The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  Without warning a single burst of lightning ripped into the lamppost in the center of the parking lot shooting out a shower of blue sparks over the crowd’s heads. A deafening clap of thunder accompanied the strike and trailers of electric blue streamers arced into the crowd jumping about like thin whips touching down here and there amongst the brawlers. The unexpected development put a swift and sudden stop to the action as everyone froze wide-eyed, staring at the eerie display. The mayor’s voice came clearly over the speakers. “People! People! Even God almighty disapproves of this outrageous behavior! Order! Order!”

  The participants and on-lookers stood quietly rubbing their tingling arms and legs.

  “God ain’t got nothin’ to do with it!” Someone shouted from the edge of the parking lot. The people began to help each other up off the pavement.

  “Does anyone need a doctor?” The mayor looked out over the crowd. “No?” There were no immediate responses. “We can shut down the festivities or we can just go on with the auction. What do you all say?”

  Everyone murmured and nodded and began to shout for the auction to continue.

  “Any one with complaints can see the Officers to the right of the bandstand.” The mayor pointed to the two bewildered policemen. “If you are injured, let us know up here and we’ll get you some help.”

  Perry found himself standing near the center of the crowd. He bent to brush the dust and bits of gravel from his slacks and winced as the various, newly created sore spots made their presence known. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked for blood. He found only one spot of broken skin on his elbow and thought himself extremely fortunate. He looked around to see if any more surprises were headed his way and saw nothing threatening. The Primus stood primly watching him a few feet away with his hands clasped behind his back, a seemingly innocent look on his face. Perry looked up at the top of the street lamp where no damage was apparent from the lightning bolt. He scanned the crowd for Angelica, but saw no signs of her or Maureen Fitzgerald. He limped over to stand next to his ‘brother’ with his hands stuffed in his pockets. It could have been much worse. It seemed no one had taken the mayor up on his offer for police assistance or medical care. Sam and Mildred Morris had disappeared along with Hannah and Billy Johnson. The mayor quickly auctioned off the last of the items after everyone returned to order. The two ‘brothers’ stood quietly amidst the townspeople without speaking throughout the rest of the sale.

  “Very impressive, Primus,” Perry nodded to his counterpart after a while.

  “I thought so, too.” The band struck up the first tune for the dance as the last item for bid was taken from the stage along with the mayor. “You see, Primus, they are not so far from the tree-tops and caves as you might wish to think. A little omnipotence goes a long way.”

  “Perry!” Yet another female voice called to him. This time it was Mary McDaniels. He was surprised to see her there and wondered if she had witnessed the terrible scene. Tyler held on to her arm.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he nodded to her and smiled at Tyler before shaking his hand.

  “I hope you are not injured.” She eyed him closely.

  “Just a few scrapes,” he lied effectively.

  “And who is this handsome fellow?” She looked at Falco Atrox. “You aren’t twins, are you?”

  “No,” Falco answered and took her hand. “I’m tired of that word. We are just brothers.”

  “Which is older?” She smiled at him.

  “He is,” Perry told her. “He gets really old in a hurry.”

  Tyler laughed at the joke.

  “Fred Aliger,” Falco introduced himself. “Glad to make your acquaintance Miss...”

  “McDaniels,” Tyler supplied and reached for his hand. “I’m Tyler McDaniels. This is my aunt Mary.”

  A blue spark erupted and Tyler winced.

  “Sorry. Must be the aftereffects of the strike,” Falco apologized.

  Perry wondered what he was up to now.

  “Yes, a very propitious occurrence,” Perry told them. “And beautiful.”

  “Yes it was,” Mary agreed. “A true act of God if I ever saw one.”

  Tyler did not agree. He’d had enough shocks lately. He was only glad that he had been walking his aunt down the street and not mixed in the fray. His ribs couldn’t take any more battering. He shivered at the thought.

  “I wouldn’t say that Aunt Mary,” Tyler grumbled looked around doubtfully. He had seen the blue sparks from across the street and they had reminded him of something that hovered just on the edge of his memory, but wouldn’t quite come through as a coherent thought. He looked up at the lamppost uneasily. “If you mean it happened at the right time, then I agree with that, but I don’t know...”

