“It is such a small world, Anne. A friend, Bailey was in jail. His sister is…” she carefully considered her word choice, “weird, like me. Not exactly like me but I help them when I can. She does odd jobs around their neighborhood, solving mysteries for people and such and one of her jobs landed her brother in jail. I don’t know the whole story. But they’re friends. He’s pre-med. He’s a good kid. Of course I went down and sprung him and the strange cat who’d attached itself to him.
“I called Morioka while they were handling Bailey’s release and told her that Kyle had been shot. I asked if I could meet her tonight. She told me to meet her at The Office which was pretty weird itself since that’s Seb’s bar.”
Anne sat forward even further in her chair, “Seb. That’s the bar Kyle went to earlier to help Seb with something when he’d called you. You were mourning Sister Sue.”
“Yes. Are you sure you were never a cop yourself?”
“I read a lot of mysteries and it’s my job to pay attention.” But Anne was pleased to have impressed the detective.
“When Bailey came out, I gave him a ride back to the three flat where he’d been arrested at his insistence that that’s where his sister would be looking for him. I gave him the key. Told him to put it in his sister’s collar for safekeeping until I could hide it in my brother Orin’s consignment shop. He tried to trade it for the cat by simply leaving it in my car. But I’m not a cat person. He begged me a little. His sister really doesn’t like cats, understandably. But I’m only willing to go so far for a fellow wyrdo and the line is definitely drawn before cats.”
“I like cats.”
“I knew there had to be something wrong with you.”
Anne smiled. “You were meeting Captain Morioka at Seb’s.”
“At nine-ish. Seb lets you bring food to the bar except on Thursday barbeque night. I was starving by this point. So I stopped at a burrito joint. They had a TV playing the news in the dining area while I ordered my food to go. I didn’t really pay attention because I was trying to organize the facts of the day into some useful order. But as I was grabbing some extra napkins on my way out the door, I heard the newscaster say the name Councilwoman Leo. I turned and caught one last image of Leo with the children at The Wooded Island press conference. Leo and her helmet-stiff hair which wasn’t affected by the wind or the hood she was wearing when she shot my partner.”
“Leo was Posa?” Anne sat up.
“Yeah. I’m sure of it. It was almost nine so I just went to The Office thinking I could get some quiet time to think about what to do. I still had to report to the precinct sometime before my shift was over and explain the officer down call and what had happened to Kyle. I couldn’t accuse the councilwoman of murder without A) proof and B)”
“A body.” Anne finished for her.
“Exactly. I was kind of relieved when I got to The Office to find Orin and his partners Lucio and Amal eating hot dogs with Seb.”
“Your brother was there?”
“Their consignment shop, Brown’s Resale is across the street from The Office. You can usually find one of the brownies in the bar. They invented Thursday night barbecue. The boys were, as usual, arguing which was fine with me since I didn’t want them asking me where Kyle was. I tossed some quarters on the West curve of the bar and then sat down beside my brother at the Eastern curve and called a hello to Seb. The Office was doing some serious business for a Wednesday but I wasn’t too surprised. The smell of Seb’s family recipe glög dominated the air. The Office is one of the only bars in the area that doesn’t put up a sign when glög season begins. Seb figures his regulars know and they’ll pass it on. It’s a nice safe pub for folks who are different. There aren’t many places around that are comfortable so Seb’s not hurting for business. Jukebox Beth was on her stool in the corner making patterns on the bar with her quarters. She was jamming to Gene Krupa at the moment and I was okay with that. The half-dozen twenty-somethings in the corner weren’t all pleased by the throwback tunes and were being fairly vocal about it. But that’s not unusual. Jukebox Beth sometimes picks tunes as a punishment for patrons who don’t pay the toll.”
“Your watering hole has a toll?”
“It’s a kind of optional cover charge. You’re never gonna get to play anything on the jukebox but if you tip Jukebox Beth, she might accede to a request. She’s just this ancient woman who loves music and lives at the bar. Most people toss her a couple quarters every time they come in. If I want to hear a song, I’ll buy her a drink or a bag of chips.”
