The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  Her eyes flashed momentarily and he half-expected another outburst, but she managed to control her temper. She stood up and turned her back to him. He reached out to catch her arm and turned her around.

  She looked down at him in absolute shock that he would dare touch her in such a manner.

  “What do you call yourself doing, Peregrin?” She raised her voice slightly.

  “Nothing.” He smiled. “Everything. Observation.”

  “Observation?!” She pulled away from him. “I am not a subject!”

  “You display your anger quite well,” he told her without the smile. “It is a beginning.”

  “You will go to too far, Peregrin. I will be forced to dismiss you,” she told him quietly and turned away.

  “Dismiss me?” He almost laughed. “That is unprecedented. It would surely not be wise at this juncture.”

  “Your behavior is already a threat.” She waved one hand as she pulled out one of the drawers in the dresser to rummage through it absently. “Now I suggest you rethink your position and prepare yourself to receive our guests. It is almost time. And I would strongly recommend that you remember who I am.”

  She slammed the drawer without taking anything out and left him sitting on the bed. He looked after her for a few seconds and then smiled. He was making progress with her. There was no doubt about that. Anger... a very powerful emotion and the mother to many smaller ones. Might as well start at the top and work your way down. He wondered at her threat to dismiss him. How would she go about doing such a thing? He had never heard of anyone being dismissed. Perhaps it was only an empty attempt at intimidation. He wondered if she had ever done it before. Dismissal! What an ominous sounding word. He changed into the blue pullover and stood up just as a knock sounded on their door accompanied by the door chimes.

  The little mouse perched on the edge of the dressing table staring up at him. He reached to pick it up and stroked its soft fur. It was so very soft and fragile. “We will not fail, my little friend. We are not used to failure.”

  He set the mouse down on the carpet and it scurried under the bed and then peeked out at him from underneath the fringe of the coverlet. He nodded to the tiny creature and then stuffed his hands in his pockets and whistled as he walked down the hall to the living room to join his wife and their guests.

  Louis Parks had arrived with his wife, Julia. They sat on the sofa in the living room. Angelica passed him without saying anything on her way to the kitchen.

  “Louis,” Perry greeted the man with a smile and an extended hand. Louis got up to shake his hand and turned to look down at Julia who sat staring up at Perry with her mouth slightly opened.

  “Mr. Aliger,” Louis nodded to his wife. “My wife, Julia.”

  Perry took her hand in both of his and made a slight bow to her.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Parks,” he said smiling into her eyes. “Your husband tells me that you enjoyed the tea we sent home with him. You must be very pleased with Louis’s endeavors to restore the war memorial. An admirable endeavor it is. A very noble cause.”

  Julia seemed already hypnotized by Perry’s voice. Louis sat down beside her and patted her knee. He was visibly shaken by her reaction to Peregrin Aliger. She had not managed to respond verbally to him at all.

  “She is!” He answered for her. “Aren’t you, honey? Why she is even goin’ to come down and give me some moral support. I’ve never done anything like this before. I certainly ain’t no salesman. I’ve always thought salesmen were wimpy sorts of fellows, you know the kind that sit behind desks and wear toupees?”

  Louis was beside himself. Why was he rambling on about such idiotic topics? Perry frowned as if trying to make sense of what Louis had said and then smiled.

  “Oh, quite right,” Perry agreed. “You are definitely not the salesman sort.”

  Julia seemed to snap out of her sleep as Louis patted her leg much too enthusiastically.

  “Yes,” she said almost in a burst of emotion. “I am proud of Louis. Someone should do something instead of nothing because if no one does anything then nothing would get done and everything would be left undone.”

  “Ah,” Perry nodded and dropped into one of the chairs. Louis turned his head slowly to look at his wife, apparently convinced that she had lost her mind.

  Angelica returned from the kitchen to sit in one of the chairs near the fireplace, away from Perry.

  “I’ve put on the kettle and I’m making some coffee,” she told them. "Which would you prefer?”

  “Coffee for me,” Louis answered her as if she had offered him a million dollars. “Plenty of cream and sugar.”

