“So what am I supposed to do? Let you kill her?”
“You could, but I know you wouldn’t do that. You’re a good mother—or father.” Glenda shook her head. “I know this will be difficult for you to accept, but you should ask Akako’s friend—the one Emma is adopting—to send you, Akako, and Renee somewhere safe, somewhere the girl can grow up as a normal child.”
“You want us to leave our home? To leave our whole universe?”
“If you love them, then yes. It doesn’t have to be forever. Just until Renee is old enough to take care of herself.”
“That would be almost twenty years.”
“We can get by without you for a while.”
Aggie looked away. It wasn’t the coven she was worried about. It was Emma and Rebecca she was concerned about. They had become as close to her as her own grandchildren had been. How could she abandon them?
Yet she couldn’t deny that what Glenda said made some amount of sense. Aggie thought of when Sylvia had banished Aggie and Akako to the universe where Tim Cooper had gone. She had been an ordinary girl there, where magic was a game to silly young girls. There or perhaps in another dimension—maybe even Akako’s home dimension—Renee could grow up without having to worry someone might try to kidnap or murder her for her abilities. She could be far more normal and happy there.
“I can’t make a decision like that now,” she mumbled. “I have to talk it over with Akako.”
“Of course you do.” Glenda patted Aggie’s shoulder. “Whatever you decide, I’ll support you. Just understand that if you stay here, I might not be able to protect you from the others.”
“I understand.” In spite of everything that had happened, she hugged Glenda. The older witch had been like a second mother or favorite aunt to her all these years. She had nurtured Aggie and forgiven her for marrying Alejandro.
Glenda finally broke away from her and stood up. “I’ll give you some time to think it over by yourself.”
Aggie nodded. She lay down on the bed she had shared so many times with Akako and stared at the wall to think about the future.
***
Aggie had thought Akako would put up more of an argument. She had secretly hoped for this so she might have a good reason not to go through with it. To her surprise, Akako had nodded and then said, “That makes sense. She’d be a lot safer somewhere else.”
They had sat down in the parlor at seven, after Renee had been put to bed. By midnight Akako had most everything packed. This included Renee’s entire wardrobe, her favorite toys, and a large supply of diapers. Aggie looked at the pile that took up all of the free space in the living room and said, “I don’t think Joanna can fit all of that in the sandbox.”
“Maybe she can make a few trips,” Akako said. Aggie tried to get her to prioritize, but when Aggie tried to get rid of a stuffed duck, Akako snatched it away. “Renee loves her ducky.”
“We could buy her another one.”
“She’ll know the difference.”
With a sigh Aggie acquiesced, as she always did when it came to Renee. She figured eventually Akako would come to her senses and realize they couldn’t take all of this junk with them. They would be lucky to have the clothes on their backs when they came out the other side.
Her last hope to avoid leaving her home behind lay with Emma. Unfortunately the girl was just as reasonable as Akako. “Joanna’s been wanting to go back there anyway. There are some things she wants to retrieve from her old house. I was going to go with her, but that might be…awkward,” Emma said.
Aggie understood what Emma meant. She looked pretty much identical to Joanna’s mother, except for being a decade younger. If anyone Dr. Reed knew came around, things might get confusing. “Aren’t you worried we’re abandoning you?” Aggie asked.
“You’re trying to protect your daughter. I can’t blame you after what happened.” Emma looked down at her cup of tea. “I thought of doing the same thing. I thought maybe I should pretend to be Dr. Reed and let Louise grow up there. I wouldn’t have to be the Scarlet Knight there; things would be a lot simpler.”
“Then why don’t you? I’m sure Louise wouldn’t mind.”
“Maybe someday we could, but right now there’s too much going on. With Don Vendetta gone, there’s going to be a mob war. I couldn’t let some new Scarlet Knight try to deal with that. With Isis and the Dragoon gone, maybe the Call wouldn’t even go out.” Emma shook her head. “What if I’m the last Scarlet Knight?”
“I doubt Merlin would have made the armor for you if that were the case.”
