Return of the Trickster

by Eden Robinson

  “Yeah,” Jared said. “And if Bob gets used to ‘Baby Shark,’ we’re gonna go all Frozen on his ass.”

  18

  ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING

  The next day, Jared lay in bed, going over his police interview—things he should have said, shouldn’t have said. Mave said she was off to do a shift at The Sartorial Resistance and taking Sarah to meet the staff. Would he be okay alone? Jared gave her the thumbs-up.

  “I’ll send Hank over,” Mave said.

  The empty apartment was peaceful for about two minutes. Then the deadbolt clicked and heavy footsteps thumped down the hallway.

  “Grab a coat,” Hank said.

  “I can stay here by myself,” Jared said.

  “Aunt Mave would kill me if something happened on my watch,” Hank said. “I’ve got shit to do. Grab your coat.”

  “I can spend an hour or two by myself.”

  “I’m going to drag you to my car and throw you in the trunk if you don’t move your ass,” Hank said, his expression thunderous.

  “Gimme a sec to change.”

  “No,” Hank said. “We’re just going to Gran’s.”

  “I’m not going outside in these PJs.”

  Hank lifted him off the bed by the pyjama collar and marched him down the hallway. He stopped in front of the closet. Jared grabbed his jacket and shoved his feet into his shoes before Hank did it for him. Hank followed him out and then locked the apartment door. As they waited silently by the elevator, Jared felt the crowd of ghosts staring at him.

  Hank held the elevator door for him and then the entranceway door. Jared followed his cousin to his grey Honda Civic. They drove south down Commercial, hitting all the stoplights. Hank kept sighing. Jared hated feeling like a burden. They turned off on a side street and parked near a small playground. The sun was already setting, the season shifting from the grey fall to dark, early winter evenings. Usually, Kitimat had snow by Halloween. Mave had said Vancouver winters were just rain, rain and more rain.

  Jared followed Hank through a side entrance into a cream apartment building. They took the slowest elevator in the world up to the third floor. Hank unlocked apartment 312 and opened the door and they were hit by a blast of heat.

  “It’s just me,” Hank called.

  “Junior,” a faint voice responded.

  Hank removed his sweater and hung it on a wooden coat rack, then kicked off his shoes. Jared copied him. The apartment was angled strangely and all the lights were on. Hank led him into a bedroom with a twin-sized medical bed slightly raised. A tiny, tiny woman, buried under layers of blankets, watched them, her eyes sunken and dark, blinking slowly. Every bone in the woman’s face poked through her skin. She had a kerchief over her thin white hair. Her lips twitched into a wan smile.

  “Hey, Gran,” Hank said. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “You’re not late, Junior. Barbie just left,” she said. “My, my. Who’s this handsome fellow?”

  “Gran, this is Maggie’s boy, Jared. Jared, this is Gran.”

  Her eyes studied his PJs. “How’s your mother, Jared?”

  “She’s good, thank you.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about Phil. He was a good man. He used to fish with my husband, Henry Senior, when you all lived in Bella Bella.”

  “Thank you,” Jared said.

  “Did you eat, Gran?” Hank said.

  “Yes,” she said. “There’s stew on the stove if you’re hungry. Barbie made tea biscuits, too. Oh, she’s a good baker.”

  “Do you want a bowl?” Hank asked Jared.

  “I’m okay,” he said.

  “Sit, sit,” Agnetha said when Hank went to get himself some stew. “I’m not good company these days, but I like to see new faces.”

  Jared sat in the armchair facing her. His phone buzzed in his pyjamas pocket. Kota, texting, asking how he was holding up.

  Visiting your gran with Hank, Jared texted.

  Hi Gran, Kota texted back.

  “Kota says hi,” Jared said.

  “How’s his new job?” she said.

  Awful, Kota texted back.

  She laughed when Jared told her that.

  We’ve got a rush repair, Kota continued. Since I’m the new guy, I get graveyard shifts. I can’t come to meetings with you for a week. Okay?

