Pickled

by Deany Ray

“I think you got the worst of it,” he told me, “but they kept them overnight as well, just to keep an eye on things. You’ll all go home today. At least, that’s what they tell me.”

  “What’s the story on their injuries? Were they unconscious too?”

  “Celeste might have been out for just a little while. We think that some debris may have knocked her in the head. She’s got some scratches on her forehead. But she was conscious when we got there. Marge is also fine – scratched up and sore, but mostly fine.” His look darkened. “I told you to let it go. I told you to be careful.”

  Careful. That was the thing. A detective can’t just stay away from where the action is. I glanced over toward him, prepared to set him straight. But he looked sad instead of angry, so I let it go for now.

  “Your mom has been here too,” he said. “She went home to make some kind of soup. She said it was your favorite.”

  Oh, yum.

  “Chicken and rice,” I said.

  Alex looked confused. “And there’s something else she’s bringing, but I didn’t understand.” He looked around. “She said this room needed cleaning? And that she would bring some kind of spray? But, no, that doesn’t make sense. I must have heard her wrong.” He rubbed his forehead like suddenly, he had a headache too. My mother can do that to a person.

  He smiled. “She’s interesting, your mother. Not that I’m surprised. She raised the one and only Charlie Cooper.” He winked. “We had a long conversation.”

  Oh, no. That can’t be good.

  He continued with the story. “She tried to help me understand the concept of feng shui.” He knit his brow in concentration. “Did I pronounce it right? Your mother had an idea to help me fight the stress. Because lately, this job has just been bonkers. And when I told this to your mother, she said the oddest thing.”

  Welcome to my world.

  “She said all I had to do was to move my furniture. And I’m sorry, that just seems bizarre. Still, the way she said it made it sound so…nice and warm.” He thought about it for a moment. “How was it that she put it? She said that I would find a calming sense of purpose to renew the fire within me.” He smiled. “So, watch out, Springston felons. Once this boy renews his fire, I’ll be a major badass like they’ve never seen.”

  I couldn’t help but smile myself.

  “You really think your life will change because you move a desk and chair?” I asked.

  What next? She’d have him swimming like a fish across the yard to classic rock and roll?

  He shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt to move some furniture around. Who knows? It’s worth a try. But seriously, I liked talking to your mom. She took the time to listen, and she really seemed to get it, you know? There’s some wisdom in her crazy. I really think there is.”

  We fell into a kind of silence as the scene at the rental units flashed through my mind again. I could have died out there. The thought made me want to cry. If Alex would just leave, I could sob in peace.

  Since I couldn’t cry in front of him, I pondered the next step in the investigation. (But no sneaking into anywhere and I’d stay the heck away from bad guys starting up their vans.) This latest chapter had convinced me that Baxter and his cohort were up to something big – big enough that someone had tried to blow one of them away.

  “So, what’s going on in there, in that storage unit?” I asked. “What’s the latest scoop?”

  He frowned. “You know the drill by now.”

  “Confidential police investigation. That’s what you will say next.”

  He laughed. “And then you’ll turn to me and say, But I’m investigating too! Tell me, tell me, tell me. Which would be irritating if you weren’t so cute.”

  I felt my cheeks blush and hoped he didn’t notice it.

  “Well, at least we both know our lines.” I paused. Then it hit me. “Hey, Alex, what happened to the guy inside the van?”

  There was the darkened look again.

  “The van was in a million pieces. He didn’t have a chance. Someone wanted him to die. And that’s just what he did.”

  I swallowed hard.

  Dead. And I had been so close when it happened. Danger, danger. Alarm bells went off in my head like they had never done before. I was terrified. I couldn’t really think about how close I’d come to death, so I tried to distract myself with a lesser evil. “Alex, what exactly are you doing in my room?”

  Before he could answer, my mother rushed in through the door, the huge sleeves of her purple tunic wafting around her like bright sails. She carried a large tote in one arm, a potted plant in the other.

  “Sweetheart! You’re awake!” She kissed me on the forehead. “I’ve been so worried, darling. Are you sore? A little nauseous? Tell Mother how you feel.”