  “I hope you have some more of that tea you sent home with Louis,” Julia told her. “It was very good and I’ve never had such good tea and good tea is good for you especially when you aren’t feeling good.”

  “Yes, I have some of the green tea,” Angelica nodded and cast a puzzled look at Peregrin as if she would accuse him doing something to the woman.

  “Good,” Julia said and smiled. “I like a good cup of tea.”

  “Good!” Perry spoke up and Julia looked at him as if he were a specter.

  “I’m glad you liked it,” Angelica interjected to draw her attention away from him. “I went to Kroger’s looking for some more,” Julia told her. “But they didn’t have that kind, of course. They never have anything I want unless I don’t want it anymore or unless I have too much of it already. Usually they have everything I want when I’m not looking for it and then when I do want it, it’s not there anymore.”

  Louis sat looking at Julia like a slack-jawed idiot. He’d never in all their years together heard her talk like she was talking to these two strangers. In fact, he had never heard her talk like that before to anyone.

  “Will you be selling it in your shop?” Julia ended with a question and Louis was relieved.

  “Yes, of course,” Perry answered before Angelica could reply and caught an annoyed glance from her. “In fact I was just about to fly off to Penglai to pick a new batch only this afternoon, but my dear wife stopped me just in time.”

  Angelica’s eyes flashed instantly with anger, but the anger cleared just as suddenly as it had appeared.

  “I don’t think he would have gotten that far,” she said smiling at Louis and Julia apologetically. “I believe Mt. Penglai is the eighth cup of green tea, if I remember my Chinese poets correctly. I think he had only just embarked upon ‘unbearable joy’ at the time.”

  “You are absolutely correct, my darling,” Perry smiled at her quite pleased with her riposte. “You will forgive my dear wife for her defensiveness. I’m afraid that she was in a tiff at the time and in a huff when you arrived.”

  Louis and Julia both smiled and nodded though they had no idea why.

  “Why don’t you come out to the kitchen with me, Julia,” Angelica stood up. “I can show you how to brew it properly from pellet form. You will find it much more palatable than the bag. There is a bit of a trick to making it correctly, but it’s well worth the effort and I’ll try to explain about Mt. Penglai and the cups of tea.”

  “I’d like that.” Julia stood up to follow her. “I’ve never heard of tea pellets.” She looked down at Louis as if for permission. He nodded.

  Louis watched them leave and then looked at Perry, swallowing hard. He crossed his legs and then folded his arms.

  “Tea pellets?” He asked.

  “Yes, the English call it gun powder tea,” Perry told him. “But it isn’t explosive.”

  “That sounded like some sort of private joke you two had going there about the uh... what was that mountain? And Chinese poets?” Louis tried to think of something to talk about which might include his favorite topic: Angelica Aliger.

  “Oh, that,” Perry shrugged. “I’m afraid my wife is in a rare mood.”

  “Yeah, I know how that is,” Louis reflected on Julia’s strange comments. “I almost never got Julia to come over.”

  “I’m gla
d you did,” Perry told him. “People should get out and visit more. The art of visiting is dying.”

  “I try to get her to go out more, but she thinks she looks bad. hell, I think she looks better than most women in much better health than she is. I tell her all the time.”

  “She is a very nice looking lady,” Perry agreed. “Especially her hair. She has beautiful hair. Very thick and full of waves like Reggie Greene.”

  “Yeah, boy,” Louis nodded. “Now there’s a head full of hair and handful of hornets. And full of the devil. It’s a miracle he’s still alive.”

  “No, it wasn’t a miracle and I can assure you that the Devil had nothing to do with it.”

  Perry looked at him with the same peculiar expression he had seen on previous occasions. It was almost as if the man were trying to look into his mind. He wondered why he had come and why he told Julia that the Aligers would make them feel right at home. He’d never felt further from home, but somehow he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving. One moment he wanted to tell Perry Aliger all his darkest secrets and the next, he wanted to run as far away from him as he could get.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” Louis laughed nervously.