“So the twenty-somethings didn’t pay the toll and she figured they didn’t like jazz?”
“Lucio said she’d played through quite a few songs before she found one that got them to complain out loud.”
“Can’t Seb do anything?”
“Seb loves swing music. Gets people on their feet and dancing, makes them thirstier. Two couples were dancing when I got there. I watched them for a while listening to Orin, Lucio, and Amal’s argument heat up. And before you ask, I have no idea what they were fighting about. Orin likes to fight. Lucio likes to back him up. And Amal likes to negotiate. Didn’t bother me till Lucio started throwing beer nuts. I picked one out of my Guinness and said ‘this is a nice death free bar, Lucy. Mind if we keep it that way?’ They were polite enough to shut up while I spoke and in the silence, we all heard the loudest complainer at the twenty-something table shout at Seb. ‘Hey Tiny, can we get some pretzels or something?’ The place froze, metaphorically. I didn’t see any pallors or anything. But everyone looked at the guy in astonishment. The dancers stopped and turned to stare. Jukebox Beth got off her stool like she was gonna get into it. And my brother and his friends disappeared from their stools for half a second. Not long enough for anyone else to notice. But I did. And so did Seb. He never stopped washing the glasses.”
“Is Seb a small guy?”
“Hell no. He’s built like a tank. If he’s not at the bar, he’s working out. But he is four foot three. The floor behind the bar is raised. The whole thing. It’s pretty genius how he’s worked it out. It means he really can’t hire any average height bartenders. He’s got a girl works the floor weekends. And it’s not too bad for her if she has to work behind the bar cuz she’s on the short side. But one time Amal stepped in when Seb got the flu and it was a disaster. To start, Amal is six foot twelve and half inches tall . . . almost. Plus, he literally believes money is evil. I think that may have been what the boys were arguing about over my dinner.”
“What did they do when they disappeared?”
“I don’t know if I mentioned, my brother Orin and his friends are brownies.”
Anne washed her face with her hands and poured another drink. “Brownies. Yes.”
“Simply put,” Dee smiled, “they have the power of instant karma. Orin soured the jerk’s wine. Amal and Lucio punished the two people who had laughed by turning their glög cold. Lucio transferred a twenty dollar bill from the jerk’s wallet to the pocket of the girl who’d told the guy to shut up. Then they were back on their stools and back to their argument.
I interrupted them to give them the news that there was something going on with my captain that Kyle was worried about. They told me that they’d heard Kyle was in the bar earlier to help Seb with the trouble the vampire was causing.”
“Vampire?” Anne choked out.
“That’s exactly how I said it. But before the boys could tell me anything else, Morioka walked in. Amal sat up like his hair gel was melting. He disappeared from his stool and we saw him at her side as she approached Seb at the bar. He stood at her side, smelling her while she asked Seb for a gin and tonic. Seb couldn’t see Amal and he chatted with her for a moment. She flashed her badge asking if he had a moment to answer some questions while she drank. He said he could and then turned away to get limes from the fridge. As soon as he turned, Morioka looked directly at Amal. ‘Back off, Brownie.’ She was icy. But Amal was on a mission. He asked, ‘are these people safe?’ She look
ed away, dismissing him. ‘I am not hungry now.’ I guess that was good enough for him because he came back to us. Orin was so incredibly annoyed with him. He pointed out that I would know if anyone was about to get killed. Amal was kind of embarrassed that he’d forgotten what I am. He apologized and then slunk off to the men’s room. I couldn’t stop staring at Captain Morioka. I . . . honestly, I had never seen it in her before. Wyrdos can usually recognize other wyrdos.”
“You mean supernatural beings?”
Dee could sense disapproval in Anne’s tone. “You know I spell that in my head with a Y, like Wyrd sisters? No? Yes. Supernatural is what I mean. But until the brownies pointed out the obvious fact that Yaksha Morioka was a demon of incredible strength, I hadn’t seen it at all. This is a nice town, Anne. I have not run into any demons since I moved here. And then in one day, two demons walk into my favorite pub. And you’ll never guess who walks in next.”
“Kyle!”