  I didn’t want to admit it, but I was so darn happy to see my mom.

  “A little sore, but I’m okay. And now that I smell soup, I’m a little hungry too.” Now the hospital smelled like my mother’s kitchen.

  She opened the tote bag and pulled out a thermos and a large bowl. Soon she was handing me one of my all-time-favorite meals. I took a bite, then closed my eyes to savor the creamy concoction of chicken and rice with little bits of onion, mushrooms and celery in the seasoned broth.

  She sat on the edge of the bed and pushed her long curls out of her face. “What were you doing out there, honey, in that part of town? I don’t understand. What did you need to store? We have so much room in that big basement that we never use. You don’t need to spend money for a storage unit. I thought you were broke.”

  “I was there for work,” I said. I didn’t even think about the undercover bit. But who can keep their guard up lying in a hospital after they almost died?

  “Well, that makes sense, I guess,” she said. “I suppose that every business needs a computer guru.” She waved a hand merrily in the air. “Oh, these modern times! Everybody everywhere just must be on-line or in-line or whatever. I don’t know the lingo of this brand new, crazy world.”

  “Well. Not so brand new, really. People have been online most of my life. But…uh, never mind. This soup is really good.” I took another bite.

  She smiled. “Which is why you girls were so smart to go into computers. You’ll be always in demand.” Then she looked concerned. “But dear, I hear that someone died out there. Do you think that you could possibly fix computers for business owners who don’t attract…such angry clients? I’d prefer that you not be around exploding cars and such. Oh dear!” She looked suddenly alarmed. “I have to clear the air.” She shivered, then rifled through her tote bag. She pulled out her spray bottle filled with sage.

  I exchanged an amused glance with Alex as I dodged her energetic round of sprays. Once she had made her rounds, she sighed.

  “Okay,” she said. “That should make it better.” She brightened when she noticed Alex sitting quietly in the corner. Alex looked amused.

  “Oh Charlie, I so enjoyed my talk with your nice young man.”

  “Mom! Alex is not my…”

  “Don’t keep secrets from your mother! I had no idea about this fine young man you’re seeing. See how nicely things have worked out?” She winked. “Something tells me you won’t need that sperm donor after all.”

  I almost choked on the spoonful of soup I’d just shoved into my mouth.

  Instead of being the nice gentleman that my mother was so certain that he was, Alex let out a laugh. Then he quickly got hold of himself, and tried to pretend he had a cough.

  My mother turned to him. “If I’d known you had a cold, young man, I would have brought more soup. But I did bring you this.”

  She rushed over to a corner and presented him with the plant that I’d seen her carry in. “It’s a healing fern, a calming fern, a new life force for your office! To help you get back your mojo.”

  Mojo?

  “Thank you, ma’am. How kind.” Although I could hear their voices, I was way to mortified to turn and meet his eye.

  Then I hea
rd a commotion in the hall. It was getting closer, until it finally burst into my room.

  “Charlie, you’re awake!” Marge hurried into the room, with Celeste not far behind. Their hospital gowns matched mine.

  “We’re so glad you’re okay,” Marge said and gave me a rib crusher hug.

  “That was a close one, girl,” Celeste said.

  “I’m so happy to see you, guys,” I said. “Yeah, it takes a lot more to bring us down.”

  “You got that right,” Celeste said.

  “Celeste and Marge,” I said, “I’d like you to meet…”

  Marge ran to hug my mom. “We’ve already met you mother, hon. Your mother’s so much fun!”

  Sheesh. Was everybody thinking that but me?

  Celeste sat down on my bed and grabbed my hand. “How are you? I heard the explosion knocked you out good.”

  That set my mom to chanting and running wildly about the room with extra energetic squirts of sprays.

  “I’m fine. Just a few scrapes on the leg and a pounding head,” I said. “How are the two of you?”

  “The only good part was the ambulance,” Marge said, looking somewhat delighted. “I’ve never gone so fast.”

  “I, for one, am ready to get out of here,” Celeste said. “They took away my cigarettes. If there’s ever a time for a cigarette, then that time is now.”

