are.”
A beep interrupted the classical music, and the receptionist’s voice floated over the intercom. “A representative from Lonmore is here to see you, sir.”
James immediately reclaimed his hand. “Tell him I’ll be ten minutes.”
“Yes, sir.” The classical music poured back in.
“Sorry about that.” James said to her.
Avalon noticed how tense his shoulders had become. “Who are they?”
James waved his hand dismissively. “Investors.”
But that was an understatement. She knew from her father, living from grant to grant, how much funding meant to a company like Saluzyme. Without money, Miasmis treatments would not advance. And without treatment, more people like her might die.
Avalon felt a cloud of guilt, complaining about herself when James had bigger worries to address than her life problems. She sat up straighter. “We should get on with the check-up.”
“Are you sure you won’t talk about your troubles?”
“Yes,” she insisted.
James raised an eyebrow, but he typed more chart notes onto his computer. Avalon recognized the routine. She crossed the room to sit in the chair underneath the AEG. She refused to look at it, focusing instead on a picture of a dense jungle with stone ruins blooming with flowers of every hue. James had once told her he couldn’t have plants in the examination room by law, so instead he’d had this picture framed, a photo dear to his heart. She had stared at this picture so many times, she could recall every detail from memory. Its familiarity made her relax a little.
James donned latex gloves and executed a quick exam of her bare legs and arms first, searching for telltale bruising. When she came back clean, he pulled the bowl-shaped helmet down, strapping it under her chin.
“Here we go.”
Avalon closed her eyes as he placed cold discs around her temples. She forced herself to breath rhythmically as the AEG whirred to life. A familiar buzzing sensation hummed deep in her brain. She reminded herself over and over that her father had improved this machine over the years, knowing she would be scanned with it for the rest of her life.
James counted slowly back from one hundred. “Ninety-nine. Ninety-eight…”
Then she blacked out.
James always insisted that she never lost consciousness, that she continued to have a normal heart rate. He wasn’t concerned that she never remembered anything. One minute she heard James counting down, and the next, he assisted her to her feet. She always woke with a lingering headache, as if she had been roused from a deep sleep. She sank onto the bench next to James as he typed last-minute notes.
“I’ll have the results examined today,” James said. “We can discuss any findings tomorrow at dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“You didn’t think I was going to let you off the hook that easily, did you? Your father would never forgive me.”
Avalon was too tired to argue and besides, a meal was a meal. She agreed to meet him at Stelio’s, a Greek restaurant near campus. When the receptionist’s voice came back over the intercom about the investors, she knew she couldn’t stay. She left James with a quick hug and a promise to see him tomorrow.
Back outside the Saluzyme office, the lingering effects of the AEG made Avalon’s head spin. She leaned against Babe’s hood, shivering despite the increasing morning heat. It wouldn’t be long before the temperature hit baking heat as the sun rose over the desert.
“Sadus! Look at you!” a raspy voice suddenly screeched in her ear.
Avalon shrieked, flipping around to find a rag-clothed beggar carrying a glass bowl. Grime covered him from head to foot, making it difficult to distinguish facial features, though his moss green eyes seemed alert like a bird’s. He gaped at her in shock, barely an arm’s length away.
Avalon’s heart raced. She backed away slowly alongside her car toward the driver’s side.
The beggar lifted the glass bowl, his face becoming distorted behind the water splashing around inside. A small turtle bobbed in front of his crooked teeth.
“You seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked the turtle. He took a step closer toward Avalon.
Avalon thrust her hands in her jeans’ pocket, desperately hunting for her keys.
The beggar noticed her fear and laughed. “I’m not gonna hurt you. You just remind me… I mean, remind us”—he nodded toward the turtle—“of someone.”
She managed to locate her key and unlock the door. “Sorry,” she squeaked. “I need to go.”
Avalon ducked into Babe, revving the engine as the beggar pressed his face against the passenger window. The beggar screamed something as she jerked the steering wheel and stepped on the gas. She sped off down the road, increasing the space between them. She glanced in the rearview mirror, but he only gawked as she rounded the corner.
CHAPTER 3
“AND HE KEPT staring at me,” Avalon said, “even as I drove away.”
Avalon’s legs dangled over the side of the Hall of Mirrors platform. Crickets sang to each other under the nearly full moon. A night owl hooted as it landed on a scraggly tree beside the snow cone shack. Automatic sprinklers hissed as they sprayed patches of grass. It should have been spooky, but Avalon felt peaceful, recounting her day to the fairy knight statue.
Not that there was much to tell. She drew her knees to her chin as she thought of her boring day doing laundry and laying low at the public library.
