by Kailin Gow
The tavern, according to Nat, would be crawling with the lowest form of human life around. It was the black market after all, not Sotheby’s, and some of these men sold body parts there like they did back in Dr. Frankenstein’s days. Probably even their own mothers.
We were close. The tavern was just outside the edge of the forest about 10 miles away from Summer’s Landing. While Summer’s Landing bordered on the sunny beaches along the French coastline and forest, securing the prime lands of the area; the tavern sat forlorn in a dark shady part near the rocky coastline drenched in mystery and mischief.
For hundreds of years, the tavern was a meeting place for crooks, pirates, bootleggers, slave traders, highway men, and murderers. Looking at its shadowy rotting figure, hidden among the trees, nothing had changed since it first opened back in the 1500s.
I looked over at Nat. What a huge contrast between the lap of luxury and splendors of Summer’s Landing and this tavern. I was expecting rats to come flying out of the door when we walked up to it and knocked using the rusted iron knocker hanging on the splintered wooden door.
A large man in his early 20s wearing a baseball cap and grey hoodie opened the door. He could’ve been from Brooklyn for all I know, and we could be standing in front of a drug dealer’s home in East L.A. The feeling of looming danger and nervous tension was the same.
“You’ve got the wrong address,” he said, looking at me from head to toe. “The Ritz is down the other highway.”
“I think this is the place I’m looking for,” I said confidently, looking at him square in the eye. I showed him my business card, and said, “I came to buy.”
He looked over at Nat and said, “He’s with you?”
“My husband,” I said.
“Any arms?” he asked. “Nah never mind. You wouldn’t tell me if you had any on you anyways. You don’t like the type.”
Nat, wearing a pair of glasses, and a Burberry scarf around his neck against his leather jacket, looked like a doting and tamed husband of a woman he wanted to please.
The young bouncer said, “Go in. Auction begins in a minute.”
Nat and I walked into one of the most foul-smelling places I’ve ever been to…the combination of urine, beer, mildew, sweat, body odor, and even old cheese made me want to gag. Nat pulled off his scarf and wrapped it around my nose, mouth, and face. He whispered. “Breath in deep. It has lavender oil and mint. It’ll keep you alert, and your eyes from burning. Places like these tend to lessen your senses. It’s a great place con men like to meet other con men, so they can rob them blind.”
I nodded. It made sense. A place as dark, damp, and smelly like this one was the perfect place for dirty rotten dealings to take place amongst thieves. Even murder.
Covered up with the scarf around my face, I felt a little bit more secured. It helped me look around the room, my eyes adjusting to the dark. The room was lined mostly with men, and a few women. Many of them looked like the shadowy people you wouldn’t want to meet in the middle of an alleyway at night.
Nat found a place along the wall for us in the back. I accidentally leaned against the wall and felt something slimy against my gloved hands. I shuddered to think what it was. Old tobacco spit? Grease from food thrown against the wall? Blood?
Nat saw me shuddered and pulled me away from the wall and into his arms. “Don’t think about it,” he whispered. “Don’t about why we’re here. Focus.”
Again, I nodded. I concentrated on the mission, and the people in the room. People were sitting in chairs at tables, while the rest were against the wall and near one facing a large black oak bar. Amber low-glowing lights along the wall replaced candles where they once burned.
Above the bar was a large rusted iron spike staked into the wooden pillar, as though it was a talisman to warn away giant vampires. I watched the crowd intently. Was the Yeti here?
A girl with black curly hair piled high on her pale blood-drained face came by and stopped in front of me. Her lifeless black eyes barely looked at mine when she asked. “Beer?”
I looked at Nat. So there was drinks and food served here after all.
I wanted to try the beer, but Nat gestured “no”. The girl almost snickered but moved away to the next potential customer.
“I’ll take you to another place for beer,” Nat whispered. “Here, you never know what they put in it.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The tavern’s owner runs the auction. It could get rowdy so I suspect they put a heavy dose of alcohol in there mix with sleeping pills to get these guys under control.”