  “Oh, yes,” Marge said. “I’m ready to leave now, too.”

  “Me too!” I cried.

  Suddenly, we were talking all at once. About the explosion. About the near-death experience. About performing some aura cleansing rituals with some plants I never heard about.

  When we calmed down, my mom brushed the hair out of my eyes. She glanced over at my friends. “Don’t you think that Charlie has such a nice young man? So well-mannered and polite. And quite a body on him. That’s a sexy one right there.”

  “Mother!” I cried, horrified.

  But when I glanced over to the corner, Alex was gone. Well, thank goodness for small favors. It really was no wonder that we hadn’t heard him leave, what with the chatter of my friends and my mother leaping to and fro in a cleansing frenzy.

  “Has Alex been here the whole time?” Celeste looked curious.

  “He hasn’t left her side,” my mother said proudly. “And the whole time, he looked so worried about how my baby’s doing.”

  He really was here the whole time? For me? It was all so very strange. Hmm…maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

  “Well, that sounds love to me,” Celeste smiled.

  “Kissy, kissy, kissy!” Marge cried.

  I tried to ignore that.

  “Oh, Barbara,” Marge squeaked. “Will you read my aura one more time? That was so much fun.” She ran up to my mother, presenting herself for inspection.

  My mother studied her. “Oh, this is just delightful. You’re vibrating with yellow now. Which means you’re full of joy.”

  “Hmm,” Celeste said. “I guess that stuff really works. Only Marge could be filled with joy stuck in the hospital after an explosion.”

  Marge did a happy shuffle step. “Again! What color am I now?”

  “Well it doesn’t change that often, dear.” My mother took her by the hand, and looked closely at my friend. “But I do see a tinge of orange now blending in with all that yellow.” She winked. “Which might just mean that a new love will come into your life.”

  Marge gasped. “Those are the exact colors I would have picked. Love mingled into happy!”

  My mother smiled. “Isn’t that lovely, dear?”

  While they played their little game, I finished up my soup. My mother was a master cook. I would miss that when I left. Oh, darn it. The apartment! I was supposed to leave a check at the rental office. I had to make a phone call, make sure they’d hold my place. Or maybe there would still be time to get by today, even if it was late. Life goes on, no matter what happens.

  “Mom,” I said. “Could you try to find the nurse? And ask her when we can get out of here?”

  As my mother left, I asked my friends if they thought that they’d feel good enough to come over the next day and help me pack.

  “Absolutely, hon,” Marge said. “And your mother said we could even join in with a class.”

  “I think I’ll take a pass on the dancing or the yoga,” Celeste said. “I already got my exercise for this week diving into a ditch and dodging flying metal.” Suddenly, she looked angry. “We need to find the guy who did that. That guy is gonna pay!” She scowled in a way that left no doubt that the culprit was in trouble.

  “I’m not sure when I’ll have the energy to go chasing after bad guys again, especially considering…” I stopped just as my mother walked back into the room. “Uhm…looks like a busy week. Packing and…” I tried to be careful what I said now. I needed to be better at staying undercover. “Packing and…that big project that’s coming up at work.”

  “And that’s not all,” Marge squeaked. “There’s a panda to catch too!”

  “How very strange,” my mother mused. “I never knew technology consultation included catching bears. Oh, but never mind. I finally found the nurse. The doctor will be in soon to talk to all of you. Then you’re all heading home. Or you can come to my house. You might just find some cookies waiting on the counter.”

  Cookies? Did my mother just say cookies?

  Where exactly was this doctor? What could be keeping her?

  Chapter Eleven

  Three hours later I was settled into a cushioned chair in my mother’s kitchen. All my favorite smells mingled in the air: garlic, tomato sauce and gingerbread along with the distinctive smell of my father’s pipe.

  My mother had made cookies – enough to feed the neighborhood – plus lasagna and a salad with gigantic tomatoes from my father’s garden.

  “They grew like monsters this year,” he said with a grin that took up half his face. He grabbed one from the windowsill and tossed it to my older brother, who’d come home to check on me.

