Rebirth

by D. C. Alexander

  She giggled, “You know that ain’t my name, Carl. But I like it. Thank you.”

  I said “Ok, you don’t go anywhere without one of us to take care of you, Ok?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’ll do that.” After they left I checked the rest of the guests, they were all out. I’d had maybe three hours of sleep but I wasn’t sleepy. What the hell, I crawled into the easy chair and dozed anyway.

  I couldn’t really tell on waking if it was late or early, but the light was dim. The clatter from the kitchen woke me up. I got out of the chair fast but quiet, where was the shotgun; some sort of weapon, somebody’s in the house.

  Armando carried a tray and I restrained myself and didn’t kick him. I sat down and remembered the house was full.

  “Man, I hope you got enough there to feed me too, I’m starved.” I was so hungry I was dizzy. I hadn’t realized it till that moment.

  Armando bent over and held the tray out, waiting patiently for me to get situated to take it. Flustered, I took the tray in my lap; a bowl of vegetable soup, crackers, some toasted bread with butter smeared on it, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a glass of cold milk, unsteady – I don’t have any trays, this was a piece of cardboard folded to make it stiff.

  “Oh my god, thank you, this is amazing! I didn’t expect you to do this, but I can use it. Did y’all find enough to feed everybody?” I sat the milk on the floor and dug in.

  “Yes, we’re all taken care of, we appreciate your letting us stay here. This is the least I could do.” He left the room, standing tall and straight; a caricature of a butler. All he needed was a tuxedo and he’d be perfect if I overlooked the gray skin and protruding almost-muzzle.

  Noises from the kitchen indicated Megan was up as well. The phone rang. I struggled to sit everything down without making a mess so I could get it. Armando appeared in the doorway, “Would you like for me to get that?”

  “Yes, please.” I gave up and sat back.

  He answered the phone and spoke for a moment, explained who he was.

  “It’s Earl. He’ll bring your phone by if that’s ok with you.” He held the phone awkwardly, waiting.

  “Yeah, that’s fine, thanks.” I had forgotten about the cell phone and Earl too.

  Megan came in walking slowly, placing each foot with care. She sat on the couch and made it look painful.

  “Megan, are you ok? Do your feet hurt?” I’d fixed everything I could find before we crashed this morning.

  “Yes, I’m fine, considering how I was torn up. I’ll be ok. I’m worried about the baby.” She slumped.

  “I checked the baby. She was fine. I don’t know what’s normal but nothing about her is damaged.”

  “Oh, thank you! He beat me and threw me around, and, well, hurt me. I got so skinny and hungry I was scared the baby was hurt or starved.” Her posture straightened, she brightened “You said ‘she’? It’s a girl? You can tell?”

  “Yes, she’s a girl.” Armando lost his formal composure and grinned. He clapped his hands, turned and left the room.

  “Is he ok?”

  “Girls are rare.” She smiled. Proud of myself, I didn’t cringe, quite, but that was a lot of teeth. Mags came in the room and put her big square head on my knee. I figured her for some sort of bulldog but she was taller than any bulldog I ever saw. Her head easily reached my waist and she weighed as much as I did or more. Her short tan hair didn’t make her too hot; her legs were impressive, she had big gnarly muscles.

  “Mag, you ever gonna stay human? There’re things you could tell me that I sure would like to know.” I scratched the base of her ear. I knew exactly how good that felt.

  She whined and moved, wagged her tail. It whacked the side of the chair and knocked my milk over.

  “Ah, damn, that’s a mess.” She got busy licking up the milk. I pulled her away from it. “You don’t have to clean it like that, I’ll get it. Better yet, why don’t you change and clean it up.” She lay down and did that vibrate thing and she lay there naked as usual.

  She sat up and shook herself, then got up and left out of the room, totally unconcerned with her nudity. I heard Armando’s “Whup!” when he noticed her, he hustled into the room with us and carefully didn’t look in the kitchen.

  Mags came in with a mop and a bucket of water and cleaned up the milk. She stared at me till I moved so she could get the chair out of the way and did a good quick job; she knew her mops and cleaning.

