by Michael Rigg
I could almost see the late-night travelers on the train platform, silhouetted against the bright city lights behind them, when my vision went black. Then my numb, cold, and rubbery legs folded under me. I staggered, tripped on the train tracks, and collapsed between the rails.
My last thought was of....
~~~~~~~
"Kevin... I think she's wakin' up, love."
It was a woman's voice, young, with a Scottish or Irish accent. I couldn't tell. Then I heard a man's voice, with a decidedly more weathered northern accent say, "Watch her, Maggs. She may squirm a bit on you."
"She'll not be squirmin' on me, love. She looks to be a good ol' girl."
I could tell that last part was something of a warning, said louder and directed toward me.
I kept my eyes closed, but winced against the pain throbbing in my head and down my limbs. I thought my entire body was vibrating until I realized I was lying flat on some kind of cot. I felt the pulse of steam-powered motors as I drifted along.
"Can you 'ear me, love?" said the woman called Maggs.
I pinched my eyes more tightly closed before blinking them open and taking in my surroundings. The first thing I saw was the woman, "Maggs." She was dressed in black with a ruffled Victorian blouse and some kind of black leather bonnet or pilot's cap. I couldn't tell for sure because gigantic brass goggles covered her forehead and scalp, and small arms with tiny mirrors and focusing lenses stuck out like antenna from the goggles. The girl looked young, maybe in her twenties, and had shoulder-length blond hair tinted pink and black deep within her curls, giving her the appearance of a Calico Cheshire cat. What appeared to be a tattoo of whiskers at the left corner of her mouth added to the image. She reached out and touched something on the side of my head. I felt pressure and coolness.
The ceiling above me flapped and rippled over arching metal bands. It looked like some kind of canvas cover and put me in the mind of a covered wagon. Pots, pans, racks with what looked like spice bottles, and assorted other things clinked, tinked and clattered all around me as the vehicle in which I was transported swerved and glided. The sound of the air and engines around me, and the smoothness of our travel told me I was in some kind of aero car. It was still dark outside, the flying covered wagon lit with lanterns on a small bench behind the woman and above my head somewhere.
"Who..?" I managed. My voice cracked and I had to swallow. My mouth was so dry.
"'ere, love." The woman reached for something next to her and lifted it to my lips. I sipped cool water from a rubber-tasting straw and licked my lips with a painful nod.
"Th-Thank you," I tried to smile, but couldn't. Then I tried to lift my head and something above me hissed as if in protest. I felt the wobble of suspended tubes and wires around me.
"Oh, nah! Hol' up there, miss," Maggs said, easing me back by the shoulders. "It's too soon to move. Jus' lie back and rest. Yer in good hands, love."
"Alice," I managed.
The woman smiled down at me and seemed to relax since I wasn't going to put up a fight. "'Ello, Alice. My name be Magdalene Riggsby-Tarnish, but you can call me Maggie. The tall skinny man what found ya is me 'usband, Kevin. Dr. Kevin Tarnish of the Tarnish Travelin' Road Show."
From somewhere above me a man's voice came back, "Toodle-do."
"You rest now," Maggie smiled. "Tis late an' you'll be needin' it."
"Where ...we...?"
"We got some business up Chicago way, but we're takin' our time in case you were well enough be taken elsewhere."
I managed a weak smile. "Chicago's fine..." I mumbled as I started to drift off. "...Need to see Ray..."
Then everything went dark.
~~~~~~~
I came to when a loud clang woke me. Tears immediately filled my eyes and I winced as the sound reminded me of the blow that struck Clayton Landry, then I remembered the gunshots, the screams.
"Good morning, Alice," said Kevin Tarnish as he turned from the bench and loomed over me to check the tubes and bandages around my head. He was gaunt, pale and bearded, but his eyes were simultaneously dark and bright and framed in laugh lines. His square head was perched on a long neck and his long brown hair hung to his shoulders from under a black top hat. I couldn't see Maggie. I assumed she was flying the covered wagon. "Sorry about the bang, dear. Had to get my Hoolaroo." He smiled and held up what looked to be a common pen with feathers jutting from the end of it.