“No wonder why that waitress looked like some kind of zombie.”
“I doubt she drinks the beer. She just looks like that,” Nat said. Nat then pointed to the front of the room where the bar was, and a large man with a bushy beard stood in front.
“Since many of you are from outside of France,” he said slowly, “I will try to speak English. It’s not so good, so try to forgive. You know the rules here. Try to stand by it, and buy lots of beer.” There was a small chuckle in the crowd, as the man laughed at his own joke.
“Now the auction begins! You see first up, we have this pen. Not an ordinary pen.” He moved the pen around. “But a pen so small, it can be carried everywhere. So inconspicuous, it is unnoticeable. This pen…what does it do?”
He twisted the top, and the pen began steaming up. He dropped the pen into a glass of ice water, and the pen brought the water to a boil, breaking the glass into tiny pieces. The crowd started chattering excitedly, as the man said, “It is an instant heat pen. Think of the many uses. Place it against the windshield of a snowy car…Bam! The windshield is no more. Place it against the window of a store. Bam! No more store window.”
“I’ll take it at 1000 dollars!” a man shouted from the crowd.
“2000 dollars!” another man shouted.
“Now now,” the Tavern Owner said, “Something this useful, can net you more than 5000 dollars in one night, if you know what to do with it, is worth over 5000, don’t you say? The bidding starts at 5000.”
I looked over at Nat, and he was as enthralled by the scene in front of us. But he kept his hand on my hand. “I’ll let you know when to bid, and what for,” he whispered. “This isn’t The Yeti’s work.”
“Next up,” the taven owner said. “An air freshener that can hide the smell of anything. Including drugs. Spray this on your bags, your shipments, your cars, and yourself; the best of the drug-sniffing dogs won’t be able to detect anything. Now let’s start at 5000 dollars! Who’s bidding?”
“6000 dollars!” a woman’s voice tinged with some kind of Spanish or European accent shouted out.
“7000 dollars!” a young man’s voice cried out.
“20,000 dollars!” a gruff old man’s strong clear voice shouted from the back, a few people from me. People in front turned to look at him as the Tavern Owner looked and said, “20,000 dollars going once. Going twice…”
Nat squeezed my hand then. “The Yeti,” he whispered. I turned to look at him, and then recognized him from the photo. He didn’t come to the auction to sell, but to buy.
“Why would he want the freshener?” I asked Nat.
“To hide his experiments, the medicines he is transporting so he could lay low. So the bad guys who want him could not find him from the smell of his experimental drugs.”
“Right,” I said. “So now…”
“Bid on it. 25,000 dollars,” Nat whispered to me.
“25,000 dollars!” I said loudly.
The Tavern Owner looked over at me and said, “So the bidding continues.”
The Yeti looked over at me and huffed. “30,000 dollars,” he shouted.
I looked at Nat. He squeezed my hand.
“35,000” I said, looking over at the Yeti.
“40,000” he shouted.
“100,000” I countered.
The Taven owner looked over at The Yeti, waiting for him to shout out.
The Yeti stood silent
.
“Sold to the lady in back,” the Taven owner said.
“Now,” Nat said. “Make your move. Go up to him and said you have buyer’s remorse. Caught up in the moment. Tell him you didn’t really want it, so you will sell it to him for 40.”
“Gotcha,” I said. Following Nat’s direction to a T, I approached the Yeti, offered him the freshener for 40, and waited for the Yeti’s answer.
“What were you hoping to get here?” the Yeti asked.
I handed him my business card and said, “Something very unique for my beauty line. A cream or lotion that would do something more than other kinds out there. Something even miraculous.”
The Yeti chuckled. “You came to the right place. Not here. Not tonight, though. Nothing being auction here fits what you want. I happened to know someone who you’d want to meet to get something miraculous.”
“Oh really?” I asked.