  “No?” Perry raised an eyebrow. “Then, if you don’t mind, would you tell me what you did mean?” His voice contained nothing other than mild curiosity.

  “I meant he is lucky to be alive the way he runs around town on that bike of his,” Louis explained and frowned as if he were trying to figure out what he’d said wrong.

  “But you said he was full of the Devil.” Perry’s quizzical look turned to a frown. “What does that mean?”

  “You know, full of the Devil. It’s just an expression. Wild. Like runnin’ wild.” For all the man’s obvious refinement and education, he seemed a might dumb about the simplest things. He didn’t seem upset, just... inquisitive.

  “Oh.” Perry looked somewhat relieved. “That’s almost exactly what his father said about him, but he seems tame enough to me. A fine young man. Certainly worth saving.”

  “Why, sure,” Louis nodded and looked confused. He wondered if he had somehow conveyed the idea that he didn’t think Reggie Greene was worth a plug nickel. “He’s supposed to be the spittin’ image of his mother, but I don’t think so. I see a lot of Bobby in him. But now that hair, he got that from his mother. She was a real sweet girl, though a bit on the homely side, I guess. Bobby was crazy about her.”

  “I’m glad to see that he’s recovered.”

  Louis didn’t know if he was talking about Bobby or Reggie.

  “When did you talk to Bobby Greene?” Louis asked suddenly reverting to his policeman’s mentality of suspicion, questioning and looking for clues.

  “This morning. He was down on the sidewalk watching the construction crew across the street. I was coming from the funeral parlor when I ran into him. Reggie was with him.”

  “Really? Someone die?” Louis perked up.

  “No, we were all quite safe,” Perry told him.

  Louis laughed in spite of himself and wondered again about the man’s sanity.

  Perry stood up suddenly as Angelica and Julia returned from the kitchen with the coffee and tea and a plate of cookies that looked like brown lace rolled into tubes and dipped in chocolate. The centers were filled with a light chocolate cream. Louis felt his sweet tooth kick in at the sight of them.

  Angelica passed out the cups to Louis and then Perry. She caught his eye when he took his cup from her and gave him a warning look. Julia sat down next to Louis with her cup and told him about the tea pellets. Louis was more interested in the cookies.

  “Pirouettes,” Perry said as he watched him bite into one of the delicate concoctions. “A dangerous combination of chocolate and vanilla. You never know what can happen.”

  Louis just looked at him. The cookie was certainly as good as it looked. He ate it and then picked up another to dunk it in his coffee. It disappeared completely on contact with the hot liquid.

  “Oops!” Louis made a face and then popped the remaining piece in his mouth where it melted almost as quickly.

  “Not good for dunking,” Perry remarked and stretched to reach one of the cookies for himself. It was gone in an instant. “You should try one, Julia. They are called Gabriel’s Trumpets.”

  Julia picked up one of the cookies and set her tea down. She glanced at Louis. She didn’t want to be rude, but her stomach was not used to eating such rich foods as chocolate creams and cookies. She nibbled at it slowly at first and then ate it quickly as if to get it over with. Louis took a third one. It was a challenge to try to chew it before it was gone.

  “These are really great!” He smiled. “Gabriel’s Trumpets, huh? Did you make them yourself, Mrs. Aliger?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “I dabble in the kitchen from time to time.”

  “I could eat dozens of these. You ought to package them and sell them in your store. Why, they even put Miss Mary McDaniels’ chocolate chip cookies to shame and that’s sayin’ a lot. She’d be pea-green with envy.”

  “Would she?” Angelica asked in surprise and looked at Perry.

  “Envy and jealousy,” Perry mused. “Two of the driving forces of human nature.”

  “You are absolutely right,” Julia nodded. “It seems that everybody is jealous of everybody else these days.”

  “Yes, so it would seem.” Perry looked at Angelica pointedly.

  Angelica made a sound that was a cross between choking and clearing her throat and then spoke to Louis. “I’ve invited Julia to come here on Saturday after she has tired of walking around town. She can rest for a while and then we can all go to the dance together.”

