Dragon Warrior (Midnight Bay)

by Janet Chapman

  “I don’t want to scream, Maddy,” he whispered. “I don’t want all my friends to hear me carrying on and scare them like I was.” His frail fingers tightened again. “I don’t want you crying, either, you hear? And you don’t let everyone get all depressed like they did when Amos died. This place was like a funeral parlor for weeks.”

  “How about instead of a wake, we have a party?” she suggested, determined to lighten his mood. “We’ll have the kitchen bake an apple spice cake with cream cheese frosting in your honor and put balloons and streamers up all over the place.”

  He gave a weak snort. “You want to throw me a party after I’m dead?”

  “Okay, then; I’ll rally the troops and we’ll start planning, and Monday afternoon you’ll wake up from your nap to a surprise party.”

  “It ain’t a surprise if you just told me.”

  Maddy rolled her eyes with a laugh and stood up. “I had to tell you; surprise parties are the leading cause of heart attacks after the age of ninety.”

  He made a harrumphing sound and settled back on his pillow. “I love you, Maddy girl,” he whispered, closing his eyes with a sigh.

  “I love you, too, Mr. Man,” she whispered back, covering him with a light blanket and then going to the window and drawing the shades.

  “I told William I was afraid,” Hiram said just as she started to leave.

  She stopped in surprise. “You did? But I thought that was our little secret?”

  “I didn’t mention the screaming part; I just told him I was scared of dying because I don’t know what comes next. And you know what he told me? William said there ain’t nothing to be afraid of, because it ain’t any different than being born. He said there’s people on the other side who’ll take care of me until I get adjusted to being dead, just like there’s people here to help babies grow up to be adults. He said being born and dying are the exact same thing, only we’re going in the opposite direction.”

  “And so you’re not afraid anymore?”

  “Not about dying, I ain’t—just about screaming.”

  “I promise, I won’t let you scream.”

  “But what if I start in dying at night or on a Saturday or Sunday?”

  Maddy pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I can be reached anytime and anywhere, and everyone has instructions to call me even before they call Dr. Petty. I will be here in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, Mr. Man.”

  He closed his eyes again and snuggled into his pillow. “Okay then; I guess that makes me all set to die.”

  Maddy stared at him for several painful heartbeats, then quietly walked out the door and headed to the shampoo room down the hall—though she held on to the handrail because everything was quite blurry.

  Seeing that Charlotte, Lois, Janice, and Elvira were inside waiting for her, Maddy took a minute to compose herself and wiped her eyes with her hands. She finally walked in, sat down in the shampoo chair, and then actually flinched when Elvira settled the cape over her shoulders.

  “Mem said you better go show her the minute you walk out of here,” Lois said. “Hey, have you been crying?”

  “Land sakes, girl,” Charlotte said. “I’ve never seen anyone more scared of change than you are.”

  Maddy gave them all a hesitant smile in the mirror. “I know. But thankfully I have you to give me a good kick in the butt when I need one.”

  “You’re absolutely sure you want to do this?” Elvira asked as she pulled Maddy’s ponytail free and ran her fingers through her hair.

  “Of course she is,” Janice answered for her. “Just make sure she doesn’t end up looking tacky, like some of those overprocessed brassy blondes who do their own hair.”

  “Yes, not too heavy on the highlights,” Lois added. “She needs to look like her hair’s only been kissed by the sun.”

  Charlotte giggled. “Not like William just kissed her, or she’ll be solid blond!”

  Elvira quickly ran a brush through Maddy’s hair and then wove it into a long braid down the back of the cape. Maddy stared at herself in the mirror and flinched again when Elvira picked up her scissors.

  Lois patted her shoulder. “You close your eyes, sweetie, and when you open them again, you’ll see a whole new woman looking back at you in the mirror.”

  Maddy closed her eyes and felt her other shoulder get a pat. “And no peeking,” Charlotte said. “Or we’ll tape your eyelids closed. It’s taken months of badgering, but you’ll soon see how right we are.”

  Maddy heard Janice’s wheelchair move closer, and then felt her arm being patted. “You’re going to look just like a movie star, Maddy,” Janice said.

  “No,” Lois said, “she’s going to look like a princess. And Prince Charming is going to gallop in here, sweep her up in his arms, and ride off into the sunset.”

  “No,” Charlotte contradicted. “He’s going to put her on the back of his motorcycle and zoom her off to his castle and then carry her up to his tower bedroom.”

  Still keeping her eyes closed because she was afraid they really would try to tape them shut, Maddy snickered. “Or maybe Prince Charming is going to take one look at me and hop on his bike and speed off into the sunset all by himself.”