“I hope you’re right.”
After that they discussed the logistics of the situation. This eventually involved Joanna. When she sat next to Emma, the resemblance was obvious. Aggie had seen pictures of Emma at eight years old; this girl looked identical to her. The only difference was that Joanna had none of Emma’s shyness; she possessed an unnatural poise more commonly found in world leaders. Maybe that would be her destiny one day.
“I can make a few trips,” Joanna said. “It’s not too much trouble.”
“I don’t want you to strain yourself, dear,” Aggie said. “As long as the three of us get there, that’s all that matters.”
“I can do it,” Joanna said patiently. “It’s a lot easier to transport inanimate objects than people.”
In the end Akako got her way. Renee’s ducky and all her other toys would go with her. “To make her feel more at home,” Akako said.
What home was the problem. They wouldn’t have anywhere to live or jobs or money. “You can stay in Mommy’s house,” Joanna said. “Just say you’re renting the place from her. I’m sure no one will mind.”
“What are we supposed to tell your neighbors?”
“I’ll tell them Mommy got a new job somewhere else.”
“Oh, yes. That’s a good idea,” Aggie said.
The last wrinkle was to decide who would go first. Joanna eventually decided it for them; she said she would go first with Renee’s toys. So long as this worked out, then she would come back for Aggie. Akako would come last with Renee once they were sure there would be no problems.
Before Joanna left with the boxes of toys, Emma knelt down to look the little girl in the eye. “I want you to be very careful. No showing off. You drop the toys off and then you come straight back.”
“Yes, Mommy.”
Emma gave her adopted daughter a hug. “I’ll be here when you come back. Then we can go out for ice cream.”
“Oh boy!” Joanna said. Her poise slipped for a moment.
With that everyone else took a step back. There was a flash and then Joanna and the boxes were gone. About ten minutes later, while Aggie nervously sipped a cup of tea, Joanna reappeared. “Hi everyone,” she said.
“How was it?” Emma asked.
“Just the way Mommy and I left it,” Joanna said. For just a moment her face flickered with sadness. Her smile quickly returned as she held out a hand to Aggie. “Are you ready to go Ms. Chiostro?”
“One moment, dear.” Aggie set her teacup aside and then turned to Akako. She gave her wife a passionate kiss that prompted Joanna’s composure to melt as she made a disgusted face. Aggie pulled away from Akako and said, “That’s just in case.”
“Agnes—”
“I know, it’s perfectly safe.” She leaned down then to Renee, who had her head buried against her mother’s shoulder. “Bye-bye, sweetheart.”
Akako patted Renee’s back and said, “Can you say bye-bye to Agga?”
Renee reluctantly turned and whimpered, “Bye-bye.”
Aggie figured that was the best she would get. She bent down to kiss her daughter’s forehead. “I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”
She stepped away from her wife and daughter and took Joanna’s hand. She took a deep breath and then closed her eyes. There was a bright white flash despite that she had her eyes closed—
When she opened her eyes, she sat in the sandbox in Joanna’s backyard. She felt the coa
rse sand on her legs, almost up to her rear end. She looked down to see a pair of adult legs clad in only a pair of very skimpy denim shorts. In contrast to the shorts, she also wore a bulky hooded sweatshirt. She patted this sweatshirt just to make sure she still had a pair of breasts beneath it.
Joanna stood above her, a hand extended to help her up. “How did I turn out?” Aggie asked. Her voice sounded a little deeper than before, more like Sylvia’s voice.
“You look nice,” Joanna said. “Come on, you’ll see.”
She followed Joanna into the house to find the boxes of Renee’s toys piled up in the dining room, seemingly unchanged. She picked up the ducky, which felt the same; Akako would be happy about that. Joanna led her into the bathroom and turned on the light so Aggie could see herself in the mirror.
Unlike the ducky, she had changed. The changes were subtle yet poignant. Her eyes were still blue, though when she blinked, she could tell she had contacts in. The skin around her eyes was still Caucasian, but with an orange tint to indicate a fake tan. The hair piled into a knot at the top of her head was still blond, but from the dark roots visible, she knew it was dyed—badly at that. When she smiled, her teeth were not as white and her front teeth were a bit crooked. Her limbs were lean yet muscular, an athlete’s body.