  “Really?” Louis was hard pressed to contain his surprise and he almost spilled his coffee. He looked at Julia, but she was reaching for another cookie. "Let me get that for you, sweetheart." He moved the cookie tray closer to her and himself, subsequently, taking another for himself.

  “Yes, really,” Julia laughed at him and his face lit up with genuine surprise. “These really are good, Ms. Ali... Angelica. You have to give me the recipe. I can make some for Frank and send them to him. That's our son. He’s in college in Austin.”

  “I’d be glad to. And I’ll give you some of the green tea pellets to take home for both of you.” Angelica seemed genuinely pleased and glanced at Perry smugly.

  “Speaking of giving things,” Perry stood up “I’ll be right back.”

  He disappeared down the hall while Louis continued to pig out on the cookies. Angelica explained to Julia how the cookies had to be rolled on a metal form while they were still hot. She told about the cookie making kits and irons they would have for sale in their store.

  Perry returned with a cardboard box and set it on the table in front of Louis and beside the now-empty cookie plate. He reached in to pull out a small bundle wrapped in tissue paper and handed it to Louis.

  Louis set down his empty cup and took the small package to look at it suspiciously. He carefully unwrapped the object while Julia watched attentively. Julia drew in a sharp breath of surprise and delight at the sight of the little gold box embossed with intricate floral designs. Louis flipped open the top. Inside was a tiny pencil and a single piece of parchment rolled up scroll-style.

  “What is it?” Julia looked up at Perry. Louis handed her the box and she shook the paper and pencil out in her hand.

  “It’s called a Pandora Box,” Perry explained. “They are designed after something the French call an Escritoire or a Necessaire. People used to keep pencils and paper and other things in them. The originals were a bit larger. These are replicas of museum pieces dating from the eighteenth century. The originals are usually made of precious metals, silver and gold, set with genuine stones. Lapis lazuli, mother of pearl, onyx, bloodstone. Legend has it that if you write down something distasteful or something undesirable, like a personal trait you want to be rid of, and place it in the box, it will stay in the box. You will be rid of whatever you write on
the paper. Unfortunately there is a flipside. If the box is ever opened, whatever is inside will be passed on to the person who opens the box, hence the name, Pandora Box.”

  “That’s fascinating.” Julia toyed with the little pencil. “I’ve never heard of such. Wouldn’t it be neat if it really worked?”

  “Yes, it would,” Angelica frowned at the box. “But think of the consequences of opening someone else’s box.”

  “Yeah, I could just imagine what some of the guys I know would put in there,” Louis laughed. “But it might serve to remind everybody to keep their noses out of everybody else’s business.”

  “That’s true,” Perry agreed. “There are ten of them in there. Each one is a bit different, but they are all of good quality. You can price them however you like. Whatever you think they are worth.”

  “They’re real nice, Mr. Aliger,” Louis nodded and picked up the box to appraise it. “What do you think, Julia? Five bucks?”

  “Oh, no!” Julia took the box back from him. It had an elaborate dragonfly on the lid. “I’d pay ten dollars for one. Maybe more.”

  “How much, then?” Louis looked at Angelica. “I ain’t got no idea how much something like this would be worth.”

  “I’d say sell them for whatever the market will bear,” Perry suggested. “Price is relevant to how much the buyer is willing to pay. A collector might pay much more than say, a kid with red hair and a quarter in his pocket.”

  “Will you be selling these in your shop?” Julia asked hopefully and looked back and forth at Angelica and Perry.

  “No, I’m afraid those are the only ones I have,” he told her. “I’ll have the larger ones with sewing kits and stationery in them. Of course, they are silver plated and pewter. Some of them have tiny telescopes inside. Or opera glasses.”

  “Will you have kaleidoscopes?” Julia asked suddenly. “I just love those things.”

  Perry deferred to Angelica on that one.

  “Yes, as a matter-of-fact, we will,” she said in the silky voice that drove Louis crazy. “I think we have several different types.”

  “I can’t wait to see your shop,” Julia said and glanced again at Louis. She looked better than she had in weeks. “If you have lots of stuff like this, then maybe I can find something for Frank’s graduation.”