Keeper: 37

37.


Jim and Jamie returned to the library to finish their drinks while Del readied one of the guest rooms for Jim. Jamie’s apologies for the extra work were waved off and Del seemed content with the extra work.



“God knows it is more in his line of work than assassination attempts,” Jamie muttered as he seated himself. Jim chuckled.



“Still not used to having staff?”he asked with a grin.



“Not so much,” Jamie admitted. He grinned back at his friend. “So you had minor car trouble, huh? What is your wife going to say when she actually sees the car?”



“I plan on having it towed directly to the garage and only telling her the real damage when I am safe and sound in front of her.”



“She doesn’t like you coming out here?”



“She has no problems with the daytime visits,” Jim said with a sigh. “It is the night time ones that bother her. After all the bad things don’t come out until dark.”



“So you aren’t supposed to meet with the fay of the dark?”



“I am as long as it is in my office where I’m safe.”



“Because your office has mystical magical life saving properties?” Jamie asked with a chuckle.



“Something like that,” Jim said. “I think it is the fact that it is a modern office building and ancient bad things can’t hurt you in a modern setting. Although some of my late night sessions caused issues. Her sister was getting a divorce because of an affair that started with him working late.”



“Ah,” Jamie said. “I can see how that might be suspicious.”



“Well until she decided to surprise me on one of the nights I was working late. I’m not sure if she or the troll whose will I was augmenting was more surprised.” Jamie laughed and Jim smiled at the memory. “He was quite gracious about it. Later he made several comments that I thought might be inappropriate.”



“Was he trying to eat her or steal her away?” Jamie asked, wondering as with trolls there was always a chance of both.



“Neither actually,” Jim said. “All his comments were about the way she smelled. I finally got a bottle of the perfume she wore as a gift for him, hoping to end the comments. He was thrilled. He kept spraying it in the air and sniffing. I had to air out the place for three days to get rid of the smell. I also asked my wife to change perfumes.”



“So he didn’t get any ideas about taking her home and hanging her up like an air freshener?”



“Something like that. Besides after the office, I couldn’t actually stand the smell any more. I still think there is some residual in the air vents.”



“Will she worry about you out here tonight?”



“Not so much,” Jim said. “As long as she doesn’t think something attacked me it should be fine. I plan on telling her it was Michael that did the damage”



“And that next time you come out here you can call so we can open the gate for you,” Jamie added.



“That too.”



“Although I am pleased to see you are still able to jump a gate when you have to. Not as well as you could in High school of course.”



“Well I didn’t have Mr. Anderson’s bull as incentive this time,” Jim answered. They slipped into reminiscing until Del informed them that Jim’s room was ready. Jim stood and stretched.



“That would be my cue for bed,” Jim said. “I’ll call the tow truck first thing in the morning.” Jim left and Jamie stared into the firelight for a few minutes more.



‘Still need to deal with the Lune Muertos,’ he thought staring at the flickering flames and sipping the last of his drink. ‘The replacement books should arrive in a few days. That will at least give me some references for Albe’s notes.’ With a sigh he finished his drink and went to his room. He could feel the beginnings of a headache but figured it was more of Albe’s years of lessons unraveling and demanding attention then anything migraine based.



If Jamie had wished to sleep dream free he would have been sorely disappointed. His dreams were full and filled with more detail than even his vivid imagination could call up. He woke up feeling as though he had spent the night cramming for finals.



“At least there were no werewolves,” he thought blearily. Jamie showered and dressed and went down to the kitchen, noticing that the guest room Jim had occupied the night before had it’s door open and was empty. As he descended into the kitchen he heard Jim’s voice. He also smelled bacon and that made him smile. He may not be used to ordering staff around but he was rapidly coming to adore having breakfast ready for him when he woke.



‘And not just any breakfast,’ he thought his eyes going wide at the selection placed on the table. Del had decided to go all out it seemed since they had company. There was bacon and biscuits, pancakes and eggs, oatmeal, coffee, tea and Juice. There was even a bowl of fruit that seemed to gleam with radiance in the early morning light. Jim was talking on his cell phone and from what Jamie could hear, arranging a tow truck to pick up both him and his car. Jim completed his call and hung up as Jamie took a seat at the table. Despite having not packed for an overnight visit, Jim looked pressed and ready for the office. Jamie shook his head. He had never understood people who woke up ready to go instead of blearily fumbling for the coffee. There was something unnatural about it.



“Well the tow truck should be here in about two hours,” Jim said. Jamie gestured towards one of the empty seats.



“It will take us at least that to do this food justice,” Jamie said. “Del this food looks amazing.” Del joined them at the table.



“It’s nice to have a bit of normal for a change,” Del said. Silence reigned as the three of them began to eat. Eventually they all leaned back satisfied.



“That was real bacon,” Jim said almost dreamily.