"Hoo—?"
"Hoolaroo." He smiled brighter as he demonstrated, turning to write on the bench. As he pressed down on the pen, the feathers spun, creating a soft puff of breeze that moved his hair. "See."
"You're an inventor?"
"Inventor, physician, dentist, lawyer, writer," Kevin shrugged as if he'd repeated the introduction a thousand times a day and was growing tired of it. He put the pen—Hoolaroo—down and clapped his hands on his knees. "And who are you, Alice?" He smiled. "You don't bear the marks of Property or a Corporate Ident, though I'd imagine you're neither considering the state we'd found you."
When he said that, I remembered Addy's tattered dress and realized this would be the second time in the past couple days that I woke up nude. I was covered neck to toes by thick blankets and hoped if it was Kevin who found me that he was wearing his “physician” top hat at the time.
He must have seen the realization in my eyes because he rested a hand on my shoulder and smiled warmly with a kindness in his eyes. "Your modesty was well preserved, my friend. Maggs took care of your respect and I took care of your health."
I shifted my eyes up toward my scalp with a question.
Still smiling, he reached over my head and moved around some wobbling rubber tubes and wires. "Ah, that would be the Wonderful Cranial Mechanical Depressurizer, or Wocmend, for short." He breathed a laugh and winked at me. "I know... Maggs says I need to work on my acronyms."
From over my head, Maggie called back. "No, Kevin, ya need t' work on yer names... and good marnin' Alice."
“Hi,” I managed weakly.
Kevin's face became serious as he leaned over me and blinked. "You mentioned a Ray before you nodded off there late last night. Would that be a relative? Friend or spouse?"
"Ray?" I frowned and strained to remember the name but I had no idea where it came from. "I don't... I don't think..."
He patted my shoulder. "No worries, my dear. We'll find your home or take you to a MedCenter to look after you—If that is what you want." He looked at me directly again, narrowing his eyes. "Now... I'll be going up to drive for a bit and send Maggs back to get you up and movin'. We've got some clothes here that might fit ya, a simple skirt and one of Magdalene's blouses, I'm sure." He patted me again and rose from his stool to a crouch as he moved forward.
I smiled up at him and said, "Thank you, Kevin. You saved my life."
He winked and said, "It's you who saved mine. Mine and Maggs' both," and continued forward out of my sight.
I frowned as I pondered that, and the odd look in his dark eyes as he said it, and took a chance raising my head. I could still feel the tubes and wires of the Wocmend-whatever so I didn't push it, but I was able to look toward my feet and see light gray clouds wafting across the back of the wagon and rolling green hills and trees far below.
Maggie came back and took her place on the stool. She wore the same thing I remembered from last night, but took off the goggle contraption and set it on the bench, then she took off her pilot's hat and shook out her hair. "'ere now, love, let me get that What-umpsh off yer noggin' so ya can sit up like a proper lady. We'll not 'ave ya lazin' about when there's travelin' t' do."
I smiled as she worked, feeling minute plucks and pops as she pulled suction cups from areas around my head. I don't know what the device was supposed to do, but as s
oon as it was disconnected, a felt a rush of aching pain wash over my head and settle under a bandage above my right ear.
"Lookin' like you'd taken quite the knock on the bowl there, Alice. I'll get ya some aspirin powders in a jot."
"Mm," I hummed instead of nodding. "I must've fell and hit my head on a rock or something."
"Well... Good news is there's no permanent damage. You'll 'ave a good egg on yer noggin' for a spell, but I suppose that'll drift off in time."