  I took her back to my bedroom and got her some shorts and a pullover and some flip flops. The shorts that fit me fairly loosely were tight and short on her.

  She sat on the couch and pulled her foot into her lap and examined her toenails. I tried to tell her about my problems with Dirt; I showed her the necklace. She smiled and reached to take it. Just as her hand got to it, she looked like she found a snake. The smile faded instantly.

  Making firm eye contact and speaking carefully, very distinctly, she said “Not do this, wrong. Not trap Gaius. What, um, fear? No. Fire! Not trap Fire and Gaius…you? ” Wide eyed, her mouth open she looked at it and muttered. She spit in the floor, not a little puff either, she blew a gob of slobber and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand; she smelled it several times.

  I got up to get the mop for the spit and she jumped, eyes darting for an escape route.

  Holding my hand out I spoke quietly to calm her, “Easy now, hey, I just want to get the spit out of the floor. I’m still the same person I was ten minutes ago, don’t go crazy on me.”

  She gathered her feet closer and changed her balance subtly, getting ready to make a break “This you do?” She tried for relaxed but wasn’t doing much of a job at it.

  I sat down on the floor to be less threatening.

  “I don’t know how. I did not do that. I found this when Megan stuck me, back at the creek. You teach me.” Megan didn’t move. We waited to see if she bolted, this had her tense and scared. She breathed fast, trying not to shake with it.

  “You not do this? This bad thing.” Pale, the pulse jumping at her throat, she played for time.

  “Megan found it in the water, at the creek, while we fought the vampire. It happened when I hit the magician with the sword, during the fight, remember?”

  She glanced aside at Megan, who nodded and said quietly “Yes, it was in the water. It was a knife, I stepped on it and it cut me, I picked it up to use.”

  Mags leaned back a little and turned to face me “You promise, you …damn, shit, lingua.” She struggled, “God see you say true?” She leaned toward me and staring me in the eyes without blinking.

  “Yes, I swear to God, I did not do this.”

  “Gaius. Tell Gaius. Please.”

  “I swear by Gaius, I did not do this.”

  She asked “How? Where? You part of this.”

  After much explanation and some stick figures showing the sequence of events drawn with a pen on paper at the kitchen table, she relaxed. She wouldn’t hold the necklace.

  “Evil, this evil, steal Gaius, fire, soul, blood, bad magic, not free.” She tapped her fingers on the table, drew in the air, showed her teeth and snapped, clearly frustrated.

  More pen and ink, I drew the shadowy figure and the lines of energy and the bowl and what happened when I pulled power from Earth.

  She caught my hair and pantomimed pulling it and cutting it, touched my fingernails and drew her finger down my arm..

  “Take hair, part of you, is you. You use Gaius, not this you, other…” she pounded the table and stood up.

  Armando said something incomprehensible in a questioning tone. She jerked around to face him and talked gibberish at him, moving her hands animatedly.

  He held his hands up for mercy, she slowed down and they talked.

  He turned to me, “A magician has something of yours, hair, blood, fingernails. They use it to steal power when you call on your spirits. That’s what she’s telling me. She’s speaking a kind of Gaelic. It’s different from what I know.”

  “
Damn, how am I gonna find out who’s doing this? There can’t be too many people with pieces of me floating around out there. I don’t go around shedding stuff. And they’d need a reason to think I was worth the trouble.” I thought about it, people who had an opportunity to take something like that; the list was short, and most of those who had any access to my house or person were friends who surely weren’t capable even if they wanted to. It occurred to me that now I had friends. It hadn’t been that long ago, I had no friends, there were people I could take advantage of and people I couldn’t, and I had been drowning in a lonesome place of dull sameness with very occasional breaks.

  Sheila. The shower, the activities, she had the opportunity. She zeroed in on me as soon as I walked into the lingerie store. Looking back, it was strange. The more I thought about it, the stranger it got.

  I wasn’t the type to go to someone else’s house in an unknown part of town, strip down and shower and all the other things that happened. Especially not someone I had just met. I remembered the perfumes. She’d pulled a small black bottle from her purse, put a couple drops on her fingers and wiped it on my neck. It had startled me at the time, but I’d dismissed it as unimportant, we were in the middle of a store.