  All three women patted her at once, only not quite so gently this time.

  Maddy felt a tug on her thick braid and took a shuddering breath when the cold steel of Elvira’s scissors touched the back of her neck. “I-I hope this doesn’t take too long,” she said, trying to distract herself from the feel of the blades sawing through her hair. “I have an errand I need to run just . . . as soon . . . as Prince Charming gets back from his driving lesson with El-bridge,” she stammered, her voice trailing off as a bead of sweat slipped down her cleavage.

  And suddenly, she felt rather dizzy and weightless at the sound of the scissor blades clinking shut when they ran out of hair.

  “You going to that new shop I heard about in Oak Harbor?” Janice asked. “To buy some pretty new underwear because your red bra got ruined?”

  Pouncing on this new distraction, Maddy opened her eyes to glare at Lois in the mirror. “You told them my bra was cut?”

  “No,” Lois said, her own eyes gleaming. “You just did. I only told them the underwire wore through.”

  “No peeking!” Charlotte yelped, stepping over to the counter. “Elvira, where’s that tape you use to make those curls on Mem’s cheeks?”

  “They’re closed!” Maddy cried, snapping her eyes shut again—but not before she’d watched Elvira set fifteen year’s worth of her hair on the counter.

  “I found the tape,” Charlotte said. “And if I see you peeking again, I’m using the whole roll.” She patted Maddy’s arm. “Trust us, dear. This is for your own good.”

  Maddy forcibly relaxed her muscles, figuring it was too late to turn back now. Both Katy and Doris came in occasionally to check on her progress over the next hour, and even Samuel came shuffling in, the old man giving a chuckle as he declared she looked like a television antenna with all the foil on her head.

  But Maddy kept her eyes closed the entire time, wondering what had possessed her to finally give in to the women. She reached under the cape to touch Willy Dragonheart on her chest, deciding it might have had something to do with William.

  Or she might be trying to shove little miss knocked-up Sissy Blake off her high horse, as well as make Billy the Bastard do a double-take.

  Then again, maybe she was doing this just for herself; after all, there was nothing like a new hairdo to make a girl feel twenty-seven instead of seventy-seven.

  “Maddy,” Katy said, from what sounded like the doorway. “The harbormaster just called to say your cousin’s boat is heading into port.”

  “Did he say how many boats are ahead of him at the co-op?”

  “Three. He figures they’ll be tied up at the dock for almost two hours.”

  “Katy!” Maddy called out, not knowing if the girl had left or not, as she still refused to open her eyes.

 
; “Yeah?”

  “Are William and Elbridge back yet?”

  “Nope. But Elbridge told me his granddaughter is stopping by this afternoon, so they should be back soon.”

  “What time is it now?”

  “It’s a quarter past one. I have to go; I need to change Mem’s bed before she falls asleep in her chair. Don’t forget to come show us your new do.”

  “It’s after one?” Maddy yelped, opening her eyes. “You guys all missed lunch!”

  Charlotte jumped up with the tape in her hands, and Maddy snapped her eyes shut. “They’re closed!”

  Not that it mattered, because Elvira had turned her chair away from the mirror as she began working her fingers through Maddy’s hair to blow it dry, apparently not trusting her not to peek.

  “We didn’t miss lunch; we’ve been taking turns going to the dining room,” Lois said loudly over the dryer. “Elvira took her turn while the bleach set up.”

  “What, you felt you had to leave someone on guard at all times?” Maddy loudly drawled. But then she stuck out her lower lip. “Nobody brought me back anything.”

  “It would have tasted like bleach,” Janice said with a laugh.

  “Okay, ladies,” Elvira said, shutting off the dryer. She pulled off Maddy’s cape and turned her chair a hundred and eighty degrees. “Presenting Miss Madeline Kimble, River Run’s sexy new head nurse!”

  Maddy opened her eyes and blinked at the woman staring back at her in the mirror. She reached up and touched the loose, highlighted curls cascading around her face. “Did you give me a perm, too?” she whispered, blinking again.

  “No, sweetie. I told you there were curls under the weight of all that hair.”

  “Oh, Maddy,” Charlotte said, also touching her hair. “They’re beautiful. You’re beautiful. Just look how those soft curls make your big brown eyes sparkle.”

  “You look just like your daughter,” Lois said in an almost reverent whisper as she walked up beside Maddy to stare in the mirror. She shook her head. “You’ll never get into a bar now, no matter what card you show. You don’t look a day over sixteen.”