After Maggie unhooked the device, she leaned over me and retrieved a wide box from a shelf above and behind my head. She brought it down and opened it, glancing forward to make sure Kevin wasn't peeking. She whispered, "You were such a sight, love, I had t' git rid o' yer clothes, though I did pick you up a little ting or two in Shreveport based on the sizes I could see." She leaned close to my ear and whispered even lower. "Don't tell Kevin these weren't mine. I dipped into the show drawer to get 'em for ya. Couldn't stand to see ya in the state you was, and I know ya don't wanna dress the likes o' me now. 'Sides, she winked, I'd imagine anythin' I had for you would be too loose up top." She jutted out her chest for emphasis and I noticed for the first time that Maggie, though seemingly tiny, was rather well endowed. I smiled and nodded my thanks. I looked to the side as she ruffled her skirt. Maggie wore a short skirt, black with twisted pleats and a bustle over black fishnet hose which, in turn, were pulled over green striped stockings. She wore boots laced almost all the way up to her knees. They looked to be dark purple. I smiled and barely shook my head. "Thank you, Maggie."
Over the next few minutes, she helped me up, eased me into some underclothes, a black ruffled blouse and a long gray skirt. She completed the ensemble with a maroon sash she tied around my waist that matched the twin ribbons she used to tie my hair into awkward pigtails.
"Not sure how ya wear yer hair, love, but the piggies 'ill do ya fer now as yer all bandaged up."
I smiled and sat back on the cot. "Thank you, Maggie."
She sat on the little stool and smiled. "Now what can ya tell me about yer predicament back there in Shreveport?"
I frowned. It wasn't that I couldn't remember what had happened at the Landry estate. I just didn't know what I should say, especially if Lydia McFerran was going to pin a murder on me. For all I knew, every cop in the Confederacy was looking for me now. I decided I couldn't tell Maggie or Kevin anything. I'd have to start again from scratch.
"I, um..." I started. I glanced forward and could see part of Kevin at the controls of the flying wagon. His head was above the canopy, so I couldn't see if he turned and was trying to hear. I just looked at Maggie and told a half-truth. "I've had amnesia for a couple days. I go by the name Alice because of Alice in Wonderland. It's how I feel, I guess. Lost... Alone" I reached up to touch my bandage, but she intercepted my hand and lowered it to my lap with a gentle smile and shake of her blond and purple locks. I said, "I woke up at the top of the Trade Towers in New York. I... I'm not sure how I got to Louisiana."
Maggie chewed her lower lip. Whether she was considering whether or not I was lying or what might have been behind my story, I couldn't tell. Her large blue eyes were sincere and just as concerned as they were before and only grew wide when I mentioned the Trade Towers. She was about to say something when Kevin turned and peeked inside. "For you to make a journey across country borders like that, you'd have to have been transported. No memories of anyone? No one at all who might have brought you down there?"
I swallowed and shook my head. "There's no one that I remember, no."
Maggie made a face at Kevin, stuck out her tongue. "You mind yer drivin' Kevin Tarnish and let me talk to Alice. This 'ere be girl talk now." He smirked, a twinkle in his eye. Then he touched the brim of his top hat and went back to driving.
Maggie leaned in so close to my face I reared back slightly. She took my hands in both of hers and said, "I seen it."
"Seen it?"
"I seen what you is, Alice of God." As I watched, Maggie transformed. Her eyes became soft and watery, pleading and sad. If I didn't know better I'd swear she was trying to scoot off the stool to kneel before me. "It's a God's truth, it tis, that you woke up in the clouds and transported to another country without company."
"God? What—?"
"I seen the mark when I was helpin' ya git dressed," she breathed. “On yer backside.”
My eyes grew wide. I had forgotten about the scar. I'd forgotten where it came from. I just knew I had a mark on my lower back and that it had given me nightmares about... all this. "My mark?"
Maggie continued. A tear formed in the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek, across the tattooed whiskers. "You'll bless us for helpin' ya, won't ya, mother angel?"
"Bless? Mother angel?"
"Tis a test, ain't it? Yer an angel come to bless those who would help ya cross the lands, ain't ya?"
I took a deep breath and bit my lip. This was the second strange reaction I had related to the three-dot mark on my back. Pandora got scared and begged me not to tell anyone, to keep it covered. Now, Maggie Tarnish was calling me an angel and begging me to bless her. I felt a vibration of fear ripple up my spine from the tiny scar to the base of my throbbing skull. I couldn't tell her I wasn't an angel, but I couldn't tell her I was, either. I trembled slightly, hoping I hadn't found myself with a couple crazy people.