This was the body of a perfectly ordinary young woman. According to her sweatshirt she was part of the Rampart State lacrosse team. At least that meant she was an adult, eighteen at least. She probably wasn’t the most popular girl on campus, but she wouldn’t be unpopular either. She turned away from the mirror before she began to cry.
Ordinary. She had never been ordinary before, at least not for long. She had briefly been an ordinary fat girl in Renee Kim’s world, but that had just been for a few days. This would be for years. What would she do? What could she do? She didn’t know how to play lacrosse; she didn’t even know what that was. All she knew how to do was sew, but when she looked at her hands, she saw a different set of hands, stubbier than she remembered.
Joanna patted her on the back. “It’s all right,” she said.
“Isn’t there something you can do? Can’t you make me look like me again?”
“I’m sorry. Changing your physical matter is complicated. You could wind up with a hand where your foot should be or a spleen on the outside.”
“Oh, I see,” Aggie said, though she didn’t. Not really. That was something Emma would probably understand better. What would happen to Akako and Renee when they came through? What if Renee wound up as an old woman or a boy? She shook her head. It wouldn’t come to that. Aggie might be ordinary, but she was still mostly the same as before, just not as pretty. She forced a smile to her face. “Well, I think you should go and fetch the others.”
While Joanna went back, Aggie fetched a hand mirror from inside the house. She wanted Akako to be able to see herself as soon as she came out. No need to draw out the suspense. While she waited by the sandbox, Aggie looked into the mirror. She smiled and tried to see something that was still her, but there wasn’t anything. Was her name even Agnes here? What if her name was Courtney or Heather or Petunia?
She still thought about this as a flash of light came from the sandbox. The mirror slipped from Aggie’s hand. For a moment she simply stared at Akako.
When she had inhabited the body of Renee Kim, Akako had been a little wanna-be Goth girl, who dressed up in revealing outfits and sported magenta hair. That was nothing compared to what she looked like now. This was the grown-up version of Renee Kim, a woman clad in leather pants and a tight black tank top. This revealed tattoos down both arms, so many that they overlapped. Besides a half-dozen earrings in each ear, Akako had a silver stud that glittered from her nose. She was at least still Asian, her eyes the same brown as before. As befitted the rest of her style, her hair was cut in a pageboy dyed a bright red.
That wasn’t as disturbing as what had happened to Renee. Her daughter was still a baby, still probably a year old. Except she was no longer Aggie’s daughter. She was Akako’s daughter, completely Asian now, with her mother’s brown eyes. Even her tuft of hair had been dyed the same red.
Tears stung Aggie’s eyes. She ran back into the house, into the bathroom, where she sat in the shower and sobbed. The universe—this universe or the other one or maybe all of them—was punishing her. She had never cared about Renee as strongly as Akako had. Now any trace of her had been wiped away from Renee.
She wasn’t surprised when Akako squatted down beside her. She reached a tattooed arm out to take Aggie’s hand. “Agnes, it’s all right. Really, I think it’s pretty cool. I only wish Renee—the other Renee—could see me now. She would be so jealous.”
“That’s not the problem,” Aggie said. She wiped at her nose with one sleeve.
“I think you look cool too. I’ve always wanted to go out with a jock.”
“You don’t understand!” Aggie wiped at her face again and then pointed towards the hallway. “You saw what happened to her.”
“Agnes—”
“There isn’t anything of me left in her. It’s like I don’t exist.”
“Come on, that’s not true.”
“Go look at her again. You go and find one thing about her that’s still mine.”
Akako patted the knot of hair at the top of Aggie’s head and smiled. “That doesn’t matter. We know she’s our daughter.”
“She’s not going to know. She’s not going to think I’m her father. How could she? I’m just Agga to her.”
“Renee loves you.”
“She loves you. She tolerates me.”
