A Tale of Two Tricksters

by Debbie Newcomb

  “Of course, brother,” Luke replied sarcastically. “Anything for you.”

  “We’ve got to go,” Jenn thought at Julie. They both quickly but quietly moved away from the door and back into the big cave. “Let’s look at Achi,” Jenn thought at Julie. “The table’s too far.”

  Jenn very carefully pet Achi’s head. After Jenn’s fingers had left, Achi shook herself and preened her chest. Small, metal feathers fell to the floor.

  “Her beak must be strong,” Julie said.

  “Luke never told me what they do when she molts,” Jenn said.

  “We use a rolling magnet and a lot of patience,” Luke said from behind them.

  “Where did you go?” Jenn asked.

  “My family is in town and I had to take care of something,” Luke said.

  “Your family?” Julie asked. “Do they live here?”

  “No, they mostly stay in the old country,” Luke said, with a slight smile.

  “It must be hard being so far away,” Julie commiserated.

  “That’s actually part of the reason I came here,” Luke said with a tight smile. “I’m the black sheep of the family, if you can even call it a family.” He looked at Jenn. “So, how did you and Julie do?”

  “Jenn managed to hide her mind,” Julie answered with a smile.

  “Ah, good,” Luke said. “Only someone with magic can do that, you know,” he said to Jenn.

  Jenn sighed. “I have yet to see this “magic” I have do anything for me.”

  “Ah, so whatever brought you back to me to talk about magic was a bad thing. I had wondered about that. Do you need my help setting it right?” He put a little emphasis on the last few words.

  Jenn stiffened. Her mind went back to a dinner conversation with her parents a few days ago. Apparently, Perdita had broken her arm when climbing somewhere she shouldn’t have been. The doctors were having a lot of trouble setting it right because she kept compulsively climbing with it. Luke had used the exact phrase Leah had when talking about it. “How does that bastard know?” Jenn thought. Next to her, Julie flinched.

  “That bad, huh?” Luke asked, looking at Julie.

  “What?” Julie asked, a little flustered.

  “Whatever Jenn was just thinking about. Jenn, I didn’t realize what a good poker face you have. Unfortunately for you, Julie’s poker face is terrible.”

  “It’s nothing.” Julie was a terrible liar and Jenn realized that Julie was still reading her mind when Julie’s face flushed.

  “If I want your help with anything, I will ask you for it,” Jenn told Luke very clearly.

  “Feel free to. I want to help you, Jenn.” He sounded so sincere.

  Jenn felt shivers go up her back when he said her name, but she hid it the best she could.

  Luke looked between Julie and Jenn for a moment. “I think that might be all for tonight, ladies. Unless you’d like to help me finish the bottle of wine we opened?”

  “We’d better go,” Jenn replied flatly.

  “Very well,” Luke said with a smile. “Let me walk you to the door.” He placed a hand on the small of Jenn’s back to steer her to the door of the cave, but Jenn dislodged his had with the back of her arm. “My apologies,” Luke said.

  “I don’t understand why you’re always trying to touch me,” Jenn complained. Ahead of them, Julie opened the door to the cave and stepped into the hallway.

  Luke smiled at her. “Perhaps I can’t help myself.”

  “What a terrifying answer,” Jenn snapped, walking through the door ahead of him. “I would hope a man of your age would have a little self-control.”

  “If you don’t want me to touch you anymore, I will try to stop,” Luke told her, pulling the cave door shut behind him. “It is a habit, but I will do my best to break it for you.”

  “Good,” Jenn snapped walking down the hallway.

  “Do you think you’ll be able to get through tomorrow?” Luke inquired of Julie.

  “I think so,” Julie said, with a shaky smile. “Today was terrible, but I had no idea how to stop it, or if I was crazy.” She gulped and Jenn immediately slowed her stride so she wasn’t quite so far ahead of Julie. “But now that I have a strategy, I think tomorrow will be better.”

  “Good,” Luke said. “You’ve got to go one day at a time with something like this. If you want something to help you sleep, may I recommend these?” He pulled a bottle out of his pocket.