  Perry was beginning to feel very uneasy himself. It seemed that standing there with the Primus was just asking for more trouble.

  “If you will excuse me,” he said suddenly “I have to go pay for my barber.”

  He made his way through the people milling about collecting stares and leaving behind whispers, but he didn’t care at the moment. The cashier had set up next to the bandstand. He handed over the twenty-five dollars and took the construction paper ticket pad from her to stuff it in his pocket. Still no sign of Angelica. He turned to run directly into Billy Johnson’s bib overalls. Perry looked at the man as he leered in his face.

  Billy poked him with one finger in the ribs to accentuate each word. “It ain’t over til its over!”

  “Go home!” Louis Parks appeared magically. He had been trailing Billy ever since the fight had broke up. “If you don’t go home, Billy, I’m gonna get Robert to haul you in for PI.”

  Billy glared at Louis and turned reluctantly to walk away.

  “Thanks.” Perry looked at Louis. “You know he didn’t start the fight.”

  “I don’t care who started it, Mr. Aliger.” Louis told him. “Does your brother know Sam Morris by some chance?”

  “No, they’ve never really met.” Perry shook his head.

  “Does trouble just follow you naturally or is it something you work at?” Louis asked him.

  “I don’t understand the question.” Perry frowned at him.

  “Sam Morris, that I know of, has never, ever even had a traffic ticket before you came to town. He is a model citizen. Maybe not the best-liked guy around, but he’s one of Magnolia Springs finest. Now, here we have him fightin’ in public, first with you and then your brother. Something just ain’t right.”

  “I know,” Perry nodded. “I intend to take care of it.”

  “That’s not a threat is it?” Louis was tired of being nice. His tussle with Billy had pulled his shoulder and put a crimp in his knee. All he needed was an injury that would put him out of work and he’d be sunk. Workman’s comp didn’t pay as much as he made now and he needed every penny. He couldn’t go around getting into street brawls. He was getting too old for that sort of thing. And he really could not bring himself to like Perry Aliger no matter how squeaky clean he seemed to be.

  “Of course not, Sergeant Parks.” Perry picked up on his string of thought and reverted to more formal tones with him. “I intend to set things right. Straighten out the... mess?”

  “I just hope you can do that, Mr. Aliger, because its gettin’ outta hand,” Louis told him flatly. “I’m gonna have to arrest Billy Johnson sooner or later and I ain’t lookin’ forward to gettin’ hurt on your behalf.”

  “I will take care of that problem as well,” Perry assured him.

  “I don’t know how you will do that, but you could probably turn Sam around by openin’ up a big account over at the savins’ and loan.” Louis relaxed a bit.

  Perry leaned to look closer at him.

  “That’s a joke, Mr. Aliger.” Louis’ smile faded. Damn the man anyway!

  “I see,” Perry said. “Thank you for the advice.”

  He left Louis and scanned the crowd again. Still no Angelica.

  He found Mary McDaniels, Tyler and Fa
lco where he had left them. Aunt Mary was just finishing up totally embarrassing Tyler by relaying the tale of how Perry had saved his life.

  “...I’m quite certain he was dead,” she was saying. “If it weren’t for your brother, Tyler wouldn’t be standing here today. Of course, it was God’s will.”

  “I’m sure it was,” Falco nodded to her and winked at Tyler further adding to his growing consternation.

  Perry wondered if perhaps the Primus had already done something with Angelica and sent her away somehow. He was becoming paranoid. Another new and exciting emotional state he had never experienced before.

  “If you will excuse us, Ms. McDaniels,” Falco smiled at the elderly woman “I need to get my brother home and take a look at his arm.”

  Aunt Mary looked at Perry and found the offending spot. She pulled his arm up and looked at the scrape.

  “It doesn’t look too bad,” she told them. “Just clean it up and put some ointment on there and a Band-Aid. Should be alright.”

  Falco nodded to her, shook Tyler’s hand again without sparks and waited while Perry said his farewells to them before they started up the street together.