  It was her. Now all I had to do was take my life back from her. I explained my conclusions to Mags and Armando, Megan came in during the discussion and we caught her up.

  Mags explained that I shouldn’t confront Sheila. She almost certainly had the ability to do a lot worse if she wanted to. A witch lived by influencing people and events, mostly in small ways; a cab driver wouldn’t charge her a fare in a surge of generosity, a customer at the store might tip her exorbitantly, remembering it as a sudden impulse. A man probably paid for her place to live and thought he had a love nest complete with bimbo, he supplied all the details from his fantasies and desires. At need, she could be much more physical; given a token to identify the victim she could turn blood to water or freeze it, granting instant death. A really strong practitioner could force a shape change on someone.

  None of that sounded good, she was to be feared. And if I got the chance, beaten severely, broken, and taught a lesson about messing with me.

  “Maybe I could use a fetish on her or trap her in a circle...” Mags shook her head ‘no. and held her hand up. She turned to Armando and talked with him.

  Armando said “She said the woman will be shielded, watching and wary. She’ll have traps to catch anyone trying to hex her. You will have to sneak, hide, misdirect and steal to deal with her. You cannot confront her directly. She’ll be strong. She has all the energy she has stolen.”

  I’d have to catch her at work, away from the house. Break into the house. Find the token she used and get it back. Take the container she stored the power in. There should be something I could do to prevent her attacking me in the future, damn if I could think what it might be. The last time I dueled with a magician it hadn’t worked out well; then again, I guess it had, I lived and nobody had seen him since.

  Mags let Carl and Wanda in.

  Wanda said “Did you know there was an eighteen wheeler parked in front of your house?”

  Earl was sleeping in his truck outside, technically it wasn’t an eighteen wheeler, it was just the tractor portion, I counted the wheels and there were only ten of them. The top was as high as my porch roof, the tires were higher than my chest. Red and green and blue hoses full of twists like springs festooned the back of it and parts were liberally covered with thick black grease.

  Earl was asleep in one of the two beds. Beating on the side of the truck woke him up. He opened the door and climbed down blinking sleep from his eyes.

  “Good morning. I got in late last night and didn’t want to get you up.” He disappeared inside, still talking “I got something for you…here it is.” He climbed down and handed me my phone wrapped in a plastic bag. “I got the number changed and it’s unlocked, you can put minutes on it with one of these cards” he showed me a card. “It’s paid up for six months.”

  “Earl, you didn’t have to do that, but thanks! That was awful sweet. Come on in, let’s get some coffee and you tell me how you doing with the truck driving.”

  He talked fast and listened hard. He said he didn’t spend time with anyone these days. He drove all over the country, made good money, and enjoyed himself. His only worry was that he would get fat from snacking while he drove. He was happy, content. His hair stood up, overlong and tangled. His shirt was buttoned up mismatched. The damaged eyelid had healed fairly straight; his dark brown eyes looked almost black. He didn’t show any missing teeth, they were straight and clean. Tall, muscular, clean, he smelled fresh and moved well.

  Carl stood as tall and straight as he could but he was shorter than Earl by four or five inches. “Ok, it’s been good to see you man. I guess you gotta head on out now, huh?” We sat at the table, but Carl stood behind me, cup in hand, thrusting his hips forward a little. Wanda hid a grin behind her cup. I wondered if I was tickled or pissed.

  Earl overlooked Carl, “I’d like to give you a ride, Rosalee. Uh, yeah, anybody would like a ride I’ll show you what it’s like in the big truck.”

  Wanda couldn’t resist “I didn’t know you thought about me that way. It’d be better if we kept it quiet in front of Carl. I’ll go riding with you. I ain’t had no man in my life in years.”

  Earl blinked, trapped, he didn’t know what to say or do.

  Carl said “Momma, what you talking about, you can’t go nowhere with Earl.” Oh yeah, now I knew, I was tickled. I sat back to enjoy the show.

