Return of the Trickster

by Eden Robinson

  The station wasn’t far. It was so different from the last time he talked to the police, when he woke up in the hospital and the cops had been more interested in hearing about his mom nail-gunning David than about David breaking his ribs.

  Once they were all seated in an interview room, Jared jumped in, quickly describing his long history with David. The officer asked for a few dates, details and clarifications but, otherwise, listened and wrote things down. When the interview was done, Mave asked if Jared wanted to go out for something to eat. Jared shook his head.

  “I’m proud of you, Jared,” Mave said. “You did good.”

  * * *

  —

  After they came home, Mave said she wanted to surprise Sarah by setting up the bed before she and Justice came back. After they got the large cardboard flat-packs open, Mave said she could do the rest herself and insisted that Jared eat a bowl of soup instead. She sat him down at the kitchen table, opened a tin of soup and plopped it in a bowl she put in the microwave. When it dinged, she brought him the chicken noodle soup along with a saucer of crackers with margarine smeared on them. She kissed his head and said she was going next door to get her tools back from Hank.

  The soup had hot spots, so Jared stirred it. The soft noodles collapsed into mush in his mouth. He spat them back into the bowl and brought it to the sink. He drained the oily, yellowish broth and lifted up the top layer of garbage to hide where he’d dumped his noodles. He rinsed the bowl. He wondered if she had Popsicles—he wanted something sweet and simple—then remembered that Charles the Wild Man of the Woods had given him a zip-lock bag of alder bark. Maybe some tea would help.

  He took two of the little sticks out of the bag and put them on a cutting board. He filled the electric teakettle and turned it on. Then he hunted through the cupboards for a heavy glass jug, which he rinsed. When the kettle boiled, he dropped the bark into the jug and poured the hot water over it. Red tendrils spun away from the sticks as it steeped.

  He was pouring himself a mug when Mave came back with her tool box.

  “Jared!” she said.

  He poked his head out of the kitchen. Mave stood with her hands on her hips, staring down at the daybed, which stood in the middle of the living room, completed.

  “I told you not to touch it!” she said.

  “Sorry,” Jared said. He carefully studied the room, trying to find where the firefly was hiding.

  “I wasn’t even gone five minutes,” she said, giving the black metal bed frame a hard shake. “How’d you put it together so fast?”

  “Magic,” Jared said.

  After they lifted the daybed and placed it behind the screens, Jared sat on the couch, blowing on his tea to cool it. Mave came and sat beside him and together they stared at Sarah’s new alcove.

  Either the firefly had put it together despite its intention of not intervening in this universe or they were being haunted by the most helpful poltergeist ever, Jared thought. In all the ghost stories he’d ever heard or read, no ghost had ever picked up an Allen key and helpfully assembled low-cost bedroom furniture. Dent had only been able to move things when he was mad. He stared at the daybed. It was weird. But who was he to judge what someone else did with their afterlife? Especially if it saved him from reading assembly pictograms.

  “It’s not much of a room,” Mave said.

  “Sarah’s pretty sick of couchsurfing,” Jared said.

  * * *

  —

  He heard Sarah long before she came through the door, with Justice right behind her. His ex’s power sounded like someone had put sneakers in a dryer, a steady thump, a drumming. He didn’t want to hear her thoughts. There were lines and then there were lines. He did wonder why he couldn’t hear normal people, like Mave. Was it like a signal you had to be able to tune in to?

  Sarah dropped her shopping bags when she saw the daybed.

  One of your fireflies was here, he thought at her.

  She looked up hopefully.

  It’s gone now, but it’s watching you.

  When Sarah smiled at him, he wanted to do whatever it took to keep her happy.

  She went into his bedroom and dragged the mattress out, and while Justice and Mave tidied the plastic and cardboard, she made up her bed with the new linens. Justice had lugged in a suitcase, which turned out to be filled with Sarah’s clothes. Sarah rolled her suitcase over to the bed and unzipped it. Mave came over and picked up one of the dresses, guessing the fabric and vintage. Justice chimed in with the accessories she’d wear with it if it was hers and they all trooped into Mave’s room for a session of dress-up.