  “No,” Jenn stated before Julie could answer.

  Luke laughed. “You truly don’t trust me. Julie, if you want some melatonin, you can buy it most places. It’s the best one I’ve found for those just coming into their power if they have trouble sleeping.”

  “Thank you,” Julie said, not making a move toward Luke.

  They came to the end of the hallway. “Good night, ladies,” Luke said, smiling at both of them. “I would recommend you come back tomorrow night so Julie can work on her training some more.”

  “Can’t we train without you?” Jenn asked.

  Luke laughed. “I suppose you could, but my cave is far from other people, which should make it easier, and if something goes wrong, I can step in and stop it.”

  “Goes wrong?” Julie asked. “Like what?”

  “I don’t want to give you ideas about what could happen, but you will be perfectly safe trying to only read your own mind tomorrow, Julie.”

  Julie sighed a little and nodded.

  “Fine,” Jenn said. “We’ll be back tomorrow night.”

  “Thank you,” Luke replied. “Good night, ladies.”

  “Good night,” Julie replied.

  Jenn said nothing. Luke opened the door and Julie walked through first.

  “Jenn?” Luke asked, grabbing her arm.

  Jenn stopped and looked at him. He was awfully close.

  “I wish you would reconsider my offer. I could be a great one-on-one teacher for you.”

  Jenn savagely ignored the tingling in her stomach and shook Luke’s hand off of her arm. “Good night,” she told him flatly and walked away.

  Jenn was fuming as she and Julie left the bar and walked to Jenn’s car.

  “So,” Julie said once they were inside the car, “do you love Luke or hate him?”

  “What?” Jenn yelled.

  “Do you love him or hate him? You’re all prickly when you’re talking to him, but when he touches you or says your name, you start getting flustered.”

  “Probably why the bastard keeps touching me,” Jenn muttered. She looked at Julie. “Why would I love him? He stalked me. I maced him so he would stop.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first person to love an abuser,” Julie pointed out.

  “Do not put me with your charity cases,” Jenn snapped. She looked away before she could see how hurt Julie was. “OK, I will admit to you that he does something to me when he’s around, but I don’t trust him, or like seeing him. He’s probably using magic on me.” Something occurred to Jenn and she tried to phrase it gently. “Was he trying to seduce you, do you think?”

  Julie laughed a little. “I was wondering when you were going to ask. I’m not sure. There were subtle things and a few hints dropped. I thought I was off of men, but I might reconsider for him.”

  “Even knowing how terrible he is?” Jenn asked, flabbergasted.

  Julie laughed. “Oh, no. I think he flirts with everyone, but you especially. He might be using some magic with it, I couldn’t really tell you, but I can tell you’re important to him and I wanted to know if it went both ways.”

  “I’m what?” Jenn asked, confused. “Why do you think I’m important to him? All I do is yell at him and he just hits on me to make me more mad.”

  “There’s small things,” Julie said. “I, um, you know I can’t help but read your mind, right?”

  Jenn sighed. “Yes.”

  “Well, you were thinking about the night you drowned and he pulled you out. When you were coughing up water and he was rubbing your back, you know he was u
sing magic to help warm and relax you, right?”

  Jenn considered, knowing Julie could see if she was lying. “I suppose he was.”

  “But he didn’t say anything about it and he moved his hand away when you moved. I think there’s something there, but you could also be right that he’s a con man. Just because you’re important to him, doesn’t mean he won’t use you.”

  “You’re quite the romantic,” Jenn said.

  Julie shrugged. “I’ve only started studying social work, but you see all kinds at the diner and I’ve heard more than my share of tough life stories.”

  Jenn took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She started the car.

  “Oh, and Jenn?” Julie put her hand lightly on Jenn’s shoulder.

  “Yes?” Jenn asked, looking at her.

  “Now I understand just how much he messes with you, so thank you so much for taking me to Luke anyway. I really needed the help and just knowing I’m not crazy makes me feel so much better.” Julie squeezed Jenn’s shoulder and dropped her hand. “I’ll try not to read your mind on the way home,” Julie promised.

  Jenn smiled. “I appreciate that,” she said.

