by Lynne Murray
Every one of them was thoughtful, watchful and respectful to me. They had come to see Aunt Bess and their eyes were on the prize. Whatever dealings they had with my aunt, they weren't about to screw it up by paying too much attention to her young niece. My aunt never shared any information about these occasional visitors. I kept my questions to myself. Aunt Bess was my only ally in a hostile world. She had done so much for me she deserved to have a life of her own.
Wade probably judged that giving me a hug and patting my shoulder was the most efficient way to keep me from falling apart. If so, he was right.
“What happened?” Sophie came up behind Chad and Wade. Then she saw me. “Angie, what’s wrong?”
I sniffled and Sophie surged forward and wrapped me in a hug. I half laughed and started to get my breathing under control.
Sophie stepped back to look me up and down. Checking for any bleeding or bruising maybe? She took in the bathrobe and slippers. “Did anyone hurt you?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Did you see who broke in?” Chad’s voice took on what I felt was a skeptical tone.
“I heard two men’s voices. They talked while they broke things in the front room. I closed the bathroom door and left the shower running so they wouldn’t hear me. I ran down the hall towards the back door and the stairs. Then there was this awful, high-pitched scream.”
The three of them exchanged glances.
“Are you wearing your amulet?” Chad asked. He stared at the open neck of the bathrobe.
“No,” I cringed to see disapproval in his eyes.
“That must be a record, under four hours,” Chad said to no one in particular. He didn’t look so handsome when he started carping at me like that. “She had one job....”
Sophie leaned back to elbowed Chad. She put her arm around me and turned to the two men. “Don’t be a jerk, Chad. This is all new to her.”
“We have to know, Sophie,” Chad matched her disproval with a frown. “Angie, where’s the amulet now?”
“On the counter in the bathroom,” I said, “I didn’t want to get it wet.”
All three of them froze and Chad blew his breath out as if he wanted to hit something. I recoiled at their unexpected emotion.
“No one told you not to take it off at all, not even in the shower?” Wade asked.
I shook my head. “No one said that.” Instinctively I turned to Wade as a source of sanity on the basis of one hug. “Are you in this thing too?”
In answer, Wade fished an amulet on a chain out from under his shirt. His had a faint inscription in very tiny print running around the edge. Chad nodded and pulled out an amulet on a chain from inside his shirt. Sophie did the same.
“Mr. Kirby told her not two hours ago to wear it all the time,” Chad said. “That sounds pretty clear to me.”
“It’s a natural mistake,” Sophie said, squeezing my shoulder.
“You can’t even take it off to shower?” It was hard to grasp this, somehow it seemed creepy.
“I always pin it up to my hair,” Sophie demonstrated by twisting the chain around her ponytail. “I should have told you that. I just didn’t think.”
“It’s not your fault, Sophie, don’t blame yourself,” Chad said. Turning to me he went back into blame mode. “What part of ‘never take it off,’ didn’t you understand?” Chad said.
“Give it a rest, bro,” Wade patted my shoulder. “There’s a lot to learn and it’s only been a few hours now.”
I felt absurdly grateful that someone was defending me. “Should we call the police?”
All three of them said, “No,” in unison.
“We’ve got to get it back. Let’s go find that amulet, Wade said. He managed a faint smile, “Not to mention getting you back home and warm.” Again that exchange of looks among the three of them.
“Angie lives a few blocks away,” Sophie said.
“On Fulton,” I added.
Wade glanced again at my robe and slippers. “We’ll take my truck.”
He led the way through a door off the hallway down a short flight of steps to a two-car garage under the building. A faded blue old Ford truck sat in the stall nearest the steps.
“Angie, you should sit up front to give me directions,” Wade said.
Chad got into the back seat with a reluctance that testified he really wanted to sit shotgun. Sophie climbed in beside him without comment.
Once behind the wheel, Wade took a pair of aviator glasses out of his vest pocket and put them on. “Driving glasses,” he said.