  Once they were gone, Huey the flying head zipped into the living room. He landed on the coffee table, frowning, looking like a mime trying to convey sadness. He was faint, the brick red of his skin see-through.

  “Hey, Huey,” Jared said.

  Huey rose slowly, then headed towards the apartment door. He paused until Jared got off the couch to follow him. He opened the door and saw Huey zipping down the hallway, pausing at the last apartment, where Eliza lived with her mother, Olive. Ghosts still waited outside Eliza’s apartment. Huey hovered over them all then popped through Eliza’s door.

  The ghosts turned their heads to Jared as he walked towards them, and he hesitated. Their attention made him cold, made his breath visible.

  Damn, Jared thought. Shu had been Eliza’s playmate. His cousin had said that Shu was scary but that her world was scarier without her. This must be what Eliza meant. Maybe he should go back home. What could he do, honestly, but bring more trouble down on her?

  The hallway lights dimmed for a second and all the ghosts disappeared and a new creature flickered into view, spinning so fast Jared couldn’t make out its face. Then it shot down the hallway to stand in front of him.

  Eliza’s father, Aiden, was not an attractive presence. He had a yellowish tint to him, his eyes bulging in horror. Behind him, the thin, dark-red, squirming tentacle of some unseen creature wiggled through Eliza’s door, each sucker glowing nuclear-radiation green.

  God, Jared thought. Eliza must be terrified.

  Jared yelped as something touched his shoulder and he bumped into Aiden’s ghost, causing him to flicker and disappear. He turned to find his aunt.

  “It’s just me,” Mave said. “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

  “Hey,” Jared said.

  “Hey yourself,” Mave said. She peered around him down the hall. “What were you looking at?”

  “I was trying to decide if it was too late to visit Eliza.”

  “Ah,” Mave said. “Definitely wait till morning. He may have been an abusive asshole, but they’re taking Aiden’s death hard.”

  “Okay,” Jared said, following her back home.

  In the kitchen, he poured himself another glass of alder bark tea. Mave sniffed the jug.

  “Very old-school,” she said. “My gran liked alder bark tea. Brings back memories. I think you have to take the sticks out, though, or it gets too bitter.”

  * * *

  —

  After everyone else was deeply asleep, Huey returned, all sad eyes and down-turned lips. Jared couldn’t not follow him.

  In the hall, the undead crowd was still staking out Eliza’s. The ghosts glared at him as he approached.

  “Eliza’s my friend,” Jared said. “Leave her alone.”

  They ignored him even as he stepped into them. He tried to think of them popping like water balloons, bursting and dispersing into the ether. His mother made it look easy. Maybe she could give him some pointers.

  Don’t say you weren’t warned, Jared thought at them.

  Aiden poked his head through the door, staring at Jared like the worst decoration ever. All the ghosts immediately vanished. Jared grunted as Aiden blurred and then hit him in the chest, making him stumble backwards.

  “F
uck right off, witch,” Aiden said. “You and your whore of a mother. Trying to turn my girl into one of you.”

  “I’m trying to help,” Jared said.

  “You’ve got no excuse to be in her life.”

  “Dude. That is super-ironic coming from you.”

  Aiden hit him again, his ghostly hands cold. Jared banged into the wall.

  Eliza? he thought at her. Are you awake?

  The door opened and she ran to him and threw her arms around his waist.

  “Hey,” he said.

  She was tall for an almost-six-year-old. She had her long hair in braids and looked pale, eyes swollen from crying. She wore her favourite Olaf pyjamas. The ghosts tried to follow as she led him inside, but some kind of warding stopped them. The apartment was empty except for the couch, a table, and a wall of suitcases and moving boxes labelled in black marker. Eliza’s desk-sized, old-school TV set was tuned to a news channel.

