Divine's Emporium

by Michelle L. Levigne

Meggie giggled. She stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Maurice, you're cute, but you're not James Bond. You don't even have the accent."

  "I'm a Fae, right? But on the one day every three months when I get to go around without wings, full-size, I don't have any magic." He wiped sweat off his forehead. "I never should have volunteered to walk with you. I'm useless."

  "Hey--" She rested a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't think... Ouch. That's got to be pretty rough. But you don't have to worry about me. Really. We'll just stay inside the library until Troy can come pick me up, okay? I have lots of research to do. And didn't Diane say something about you being interested in Holly?"

  "Not interested interested. But yeah. I want to check on her." Maurice caught the glint of mischief in her eyes. "And so help me, if you say anything to anyone..."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Just you wait. I've learned a lot of patience." He gently grasped her shoulders, poised to bracket her neck. "I know a lot of ways to make you--"

  Shadows swooped around them. He saw Meggie's eyes widen and her mouth open. He turned--and saw stars.

  He struggled up through darkness, swinging arms and legs, desperate to drive away the attackers. He had to get to Meggie. Was there a bag over his head?

  "Maurice!"

  Meggie's yelp set off a reverberation through his head like broken glass rattling around and sticking into tender spots inside his skull.

  "Wha-- Who-- Are you okay?" Maurice managed to find his eyes and get one open. He groaned as light speared into his skull. "Did somebody get the license plate of that truck?"

  "Uh ... sorry." That was a thick male voice.

  "I'm okay." Meggie stepped into his field of vision and he managed to get his eyes to focus. Why was she hanging from the wall?

  He realized he was lying on his side. He managed to lever his arms under himself.

  "Hold it," a woman said in a breathy voice. A long, bony hand entered his field of vision and reached over him. Maurice winced at new pressure, this time coming from the outside of his aching skull. He realized that the girl standing over him had adjusted a big, drippy icepack on the side of his head. When she leaned closer, he saw delicate features, pale skin and frizzy, white-blond hair, a tiny nose and sharp, elfin cheekbones.

  "Florence Nightingale, I presume?" he said, and reached up to hold the icepack in place as he sat up.

  "London Halliday." She settled on the bench. "The Keystone Kops here thought you were kidnapping Meggie, so they clobbered you. Or tried to. Godzilla Junior fell on you. Otherwise you probably would have clobbered them instead."

  "That ain't fair," the boy with the thick voice said.

  Maurice turned around and looked up, and up--and far to the right and left. Godzilla Junior was a good name for the huge teenager who leaned against the wall, meaty fists jammed into the pockets of his jeans. Somehow he managed a hangdog, ashamed expression.

  "I swear, I'm a friend," He realized he was in the three-walled shelter in the park, across the street from the library. Meggie, London, Godzilla and four other teens, all boys, blocked his view. Knowing how guilty parties thought, especially when they were trying to do something good and messed up, he guessed Meggie's friends and rescuers were trying to keep any interfering adults who might be in the area from finding out what they had done, at the same time as they tended to his injuries.

  "Yeah, Meggie told us. Just about tore shreds out of their hides," London said with a breathy giggle.

  "I don't suppose you guys want to sign on as bodyguards, do you?" He took a couple deep breaths and braced himself to stand up. Fortunately, the world didn't fall out from underneath him, though Maurice had never felt that particular throbbing, jagged sensation inside his head before. He had never quite appreciated his inborn magic until that moment, when he didn't have it to heal himself.

  "Maurice, these bozos couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag," Meggie said.

  "They were more alert than I was, and more alert than I can be now, with the way my head is feeling. I figure, they'll at least scare away anybody who wants to come after you." A new thought penetrated the aching that kept trying to drop into his stomach and create a volcano. "Hey, how come these guys even know you've got the boogie man coming after you?"

  "Athena," London said. "My cousin. She's the Internet guru of the whole town, and she was helping us in the computer lab and we kind of..."

  "They were checking out the new girl in town and managed to get information that the police don't even know about," Meggie said with a grin that certainly indicated to Maurice that she wasn't upset.