Chad made a sound from the back seat, but I couldn’t tell if it was laughter or a snort of derision. I looked back and saw he was putting on a similar pair of glasses. Weird.
“So those would be passenger glasses?” I asked.
“Yep,” Chad said.
“What, no glasses, Sophie?”
“Don’t need them.”
“I didn’t stop to get my glasses,” I said. “They’re back in the apartment.”
“Good that you have them though,” Wade said. “They can be useful once they’re customized.”
Half of what these people said made no sense at all, but simply sitting beside Wade made me feel calmer.
It took five minutes to drive to my place. “You can park in the driveway. My landlord hardly ever uses his car.”
“Your landlord lives in the building? Why you didn’t knock on his door for help?” Chad asked.
“He’s out for the evening. Usually, he comes back after 2:00 when the bars close. With those guys smashing things in my place, I wasn’t about to sit on the stairs in my bathrobe.” I didn’t go into how I hated to ask Larry for any kind of help because of the whole rent control thing. Not attracting attention was my lifestyle.
We got out of the car. We started up the steps and I realized. “Oh, no. I don’t have my keys or anything. It’s not like I needed them to take a shower.”
Wade put his hand on the door and pushed. “It’s open. He examined the door. “Lock’s broken. Stay behind me.” He stepped into the front hall. His hand hovered around his hip. Did he have a weapon of some sort? I hadn’t felt a gun when he hugged me. An unexpected heat rose in my cheeks at the memory.
Wade led the way in and seemed to be scanning the place. It was deadly silent. The only sound was the shower still running.
Wade led the way down the hall and froze. Just outside the bathroom door was a tiny woman with a face as wrinkled as a withered apple. She wore all black—dress, sweater and old lady running shoes. She crouched against the wall with her hands folded over each other. Her beady black eyes tracked our progress down the narrow hall.
“I could have sworn I heard two men throwing things around,” I whispered.
“They are gone,” the woman said in a shuddery voice.
“Thank you, Grandmother,” Wade said.
The woman gave a slight nod and advanced toward us faster than a sprinter, without the slightest sign of extreme age. I moved aside to let her pass, but she scuttled up the wall like a bug. I gasped, leaped back out of her way and hit the opposite wall. She continued past us. I turned to stare as she returned to the floor and vanished outside slamming the front door behind her.
“Wha.....” was all I could manage to stammer.
Chad shook his head and put a finger to his lips. “Shhhh.”
Wade put his hand on the bathroom door and motioned me to stand aside. He tried to turn the handle and push the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Is there any way you could lock the bathroom door behind you when you left?”
“No. It locks from the inside.”
“Chad?”
Chad smirked and tried to open the bathroom door. He didn’t seem surprised that it didn’t work.
“Angie, you try it,” Wade said.
Both men stood aside while I put my hand on the doorknob. It turned easily and I opened the door. The amulet was still there on the bathroom sink.
I turned off t
he shower. The water was now cold, the apartment utterly silent.
“Put it on now,” Chad demanded.
I put the chain over my head, the amulet landing cold on my bare skin. I felt suddenly aware of being naked under the robe. “Excuse me while I get dressed.” I went into my bedroom, closed the door in their faces and pulled my clothes back on.
When I came out, they had moved a few feet down the hall.
“Never take that amulet off,” Chad said. “Not for any reason.”
“All you guys wear these things 2/7?”
“We don’t ever take it off,” Wade said. “It’s nearly indestructible, waterproof, just dry it on a towel,”
“What the heck is it made of? It looks like it would get damaged by water.”
“Nope.” Wade shook his head. “Nothing seems to affect it. I don’t know where the material comes from, possibly not Earth.”
“What?” They seemed so matter-of-fact with this extraterrestrial stuff.
“Mr. Kirby will explain tomorrow. Just wear it till then,” Wade’s tone was gentle. “Seriously, for your own protection.”