  Outside the living room window, a giant red spirit excitedly thrashed its eight arms when it saw Jared. Its eyes glowed gold. Each of its suckers glowed the yellow-green of glow-in-the-dark paint. Huey zipped through the wall and bounced on the thing until it backed away from the window.

  Aiden walked through the wall and stood in the TV. It flickered. Eliza pressed herself against Jared, grabbing his hand. One of the cups in the dish rack fell and shattered.

  Aiden, Jared thought. Stop it. Then he asked Eliza, “How is he getting through the warding?”

  I let him in, Eliza thought. He’s the only one who keeps the monster away. None of the warding works against that.

  “Maybe we should wake your mom up,” Jared said. “You two could go over to Hank’s or Mave’s place.”

  “Mom took sleeping pills,” Eliza said. “Doesn’t matter if we leave. It won’t help. Nothing helps.”

  Dead Aiden glided to the dining table and sat on one of the kitchen chairs, sulking.

  “Do you want Shu back?” Jared whispered to Eliza. He couldn’t do that, but maybe his mom could.

  “No,” Eliza whispered back. “She killed Daddy.”

  “Okay.”

  Aiden was suddenly beside him, head spinning like a bad Exorcist rip-off. Eliza quickly ducked behind Jared.

  Dude, Jared thought. What the hell? This is your daughter.

  Huey bounded back through the window and rammed himself into Aiden’s midsection. Aiden and Huey flew through the wall. A tentacle appeared through the floor, creeping towards them, and then another. Eliza started crying, quietly.

  “It’s okay,” Jared said. “It’s gonna be okay.”

  When the first arm got close to him, something snapped like a live wire. A fierce roar echoed through the apartment. Aiden popped back in and stomped on the tentacle until it withdrew. He glared at them both, then retreated to a dimly lit corner of the living room.

  Jared could hear the ghosts whispering outside in the hallway. The tentacle thing rose up until it was staring at them through the living room window. It can’t touch me, Jared thought. It can’t hurt me. But that went both ways. He was pretty sure he couldn’t take it in a fight. He wondered if it was sensitive to sound. As his mom said, he was talented at annoying things.

  “You wanna sing ‘Let It Go’ with me?” Jared said.

  Eliza shook her head quickly.

  “Your dad can leave if he doesn’t like it,” Jared said.

  “Daddy keeps the monster away.”

  “Do you think it’s a squid monster or an octopus monster?”

  “It’s just a monster.”

  “It’s an octopus, dumb-ass,” Dead Aiden said.

  Eliza flinched at the sound of her father’s voice. Jared paused to consider the octopus monster. Did anything hunt octopus? Did they have a natural enemy that they were afraid of? He vaguely remembered pictures of giant arms wrapped around a whale’s face. He wished he had brought his phone so he could consult Grandfather Google. But it was worth a shot.

  “What do you think, Huey?” Jared said. “Can you do a whale call?”

  Huey moved his lips, but nothing came out. In his head, Jared made sounds he’d heard from television shows that he hoped were whale-like. The arms whipped about in obvious irritation. The only octopus he could bring to mind was the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. That didn’t seem particularly useful. This one was much smaller. Jared bobbed around, waving his arms.

  “Good job,” Dead Aiden said. “Piss it off. See where that gets us.”

  “Aiden, we’re going to sing ‘Let It Go’ now. I’m not trying to rile you up. I just want to see if the octopus thing reacts, all right?” He held his hand out for Eliza.

  “No,” she said. “Sing something else. Please, Jared.”

  “Okay, no Elsa. How about Nickelback?”

  “I don’t think monsters are scared of Nickelback.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “Everything’s afraid of sharks,” Eliza said. “We could sing ‘Baby Shark.’ ”

  “I don’t know that one.”

  “It’s easy. I’ll teach you.”

  Eliza sang and made her hands into an imaginary shark mouth. Jared joined in for the chorus. Huey bounced to the beat, his mouth mimicking Eliza’s. The bobbing octopus flushed dark purple. Dead Aiden shimmered like a mirage, his head whipping back and forth so hard he blurred. Eliza fell quiet, gripping Jared’s hand tight. Jared could usually think of annoying nicknames, but he was kind of tired and brainless. Watching the octopus bob around, he thought, Hey, Bob at it. The arms squirmed in irritation. Bob the Octopus it was.