I swallowed again and pulled free of her hands so I could hold hers. She gasped as though my touch shocked her. "Maggie," I breathed. I searched her eyes closely and conveyed as much sincerity as I could. "I... I'm not an angel. I-I don't have a clue who or what I am, but I know I'm not an angel."
She reared back slightly and her blue eyes considered me. The whisker tattoo on the side of her mouth twitched. "I'm telling you the God's honest truth. I don't know how I got that mark, I don't know how I got to where I am, and I don't know how I got to Louisiana." I said, figuring two out of three wasn't bad.
She seemed to consider this for a long time, then made some kind of decision and nodded. "You're a good woman, Alice, and I believe yer no angel if ya say yer not. An angel wouldn't lie... Disappointin' as that will be to me and my Kevin as we've been tryin' no luck to have a babe of our own and could'a used a blessin'."
I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder as her face twisted into a deep frown. She touched my hand there and held it as tears filled her eyes. "But maybe it's a sign. Maybe you're to lead us where we need to go, maybe to someplace we can settle down and then the Lord will bless us with a babe." Her chin quivered and her eyes watered more. I could tell from her expression that starting a family with her husband meant more to her than anything. It crushed me that I couldn't do anything to help. I moved my hand up to her cheek before pulling her toward me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight, wishing I really was an angel.
Maggie sobbed into my shoulder, dampening the new blouse, and said, "If yer not an angel, love, you've got to be somethin'. Somethin' meant for us to find ya 'fore you were killed. Surely the Lord'll bless us for that kindness?" I eased her off my shoulder and studied her tear-streaked face. Her eyeliner made black smears in the corners of her eyes. She sniffed and studied my eyes as I looked into hers.
She continued, "Alice, I'm sorry t' be unloadin' our baggage on ya. You were jus' as lost, weren't ya, and here we were hopin' against love that you'd be able to guide us..." She shrugged and wiped her eyes. She tried to laugh "I'm sorry, Alice. I am... But we'll find yer home in Chicago."
I don't know where it came from, or where the resolve got its strength, but I shook my head no and glanced toward Kevin. In a clear, steady voice I said, "I don't want to go to Chicago. I don't live there anymore."
Maggie blinked.
I said, "Have you ever heard of the lost city of Atlantis?"
Maggie stared at me, then she looked forward as Kevin dipped his head under the flap to see if he'd overheard correctly.
"Atlantis? It's a tale, a fable." Maggie said. "Has that got somethin' to do with you?"
I nodded and swallowed. "Take me to Philadelphia and I'll show you. I know someone who can help me, and maybe you too."
CHAPTER 24, “The Clockwork Carpenters”
Pandora spun on the ghoul as he entered the room. The last thing she saw before she could cross her fingers was his snarling smile and glowing red eyes. Then she flew backwards as if caught in a silent explosion. A blast of air pressure, thrown by Teivel Hearse's magics sent her spiraling backwards toward the shuttered windows. Her back impacted with the shutters and she felt them buckle out as the glass behind them burst.
Reaching out as she twisted back through the air in a sloppy somersault, Pandora grasped at something, anything to keep herself from plummeting to the street far blow. Her arm caught an iron railing and she hooked it with her elbow as the broken glass cascaded around her. Her legs kicked out and her body thumped against the concrete and iron side of the Center of World Trade, but she held on. Gasping, her long braid coming loose and flapping in the high-altitude winds like a tattered rope, she reached up and grabbed the promenade railing with her other hand and held on.
As she hung there more than ninety stories above the streets of New Yorke, Pandora crossed her fingers.
~~~~~~~
Wilco waddled out into the street, glancing back over his shoulder repeatedly to see if his daughter was following.
Then he got dizzy. His vision clouded. He tripped.
In his mind, Wilco saw Teivel Hearse enter the conference room above. Through Pandora's eyes he saw the vile smirk of the ghoul in the black velvet suit as he glared at her and said, "I'll take that hand." He knew what it meant. It meant the King of the Ghouls knew Pandora's tell. And, if the words were literal, Hearse would take off his daughter's hands before killing her and—