  Wanda said “Carl, you think I’m dead? I’m thirty-nine years old. I ain’t seen your daddy in sixteen years. Maybe seventeen, I ain’t kept track. Earl’s a big, strong, good looking man. Last I checked I didn’t need you to let me do a damn thing, boy. I know you wanted Earl to go out with Rosalee, but I’m putting my chips in the game, you hear me?”

  Carl’s mouth stuck about half open, I could almost hear grinding as he processed what she’d said.

  Wanda stood up and fluffed her short, no-nonsense hair with her hands, “Ain’t no snow on the mountain, baby.” She pushed her chest out and made her large breasts even more prominent, “These ladies ain’t laying down” she ran her hands down over her mall tight waist and generous hips “and I been down the river but they some good miles left on this old carcass.”

  She held her arms up and turned around, “Look at me. I ain’t ready for the bone yard.” She stuck her butt out “This ain’t bad is it Earl?”

  Earl grinned, “Ain’t bad at all. I hadn’t noticed how good looking you are; I thought you was off the market, and I didn’t want to push in where I wasn’t wanted.” He leaned back in his chair with a big smile.

  Mags was following the conversation intently. She smiled “I like big man, I go.”

  Carl dove for the chance “yeah, Mags wants to ride, she can go with you. That’s a good idea. She needs to get out of the house.”

  Wanda said “That’s fine, l like a little competition. Let’s go for that ride and we’ll see who goes next time.” She moved behind Earl and put her hands on his shoulders, her breasts accidentally pressed into his head, she gently massaged his shoulders as though she didn’t notice. “I know driving make you tense, I can help with that.”

  Mags got up and pushed her way into Earl’s lap and leaned back on him, straddling his leg. “I make you feel good, I in good shape.” She grabbed the pullover at the bottom and lifted it over her head, exposing her breasts. They were round and full, an easy C cup, and her light brown areolas were wrinkled, her nipples standing up. White as milk, she looked like she’d never seen the sun. “You like? You strong, make much fun.”

  I busted out laughing. Earl looked like he’d been hit in the head with a shotgun butt. Wanda was speechless, and Carl stared at Mag’s breasts like magnets pulled at his eyeballs, his mouth hung open and he forgot to breathe. He shouldn’t be so impressed. She got naked and showed the damn things ever chan
ce she got.

  I said “Mags, you got a little carried away, sugar, you ought to put those away.” Earl didn’t really have much of a view but he took in what he could, and Wanda laughed “I been trumped, guess you win this round girl, I ain’t going there.” Mags took her time standing up and pulling her shirt back down. “Earl not unhappy and Carl not unhappy too, Rosy, you like them? They be not ugly?”

  “No, Mag, they not ugly at all, that just ain’t the way we do business these days.”

  Earl got up carefully. “Who wants to go for a ride?”

  “Ain’t that where all this started? Never mind, I’ll go, sounds like fun. Maybe we can run by the mall, Mags needs some clothes, I need some clothes, and we can check on Sheila while we’re there.”

  Mags and Wanda and I sat on the lower of the two bunk beds in the back and Carl sat in the passenger seat. There were only two seats and the beds. The floor of the cab was higher than the top of my head. There were handholds and steps and Earl took a lot of care helping the girls in, judging from the sounds. Carl’s lips were compressed in a tight line when Wanda giggled, she said “Let me make sure Stephanie knows where I’m gonna be” she pulled out her phone and made arrangements.

  I didn’t want Sheila to see me. I described her to Wanda and Carl took her and Mags in, I waited in the truck with Earl.

  Earl checked the waters, “You tied up with Carl, or is there a chance you interested in something to eat, maybe a club or anything you’d like to do?”

  “I’d like to do something; I never get out of the house except on business, it’d be good to go out and relax a little. I gotta tell you though, I never danced, and I’m getting strange about what I can eat. I ain’t got clothes for any place nice, either. I guess I’m a heathen.”

  “That’s fine, I ain’t set up for nothin’ fancy myself. We can get something to eat and go to a show if that works for you, just relax.”

  He talked about Laredo, Texas; “the town is spread out, easy to get around, speed limits are fine, wide open all the way.” Chicago; “That’s the coldest damn place they is, snow up to the door, and blowing, the wind blow right on yo bones and freeze you up.”