“As opposed to faux bacon,” Del asked.



“At home we switched to turkey bacon . It’s healthier but god I miss the real stuff.” Jamie laughed and poured himself some more coffee while Del huffed at the indignity of turkey bacon. Jamie had the feeling that any kind of food substitution would be viewed as a sacrilege by the brownie. They sipped their coffee, digesting enjoying the morning for a while. At length Jim shuffled his feet.



“Well as delightful as this is,” he began. “I should get up to the gate to meet the tow truck.”



“I’ll go with you,” Jamie said. “I want to see if there are any traces of what attacked Michael. Besides, a good bit of walk will help me burn off some of this breakfast. Are you interested in joining us Del?”



“No you two go on,” he said shooing them out of the back door. As they left they heard him mutter something about turkey bacon under his breath.



“I have the feeling better heart health through leaner meats is not on his repertoire?” Jim asked as they walked, eyes alert to disturbances on the ground.



“I doubt it,” Jamie said. “Of course Albe did live to 98 eating like this and didn’t exactly go out with heart failure.” His eyes scanned the ground. “Considering we had a large group in the yard last night and there wasn’t a single footprint left in the dirt, I doubt we are going to find anything.”



“Unless it was something purely natural like a dog or an angry wombat,” Jim said.



“An angry wombat?”



“I’m sure wombats get angry,” Jim said. “And I can’t imagine there are many creatures out there that actually like Michael.”



“There is that.”



“You know I was kidding about the werewolf last night.”



“I know,” Jamie told him. There was a stretch of silence, filled only by the sound of their feet crunching on the gravel.



“There aren’t werewolves are there?” Jim asked.



“I don’t know,” Jamie replied. “But as last week I would have told you there were no such things as trolls and fairies and now I know several by name I’m not willing to take anything for granted.”



“Shit,” Jim said softly.



“Yeah,” Jamie said with a sigh. They reached the gate, seeing no sign of anything that might have attacked Michael. Jim scrambled over the gate and Jamie laughed.



“What?” He asked. “I know I’m not the most graceful man in the world but I don’t think it was that funny.” Jamie held up his keys.



“I was planning on unlocking it for you.” Jamie unlocked the gat, swung it open wide enough for himself to pass and stepped through. He hooked the lock back in the gate but didn’t clamp it shut as he knew he would be going back through once Jim left. The lock in the gate just kept it from swinging wide.



“Oh,” Jim said a sheepish look across his face. “Well I needed the exercise.” Jamie leaned against the gate. Around them birds sung and they could hear squirrels scampering and chattering their way through the trees in their race against winter. The tree limes shifted in a light breeze and there was not a cloud to mar the bright blue of the sky. It was going to be a beautiful day. In contrast Jim’s car looked like it belonged in the aftermath of an urban war zone. All of the windows were spider webs of glass and the tires had leaked enough air that the rims looked like they were resting in small black pools. The car’s hood was completely concave. Somehow the damage looked worse than it had on film.



“Everything looks better in black and white,” Jamie said as the old song began to play in his head. In the bright morning the beaten car looked almost obscene.



“Insurance is going to be fun,” Jim said. His mouth was compressed into a thin line.

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said.



“Not your fault,” Jim said crisply.



“Even so. I’m sorry it happened.”



“Long as you don’t think your responsible.” They were saved from further conversation by the rumbling arrival of the tow truck. After a few surprised comments the two men who came with the truck, got down to work loading the vehicle on the flat bed, with Jamie and Jim doing their best to stay out of the way. When they were done, Jim joined them in the cab of the truck. He waved to Jamie as they took him and his beaten car back to Centerville. Jamie returned to the other side of the gate, making sure it was locked and tugging twice on it to check. He started on the path back to the house , still vaguely looking for signs of anything that might have attacked Michael. He was stopped by the sound of a giggle coming from the side of the gravel drive. He stopped and turned to study the area he thought the giggle had come from. Hidden in the shadows he saw three fairies, doing their best to hide behind the winter bare branches. Their jewel toned wings looked like flowers, out of season.



“Good morning ladies,” he said with a smile. “Lovely day isn’t it?” Slowly the three fairies slid from hiding and fluttered towards him. One seemed to flutter in the front with the other two hiding shyly behind. She had a brown short and pants on with some sort of braded belt around her waist. A sword hung from the belt and to Jamie’s eyes it looked rather sharp.



‘Might not be able to cut out my heart but she could definitely blind me,’ he thought. The lead fairy’s hair kept blowing into her eyes as though she had forgotten to get it cut recently. As he often had the same problem, he found he had some sympathy for the woman.



“Good morning Keeper,” the lead fairy said with a slight bob of her head. Her light voice was almost lost on the breeze. “I am known as Denas of the Hestwalana line and our Chieftain requires your assistance.”