  “Did Greta go to Costco?” Hank yelled from the other room.

  “No,” she said. “Her boy got kicked out of school for fighting and she had to go get him.”

  “Okay, when the care aides come, I’ll zip down.”

  “They aren’t coming tonight,” she said. “The agency said not enough showed up for work. The flu’s going around.”

  “Damn it,” Hank said.

  “I’m okay, Junior,” she said. And then to Jared, “He worries so. He’s going to have a heart attack like his grandfather.”

  “I can sit with her,” Jared said.

  Hank came in, shovelling stew into his mouth from the bowl. “I’m not supposed to leave you alone. Mave was really clear.”

  Jared held up his phone. “Call me, text me, message me. As many times as you want. Go do what you need to do.”

  Hank chewed, considering them both. “Gran?”

  “We’ll be fine, Junior.”

  “Maybe I can just pick up a few things from Safeway to get us by,” Hank said, putting his bowl down on the nightstand. “What’s your cell number?”

  Jared read it out and Hank texted: it’s me Hank.

  Hi Junior, Jared texted.

  Hank gave him a light cuff on the head.

  “Junior,” Agnetha said.

  “I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Hank said.

  “He’s normally not this rude.”

  Jared grinned at her. “I’m annoying.”

  “Then you are Anita’s grandson, all right,” she said. “My sister could make the angels weep.”

  “Okay,” Hank said. “Okay, here I go.”

  He didn’t move, though, until his gran cleared her throat. They heard the front door close and Hank lock it. His gran sighed. She shut her eyes, but opened them when Jared’s phone dinged.

  I’m at the elevator, Hank texted.

  You have to push the buttons to make it work, Jared texted back.

  You’re a riot.

  “Hank’s getting in the elevator,” Jared told her.

  She shook her head. “That boy.”

  Jared stared at his phone, wondering if Sarah and Mave were all right but not willing to be like Hank and text them every other minute.

  “You can go watch TV if you want,” she said.

  “I can’t really focus,” Jared said.

  “I’m not very good company.”

  He wondered if she knew she’d already told him this. “Me neither.”

  Ding.

  I’m in my car.

  “Hank’s in his car.”

  She laughed. Jared sent him a thumbs-up emoji.

  “Do you want some tea?” Jared said.

  “I’d love a cup.”

  She had a tiny kitchen like a boat’s galley. He put the kettle on, and then rooted around for teabags before realizing they were in a canister on the counter labelled TEA. No heavy-machinery operating for me, Jared thought.

  I’m at Safeway.

  Jared sent another thumbs-up emoji.

  “He’s at Safeway,” Jared called from the kitchen.

  “Good grief, Charlie Brown,” Agnetha said.

  Her fridge was clean but bare. The cream container was almost empty. When he sniffed what was left, he didn’t smell any sourness. The stew on the stove was on low. Jared turned the burner off and hunted for storage containers. He poured the stew into a glass bowl with a plastic lid and put it in the fridge. He covered the tea biscuits with a dishtowel.
He filled the pot and let it soak in the sink beside Hank’s bowl. The kettle whistled.

  He brought two mugs into the bedroom. She raised her bed so she was sitting.

  “It’s hot,” he cautioned her.

  “Good,” she said. “Tea is supposed to be hot. I get tired of everyone giving me lukewarm tea.”

  Jared put the mug on the medical table and she warmed her hands on it. He turned on the lamp beside her bed and shut off the overhead light, the humming fluorescent one. He brought her mug to the sink. He was too tired to do anything else, so he went back and sat beside Agnetha. She sipped her tea.

  “Did you put up the protections around Hank’s apartment?” Jared asked. “They’re pretty strong.”

  “When you wrote Anita, she cried for days,” she said.

  He felt confused at the sudden change of subject and couldn’t figure out what she was getting at. “Okay.”

  She smiled. “She read me your letters. All of them.”

  He felt embarrassed and couldn’t look at her.

