For a long moment neither of us speaks.
Finally, when she does, she changes the subject and her voice takes on a more detached, objective tone. “Fionna and the kids are waiting up by the ticket booth. Xavier is going to tell them a bedtime story, and then there’s something for us to look into.”
“What’s that?”
“Fionna got a notification. She’d set up some sort of tracking program, and her computer found a record of Tomás Agcaoili landing in Vegas.”
That got my attention. “He’s in the city?”
“It looks like it.”
“So they’re heading back to the house?”
“Xav wasn’t sure about your plans, so he offered to do the story here instead of at home.”
“Where is ‘here’?”
“The last I heard they were going to head to the parking garage.”
“That seems like an odd place to tell a bedtime story.”
“Xavier’s idea.”
“That explains it.”
We hurry to meet up with them.
As we go, I’m thinking of how in the world we might find Tomás, and also about Charlene’s concern for me and if I can change who I am enough to satisfy her, if I can learn not to climb so high without a rope.
It would mean giving up a big part of who I am, and I’m not sure that’s something I’m ready to do.
Or something I’ll ever want to.
Fred needed to find a way to get Wray alone to speak with him.
It wasn’t going to work to approach him while he was with a group.
Keeping his distance, he followed Wray, the woman, and the four kids to the parking garage and watched as the children gathered around him, the two girls sitting on the rear bumper of a minivan.
Fred struggled with what to do. His car was two levels up, but if he left to get it, Wray might slip away.
However, when he saw the kids settle in, he ended his internal debate and went for the elevator.
There were open parking spaces nearby. He could get his car, park on this level, and wait for Wray to leave. Then he could confront him and find out what he needed to in order to keep his blackmailer from releasing the photos.
Seruvian Trolls
Charlene and I arrive as Xavier is beginning his story.
“It happened on the year when Halloween fell on Friday the thirteenth…”
Mandie’s eyes grow large, but Donnie looks at Xavier curiously. “That doesn’t even make sense. Besides, it has to be continued from the last time you told us one.”
“You remember where we were?”
“Of course.”
Mandie slides close to Xavier and takes his hand. Maddie sits ladylike on the edge of the bumper. The boys stand attentively nearby.
“Well, let’s see… So, you remember what was happening?”
Mandie raises her hand.
“Yes?”
“The princess was on her way to the castle, and there was this really big monster on the edge of the Tangled Forest waiting for her.”
“It was a Seruvian Troll,” Donnie clarifies. “A poisonous one.”
“Ah, yes.” Xavier acts like he doesn’t remember any of this, but I’m sure he does. “So, a Seruvian Troll. Now, anyone who knows anything about trolls knows the worst kind you can ever meet are the ones from Seruvia. They have hair growing all over their bodies. They have a wart on the end of every hair.”
Maddie wrinkles her nose. “Ew.”
“They have ears on the bottoms of their feet so they can hear people who are—”
“Trip-trapping across their bridge?” Mandie offers.
“That’s right. Trip-trapping across their bridge. They have eyeballs in their bellybuttons so they can see people trip-trapping across the bridge. And they have noses growing out of their armpits. And as you can guess, that’s a very bad place to have a nose grow.”
“Yeah,” Donnie agrees. “No kidding.”
“So anyway, as you already know, this story happens in a faraway land where kings rule and princesses attend lavish balls and dragons dwell in the hills. It’s a land of ancient magic and talking animals and a terrifying wizard.”
“Do the animals know magic too?” The question comes from Mandie. I’m surprised it hasn’t been addressed before in their story times.
“Only two of them do. A squirrel named Travis and a spider named Alexander.”
She nods as if that clarification makes all the sense in the world. “What’s the princess’s name?”
“Maddie.”
“No it isn’t.” Maddie shakes her head. “Last month you told us that other princess had my name, the one from Pruellia.”
“Oh, yes, that’s right. This one was named Donnie.”
“Was not,” he objects. “She was a princess!”
“Okay, sure, I was just kidding. Anyway, for real, she was named Mandie…”
When he says that, the real Mandie’s eyes light up with satisfaction.
“And she was the daughter of a lovely queen named—”
“Fionna!” Mandie says enthusiastically.
“Yes. Fionna. And she was the most captivating queen in that land or any land anyone had ever heard of before.”
Fionna looks pleased and nods to him. “Thank you, Mr. Wray.”
“You’re welcome, Ms. McClury.”
As Xavier goes on, Fionna receives a text and frowns slightly as she reads it. She gives me a quiet glance, and I get the sense that something is up. However, she holds back from saying anything and lets Xavier continue his story.
“Well, Mandie had a magic wand with her that she could use to cast a spell that would knock down any monster that came after her… She’d named her wand ‘Betty’ and she’d never had to use it, but now, when she faced the troll, she had no choice. She raised it, and as he came at her, she aimed the wand at him and said the spell and knocked him down when he was only five paces away from her. She had Travis and Alexander with her—”
“The squirrel and the spider,” Mandie reminds everyone.
“That’s right. And Travis knew a freezing spell he tried to cast on the troll, but just at the last moment the troll jumped up and raised a mirror—”
“I didn’t know he had a mirror.” Donnie’s tone seems to indicate that he thinks he has caught Xavier making a mistake.
“And neither did Travis,” Xav says without missing a beat. “And the spell bounced off the mirror and reflected back to hit him, and he immediately froze solid. When Mandie tried to unfreeze him, Betty froze as well and then cracked in half. The troll laughed and said, ‘Now you’re all mine!’ He rushed at her and just as he grabbed her, Alexander leapt off her back and the troll escaped with her before Alexander could save them.”
“Uh-oh.” Maddie looks genuinely concerned.
“The troll took her back to his lair beneath the bridge, where it was so dark you couldn’t even see the chin on your face.”
All four of the children stare down trying to see their own chins.
“And I’ll tell you more tomorrow.”
“Tell more now!” Mandie pleads. “Pleeeeeeeeeease?”
“Nope. I’ll tell you the next chapter the next time we get together, hopefully tomorrow night. You know the rules.”
“There’s rules about this too?”
“We need to save some of the story for tomorrow. We can’t use it all up tonight or we won’t have any left.”
“There’s too many rules.” She folds her arms grumpily.
“Okay, kids.” Fionna rounds up her children. “We need to get home. Tell Uncle Xavier good night and thank him for the story.”
They all do. Mandie gives him a big good-night hug.
As the kids begin to climb into the minivan, Fionna says to Xav, “Thanks for not making it too scary. You know how Donnie can be.” She makes sure that’s loud enough for him to hear, and he rolls his eyes at her.