  “Where is she?” Perry heard himself ask and wanted to kick himself.

  “Paranoid are we?” Falco glanced at him.

  “I can’t feel her anywhere,” Perry told him. “It’s like she’s gone. I don’t like it.”

  “Get used to it,” Falco said smugly. “If you are planning to make her a First Order Citizen, you won’t be able to keep up with her any more.”

  “You’ve covered her!” Perry blurted. Perry’s ribs were still aching from where Billy had kicked him. He felt tired for the first time in months, maybe years. “You should not interfere in my business, Fred,” Perry told him and took him by the arm to push him toward the apartment faster.

  “And you should let go of my arm before I melt your fingers, Perry,” the Primus retorted.

  Perry let go of him. He was still trying to make sense of these new developments. It seemed like ages since he had sat in the chair looking out over Main Street with a good cup of tea and Angelica for company. He had a real need to just sit with her and aggravate her if nothing else. It was no wonder these people got old so fast with wrinkles and gray hair or worse, no hair. No hair was good for dolphins, but people needed hair! He frowned at the absurd thought. He needed some peace and quiet and time to think. He knew that Falco Atrox had done something to her when he’d left them alone and he needed to know what it was. Why, why, why had the man arrived now? Even if Angelica’s father had promised her to him all those years ago, he must have changed his mind for some reason. There was no law governing the actions of the Optimus. He could do whatever he damned well pleased. He thought briefly of trying to contact her father, but it had been so long since he’d made the attempt, he shuddered at the thought.

  “You over estimate yourself, Primus,” he said aloud to Falco.

  A dark green Navigator sat near the spot where Louis had set up his booth earlier. Falco stopped to open the tailgate and took a crisply starched tan Safari jacket from a hanger to put it on over his smudged tan shirt. Perry eyed him ruefully.

  “What are you going to do with the lady upstairs?” He asked Perry when he turned around to find him gazing up at the lights in the second floor windows.

  “Which one?” Perry looked at him and asked.

  “The one that shouldn’t be there,” Falco laughed.

  Perry hurried away from him toward the stairs. Falco followed him quickly and took a turn at grabbing his arm to stop him.

  “I’m talking about the one who knows more than she should know about you,” he said ominously. “Tell me, Primus, just how did that happen?”

  “She watches movies,” Perry shook off his grip. “She’s an intelligent woman. And listen very closely to me, brother! If my primary concern here does not end favorably, I intend to take her back to Beijing with me when I go. Now keep your hands off me before I weld your perfect teeth together.”

  “My, my, such violent thoughts.” Falco stepped back, but let go of him.

  “I was just beginning to make some progress here when you showed up,” Perry told him in a low voice. “I do not intend to expend this much time and energy to go home empty handed. I did not appreciate the interruption to begin with and I lay a great deal of blame on you for what just happened at the auction.”

  “What do you mean? What are you talking about? Your haircuts?” Falco studied his face. “I still don’t know why you are here and what you are trying to accomplish. Who sent you here? Did the Optimus send you?”

  Perry just smiled at him and turned to continue up the stairs. Let him figure it out. He opened the door and stuck his head in cautiously.

  “Angelica?” He called her name as he walked into the living room with Falco on his heels.

  “In here, Peregrin,” Angelica answered from the kitchen. Perry detoured through the dining room to come in behind the bar. Maureen was sitting on one of the barstools with her hands tucked under her legs swinging her feet back and forth. She had an elated look on her lovely face.

  He stopped short and the Primus bumped into him.

  “Is everything all right?” He asked looking from one of them to the other.

  “Yes, everything is wonderful,” Maureen said with a broad smile on her face.

  “Maureen and I were just discussing the universal element. She has some very interesting ideas. Would you two care for a cup of tea?” Angelica greeted them warmly.

  Chapter Twenty-Three:.

  “Come on Hannah, for Chrissakes!” Billy hung out the driver’s side window of the big truck pleading with his cousin as she walked down the darkened street toward her home. “Just come and look at her, will ya? I think somethin’s seriously wrong with her."

