“I’m here to see K. Goldberg,” Barbara said, her wide and staring eyes starting to glaze over. “I’m a big fan. Well, a fan. I heard she was going to be at this con and I decided to come get a couple of books signed.”
“Really?” Mandy said, turning around. “Hey, Kay? Fan here.”
“Excuse me?” Barb said, looking past Mandy’s shoulder. At the base of the stairs was a group consisting of two women and a man. The man was heavyset and had the look of a laborer. His clothing was worn and not particularly expensive to start with and he was wearing an old field jacket. One of the women was about Barbara’s height and age, slightly plump with a pleasant face and brown hair. The other was short, slender to the point of emaciation and much older, maybe in her sixties, with bright red-brown hair. All three were smoking, the man and taller woman holding beer bottles and the older woman what looked very much like a Mimosa.
All three looked over at Mandy at the interruption but the older woman was facing Barb as she looked up. She gave Barbara the fastest appraisal she’d ever experienced, starting at the shoes and working up to Barb’s face and hair. And her face was… hard and closed as she did it. Then it cleared, so fast that Barbara wondered if she’d really seen what she thought she saw.
“This is Barb,” Mandy said, going over to the group. “Kay, she’s a fan of your books,” the woman continued, gesturing at the older woman.
“Always a pleasure to meet a reader,” the older woman said in a soft Southern accent. Her face now had an expression of real pleasure as she held out a soft hand.
“Barb’s a homemaker,” Mandy continued. “And this is my old man, Norm, and this is Ruby, she’s the co-chair,” she said, introducing the other two.
As Barb expected, Norm’s hand was rough from work. Ruby gave her a smile that was wary and Barbara couldn’t figure out why.
“What is a… co-chair?” Barb asked.
“Con co-chairman,” Ruby said, regarding her levelly. “One of the two people running the con. I take care of dealing with guests and con-goer problems and my partner, Bill, handles operations and the con staff.”
“Oh,” Barbara said, blushing. “I understand. I’ve had to run some things, not this big. I can imagine the headaches. You’ve done an outstanding job; it’s a very well run con from what I’ve seen. It must have taken a lot to time on your part to do all the planning.”
“Thank you,” Ruby said, her brow furrowing. She seemed to be looking for something in the words besides graciousness and not finding it. Possibly to her chagrin.
“Somehow I hadn’t expected… uh, a big author to be just standing around talking out in the cold, Ms. Goldberg,” Barb said, looking at Goldberg.
“Call me Kay,” Goldberg replied, smiling and ducking her head shyly. “Everyone does.”
“Do you write full time?” Barbara asked, not sure what you asked a writer.
“Yes, but not mysteries,” Kay answered in a soft voice, ducking her head again. “I also write for the newspaper in Charlotte and I do some radio work.”
“Well, you certainly have a lovely voice,” Barb said, smiling.
“Tell her what else you do, come on,” Mandy said, grinning.
“Oh, Mandy,” Kay said, shaking her head.
“She writes football columns for the paper,” Ruby interjected, smiling at the slight woman. “And she does color commentary for Clemson.”
“Really?” Barbara asked, her eyes widening. “What an… That’s just delightful. I wish my husband could meet you. You’d probably have a lot to talk about; he’s a tremendous Ole Miss fan.”
“I’d rather talk mysteries,” Kay replied, shrugging. “At least here. I enjoy football but it’s good to get away sometimes. You’re not originally from Mississippi, are you Barb?”
“No, I traveled around as a girl,” Barbara said, her forehead furrowing slightly. “My father was what’s called a Foreign Area Officer. They go to embassies.”
“What branch?” Ruby asked.
“Air Force,” Barb said, looking at her in puzzlement. It was a lamentable fact that very few people she knew had much knowledge of the military.
“I was Air Force,” Ruby said, nodding. “An SP. So was my ex, in the Force that is. He was a bomber pilot.”
“So was my dad before he was an FAO,” Barbara replied, smiling. For a former military brat, finding even one veteran in a group like this was a relief. In a way, the military was a very extended family and she warmed to Ruby immediately.
“I was in the Marines,” Norm interjected.
“So was I,” Mandy added. “That’s where I met my ex. I met Norm later, thank the Goddess. He was a sending, I think I would have died if I hadn’t met him.” She grinned at the man who shrugged and smiled sheepishly. It was apparent who the big talker was in the twosome.
“I think this is as many military people as I’ve met since the last time I was at my dad’s house,” Barb said, grinning. “What about you Miz Goldberg?”
“I know a lot about the military,” Kay answered. “And please call me Kay. Mandy said you are a homemaker? Children?”
“Three,” Barbara said, sighing. “One of them, fortunately, old enough that she can do for her father. Mark’s never learned to so much as cook. Except grilling, of course.”
“All men can grill,” Mandy said. “It’s like something genetic. Get them around fire and they just have to cook something on it. But if you ever go to a Sabbat gathering you’ll find out how much you really can do on a fire. Norm’s great at cooking over a fire but I was at one where a lady held a full formal high tea, all of it cooked on fires. And it was perfect. She even had scones if you can believe it. I almost took Cheryl and I suppose I should have she would have, learned something from it. Actually, what with everyone who was sky clad probably taking a fourteen-year-old who already has a C cup chest wouldn’t have been a good idea. What did I ever do to deserve a daughter that has a C cup chest at fourteen? It’s not like I was a C cup when I was fourteen. She thinks it’s funny and so are boys and the way you can twist them around your finger. She keeps saying that she’s going to suck all their brains out with flying squids and make them her minions. I don’t know why it’s flying squids but she’s fixated on that. And taking over the world. She thinks girls should think big. I told her minions aren’t going to do you any good if all they can do is stare at your chest but she wouldn’t listen. But my ex has custody and I wasn’t about to try to explain it to him, he thinks Wicca is of the devil. Apparently wife beating is just fine by Jesus Christ — Oh, sorry!” she cut off, looking at Barbara.
“Christ is often used as an excuse for evil,” Barb said, waggling her head from side to side. “I personally believe in the rule that a man is the master of the house and the woman’s place is to obey. Up to a point and that point is when the actions are outside of Christian duty. The Old Testament has very little to suggest that a woman shouldn’t allow herself to be beaten. But the foundation of Christianity is not the Old Testament, it is the New, the words of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And Christ was a man of peace who raised up even the fallen women. He was, assuredly, never a wife beater. And any man who raises his hand to a woman in anger is no Christian.”
“We get all sorts of trouble from Bible thumpers,” Mandy said, shaking her head. “I mean, so I read tarot, what’s wrong with that? It’s like they think we’re the Devil incarnate and they don’t even know what the Devil really is. I mean, the Christian symbology for the Devil is the Horned God who wasn’t evil at all, he was just a fertility spirit. Sometimes human sacrifices would be made to him but that was the ritual and it’s no different than transubstantiation if you think about it. Both of them involve human sacrifice and at least the worshippers of the Horned One didn’t eat their victims. Well, not usually and not in the later worship. By the time Christianity ran into the worship of the Horned One most human sacrifice had been eliminated which, let me tell you, really pissed the old guy off. But the Devil didn’t have anything to do with the Horned One. He’s just a modification of the shedim Shaitan. And Wicca doesn’t derive its powers from either the shedim or the Horned One though some call on the Horned One but I think that’s all about fertility, not that Norm and I have any problems in that regard but thank the Goddess he’s not like my ex. I wish he’d get sacrificed to the Old Gods. But they’d probably spit his soul back out.”