  They drove in silence for awhile. “What was up with huggin’ and muggin’?” Julie asked.

  “Huginn and Muninn,” Jenn corrected idly. “I’m not sure, but Luke certainly has a history with that guy. What do you think ragnarock is?”

  “I have no idea,” Julie said. “I kind of wish I could read Luke’s mind, but even if I could get past his shields, he would definitely know.”

  “And that would probably cause more problems than it would solve,” Jenn mused, turning onto Julie’s street. “I’ll do some research tonight.”

  “Great,” Julie replied. “We actually have some melatonin for Katrina. She had some trouble sleeping awhile ago.”

  Jenn remembered that Katrina was Julie’s younger sister. She was about Perdita’s age. Jenn tensed, remembering how Perdita couldn’t stop climbing on things now. She couldn’t help but feel responsible, even though the idea that Jenn had done something was stupid. Jenn stopped in front of Julie’s house. “Well,” she said.

  “Jenn? I know I said I’d try not to read your mind, but… What happened with Perdita?”

  Jenn sighed. “I…Can we talk about this later?”

  “Sure,” Julie replied immediately. “Of course we can. I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

  “I’ll be here,” Jenn replied with a smile. She held up a finger. “And don’t thank me again. I’m getting sick of hearing it.”

  Julie laughed. “Then I’ll just say I appreciate it. See you tomorrow night.”

  “Bye,” Jenn replied. She waited until Julie got into her house and then drove away. It was going to be a lot harder to be so private with Julie listening in on everything. The reasons Jenn had trained herself to have such a good poker face were so she wouldn’t give away a prank and so people didn’t butt into her business. She was going to have to practice blocking Julie’s mind reading once she got home.

  Of course, once she got home, Leah wanted to know how it had gone. “Was that jerk able to help your friend?”

  Jenn smiled. It was kind of funny to hear her mom call Luke a jerk in such an off-handed way. “He was,” Jenn said.

  “Oh good. Did you need to smack him so he would help?”

  Jenn laughed. “No. It was fine.” Now that she was home, Jenn could almost pretend Luke didn’t exist. It was weird having a double life. “Is that your latest puzzle?”

  “Oh yes,” Leah replied, smiling. “It’s going to be a duck when I’m done.”

  Jenn looked at it. There was certainly a lot of yellow on the table, but she couldn’t see how it would become a duck.

  “Do you want to help me with it?” Leah asked.

  Jenn knew her mom would ask her more about this jerk if she did. Jenn felt better now, but she didn’t want to get into why Luke was such a jerk with her mom. “I wonder if she thinks I like him too,” Jenn pondered. “Sorry, but there’s something I need to look up.”

  “Doing research over the summer?” Leah asked, mock surprised.

  “I know,” Jenn replied sadly. “What is this world coming to?”

  Leah laughed. “Well, if you want to help later, I’ll be here.”

  “All right, Mom,” Jenn replied. As Jenn walked to her room, she saw her dad was staring at his laptop and typing intently. It looked like he had another long night of work ahead of him. Sometimes Jenn wondered about whether he lived to work or worked to live.

  Once she got in her room and shut the door, Jenn dropped onto her bed and pulled open her laptop. She tried searching for Huggin and Muninn. She found out it was actually Huginn and Muninn and they were two characters from Norse mythology. “What the hell?” Jenn asked. The man she’d heard speaking to Luke had to have been speaking in code about something else, but just in case it was important, Jenn read the article about Huginn and Muninn anyway. They were ravens who told Odin what was happening in Midgard, which was Earth. Huginn meant “thought” and Muninn meant “memory”.

  “Maybe it’s some kind of spying device,” Jenn pondered. There was no way the man in that room was looking for a couple of ravens. Whatever he needed was incredibly important to him and that man was powerful enough to worry Luke. Jenn sighed. “If only I had seen that guy. He definitely knows more about Luke.” Jenn glanced at her clock. She tried searching for Huginn and Muninn to see if she could find anything else, but the only results were about Norse mythology.