  “Do you have a recorder?” Jared asked. “Or a harmonica?”

  “No,” Eliza said. “How come?”

  “I need something that Huey can play.”

  “You’re fucking dumb as a sack of hammers,” Dead Aiden said. “You’re going to get her killed!”

  The salt shaker whipped across the room and banged off a lamp.

  “I have a whistle,” Eliza whispered.

  “That might work,” Jared said.

  “Mom said only use it if I get attacked.”

  “I think this counts as an attack.”

  Eliza led him to the closet and took a pink whistle on a pink rope out of one of her jacket pockets. You Are Not Alone was printed on one side of the whistle. Rape Crisis Hotline and its number was printed on the other. He rummaged through the apartment until he found a lighter and an emergency candle in a box marked Junk Drawer.

  “What’re you doing?” Eliza said.

  “I don’t know if it’ll work,” Jared said. But it had worked when he’d wanted to share food with Huey and Shu—he’d burned marshmallows for them, and they’d loved that. His mom said this was the way to send physical things to the dead, but who knew with a whistle.

  “Of course it won’t work,” Dead Aiden said.

  Jared put the candle in the sink and lit it, passing the whistle through the smoke first. “Huey, this whistle is for you. I send this whistle to Huey so he can play music with us.”

  Jared melted the whistle slowly into a pink blob, holding it over the candle by its rope. He watched Huey, hopeful. The whistle, now the size of a baseball, appeared on the floor. Huey bobbed down and nudged it. He flittered around the room faster than Jared had ever seen him fly and then flipped the whistle into the air and caught it in his mouth. The sound he made was as loud as an air horn, grating like a kazoo on steroids. Aiden popped away.

  Eliza covered her ears, grinning. Look!

  Bob the spirit octopus retreated from the apartment building, chased by Huey, who bounced behind it tooting “Baby Shark” for all he was worth.

  Eliza jumped for joy on the couch.

  “Shh,” Jared said, afraid they’d wake her mother.

  * * *

  —

  He meant to le
ave after he put the Frozen DVD in the player, but the couch was comfortable and Eliza had a hold on his hand, her head on the pillow he’d put on his lap.

  She only lasted through the opening credits. Jared was too tired to get up and lock the door. Bob tried to sneak in through the ceiling, but Huey merrily blasted away like a sugar-high toddler and it retreated. Jared drifted, listening to Huey’s whistle getting louder or fading away as he chased the octopus thing around the building.

  “Is this your doing?”

  Neeka Donner stood staring out the living room window into the dark. He startled. He hadn’t heard her come in and tried to figure out if he was dreaming. He guessed he couldn’t be, because he could feel the crick in his neck from falling asleep sitting up. He’d forgotten how pretty the human otter was with her long, silky hair and up-tilted eyes. She wore yoga pants and a sports bra, had her windbreaker tied at her slim waist. The octopus thing whipped by, moaning in obvious frustration as Huey bounced along behind it.

  “You might want to stay away from me,” Jared said. “I’ve pissed off some coy wolves.”

  Neeka shrugged. “We know how to deal with mutts. But this thing brings nightmares until you dread sleep. Gran thinks it’s a bad spirit trying to drive Eliza insane, possibly until she kills herself so it can eat her soul.”

  “We found out that Bob doesn’t like ‘Baby Shark.’ ”

  “You’ve named it Bob.”

  “What? He bobs around.”

  Neeka turned back to the living room window, where the octopus thing was making another round of the building, chased by Huey. “You’re the oddest Trickster we’ve ever met.”

  “There are much weirder Tricksters around.”

  “That thing out there would attack us, but you’ve figured out how to repel it using a disembodied flying head tooting ‘Baby Shark’ on a rape whistle. You take the crown for weirdness.”