  “Leave me alone, you big bully,” she grumbled to him but did not look up. “I don’t believe a word of it. I don’t know what you’re up to.”

  “Didn’t you see me takin’ up for you back at the rodeo? I seen you takin’ up for him and then he turned on you. We’re fam’ly, Hannah. This ain’t right atall.”

  “Why’d you want to hurt that feller anyway?” She finally looked at him. “I hear tell he saved your life, you big galoot. And that’s how you pay him back?”

  “I owed him one,” Billy said plaintively. “It ain’t nothin’ pers’nal. You jus’ don’t unnerstand these kinda things. Its men stuff, ya know? Just good ol’ fashioned ass-kickin’. Ain't no harm in it.”

  “That’s plum stupid!” She spat and continued on her way shaking her head.

  “Ain’t neither. You seen Tyler and Mike, din’t ya? I had to kick their asses, too. A man can’t let people just run over ’im. They knew they had it comin’. They took it like real men,” Billy explained himself to her. “Now, come on with me, won’t you? I need you.”

  “Well, you ain’t never done nothin’ for me,” she told him. “That nice Mr. Aliger come by my house the other day lookin’ for some free kittens. I didn’t have any at the time. An’ you know what he done? He laid down under my sink and fixed my plumbin’ for me. Can you imagine that, Billy Ray Johnson? A man like that in a eighty-dollar shirt lying under my sink gettin’ all dirty for nothin’ 'cept to be nice? An’ you kickin’ him in the streets! You ain’t never done nothin’ for me. Why should I help you?”

  “If it waddun for him, I’d a never been in the creek in the first place so don’t go thinkin’ he saved my life for nothin’.” Billy went on to tell his way of thinking. “Hell, he had to pull me out. They’d a charged him with murder if’n he hadna.”

  Hannah kept walking.

  “OK! OK!” Billy drove along beside her. “It’s black an’ white with a cute little pink spot on its nose.”

  “Don’t believe you,” she said.

  “Keeps coughin’ and won’t eat nuthin.” He told her. “I tried ever thing I know. I’m ’fraid it’s gonna die. I don’t know what to do with her. hell! I do
n’t even know a decent name to give her. I just call ’er Kitty-Kitty.”

  Hannah stopped and looked at him.

  “How ’bout it?” He stopped the truck and reached over to open the passenger door.

  “Sounds like hairballs to me,” she grumbled and went around to climb in the truck.

  Tyler sat on a concrete bench in front of the library holding his side gingerly. Mike sat down beside him and popped the top on a Dr. Pepper to hand it to him while Paula Anne rummaged through her purse looking for the Tylenol. Tyler had not planned on staying. He didn’t want to waste his energy hanging around a dance he couldn’t dance at, but Mike had panicked when he had mentioned leaving before the dance started.

  “Somethin’ strange is goin’ on here, Tyler,” Mike told him as he opened his own drink. Paula Anne handed them both a set of pain killers. “That wasn’t no normal lightnin’ strike.”

  “Mike everything’s strange to you.” Tyler popped the pills in his mouth.

  “I’m tellin’ you. Somethin’s gonna happen.”

  “Where’s Carla?” Paula Anne asked him.

  “She’s still at work,” Mike answered and looked up at her. “This is her doubles weekend again.”

  He took off his cap to scratch his head.

  “You’re lucky Billy didn’t pull your good arm off,” Tyler told him. Mike had been telling him all about the ruckus and how he’d been stupid enough to get into it again. “And what can I possibly do if something does happen, Mike? I can hardly move.” He looked up at Paula and smiled knowingly. He just had to have the right inspiration and fighting was not it. She looked up at the sky and rolled her eyes.

  “You don’t have to do nothin’,” Mike told him. “You just stay put and watch. I gotta bad feelin’. Prob’ly won’t be nothin’ nobody can do anyway.”

  Mike looked around. The music was going full blast over at the bandstand while Tejas Tom’s girls boogied around with their guitars and fiddles. Kids were running in and out of the dancers and the smell of barbeque drifted across the lot from the Volunteer Fire Department’s big pit.