  “Such a gentle heart for a Trickster,” Agnetha said. “You must be a trial for your mother.”

  He felt exposed, and then alarmed, but she didn’t seem to be saying it with any fear or distrust. Maybe Mave had told her what he’d said. Or Hank. Or maybe she could see it.

  Jared said, “If annoying someone was an Olympic sport, I’d be a gold medallist.”

  “But Maggie still has her protection on you. It shines like sunlight on the ocean.”

  He saw himself through her eyes for a moment, but it came with her pain, and a fatigue so heavy it was like being crushed by a compactor. He gasped, and then she was gone. She put her tea on the nightstand and said she was going to rest for a bit.

  * * *

  —

  Eventually, Hank unlocked the door and came in loaded down with grocery bags. He poked his head in the bedroom, scanned the situation then left again. Jared listened to him hum as he put the groceries away. Jared would never have pegged Hank as a hummer. His cousin couldn’t carry a tune to save his life. He appeared in the doorway.

  “The pharmacy got her medication wrong,” Hank whispered. “Do you mind watching her while I go straighten it out?”

  “Okay,” Jared whispered back. “Phone whenever you want.”

  “Thank you,” Hank said. “You’re a lifesaver, Jared.”

  * * *

  —

  He used to watch Mr. Jaks when Mrs. Jaks needed a break. Mr. Jaks had late-stage dementia by then and most people were afraid to be alone with him. Jared liked their house, and both of them, and an afternoon puttering around with Mr. Jaks was an easy way to make twenty bucks. Plus, Mrs. Jaks fed him afterwards and they watched TV until it was time for Jared to go home. He helped in the garden, took their garbage out, drove them to Terrace to the farmers’ market in the summer. Normal things. His mom thought they were slaving him. At the time, Granny Nita wasn’t talking to them and Sophia was travelling a lot with her latest husband, exotic long-stays and cruises. His mom had been hustling pretty hard with Richie, so he was alone a lot. Then Sarah had showed up, and when she found out she could tap her magic when she was with Jared, things went a little haywire. Then the otters. And Georgina came into his life. Then Sarah almost died and he couldn’t deal with the craziness magic brought them and she didn’t want to stop, so he broke up with her and went sober.

  Agnetha moaned in her sleep and he wished he knew how to lower her bed some more. He didn’t want to try to figure it out and make things worse. He always meant well, but that didn’t mean things would turn out.

  * * *

  —

  When Hank came back, he took advantage of Jared being there to do the laundry, which took so long Jared nodded off. After midnight, Hank made up the couch for himself and said Neeka could drive Jared home, but she had her nieces with her and they’d been drinking. If he didn’t want to face that, he could call a taxi and Hank would give him some money.

  “Either,” Jared said. “I just need to get to bed.”

  Twenty minutes later, Neeka came upstairs to collect him. She and Hank kissed at the door, lots of tongue action, rocking together as if they were dancing. Jared studied his phone, mentally singing la la la so he wouldn’t hear their smacking.

  “Ready?” Neeka finally asked.

  He nodded.

  She strode ahead of him and pushed the elevator button. She held the door open for him while she pecked away at her phone with the thumb of her other hand. It pinged and beeped with message alerts. Jared leaned against the elevator wall, willing it to hurry.

  Outside, a girl with a shaved head wearing military boots and pink camo was vomiting into a planter. Neeka stopped near her, still texting. Camo Girl reeked of the yeasty, sour smell of cheap beer. Jared’s mouth watered. God, what he wouldn’t do right now for a drink. Once this is over, he thought.

  “I told you to stay in the van,” Neeka said.

  “Go fuck yourself!”

  “I’m going to take your phone and run it over if you don’t get your ass back in the van.”

  “That’s why no one likes you! You’re a heartless bitch! Everyone thinks you’re a bitch, Neeka.”

  “You care too much about what humans think.”

  “I’m sick and you don’t even care.”

  “Get in the van.”