“What about that old lady in black?” I was still shocked by her scuttling up the wall.
“You were lucky she showed up. That high-pitched scream you heard. Her species has a spectacular variety of battle cries.” Wade smiled ever-so-slightly. “That must have been what spooked out your burglars,”
“I get that. It was terrifying. I’d run from her—wait, what do you mean ‘her species’?”
“She’s on our side,” Sophie said.
“There are sides? I didn’t sign up for a battle.” The words came out harsher than I had planned.
“Actually you did,” Chad said. “Don’t you remember talking to Mr. Kirby and signing an application?”
“It didn’t say anything about people breaking into my house and finding a weird old lady running along the wall like a bug.”
“Shh! Never use that word in front of Grandmother.” Sophie looked around as if worried the old lady was listening. “She has very keen hearing. That’s kind of an insult.”
“Is she your grandmother?” I asked, including Sophie in the question. The old lady didn’t look related to any of them.
Sophie laughed, “No. That’s just a title she got on her travels. We all call her Grandmother.”
“This is not a good time to explain things,” Wade said. “We need to notify Mr. Kirby.”
“Now? It’s nearly midnight. I’ve got to work tomorrow and I need a locksmith.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “You don’t have to stay. It will probably take a while.” I found one on nearby and called the 24-hour number.
While I was talking to the locksmith, Wade pulled out his cell phone and hit a button to call. “Mr. Kirby, there’s been a break-in at our newest recruit’s home. Grandmother scared the burglars off. Ah, so she told you. Okay, Angie will be there to talk to you after work tomorrow.”
“We’ll pick you up around six,” Chad said.
I hung up. “The locksmith’s on the way. They’re over on Geary. The guy said he’d be here within half an hour.”
“We don’t mind waiting,” Wade answered for them.
Sophie and Chad nodded in agreement. “It wouldn’t hurt to check the rest of the apartment and see if anything was missing,” Chad added.
The other rooms were untouched. We went back to the front room. The burglars had tossed around some of the books, forced the lock on the old roll-top desk, emptied the drawers and dumped their contents on the floor. They had tipped over a standing lamp. The lamp wasn’t broken, even the light bulb still worked. They had ripped one of the cushions in the armchair that sat next to it, but hadn’t pulled out the stuffing.
Aside from the front door and the lock on the desktop, the only thing broken was the glass in a photograph in a wooden frame on the floor beside the desk.
Sophie picked up the glass pieces and threw them in the trash. “At least the picture isn’t damaged.” She handed me the frame.
“I’ve never seen that before. Maybe he kept it in the desk.” I turned it over in my hands. “That’s my grandfather when he was much younger.”
“Who are the young girls?”
“My aunt. The other girl is probably my mother, I don’t know, I never even saw a picture of my parents.” I stared at the image as if hoping to get some information from the people in it. More than they had told me when they were alive.
I stopped myself from thinking that. My aunt could still be alive, wherever she was.
“Something scared the burglars just after they started on the living room chairs. So they never got to the bedrooms. I’m betting on Grandmother,” Sophie picked up the Afghan that had been pulled off the sofa and tucked it over the slashed chair arm. She cast me a questioning look. “Is this okay? Just so you don’t have to look at it for now.”
I nodded. “It’s okay.”
“This has got to be a shock for you,” Sophie gave me another hug. “Scary stuff at work, mind-blowing info from Kirby, the Twins, now a burglary.”
“You’re safe for now,” Wade said. “They won’t be back tonight after an encounter with Grandmother. But it makes no sense to tempt fate with a broken lock.”
“This looks like a branch of the local library.” Sophie stood in front of the floor to ceiling bookshelves that took up three of the walls.
“That’s what I thought when I first saw the place. I go to the library too, but my grandfather has books they probably never heard of. And I checked.” I moved to stand next to her, glad to look away from the broken desk and wounded chair arm. I took a deep breath and felt my aunt’s presence still lingering. “I knew I would like living here when I saw all the books. My grandfather said I could read anything I wanted.”
