Other Places 1: Shortcuts

by P. S. Power

  She spoke calmly as she worked, not stinting on making a deep hole in the soft loamy soil. Zack didn't have to help, which was good, because he really wasn't certain he would have been able to get out of the pit she dug by the time she was finished, nearly an hour and a half later. For her part there was what looked like a gentle hop and she came out of it, rising a good ten feet higher than the ground, smiling a bit.

  "Whee. That's the most fun part of being a Vampire. It's almost like flying when you get to cut loose like that. We normally don't get to, since we live so close to town. Kind of a giveaway, people leaping around like that. Most people can't process it, but enough can get a hint of it not being normal, and it can be a pain if they do. For them, mostly. You'd be surprised how devastating the claim that you have Vampires living next door can be to your reputation." She smiled as Zack helped her get Mitch into the hole, just dumping him, then grabbing the shovel he started to fill it in.

  That lasted about five minutes, but she didn't make fun of him for trying to help, even though the instant she took over it was clear that all he was doing was wasting their time. It took a lot less to fill the hole than dig it. After she patted the soil down a bit Zack shrugged.

  "I don't know what to say, or if Mitch was the kind that would have cared about things like that. I guess... I don't know, I hope that if you go anyplace when you die, that it's someplace happier than here. If it's nothing at all, well, then rest in peace." He bowed his head, since people did that in movies and that was where a lot of his social cues came from. Barb didn't but she nodded after a few seconds and picked up the shovel, resting it on her shoulder.

  "No shit. Too bad he couldn't have survived, he was kind of cute." With that ringing endorsement as to his worth, they left, Barb doing the little hopping thing much more easily this time. "I could get used to this. Much more fun when you aren't struggling to pick me up. Talk about a way to make a girl feel fat."

  He winced a little, but enough she saw it, her own face going still.

  "You aren't, not at all. I just went through months of not really eating and it kind of made me pretty weak. Not that I was ever a muscle man. This is easier for me too. Maybe I should hire you as a porter? You know, you can carry the heavy bags and people for me." It was actually a good idea, even though he couldn't afford to pay her anything yet.

  She grinned anyway.

  "Alright. You have to clear it with Lenore though and explain that it isn't just code for sleeping with me. Not that we can't do that too, but she won't let me out of work just to have fun. Not often."

  If there hadn't just been a murder in his house he would have asked her to stay over when he went to bed about an hour later, after taking a quick shower himself. He got into the new pair of sweats he'd gotten, subdued black things that were just a bit too big for him, counting on the fact that with extra food he was going to be larger soon. With all the physical labor he was doing lately he might even put it on as muscle.

  In the morning no one was there and his sofa had been scrubbed of all blood. It left an odd clean patch on it, which was kind of obvious. They'd have to do the rest of it soon or it would look funny. No doubt if a forensics team came in they'd be able to tell it had a blood stain on it under black light or whatever they did. It was a two part process, he thought, first you sprayed it with a chemical, then used the black light, so it was different than what most shows portrayed now. When they'd stop showing the first part he didn't really know, but it used to be there, he was sure.

  Lisa wasn't in when he got to work, and he hadn't eaten anything, so he tried to wave to Lenore, who was so busy on the phone she didn't see him at all. That or she was ignoring him. Was she mad at him? He couldn't really think of a reason she should be, so didn't worry about it. If that was the case, she'd no doubt let him know. Possibly by slapping him into a wall, but he'd pick up on the subtle clue of her displeasure one way or the other.

  Instead he started sweeping and rearranging the whole store, front facing all the labels and making it look tidy for the day. Only a few costumers came in, but the Christmas music was a lot cheerier and everyone seemed to be happy enough when they talked to him. He gave everyone a discount too, since it wasn't a real store anyway. It was hard to remember that, but it was a real point, as was clearly demonstrated a little after noon when about twenty strangely dressed people came in, asking where the meeting was supposed to be in extremely broken English.

  No one had mentioned that part of things to him at all, and some of the people had obviously traveled from a long way away for it, so this wasn't some kind of small thing either. In a panic Zack tried to call Lisa, but she didn't pick up, the call going to voice mail instead.

  "Hi, um, we have a bunch of people here for a meeting? No one mentioned anything, so I have no clue what's going on? Help? I... don't know what to do." Which was just the truth. People were busily milling around, and occasionally looking at him as if he should have their full itinerary and was too stupid to realize it.

  So he called Bob. He didn't want to bother the man at home, knowing that he still had his wife to deal with, but the man answered on the second ring and was just as baffled as he was about the whole thing.

  "I'll... let me make some calls. In the mean time... I don't know, can you arrange for some refreshments?" It was a little short notice, but Zack nodded, realizing the man couldn't hear his head rattle.

  "I'll come up with something."

  "Good. One bit here..." At least Bob sounded troubled too. It was strange and while all the people seemed nice, they also seemed to be foreign. All of them. A few had kids with them too.

  And kids liked frosty junk food treats, didn't they? He walked them over to Yoghurt World and handed Lenore two fifty dollar bills out of the store budget envelope. She smiled and started speaking to people in their own languages figuring out what the problem was in much shorter order than he did.