  “Bitch. Don’t even care that I’m sick.”

  “Take shotgun, Jared,” Neeka said. “Lala, sit beside your sister.”

  “You don’t own me!” Lala said.

  “But I own your phone,” Neeka said.

  Lala stumbled towards an older, grey Dodge Caravan polka-dotted with rust. The middle side window was clear plastic duct-taped to the frame. Of all the vehicles for a revenge-driven otter in human form, a minivan was the very last one he would have guessed. Lala had trouble opening the door but swung at Neeka when she tried to help. Jared went around to the front passenger seat. It sagged slightly. Glittery pony stickers decorated the dashboard. A child’s booster seat was directly behind him. Another girl was passed out between the seats, her mass of curly, rainbow-coloured hair covering her face as she snored. They both reeked of party and a larger part of him than he wanted to admit was resentful that he was sober. If he still felt as though he had a future and wanted to keep sober for it, this would have been a hard moment, but now it was just something else that made him tired. He wanted his bed. Lala finally won her battle against the door and fell inside. When she’d crawled in far enough, Neeka closed the door behind her.

  “All my friends are having fun and I’m stuck here with you,” Lala said. “Youuuuu.”

  “Family is such a blessing,” Neeka said to Jared.

  The minivan’s engine had a telltale rumble and it squealed as they pulled into traffic.

  Lala muttered as they turned onto Clark and then off the main street, bumping through alleys and side streets. Neeka double-parked in front of the apartment entrance. They both studied the building.

  “I should go up with you,” she said.

  “I can walk a hundred feet by myself.”

  “I’ll wait here. Wave to me from the living room window when you get in.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Fucking get out of the vaaaaaan!” Lala said.

  “Good night, Baby Trickster.”

  “Night, Neeka.”

  He buzzed up. Mave answered, sleepy.

  “We have to get you a key,” she said.

  In the apartment, all the lights were off. The TV bathed the living room in flickering blue light. Sarah was asleep in the alcove. Jared went to the window and waved to Neeka, who gave a quick honk. Mave kissed him good night.

  Otters are volatile, Wee’git thought, suddenly in Jared’s head. And they hold grudges forever. Once things settle down, put some space between
you and them.

  I don’t think you should be here, Jared said.

  That wasn’t some random dream you had, Jared. There’s holes dug all over the compound. Someone moved the Tricksters. You know what that means, don’t you?

  Wee’git, thank you. For helping me. But I don’t think, I mean…Mom. Is the thing. And Gran. I don’t think it’s fair for you to be in their lives like this. Secretly.

  Wee’git did not respond to this. Why would she need so many Tricksters? What possible use could my sister have for their organs? Where is she? She’s about as dainty as Godzilla, but I don’t hear her stomping around the urban jungle.

  I can’t do this to Mom, Wee’git. She…

  Maggie and I—we were both drunk.

  Mom doesn’t see it that way.

  She was going after Sophia’s son. Do you know why you aren’t being overrun by coy wolves? Sophia Martin is hunting them. Now that it’s too late, your mother realizes going after Phil and marrying him ties her to Sophia. Halayts are more dangerous than anything alive. I was trying to protect Maggie from her.

  I can’t have you in my life if it hurts Mom.

  The silence went on so long, Jared thought he was alone again.

  I’ve been trying to keep you alive, you moron.

  I don’t hate you anymore.

  Goody. How do you think so many coy wolves got human skins? You can’t exactly order them off Amazon. They don’t come standard issue when you’re born, especially for coy wolves.

  What if you’re supposed to let me die? What if saving me only makes things worse?

  Will you fucking listen to me!

  No. I don’t want to hear you anymore.

  And he didn’t.

  19

  THERE’S THIS THING THAT FOLLOWS ME AROUND

  Doubts. So many doubts. Jared lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Closing his eyes brought dread bubbling up, but if he moved around the apartment, Mave would wake up and come check on him.

  Jared, Jared, Jared, Jared.