  “Hey, Sam, here comes a fast one,” my father said as he sent the prize tomato sailing across the room. “You still got that winning arm? Or have you lost the touch?”

  Sam had lettered in baseball all four years at Springston High. When they were state champions his junior year, he’d made the winning catch to get the final out. His legendary skills made all the coaches salivate to know another Cooper was entering ninth grade. But I wasn’t Sam. (Neither, in fact, was Brad.) The most athletic thing that I could do was get myself to class without tripping over air.

  My brother easily caught the big tomato (that looked so red and juicy that I could taste it in my mind with mayo and lots of bacon). I loved a good BLT.

  “I still got it, Dad,” Sam said. “I’m still the man.”

  “Which is a good thing,” my mother said. “I need that tomato for a recipe I want to make tomorrow. If it was splattered on the floor, your dad would be in trouble.” She grabbed my father’s hand and gave him a playful wink.

  “Now, Charlie, don’t get up,” she said when I tried to head across the room to pour myself more tea. “You sit down this instant.” She looked alarmed, as if my legs might break if I tried to walk five feet to the fridge.

  “What do you need?” she asked. “Just tell me. Brad can get it.”

  Ha. Would he expect a dollar? Or maybe he’d want five.

  “I was just gonna pour more tea,” I said.

  “I’ll get your drink,” my mother said as she stood up from her chair. “And Brad will fluff your pillow. Bradley! You see those pillows behind your sister’s back? Give them both a big fluff. But when you take them from the chair, be very gentle.”

  He didn’t look up from his computer game. I wished he’d turn it down, at least while we were eating. There was growling, and loud sirens. I’d had enough of sirens in real life. I didn’t need to hear it over the computer also.

  “No way can I stop!” he yelled. “Mom, this is not the greatest time. If I kill thi
s purple goblin, I get to level up.”

  “You heard your mother, Brad. Now, go!” My father took a second helping of lasagna.

  Brad loped slowly to my chair and fluffed the pillows that my mom had put behind my back.

  “Is this okay?” he asked in a tone that said this sucks. It was more like “Can I please just go kill goblins now?”

  “Move it a little to the left,” I said. I paused to reconsider. “Make it a little softer.”

  “Sheesh,” he said. But, under my mother’s watchful gaze, he did just as I asked. She kept a watchful eye on him as she poured my drink.

  I leaned back against the pillows. “And could you get me a cookie, brother dear? Two cookies? Make that three. Chocolate chip. No…oatmeal. Oh, bring me some of both.”

  My father dug into his salad. He let out a laugh. “How are those goblins doing, son? One of them, it sounded like, was about to be blown into smithereens if your mother hadn’t made you get up from your game. That purple goblin might just owe his life to the fabulous and beautiful Mrs. Barbara Cooper.”

  “You shouldn’t be playing anyway while you’re at the table,” my mother said. She sat some tea in front of me and smoothed back my hair. “This is time for family.” She looked at me mournfully. “Your sister’s moving out, Brad. Baby bird must fly the nest. Time just seems to fly.”

  I sighed. “Mom. I’m almost thirty. I already flew the nest. This was just temporary, me living in my room.”

  I took a bite of salad, then spooned up more lasagna. I might dream about lasagna when I went to sleep that night; it was just that good. The pasta was all cheesy and filled with spicy sausage. And oh, the garlic rolls! They were crispy on the outside, and when you bit into the middle, they were all soft and buttery – a melt-in-your-mouth kind of good. Why had I been so anxious to get out of there? I was sure there’d been a reason, but I’d forgotten what it was.

  I eyed the bottle of cabernet as my mother refilled my father’s glass for the second time. My parents always had good wine. We loved to share a bottle during a good meal, and the label on the bottle might just inspire a story from somewhere that they’d visited or somebody that they’d met over a glass of vino. It was, perhaps, the chardonnay they’d drank while watching the sea lions play on their visit to Cabo San Lucas. Or the merlot they’d discovered on their last-minute jaunt to Pennsylvania to hear the Grateful Dead.