“Have you read all these books?”
“Not even close, but I’ve read a lot of them.” I started picking up books and re-shelving them.
Sophie helped. She grabbed a few and handed them to me. It didn’t take long.
“Most of them are from my grandfather. He lived here since the 1960s. When I moved in I started reading his books—mostly history, thrillers and science fiction. I don’t know if he really got that I was a teenager.” I picked up a small round table that had been overturned and plopped the heavy illustrated volume that usually sat on it. I envisioned him, a hawk-like gaze that followed me around the room.
“He spent most of his time watching the TV with the sound off. My aunt said he was learning lip reading in other languages.”
“Was he deaf?”
“No, he just liked the challenge of lip reading. He said Spanish was pretty easy but tonal languages like Mandarin were hard. Sometimes he’d comment on what I was reading. He had arthritis and couldn’t hold up heavy books anymore. But he liked this one and when I put it on this table and he’d roll up to it in his wheelchair and comment on the pictures like somebody going through an old photo album. Maybe he had them instead of photo albums, like imaginary friends.”
“Those are beautiful,” Sophie examined the full color paintings.
“I don’t know what language it’s in but seems to be about mythical creatures.” The book fell open to a page with a painting of mermaids. “My grandpa tapped this illustration and told me, they have to be beautiful, they’re predators. Ha! Mermaids. You do know they are cannibals, Angie?”
“Sounds like he didn’t trust women much,” Sophie sounded amused.
“He was pretty cynical about everyone, not just women.” I turned the page. “Sirens. He said something similar about them. ‘Singing? Hell, yeah. Lure ‘em in and eat ‘em for supper.”
Sophie laughed and for a moment, delight entered into the room. “He sounds like a tough old man, for sure.”
“He was that. Maybe that’s where my aunt got it.”
“What happened to your aunt?”
“I don’t know. She vanished six months ago. I can’t find any traces of her.”
S
ophie hugged me. “I’m so sorry.”
I marveled at how she could hug me, the same day she met me without making me feel awkward.
After we sat back, there was a minute of silence. It felt weird to have strangers in the place, but also soothing. I liked these people, even though Chad was getting on my nerves. Now that I had a time to think about it, I was surprised that the two brothers had different-colored eyes. Brown eyes are usually dominant. The thought crossed my mind that they probably had different fathers.
The locksmith rang the bell. I went to the door to confer over the broken lock. Sophie and Chad chatted, and Wade sat and silently observed.
They waited till the locksmith finished installing a new lock before they said goodnight and started down the steps to go. They passed Larry, coming home, handcuffs and chains clinking and black leather creaking. I introduced them. I explained about the break-in and gave Larry a copy of the new key.
“Did they steal anything?” he asked.
”No, something scared them off. It looks like they never touched your door.”
“Oh, my god!” He sprinted toward his door. “I need to check on Bunnasaurus Rex!”
“His pet rabbit,” I explained. They nodded and headed down to Wade’s truck.
As I locked my door with the new deadbolt, I realized that not one of us had mentioned calling the police. Also, none of my three new friends even blinked at Larry’s black leather bondage and discipline outfit.
Ah, San Francisco.
Chapter 5
The next morning I slipped into the routine Aunt Bess had drilled into me from my early school days. Getting up, showering, making breakfast, heading out the door on time.
When I started working downtown, Aunt Bess often joined me at the bus stop. She didn’t go out to a normal job, but she told me she liked to do her errands early. She usually got off the bus along the line to go shopping.
My aunt worked from home. I didn’t even know the name of the for a private charity she worked for. She said they had a strict nondisclosure agreement and the people the organization helped needed their identities to be protected. All I knew was that it paid the bills and when we had to move, she took her job with her. She could have worked for the witness relocation program for all I know. It sure as hell made it easier when we had to pick up and run.