“At least I work tomorrow,” she said. “That’ll kill some time. But I can’t keep this up for much longer.”
The knight scanned the park, still vigilant but appearing to listen to her words.
Avalon resisted the pit of despair that tugged at her. “I’m sorry you met me like this. I wasn’t always such a wreck. I once had a lot of friends, great parents, a bright future.” She rubbed her right shoulder “But then Miasmis destroyed everything.”
Once the words left her mouth, they would not stop. She told the fairy how the disease had killed her mother and her father died
in a fire accident in his lab, leaving her an adult orphan. She had used the last of her family’s savings to go to college, but instead of studying, she drowned herself in music and books. She just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to care about school.
Despite his battle stance, the fairy seemed to sympathize, his expression conveying he understood the sting of loneliness that overwhelmed her. Behind the warrior veneer, she glimpsed something else. A protector, perhaps.
A friend.
A cool night breeze blew across Avalon’s bare arms. She shivered, rubbing to keep them warm. She had left all her belongings in the storage closet. Desert nights cooled quickly. She considered retrieving her jacket but didn’t want to interrupt this conversation.
“Here I am, going on and on,” she said to the statue, “but I don’t know anything about you. What’s your name?”
Since he could not answer, Avalon filled in the blanks. She examined him more carefully, noting faded markings on the edge of his tunic, barely visible within the intricate folds. His belt buckle had a clear “K” in cursive etched into the metal.
“Kay,” she said. “Well, at least I can give you a name.” She peered into Kay’s gray eyes. “Whatever you are fighting for, Kay, I wish I could help. I would go with you, even if it were a thousand miles away from here.” She paused. “Especially if it were a thousand miles away from here.”
Avalon leaned against his side, her head on his hard shoulder. His surface held a warm glow, perhaps from previous summer heat, and that warm feeling enveloped her body. Her goosebumps disappeared.
Avalon didn’t know how long she sat there, huddled next to him, viewing the quiet park. It wasn’t until her eyes drooped and she nearly slid off the platform that she realized she would drift off right there.
“Guess I should go to bed.” She staggered to her feet. “Good night, Kay.”
The fairy did not seem to mind, keeping watch over the park as she fell asleep in the storage closet.
* * *
“Scan it! Scan it now!” a tween demanded, shoving a bracelet into Avalon’s face.
Avalon slapped on her working smile as she checked the kid’s park bracelet. The child hopped into the maze, his parents already reaching for their phones before he left their sight.
Attending the Hall of Mirrors was an exercise in boredom. Explain the rules to kids, tell the parents to watch after them, and then babysit as the parents ignored kids breaking the rules anyway. She cringed as the tween wiped his fingers all over the distortion mirrors. She could wash the oily fingerprints during one of the many lulls over the course of the day.
It took the tween no time to rocket down the tube slide at the exit. His reluctant parents rejoined him as he screamed, “I wanna go on the roller coaster! Now!”
Avalon watched the trio fade into the crowd with a smirk. “When I first started, I wanted to work the Serpent.” She had moved Kay next to the podium at the beginning of her shift. “But with you for company, I’m happy here.”
Kay studied a blue and yellow car of young people as they plunged down the first drop of the coaster. Avalon noticed a smudge on his cheek. “Well, that won’t do.” She grabbed a rag from the closet, ran water over it in the sink, and scrubbed the offensive mark until his cheek shone under the midday sun.
She nodded, satisfied. “I can’t get the gunk off the princess’s teeth. They’re so black, it’s disgusting. You should be grateful.”
Avalon chuckled to herself when she realized she expected a reply. She should feel stupid for talking to an inanimate object. “Honestly, Kay, you’re my only friend right now.”
The wind suddenly kicked up, whipping through the spaces between the booths. Fluffy cumulus clouds raced each other like little go-carts across the pristine blue sky, moving faster than she’d ever seen. A sandwich board advertising Fantasma’s membership benefits wobbled in its wake. Avalon sprinted across the entrance of the Hall of Mirrors to grab it before it crashed to the ground.
“That’s odd,” Avalon said. “It didn’t look like rain this morning. Maybe another storm’s passing through.”
As if on cue, the sun darkened behind her, ominous clouds approaching from the mountains. “I hope I don’t have to drive through a downpour tonight.”
Kay’s glower seemed to intensify at this news.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m meeting James. He’s a family friend, kind of like a distant relative. We’re just having dinner since he doesn’t have time for much more.” Avalon felt a pang of guilt at that half-truth. “Well, I guess that’s not fair. If James knew all the trouble I’ve been going through, he’d probably help me. But he’s busy, you know? He’s got more important things to worry about than me.”
Kay appeared unconvinced.
