Chatters on the Tide

by Robert Mitchell, Jr

  Chapter 14

  “We here open the six-hundred and fifteenth meeting of the Legion of Kronos Motorcycle Club. Welcome brothers and sisters,” Lucas said. “Master of Ring and Key! Is everyone here or accounted for?”

  “Aye,” Cantrell said. “Gator will be here in a minute. He got delayed by some road kill on the way in. Monty’s on the way back from Yucatan. Everybody else is here.”

  “Well spoken Master Cantrell, and well-met brothers and sisters. Is there any old business?”

  Lucas looked out across the half-empty two-stall garage at the little crowd, counting heads. One fluorescent tube provided light. Including his own there were twelve. He waited a moment, and momentarily Gator crept in by the side door and hopped onto a high tool bench at the back of the room, squatting silently like a gargoyle in the dusky rear amid the wrenches. That made thirteen, plus the absent Monty completed the count of fourteen.

  “Okay, so there’s no old business. So what are we going to talk about tonight people?” Lucas said.

  “Wanna catch us up on ol’ Monty?” Billy asked.

  “Yeah, I’d like to know too. Master of Starry Wisdom, you want to handle that? Billy wants an update over here.”

  Jigsaw stood up. “Aye. I got an email from him he sent from an Internet bar last week. The whole thing with the museum turned out to be a hoax. But then he got to tracking down a local legend about the rings, and hooked up with a guy named Jordan. This guy Jordan’s going to deliver the rings in a couple of days.”

  “How is Jordan going to get ‘em?” Lucas asked.

  “He didn’t say,” Jigsaw said. “He was a little light on green, so I wired a few thousand out of the account to pay this Jordan guy. He said he was doing okay, but he was missing home some. ”

  “He’s just spending out the account for nothing,” Billy mumbled. “Partying it up. He won’t get the rings.”

  “How much partying can he do?” Lucas said. “Paranoid little prick won’t even go outside at night.”

  Everybody laughed except Opal. “Would you?” she asked.

  “Hell no,” Cantrell said. “Not if I saw what he saw...”

  “Hey guys, let’s steer away from talking about, you know... that. We might call down some really negative karma, okay?” Tonya said.

  “Good point,” Billy acknowledged. “I was just messin’ around.”

  “Well at least it looks like we’re going to get the rings now. And there’s no way the Disciples of Demeter can counteract Harold’s powers without them. Right?” Lucas asked.

  “I don’t think they can,” Tonya said. “The cards don’t say anything else that I can pick up.”

  “Maybe you’ll be able to pick up more when you can actually hold the rings in your hands. Okay you jokers, now that we got the parliamentary crud out of the way, let’s get down to it. Harold’s missing. Damn bike broke down last night, we didn’t get back until after dark, and he was gone. Any ideas?”

  “Probably went out for drink,” Billy said. “He’ll come staggering back before long.”

  “Alright, that’s enough of the funny stuff. This is serious. There wasn’t no evidence of a fight. Not much to go on here,” Lucas said.

  “Send The Gator after him,” Cantrell suggested.

  “Gator’s sniffer makes a bloodhound blush,” Billy said.

  Lucas looked down and spoke slowly. “That’s the obvious thing to do, and we probably will. But what if he just wanted to go out? What if nothing’s wrong? Don’t seem right tracking him down like a dog.”

  “Right or wrong, we have to do it,” Cantrell replied.

  “Ask the Gator,” Jigsaw said.

  “Gator?”

  Every bit of side-chatter stopped, and from their lawn chairs and piles of tires they craned their necks and looked back at Gator on his perch among the wrenches. He slid from the bench like a serpent and went out the side door. Lucas followed him, stopped and looked back at the group with his hand on the knob. “Billy, he’s sittin’ on the back of your bike. I guess that means he’s ready. If the two of you find him...”

  “Gator will find him.” Billy stated.

  “...call me from your cell. Do not let Harold know you are following him. The rest of you, it’s time to get to work. How did everybody do this week?”

  “I had rough spot,” Missy said. “I ran into a friend at the laundry mat, he and I used to get high together, and it was a trigger, you know?”

  “Did you slip, or just fall?” Lucas asked.

  “I didn’t use, but I wanted to.”

  “How did you stop yourself?”

  “Step 8,” she said. “I thought about little Pluto, and didn’t want to have add another thing to the list of things I’ve done that hurt him.”

  “That’s great. Group, what do you think about Missy’s experience?” Lucas asked.

  “I think she shoulda gone back to the start and admitted to herself that there’s a greater power that can help her,” Ed said. “I do that every day.