“That’s not true. She just has trouble expressing herself sometimes.”
Aggie stood up from the tub. She brushed past Akako as she stormed out of the bathroom. In the living room she found Joanna and Renee on the floor, Joanna with Renee’s ducky; she made the appropriate quacking noises. She stopped when she saw Aggie there, glaring down at her. “I’m going outside. When you’re ready to go back, I’m coming with you,” Aggie announced.
“You are?”
“Yes. This was a mistake.”
“Ms. Chiostro—”
“Don’t try to talk me out of it. You wouldn’t understand.”
“But I thought—”
“You don’t have to think! Just get your shit and let’s go!”
Joanna ran from the room. Aggie heard Akako mumble something to the girl, probably that Aggie just needed time to adjust. She didn’t. She wouldn’t pretend to be Akako’s special friend, some vague acquaintance, no relation to Renee. She couldn’t bear to have Renee look at her like that, to treat her like some kind of stepparent.
Appropriately, Renee still just sat on the floor, the ducky clutched to her chest. There weren’t even tears in her brown eyes. Aggie bent down to stroke the girl’s bright red hair. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Your mommy will take good care of you. She loves you very much.” Much more than her daddy—apparently. She patted Renee’s chubby cheek and then started for the door.
She was about to open the patio door when she heard Renee whisper, “Dada.”
Aggie turned around to see Renee rise up on her pudgy legs. She toddled unsteadily over to Aggie and clutched one leg in her tiny arms. “Dada, no go.”
Aggie bent down so that she could meet Renee’s eyes. They might not be her eyes anymore, but Aggie could see the love in them. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said. She scooped Renee up in her arms; the little girl rested her head on Aggie’s shoulder. “I’m never going to leave you.”
***
It took only a minute after they climbed down the ladder into the sewers for Louise to whine, “Mommy, it smells like poo.”
“I know, baby.” Emma checked the paper mask she’d put over Louise’s mouth and nose to help filter some of the smell. “If you feel like throwing up, let Mommy know.”
“OK.”
Emma panned the flashlight around so she could get her bearings. Louise cringed when they saw their first rats. “Th
ere’s nothing to be afraid of. They’re friends.” Or at least she hoped these were friends; there had been rogue tribes in the sewers even when Jim was down here. One of the rats came up to her, to sniff at her shoe.
Emma bent down so the rat could sniff at Louise too. The little girl whimpered and put her head to Emma’s shoulder. “He’s not going to hurt you,” Emma said. In ratspeak she introduced herself as the queen and Louise then as her princess. “She’s my offspring,” Emma said to the rat.
This rat wasn’t as intelligent—or large—as Pepe, but it seemed to understand. She figured it wouldn’t be long until the message spread to the other rats in the sewers that the queen had returned and she had a child. Whether they would accept her and Louise without Jim around, she couldn’t be sure.
“I wanna go home,” Louise said.
“I know, baby, but this is important. This is where Daddy lived.”
“Why?”
This was a good question, one Emma had never fully answered. She had waited for Jim to tell her, but he had died before he got the chance. To him that had probably not been important; the past didn’t count for much in the sewers, only the present. “Well, Daddy liked it down here.”
“Why? It’s stinky and gross.”
“To a lot of people, yes, but not to Daddy. Your father loved it down here.”
Louise only snorted at this, clearly still not impressed by the sewers. Emma couldn’t blame her; it had taken her a couple of years to get used to the sewers and she had been an adult. Still, Jim had wanted her to tell Louise about him and she decided there was no time like the present. It helped that Joanna had gone back to her world to check in on Aggie, Akako, and Renee, who were still adjusting to their new lives. This gave Emma and Louise the day to themselves; there seemed like no better way to spend it than for Louise to learn about her father and for Emma to keep her promise to him to check up on his friends.
It didn’t take Emma long to find what she really wanted Louise to see. She shined the flashlight on the sculpture Jim had made of her from garbage. This was no longer deformed by Isis; Emma stood heroically in her armor with hands on her hips. “See that? Daddy made that.”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 186