“I’ll get paid in a couple of days. I’m sure things will work out. Trust me, Kay.”
Her manager’s voice interrupted the one-sided conversation. “Oooh, the fairy has a name now, does he?”
Avalon’s face grew beet red as Logan swaggered to the Hall of Mirrors podium. He had rosy cheeks, a jet-black crew cut, and a short build. Despite his love of video games and beer, he did not exactly fit in with the mostly college-aged employees of Fantasma. Logan proudly displayed a 10-year badge next to his nametag, having worked up from a summer temp job to a management position.
“H-Hi, Logan,” she stammered.
“I admit that I’ve talked to many action figures in my day.” Logan crouched down in front of Kay. “But the detailing on this guy. Man. It’s nice, much nicer than what the old owners would have bought.”
Avalon nodded. “What’s up, Logan?”
“Kaitlyn’s sick. I’m here to take over your shift. It’s my favorite job,” he confided sarcastically. “Manning the dork booths.”
“Hey now,” Avalon protested. “I have to do this every day.”
He laughed. “Okay, you got me. I’m a dork too.”
Before Avalon could respond, a crackled voice emitted from the vicinity of Logan’s waistband. “Logan, got a sec?”
“Duty calls,” he sighed, unclipping a short-distance radio from his belt and bringing it to his lips. “Go ahead.”
Avalon daydreamed of the delicious meal she would order tonight as she logged out of the scanner. Real food. She salivated. Then she would come back here and spend the night with Kay. She turned to leave when Logan’s raised voice caught her attention.
“They want the new cameras installed when?” he asked, flustered.
Avalon stiffened. What new cameras?
“Yesterday,” the voice on the line replied. “They’re outraged we don’t already have some in place. Called us a two-bit outfit.”
“Which is more important?” Logan asked. “These security cameras or replacing the light fixtures on the north stage?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Just get it all done, yeah?”
“Yeah, ok.” The line clicked off.
Logan grumbled under his breath as he signed into the scanner. “Priorities would be nice.”
Avalon should have left, but she couldn’t help but ask, “So I guess you’ll install the new cameras tonight?”
“What, you on my case too?” He slapped one hand jokingly on the podium. “Am I messing with your image? You got a hot date with the fairy here tonight?”
“Very funny, Logan,” she muttered, marching down the steps. She hoped he had missed the tremor in her voice as she fled toward the parking lot.
CHAPTER 4
STORM CLOUDS SWIRLED overhead as Avalon steered Babe toward the university district. The wind knocked Babe around as she approached Stelio’s. Avalon kept a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, more out of a sense of impending dread than due to the weather. She couldn’t stay overnight at Fantasma forever, but she had counted on it as a temporary solution until she could afford an apartment deposit in a few weeks.
“What am I going to do now?” she whispered.
She made a final turn, the fanc
y wooden building housing the Greek restaurant coming into view. James had parked his shiny red Corvette in front of the restaurant.
James.
James would help. He would probably agree to a loan and co-signing a lease on an apartment. A queasy sensation formed in her stomach as she thought of asking for help, especially after everything he had already done for her family, but she had no other options.
The spots were taken near the front of the restaurant, so she circled the block. She found an empty metered space a few streets down and nudged Babe into it. She exited the car and stepped onto the sidewalk.
And came face-to-face with the beggar and the turtle.
They all froze, staring at each other in shock. The beggar relaxed first. “Well, if it isn’t Miss I-Need-to-Go.”
Avalon rearranged her car keys between her fingers like little daggers. “Please stay back.” She maneuvered away from him.
The beggar flashed her a grin full of crooked teeth. “I think we got off on the wrong hand. Maybe I can extend a better one?” He took a step toward her, fingers outstretched.
Avalon jerked backward, avoiding him as if he held a knife. “Don’t come closer!”
At that very moment, an ear shattering clap of thunder shook the sky right above their heads.
Both the beggar and Avalon instinctively ducked. They peered upward, but neither saw any lightning flashes.
The beggar doubled over in laughter. “You’re a real firecracker. Look”—he pointed to the turtle splashing around happily in the fishbowl—“he likes you too.”
Avalon turned on her heels and speed walked toward Stelio’s, glancing behind her. Thankfully, the beggar continued to giggle without following her.
Once inside the restaurant, she relaxed her tense muscles. She gave the host James’s name, and he led her through the throng of full tables. The aroma of onions, garlic, and roasting lamb filled her nose.
James noticed the car keys still between her fingers as she sat down. “Everything all right?”
“Oh this?” Avalon breathed, placing her keys on the table. “Just a habit.” She didn’t want to explain the beggar, especially since the creep hadn’t done anything but spook her.