Dee laughed hard. “No. But you’re in my head. The door opens and in walks the raggedy guy who helped Posa escape after she shot Kyle. That emaciated, pale, wreck of a man walked into The Office with a little girl as far on the other end of the skin tone spectrum as you could get. Happy, bright little girl. Heavy, depressed homeless guy. Both of them wyrdo . . . supernatural.”
“It’s some kind of cosmic family reunion.”
“That’s odd.” Dee took a close look at Anne. “The little girl called us a family too. They came in, looked around, and then walked straight at me.
“‘Hi’ he says.
“‘Hey Junior. Hi Diejuste,’ my brother says.
“‘You’re under arrest for aiding and abetting a murderer,’ I say. A little hell broke loose then. Junior was confused. But I don’t know if he was all there. Kind of specially-abled if you know what I mean. And no, you are probably thinking like I’m special. I mean he seemed like a short bus kind of guy or maybe on too much Ritalin.”
“Slow?”
“Molasses, in January, in Minnesota. Lucio and Orin won’t let me arrest him and we’re trying to sort things out when Morioka comes over. Which doesn’t help matters a lot. Voices are raised. She wrinkles her nose at me and asks what did I step in. A demon, saying I stink! Then out of the corner of my eye I see this little girl, Diejuste with like five little pigtails in her hair. She clambered up onto my stool, beside Lucio and asks Seb for a glass of milk. He pours it and then steps away. The air around us grew still and all the sound in the room kind of died away or drifted off into the distance like there was TV on in the other room playing a boring show. People who had been staring at us stopped looking, stopped paying any attention to us, like we were invisible. We all kind of got quiet as it happened. I felt like my chest was caving in. It was like I couldn’t reach out and touch anyone but I suddenly wanted to hold my brother and Lucio and know that they were there, no matter how infuriating they were being.
Junior, the emaciated depressed guy looked around at us all. He ran a hand through his messy, dirty blonde hair and he murmured, ‘this is how I feel. All the time.’
Lucio is the one who caught on. He turned to the little girl, says, ‘Are you doing this?’
They argued . . . well, Lucio argued but Diejuste just discussed semantics for a moment. And then the look on Lucio’s face changed. He went pale. Blood completely drained and a look of need so strong. He reached for his drink and banged it on the bar when he saw it was empty. He called for Seb who was wiping the bar two feet away. Didn’t hear him.
The girl says, with her old timey Nawlins accent, ‘That is how Yaksha Morioka feel. All the time.’
And Morioka turns to look at Lucio’s face like she hadn’t cared what was going on until just then. She hands him her gin and tonic which he drains. And he sets it next to his own glass, asking Seb for a refill.
Seb still doesn’t react until Diejuste says, ‘And a wadda please, too, Seb.’
Seb turns, nods to her, and takes the glasses away for a refill. None of us said anything while he was pouring the drinks. He comes back with the beer, G and T, and water, sets them down, and steps away. And it was like I could see him forgetting about us the second he moved on.
“‘Drink the wadda, Lucio.’ She says. ‘I am doing this because you must all know each udda. You are family.’
Then the bubble of I don’t know, invisibility fades and Diejuste turns to Seb like she’s having a conversation with him, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.
I had bigger things on my mind anyway. I asked Captain Morioka what she knew about a key Kyle had. That got her attention. She didn’t answer me. Instead she interrogated me about what happened to Kyle. I didn’t want to give her any details until I had more information.”
“So you were both asking questions and not answering anything?”
“Yeah. I think Junior and Orin were having a similar conversation. Junior had pulled Orin away from us. He tried to take Lucio, but Lucio was focused on drinking the water as Diejuste had told him to do. Junior pulled a package wrapped in blue cloth out of his bag and set it on the bar. Orin was furious. I don’t know why. Morioka was telling me what she saw at the scene of Kyle’s shooting. I don’t know why she’d gone there but she was angry with me for removing the car. I was trying to justify my decision without giving away any information when I saw Bailey and his sister in girl form come in. She pulled some quarters from this ingenious collar she wears. Someone had it made for her at a Renaissance Faire. Usually they’re made to wear as a belt, but Laylea’s waist changes more than her neck. She gave the quarters to Jukebox Beth and spoke to her for a minute. Bailey looked around at the drinkers. He didn’t see me but as soon as he saw Orin, he called to his sister and they went over to my brother. Laylea pulled the key, still attached to the chain, from her collar.