  "So they decided to jump in and help look out for you." Maurice shook his head, and only slightly regretted it. Either his head was going numb, or he was starting to feel better. "You gotta love this town."

  "We're really sorry," Godzilla Junior said.

  "Hey, better you guys than the bad guys, the way I see it." He gestured at the library. "How about we move this herd across the street, and find a quiet place to sit and plan, work out a schedule for looking out for Meggie?" He sighed. "Especially since I'm only going to be in town today."

  Maurice thought better about his optimistic response when they got to the library. He found out that he had not only lost an hour of his afternoon, but Holly had left the library and no one was quite sure where she was going. He considered calling her when he got back to Divine's, but he could imagine her reaction to someone she probably didn't remember from Christmas, calling her while he was visiting the town for a single day. Besides, what if she wasn't home?

  When he returned to Divine's Emporium, Angela commiserated and Diane made a fuss over him getting hurt defending Meggie, even if it was a big, stupid mistake. Angela made him a mug of tea with a tingle of something extra in the brew. Maurice retreated to her quarters upstairs and slept off the remainder of his headache, while Angela and Diane worked with the Keystone Kops to set up a schedule for making sure Meggie always had at least three escorts at any time.

  He felt rather proud of himself that he had thought of that idea, but it didn't do anything to soothe his disappointment at not being able to talk to Holly. He went with Angela to watch Lanie do her comedy routine that night. She was funny, and he enjoyed sitting in the audience and being able to laugh with people who saw him and talked to him and even bumped into him and spilled a drink on his leg. Still, the evening felt flat when Maurice curled up on the couch in the furniture room and willed himself to fall asleep before midnight struck and he returned to his reduced, winged state.

  * * *

  Divine Advocate

  Gina Sinclair slowed as she approached Divine's Emporium. Despite the unseasonable May heat that made her T-shirt cling to her back, she felt better already. The four-story-tall Victorian house on the dead-end street looking down over the Metroparks was a haven, from the gold and olive sign that encouraged customers to come explore, to the elms that formed an arch over the gold and olive gables and cupola. Angela always had a sympathetic ear and sound advice. Gina paused at the open gate of the wrought iron fence and got jabbed in her jeans-clad rear by a heavy, brass-edged briefcase. A familiar sensation she thought she had escaped when she stopped working for the state.

  "Sorry." The tenor voice was smooth as caramels. The owner of the briefcase stepped around her right side and walked through the gate to the front steps.

  Corporate type, Gina decided. Three-piece suit in creamy brown. Not a bead of sweat on his smooth, high forehead waiting to drip down into bittersweet chocolate eyes.

  Schwarzenegger's better-looking younger brother glanced at her, then at the stained-glass door of Divine's. "How long has this place been here?"

  "Since I was a kid. Maybe longer."

  "According to City Hall, this is an empty lot."

  "City Hall has been wrong before," Gina muttered. She knew that for sure.

  After thirty-eight years, suddenly the legality of the agreement Eden II had with the city was "questionable". Th
e community center was about to lose its lease in the former manufacturing plant.

  It was all Reggie Gladstone's fault. The town's spoiled rich boy hadn't changed, not since he had lobbied to keep her from being Prom Queen because she wouldn't "put out." She should have known his sudden interest in Eden II was too good to be true.

  She'd given him the grand tour last week in the name of good PR, but refusing to go out with him had probably sealed Eden II's doom. How could she have accepted his invitation, knowing exactly what he would want and expect at the end of the evening, even to save the community center? He'd tried to look down her shirt four times during the tour.

  If only the rainbow-streaked Wishing Ball Angela kept for the children to dream with really could make wishes come true. She could use some magic right now.

  * * * *

  The owner of the perfect bottom Conrad had bumped into followed him into Divine's Emporium. The morning felt way too hot for his suit. Concentrate, he scolded himself. He had a job to do.