  "Zack... These people are supposed to be in Vancouver Canada, not Vancouver Washington. I can see how the error happened, but it's a bit of a problem, isn't it?"

  It was too. A huge one.

  Bob, being good at his job, had already worked out where they needed to go, which was the Candles and More six hundred miles to the north. There was a full contingent there waiting to get them safely to the hotel where the meeting was. They had busses waiting and everything.

  "I... we're going to have to find someplace for them. Perhaps we can arrange a chartered flight?" The older man didn't sound happy about it, but it really wasn't a problem. Not a huge one. Some of the people were a little big for him to carry himself, but as soon as his new porter woke up for the night he could get them all to the correct node easily enough. In the mean time he made some calls to the food court and asked for help. Begged really. Conrad spoke so seriously it sounded like he was ready to charge off into battle, instead of bringing in some tables and chairs for everyone.

  The same Middle Eastern man in his nice suit came in with chairs and tables, doing it before Zack had even hung the phone up, moving quickly and as if he had a personal stake in the matter. Again the man didn't speak, but he smiled when Zack ran back to help him get the things set up, working as fast as his body would go. The other man was quicker by far, moving easily. Then he left, having done the whole thing silently.

  The kids were happy enough with their treats for the time being, though at least one went back and got two of them, Lenore cutting the boy, who looked about twelve, off, scolding him a little in French. The food that came was a combination of things, hamburgers and fries, Italian dishes and garlic bread, as well as Chinese food. They managed a buffet style set up loading a table with silver serving containers in special steam units to keep it all warm. That and real plates and silverware as well as red linen napkins. For short order, it was a near miracle. The back room was turned from an empty space into a nice looking dining room inside an hour. The drinks had to be served from pitchers, and most of what was provided was water and juice, but no one c
omplained overly, especially once Lenore explained that they'd accidentally gone to the wrong place.

  Finally, when he asked if Barb could be gotten up any earlier than normal, she looked at him curiously, until he explained the whole deal they'd made.

  "This way she can work on paying back that debt for Bey and offsetting any future things like that, so he won't worry. It seems to be getting to him more than it should. She also keeps hinting at having sex with me, but she wants me to point out that this isn't a deal for that, I think. Probably because she thinks you want me for yourself and doesn't want to openly challenge you on it." It made sense to him at any rate. Lenore made a face that wasn't very kind though.

  "Oh? Do you think I want you?"

  "I really don't know. Probably not. It's far more likely that I'm just a curiosity to you. Not that I wouldn't have sex with you anyway. You're hot. Plus, you've given me all that food, which sort of makes me like you." It was one of those times when he kind of wished he didn't just say everything that came to mind quite so honestly. She didn't growl at him at least, just smiling a little and turning away, looking at him from slightly over her shoulder.

  "Well, at least you have good taste. I'll see what can be done as far as Barbara goes. She'll need to feed first, or it will be a problem with all these Mages. They're basically food after all. We don't want to taunt her with them."

  The meal took a while, since he tried to draw it all out, and managed to find some coloring books for the kids, or more to the point, the Middle Eastern guy with the tables did. New boxes of crayons too. He didn't know the man's name, but Zack decided he liked him. A half asleep looking Barb stumbled in, being half carried by Edom, who smiled about it all as if it were funny or something.

  "Zack! I brought your girl in. She's eaten and will be ready to work in about fifteen minutes. About true sundown. Should I ask Lenore to help with this? I don't speak nearly as many languages myself, just three. When I was brought over it wasn't considered needful for a man of my color to know too much about the world." He didn't sound bitter about it, but there seemed to be a story there.

  "Please? That would be great. Thank you."

  Bob showed up just before he was about to start taking everyone through, his eyes a bit big when he realized that several Vampires were helping them. They went wider when he really got that Zack and Barb intended to take them all, one by one, through to B.C.

  It was a bit boring, but working together they managed it inside an hour and everyone seemed happy enough with it, since it meant they were almost back on schedule.

  True, it left him with a large mess to clean up in the back room, but that was just work. He had time for it. Plus, it wasn't like the shop was so busy he really had to stand in the front.

  The older Mage shook everyone's hands as they left, including the children, greeting each in their own language, if only to wish them a good trip. When it was over he took Barb's hand and bowed over it a little.

  "Thank you ma'am. We are in your debt."

  That got a bit of a cough from Lenore, who shook her head and winked at the man.

  "Not at all Bob. Barbara is working off a debt of ours with Zack. I have to say that was impressive though, both of you. Do you know how much that would have cost to do by more traditional methods? As a show of power it's... incredible really. Twenty-three people passed through the node in only an hour. I for one am most pleased. It shows a great joint effort, a closeness that shows true friendship between the Mages here and the Vampires."

  Barb seemed happy with that too, so Zack decided it was a good thing. He was just glad that they didn't have a back room full of people he couldn't understand anymore. It had been hard enough to deal with that he'd had to lock Mirror Him in place, so that he didn't start cursing at people at one point. It wasn't something he wanted to mention, because bringing up that he wasn't right in the head just didn't help make him look very good. He really liked most of these people and kind of wanted them to like him too.