“It’ll cost you, though,” He said. “How about a serum for your scalp that not only moisturize your scalp, the roots of your hair, your hair; but also helps you get smarter as it is absorbed into your brain?”
My eyes lit up from excitement. I was genuinely interested in this serum. “I would buy it instantly,” I said.
“I’d give it to you for 100,000 dollars,” The Yeti said.
“Oh, that’ll be great,” I said.
“You could exchange your freshener with me for the serum. How’s that, an even exchange.”
“Deal,” I said. I gestured to Nat to come over.
When he did, I briefed him on the exchange, and he said he’d take care of the transactions for the freshener. He walked up to one of the Tavern men and talked. After a bit, he came back with the freshener, handed it to the Yeti, and waited with me for the Yeti to deliver on the serum.
“It’s out in my car,” the Yeti said.
Nat and I exchanged looks but followed the Yeti out the tavern and into a dark area in back where cars of all kinds were parked.
“So you’re Americans?” the Yeti asked. “I could tell…”
“Yes,” I answered.
“I don’t see and come into contact with many these days,” the Yeti said.
“That’s too bad,” I said, wanting to know why. “Why? Don’t care for them?” I tried to make a joke while looking into his eyes as I walked up next to him. Something about him seemed very familiar.
“I’m here in France today, and tomorrow, it’s another place,” the Yeti said. “Never too long in one place. Never too long to set down roots, not if I want to keep my head.”
“That much danger?” I asked.
“Most of the guys who sell at the auction don’t show up in fear of being followed. In fear of being traced. Some of these guys would stop at nothing to get what is sold here.”
“That’s why you came as a buyer,” I said.
“Yes, plus that freshener will help erase my trace amongst these guys.”
“You want to stop having to move around all the time,” I said. “You want to settle down.”
The Yeti stopped walking, and looked at me. “You look like what you are,” he said. “A Marie Teller.” He looked away. “Because of a few experiments. Because of my passion to save the world once, I lost my family. Haven’t seen my own kid since she was a girl. Now…she must be close to your age.”
He couldn’t see me clearly in this light, and I couldn’t see him clearly, being covered up by his shaggy full grey beard, long grey hair, and woolen cap.
“Now what I’m about to give you…it works. This serum actually was tested several times, even on me! See this hair, it’s nice and shiny and longer because of it,” he chuckled.
“I bet!” I said moving up to his truck.
He opened the passenger seat and pulled out a box. “Now this serum,” he said. “I probably won’t get killed over it, but some of my other products…got knocked over the head for one…my medicine to help revive people from comas…”
“Nat!” I called, who was a few feet behind me, “come here.”
“How did you lose it?” I asked.
“Knocked over the head, and stolen from my hands. Not even 24 hours out of my lab when it was stolen and sold on the black market. Where it went I don’t know, but I didn’t even get the chance to test it completely or to know how to administer it to someone.”
Nat walked up and said, “Marie…um, we’re being followed.”
Right when the Yeti handed me to the box for the serum, two men jumped him, while another pushed me down to grab the box.
Nat punched the third man, making him drop the box, and punched him again until he stumbled and fell to the ground. He went to the Yeti, grabbed one of the men on top of the Yeti, and kneed him in the groin.
The man bent over, while Nat went to work on the last man who was trying to push the Yeti into the truck so he could kidnap him away. Too late, the man pushed the Yeti in and ran to the driver’s side to start the car.
Nat banged at the driver’s side door. But the man had already pulled up the windows and was starting the truck.
The started and gave a jump before pulling away.
“Shoot!” I ran after the truck, and banged at the Yeti’s door. “Get out,” I cried. “Open the door and jump out!”
The Yeti heard me, and the door opened. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out right before the truck sped up out of the parking lot and hit the dark road as fast as it could.
He landed on me with a thump, and the weight of him nearly trampled me, knocking the breath out of me. But he was safe. The Yeti was safe. And here with me.
Nat ran to me, frantically gathering me up into his arms and pushing my hair away from my face. “Summer? Are you okay, Summer?”