  Then Jenn tried to search for ragnorock. She got a bunch of music at first, but after she changed the spelling to Ragnaröck, she found something else. “More Norse mythology?” Jenn wondered. This was about the end of the world. The gods and the giants fought and everyone died, except two humans who hid in the world tree and repopulated the world. “Gross,” Jenn thought. “I don’t want to think about how their kids had more kids.”

  Jenn looked away from her laptop. It was weird how focused Luke and his visitor were on Norse mythology. It had to all be code for something. “I can’t believe that Luke would actually be able to end the world,” Jenn thought, “and he said he had caused it, so they can’t have really meant the end of the world. It must have been the end of something else.” Something else jumped out in Jenn’s memory. “Luke said he had been chained in a cave.” Jenn puzzled for a moment. “That can’t be right. No one chains people up in caves. We have prisons now. Besides, if this guy did chain Luke up in a cave, you can be sure Luke wouldn’t be helping him. He’d be conning him.”

  It was a lot to think about, especially after dealing with Luke and using energy to keep Julie out of her mind. Giving up for the night, Jenn called up one of her shows on her laptop and watched that until she fell asleep.

  **

  When Jenn woke up the next morning, she had a headache. “Probably from the magic I used last night,” she thought. Then she finished waking up. “I don’t have magic,” Jenn muttered to herself, getting out of bed. This was going to be a long day and remembering that she was going to see Luke that night just made it longer. Jenn decided to read more about Norse mythology to pass the time until then.

  She learned that Odin had one eye because he sacrificed the other one so he could learn to read runes. They were the gods of the Vikings and they were definitely centered around war, but the stories didn’t really tell her much. Thor was strong and dumb. The dwarves were good at making magical things. Freya was the goddess of love and kind of a slut. The gods and giants hated each other, but still managed to make Loki.

  Loki was half giant and half god and far more interesting than the rest of the gods. He played tricks on them whenever he was bored, so the other gods didn’t really like him. One night, Loki cut off Thor’s wife’s hair. Just because he felt like it. Loki ended up going to the dwarves to get replacement hair for the woman because, apparently, she couldn’t just wait for it to grow out. While he was there, Loki convinced the dwarves
that the gods wanted to have a contest to see which group of the dwarves could make the coolest stuff. If one group won, they would get to cut off Loki’s head, so of course Loki tried to sabotage them. They still won, but before they could cut off Loki’s head, he pointed out that they couldn’t harm his neck. Annoyed, the dwarves sewed his mouth shut and left. “Ouch,” Jenn thought. Still, because of Loki, the gods got a lot of cool stuff like a golden ring that dropped more golden rings, a golden boar, and Thor’s hammer. Loki had gotten himself into a huge problem, but he had talked his way out and ended up a bit better off than before. “He’s better at that than I am,” Jenn thought. She checked the clock and remembered that she had to water the plants before her mom got home from work. Sighing, Jenn got up to find the hose.

  **

  That night, Jenn started to tell Julie what she found out, but Julie got excited and read Jenn’s mind to see all of it. “You really like this Loki character,” Julie remarked.

  Jenn laughed. “I should take notes on how to trick people. He goes for high stakes.”

  “Yes, he does,” Julie replied. “Please don’t do that.”

  Jenn laughed. “Hey, I’m a college student in the middle of a corn field. What chance do I have to mess something up that badly?”

  “The corn fields are, like, twenty minutes away,” Julie corrected her. Then she laughed. “I guess you’re right. So, you think Hugin and Munnin are code names for something?”

  “Well, they can’t be Odin’s ravens,” Jenn replied. “I can believe in magic, I guess, but Norse gods is taking it a bit too far. Don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Julie replied. “The ravens might exist even if the gods don’t.”

  Jenn shrugged. “So, how was work today?”

  “Better,” Julie said. “Although, I did write down a girl’s order and walk away before she could say it.”

  “Oops,” Jenn said.

  “Yeah,” Julie replied. “She was very confused when her food came out.”

  “I’ll bet.” Jenn realized something. “You could work in a fair as a mind-reader.”

  “You mean a freak show? No thank you. I’ll stick with the diner.”