  It was almost like having friends or something. Not exactly, after all, he knew what that was like, having Troy. But maybe, someday, some of these other people would be too. That got a funny look and crossed arms from Mirror Him, who didn't speak to him about it at all. No, he just huffed and became his regular reflection. It was what he did when Zack was thinking about things he didn't like, but knew were ultimately right.

  It was kind of a warm feeling, that lasted for about six minutes, until everyone else left. Bob started to help him clean up, but the rest took off as if they were afraid he was going to enlists them against their will.

  "Hey... have you heard from Lisa?" Zack said the words quietly, not knowing if people were listening. Really he had to figure they were all the time now, given everything. One way or the other.

  The slightly older looking man that carried a tiredness about him like it was a cloak he couldn't take off shook his head.

  "I tried to call her, but got her message box instead. We haven't been keeping in touch very well lately. Maybe I should swing by her apartment later? It's not like her at all to just not show up. She always has her phone on. It's part of the job." That got him to look a little guilty, a sadness taking him that he didn't bother explaining.

  Even Zack understood it, as broken as he was. The man's wife was dying. He was a Mage and probably a decently powerful one, who clearly worked in healing at least sometimes, given how young he looked. And he was left powerless to help her. For some reason. Pancreatic cancer. It sounded tough. Horrible really.

  "Well, um, I saw her yesterday and she seemed fine. I mean given everything. Drug addiction and her girlfriend breaking up with her over it. She might have killed herself, I guess. I hope not. I like her. Do you want me to go instead? In case..." He didn't know the man well, but the reaction wasn't a denial that she might do something like that, like he'd suspected, but a grim head shake that seemed a lot harder than Zack would have figured the man was capable of.

  "No. I'll go. It should be someone close to her. I hope she's alright too. This... mess of hers, a lot of it is because of me. I shouldn't have left her alone for so long or expected so much from her. I should have let someone else have my post and not tried to hang on like I have. They wouldn't have let her go so far afield. I promise, if she's alive, I'll make sure she gets some help. We have places for Mages that need it. Retreats we call them. This kind of thing is a danger of Magic. We know too much about how to manipulate the world, and it leaves us all feeling invincible far too often."

  That left the man torn, wanting to go and take care of that immediately, but not wanting to leave all the clean-up to Zack. It was nice of him, but after a few minutes of stewing on things Zack suggested he go do that, since it was a lot more important than cleaning up pasta from the floor. The room was a little crowded with all the tables, but not too dirty. He just had to clean up the plates, scraping them off and then finding a way to get them all washed, then return the tables and chairs. Plus, somewhere in there take care of the linens and find out who to pay for everything. Most of the kids had taken both the coloring books and the crayons for instance.

  Except for one, a picture of Santa Claus that had been well colored and torn out very carefully. It was signed too. Bridgette. Who that was Zack had no clue, but her work was going to be put up on Lisa's door. Finally, not knowing what to do with all the plates and silver, he broke down and called Conrad at the food court, who chuckled and told him that they'd handle it.

  "I'll send Merry down to collect them shortly. She has a question to ask you at any rate. She won't say what it is, so it's probably improper. If so, feel free to beat her for a while before you send her back. Don't want her to get uppity or anything." He chuckled. "She's my sister. Unmarried. You wouldn't be looking for someone, would you?" It was blunt, but friendly sounding.

  Zack tilted his head into the phone, thinking about it, but spoke as if he already knew the answer.

  "Not really. I mean, I love sex, but I'm not exactly a
good candidate for dating. Insane you know. I'm sure she could do better." He really needed to stop saying things like that. Conrad laughed again, sounding happy enough.

  "Ah, she'll do well, in time, she's young for one of us, only thirty. I worry about her, that's all. I fear she's a bit... I think the term your people use is 'homesick'?"

  Zack nodded, knowing how that could be, after a fashion. It reminded him that he needed to call his grandparents soon. After all, they were his family and it was the season for things like that.

  Chapter thirteen

  Merry, who turned out to be the cute, and very tiny, redheaded woman he'd seen a few times before, normally bringing him food. Her arrival didn't take long at all, coming with a cart for the plates. Between the two of them it took only a few minutes to get everything loaded on it. She even had a separate cloth sack for the linens, having thought ahead.

  "Sir. If it's fine, sir, I'll have someone in to cart away the tables and chairs, sir." These were the first words she said to him and sounded so earnest and soft he nearly cried for some reason. It was just that she was so painfully shy sounding that he didn't know how to respond at all.

  "Please, call me Zack. Conrad said you were called Merry?"

  "Yes, sir. Short for Meredith." The tiny woman looked down at the floor, her hands clasped nervously.

  He didn't go over the part where he was Zack again. If she was around him enough she'd get it eventually and if not it wouldn't matter. He did remember something else that Conrad had said, that she had something to ask him. It was hard to figure out what she might want from him. After a few seconds of trying to figure it out, the woman not moving much at all, he just asked, being too blunt, like he normally was.