The Yeti sat up and said, “Summer?”
Nat kissed me and caressed my face. “Summer, are you hurt anywhere?”
I opened my eyes. “I’m fine. Check to see if the Ye…”
“Summer?” the Yeti was next to Nat looking down at me intensely now. “Are you really Summer?”
“I’m Summer,” I said, trying to catch my breath. I had taken most of the weight and pressure from the Yeti’s jump from the truck. I may have crushed my ribs or something. There was an ache along my sides and back of my ribs where I had fallen against something hard.
“Summer Jones…” The Yeti said. “I thought I’d never see you again. The last time I saw you, you were so small. My little Summer. My little girl!”
I stared into the Yeti’s eyes just as Nat looked over in surprise. The Yeti tied his long hair back, removed his glasses, and said, “It’s me, Summer. I’m your father.”
“Holy Be…” Luis ran up to us. “Did I just hear the Ye…um…the Doctor…was Summer’s father?”
“Yes,” Nat said evenly. “Where’s Hector? You guys were supposed to be right behind me.”
“Sorry, Sir,” Luis said. “A fight broke up in the tavern right after you and Summer left. Hector and I were detained for a while. But he’s handcuffing one of the attackers. The other one got away.”
“They took my truck,” the Yeti said. “I had my formulas in my laptop and…”
I felt underneath me when I sat up. I had landed on a small aluminum laptop case. It must’ve fallen out of the passenger seat when I pulled the Yeti, um, my father out. “You mean this one.” I said raising it up.
“Yes, that’s the one,” he said. “I have most of my formulas in there.”
“Okay,” Nat said, coming up to me and the Yeti. “We notified the French police about this tavern. They should be arriving in minutes. The auction’s going on still so no one would suspect.”
“So let’s get going,” I said.
“Exactly,” Nat said, gesturing for Luis and Hector to hit the road.
Hector left the third attacker handcuffed to the handle of a car door, while Luis walked over to their car and pulled up next to Hector who jumped in.
Nat led me and the Yeti to our car, where it was already started and ready t
o go. He had the box of serum in the crook of his arm and dropped it next to the Yeti, who slid into the back seat.
“You must be Nathaniel Donovan,” the Yeti said. “All grown up and as handsome as Summer is beautiful. You’re married now? I always thought you two would be together, even when you were toddlers. Sookie raised you two right. I knew we put Summer in good hands with Sookie.”
I was still reeling from shock as Nat pulled his car into the long elegantly-trimmed tree-lined driveway to Summer’s Landing. The Yeti had stopped talking for a while to admire the scenery.
Chapter 14
Summer
“Wow. Some digs,” he said. “I assume this is yours?”
“Nat’s,” I said. “All of this is his, and he remodeled the place to this magnificent grand palace.”
“You turned out well, son,” he said. “I always liked you more than the other two,” the Yeti said. “Always thought you’d be the son your Aunt Sookie would raise, but luckily for you and everyone; you ended up being one of the Donovans.”
Nat pulled his car next to the black Audi Luis and Hector had been driving.
“You knew about me being adopted by the Donovans?” Nat asked.
“Yes, Nat” the Yeti said. “Summer’s mother and I were sworn to secrecy to your parents.”
“And Aunt Sookie’s baby?” I asked. “Nat explained to me she had one, and for a while we thought that Nat…”
“Not Nat. The baby died before the Donovans could adopt it. They would’ve loved to, but instead, they found Nat.”
I leaned over to kiss Nat then. I didn’t even think about it, and said, “Best decision Mr. and Mrs. Donovan ever made.”
Nat took my hand and squeezed it. I knew he wanted to say something to me, but he wanted to say it in private.
“Dr. Jones,” Nat said. “Now that we’ve found you, and you’ve found your daughter; would you come with us back to the U.S.? I have a place there where you could work freely on your research in medicine, and also work with other scientists like yourself to help come up with the most innovative medicines, products…you name it.”