  Carr, Cooper and Crenshaw needed to obtain enough lots to accommodate Wypnash Associates' new office building, designed by one of Gladys Wypnash's Gladstone nephews. Twenty stories was no high-rise, but the tallest building in Neighborlee was only six. If he wanted to nail down his bid for partner in the firm, Conrad had to find a better site for the building than Reggie Gladstone found. Gladstone happened to be third cousin to Cooper as well as a nephew to Gladys Wypnash, which was how the law firm of CCC got the job for Wypnash in the first place.

  Conrad could have sworn all the lots on this dead-end street were either vacant or for sale. He'd never even heard of Divine's Emporium until he turned the corner and saw the sign. He had grown up on the edge of Neighborlee, bouncing back and forth between foster homes and the orphanage. How had he missed a place like this?

  "Excuse me." Miss Model-in-disguise stepped around him. Her ponytail of mahogany curls bounced, beckoning him to follow.

  Conrad sighed. Those faded, painted-on jeans had to be designer originals on a gym-toned body. A looker like that never would have spared a glance for him when he was a grubby kid from the wrong side of the wrong side of town.

  He couldn't stand here like a hormone-struck idiot, wasting time when he had to keep proving the town bad boy could make good. He followed her through the door. "Where's the owner?" he managed to say.

  "Can I help you?" The low, sweet voice seemed to come from the plush fantasy creatures on a display shelf behind the counter. A slender woman in a shapeless dress in multiple shades of blue stepped up behind the counter. Long, glistening hair fell forward over her shoulders in a cascade of a dozen shades ranging from cinnamon to honey.

  He could have sworn no one was there a minute ago.

  "I'm Angela. Welcome to Divine's Emporium." She smiled, her eyes sparkling as if she knew a wonderful secret. "Anything in particular you're looking for?"

  "Ah... Why don't you take care of the lady, first?" Demanding to know why this house was here, when City Hall said this was an empty lot, wasn't a good way to start. He needed to collect his thoughts.

  The model blushed.

  Conrad almost dropped his briefcase. A modern woman who blushed when a man gave her a little courtesy? He liked that.

  "Problem, Gina?" Angela's voice oozed concern and warmth, making him wish he was on a first-name basis with her.

  "Got an hour?" Gina said with a shrug and a trembling smile As if she might burst into tears any moment.

  Angela gestured at the corner of the counter, where a tall, frosty, foamy glass with two straws waited. "I've got an iced vanilla chai to hold you until I take care of this gentleman."

  "You're an angel, like always. Just what I needed."

  Angela led Gina to a bistro table in the corner.

  Conrad decided he loved that sexy moan in Gina's voice. If she got so excited about a tea drink, what sounds would she make if he kissed her?

  But he couldn't kiss her. He had to work. Right? He was so busy willing his pulse back to normal, he ignored the fact that the table hadn't been there when he walked in.

  Angela turned back to Conrad. "Now, what would make you happy?" She tapped her chin with one silver-painted fingernail.

  He choked on the immediate response: Her! I want her! He fought not to stare at Gina and slobber like a puppy.

  "Who's the owner?" he said, when he got his breath back. This building had no business being here. Since it was here, he had to work around the problem.

  Angela held up a hand. "I know. Atomic Fireballs." She reached along the counter and snagged a tall glass container half-full of dull red globes the size of large marbles.

  Conrad's mouth burned. He was ten years old again, with a pocket full of pennies he had scavenged, change people dropped outside stores, too insignificant for them to retrieve. Very significant to an unwanted foster kid.

  "On special today," Angela said. "Ten for a dollar."

  Conrad had a single left from paying for Mr. Carr's morning double espresso chocolate at the Sipping Post. It was part of his schmoozing budget, but why not spend something on himself for a change?

  "Who's the owner?" he repeated, once the transaction ended.

  "I suppose I am. It's more a...custodianship." Angela glanced at Gina and they exchanged a grin. "It's not for sale, if that's what you're asking."

  "According to City Hall, this is a vacant lot."

  "According to City Hall, Eden II is an illegal occupant," Gina grumbled.

  Conrad wondered why something that bothered her so much mattered to him. Why in the world did she look so familiar?

  "Eden II. That's the community center in the old McGuire Factory, right?" He grinned, feeling like he had scored points.