“This is when everything seemed to happen at once. Morioka was facing me, facing the back of the bar so she couldn’t see it. But she turned the instant Orin pulled the blue cloth off something on the bar. It was a wooden box. I heard Amal running from the back hall where the restrooms are. He, Morioka, and Diejuste all screamed as Orin grabbed the key from Laylea and slipped it into the delicate padlock holding the box closed. Someone yelled No. Someone else, Stop. Morioka.
Morioka whispered ‘Onioka’ and stopped breathing.
The temperature in the room dropped to freezing and every single person in the room suddenly had a light, possible pallor forming, twisting out around them.
I screamed ‘No!’
I think Orin heard me because he looked at me as he was thrown across the room. It was too late.
A monster burst from the box which was torn from Junior’s hands and clattered to the floor under the barstools. Junior fell with the box and remained huddled there, blowing on his hands and holding them protectively to his chest. The key and padlock went spinning off in different directions.”
No one in the bar was moving as this creature unfolded and grew, stretching up taller than Amal. I moved though. Despite my terror, I saw the fear of recognition on Morioka’s face. She was literally not breathing. And I stepped in front of her, blocking her from the creature’s view. I’m so scared I can’t move. The only thing I can hear in the whole room is Jukebox Beth, still tapping her fingers to the music. But that’s enough to get me between a monster and Morioka. I hear Moonglow playing on the jukebox.
“Moonglow?” Anne repeated disbelieving.
“Nothing like a great clarinet solo to accompany the end of the world.”
“I’d think a drum solo or strings.”
“Strings?” Dee scoffed. “Reed instruments are underrated. You just sidetracked me.”
“Yes I did.”
“Got me off topic.”
“Absolutely what I did there.”
“Why?”
Anne leaned back in her chair. “Because you’re reliving instead of retelling. I wanted to give you a chance to lower your heart rate and relax.”
Dee shook her head. “I’m
talking about demons destroying the world. How are you thinking about my blood pressure?”
“You’re not a very good story teller?” Anne tried. But couldn’t keep a straight face and laughed.
Dee laughed with her.
Anne took a breath and said, “Context, Detective.”
Dee thought about it for a moment and came up with the single factor that took the world-shattering urgency out of her tale, “The world hasn’t been destroyed.”
“Exactly. Now you can go on. Junior and Orin are on the floor. You’re standing in front of Morioka. Diejuste is on your barstool.”
“Bailey and Laylea are standing in the open space between us and the demon.”
“Oh yes, the demon. The demon was growing.”
“He was enormous. Blocked Beth and the jukebox from my view. Morioka looks like an entirely normal Japanese-American woman. This guy, Onioka she called him, looked like some kind of buffalo headed man-creature. Enormous horns on his head. Cloven hands with three fat fingers. His enormous biceps were covered in fur but his chest was covered in scales. He stretched, cracking his neck and back and looked up at the ceiling, annoyed, when he scraped his horns on it. Eventually he deigned to look around at the people surrounding him.
“He laughed and lectured us. I’m sure it was a stirringly terrifying speech. Unfortunately he wasn’t speaking English or Japanese or any other language I recognized. He paused for some response and when none of us said anything, he swiped the glasses and bottles off the bar. Still no response so he grabbed one of the tables and smashed it on the ceiling. He would have done better to smash that little wooden box he’d just escaped from.” Dee smiled and took a breath and a sip. “He sniffed the air and we could see he recognized something. He looked around at all the faces he could see and seemed to lose some of his bravura. I heard Diejuste whisper ‘be ready.’ Then she hopped from her stool and all four and a half feet, sixty pounds of her walked over to negotiate with Onioka, the nine foot tall buffalo headed boy.
Dee: A Wyrdos Tale Page 3