  "Was in the old McGuire building. Creep, Crumb and Crap is taking it away from us."

  Conrad choked. He had used that name in high school, when Cooper the Elder had tried to have him sent to Juvenile Hall because he gave Reggie Gladstone a black eye. Then Mr. Carr had taken him under his wing, badgered him into improving his grades and earning a scholarship and...

  "Gina Sinclair?" His stomach dropped to his knees.

  "Guilty." She took a long pull on the straw. "Do I know you?"

  "Conrad." He swallowed hard. "Conrad Wilson."

  Her face went white, then red. She clearly remembered him, and the miserable month they had battled each other when she had tutored him, their senior year of high school.

  "I remember." She glanced at Angela. "That was when I decided the Wishing Ball really worked." She managed a crooked smile. "I wished that you'd smarten up and not need me, and you'd go away."

  "I'm a lawyer now. Guess I did smarten up. What's a Wishing Ball?"

  "This is." Angela tapped a rainbow-metallic glass ball the size of a bowling ball sitting on the counter. "Maybe you can help Gina and Eden II."

  Something in her eyes hit Conrad, like an order. Or a dare. Help her, or you're just as worthless as Reggie Gladstone always claimed when you were kids. She nudged the Wishing Ball closer to them both. "How about you two make a wish, then go somewhere and talk?"

  "Right now, I'm willing to try anything." Gina stepped up to the counter. Her brave smile sent Conrad's heart galloping. "How good a lawyer are you?"

  "Trying to make partner."

  She curved her long fingers around the Wishing Ball. Rainbow sparks danced across them and her eyelashes when she closed her eyes.

  He stared at Angela, who smiled serenely.

  Gina stepped back and gestured for him to take his turn.

  Conrad didn't believe in wishes, only in hard work. He put his hand on the cool curve of the Wishing Ball and thought about saving Eden II. It would let him make up to Gina for that disaster in high school. She was the first person, after Mr. Carr, who had ever told him he was smart, even though she had thrown his study books at him.

  She had chewed him out for wasting his time and potential and for letting the jerks keep him on the wrong side of the tracks. They ha
dn't spoken since that fight, but he had voted for her for Prom Queen. He'd taken her words to heart and had made the Dean's List every year since then.

  He owed Gina.

  He couldn't threaten Divine's, even if it was illegally there. The place meant something to Gina. I have to beat Gladstone and help Gina. How?

  He flinched as sparks tickled his palm. Where had they come from?

  * * * *

  "So, what firm are you with?" Gina said, as Conrad took his hand off the Wishing Ball and stepped back.

  "Umm... Creep, Crumb and Crap?" he said with a crooked grin.

  The rest of her chai coated his face, tie, jacket and shirt. Gina stared, aghast, and slowly put the now-empty glass down on the counter.

  "Gina, I'm shocked." A little quirk to her lips made Gina think Angela tried not to laugh. "Hold on a second." She disappeared into the back room and came back with a magenta T-shirt, which she held out to Conrad. "Get out of those wet things and let me sponge them off."

  Conrad turned red, but Gina could have sworn he fought laughter, too. That was something she had forgotten about him. He had always been ready to laugh. Even at himself. But with jerks like Reggie Gladstone picking on him constantly, he hadn't had many opportunities.

  He turned his back on her and peeled off his jacket and shirt. Gina's mouth went dry when she saw the ripple of muscles in his bare back. Conrad was buff. Not her image of a lawyer in a fancy suit. Then she saw the shirt he put on.

  "Where did you get our class shirt?" Conrad ran his fingertip along the columns of names down the front of his shirt. One hundred twenty-six members of their class. By some freak of fate, Gina's name was next to his.

  "You'd be surprised what we have at Divine's," Angela said. She gestured at a door leading outside. "You two go make peace while I get your suit cleaned up."

  Conrad opened his mouth. Gina hoped he would protest, but he shrugged and gestured for her to go ahead of him. She led him through the back of the store, out through the storage room and into the garden. It overlooked the woods and river of the park far down at the bottom of the hill.