  Maddy couldn’t stop staring at herself. “I-I didn’t look this good in high school,” she whispered, shaking her head and watching the loose curls flutter back into place.

  “So are you going to take our advice more often now?” Lois asked.

  Maddy eyed her curiously. “Advice about what?”

  “Everything” Charlotte said, waving her hand. “Remember what William said—we have several centuries’ worth of collective wisdom.”

  “To begin with,” Lois continued, glaring at Maddy in the mirror, “you’re going to start letting us pick out your clothes.”

  Maddy stood up to look at Lois directly. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

  “You might look like a sixteen-year-old, but you have to stop dressing like one.” Lois swept her arm in the general direction of Maddy’s body. “You don’t need to jack up your boobs so high that you look like you’re choking, and a little less leg showing leaves something for a man’s imagination.”

  “And makes them eager to undress you,” Charlotte added.

  Maddy narrowed her eyes at the women. “Did William put you up to this?”

  “Put us up to what?” Lois asked innocently. “To suggesting that you start dressing like a sophisticated young woman instead of a teenage tramp?” She snorted. “Of course not. William’s a man, isn’t he? He’d just as soon you wear pants low enough in the back to give you a second cleavage.”

  “Or that you wear nothing at all,” Charlotte added. She grabbed Maddy’s arm. “Come on, let’s go show you off.”

  After one last glance at herself in the mirror as they led her away, Maddy quickly found herself at the center of a parade that made its way to every room in the nursing home—including the kitchen—where she would then have to twirl like a ballerina, shake her head to make her curls move, and let everyone touch her new hairdo. It was when she was on display in the sitting room, performing for the day campers, that she spotted William and Elbridge pulling into the parking lot.

  “I have to go,” she told everyone, bowing repeatedly as she backed out of the room. “I have an important errand to run.”

  She ran down the hall, got her purse out of the medicine cabinet, raced to the shampoo room, and grabbed her braid off the counter. She stuffed it into her front pocket and ran outside just as Elbridge and William were getting out of William’s truck.

  She waved at Elbridge heading inside as she rushed up to William. “I know I’m contradicting myself, but can I borrow your truck? I have an errand I need to run.”

  William stood stone-still, staring at her in stunned silence.

  Maddy nervously touched her hair, just now remembering her new look and realizing she’d shocked him.

  “Ye cut your hair,” he whispered, also reaching up and touching one of her curls. “And it’s blond in places.”

  “I . . . um . . . I’ve been planning to cut it for months,” she whispered back, uncertain whether or not he liked it.

  He let go of the curl and gently feathered his fingers through her hair, letting them slowly glide all the way through before doing it again. And every time his fingers came to the end of the curls that stopped at her neckline, he would linger to rub them between his fingers.

  Unable to tell what he was thinking, she wet her lips and his gaze dropped to her mouth—even as his fingers continued moving through her hair, sending salacious shivers down her spine.

  “The truck?” she asked hoarsely. “Can I borrow it?”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Can I borrow your truck to run my errand? I’ll have it back in an hour.”

  Wow, she’d impressed herself, getting out two whole complete sentences.

  Which seemed to be more than William could do; he just grunted.

  His gaze lifted from her mouth, stopped briefly at her eyes, then continued up to her hair again, where he watched his fingers slide through her curls.

  Maddy felt herself starting to melt—and it wasn’t from the blazing sun. “C-can I have the keys, please?”

  His fingers stopped and wrapped around the back of her neck, and he pulled her forward as he leaned in—only instead of kissing her, he brushed his lips over her hair.

  “I-I’ll only be gone about an hour,” she managed to croak, her insides clenching and her legs turning to rubber.

  He grunted again.

  Or maybe it was more of a guttural moan.

  “And before you take off on your motorcycle, could you go visit with Hiram, if he’s awake?”

  Wow, another whole sentence.

  “Maddy! The harbormaster just called back to say Trace’s boat is off-loading,” Katy shouted from the entrance.

  Maddy tried to remember why she cared.

  William straightened away with a sigh.

  She placed her hand on his chest when she felt herself sway toward him, and looked up to find him running his eyes through her hair now.

  “Well, Maddy?” Charlotte shouted from the entrance. “Does he like it?”

  She was pretty sure she nodded.

  Since he wasn’t handing her the keys, she slowly backed away, bumped into the mirror, and then worked her way to the door handle. “Um . . . are the keys in it?” she asked, even though she couldn’t remember why she needed them.

  Please stop staring at me so I can breathe, she wanted to shout.

  Maybe . . . maybe she should stop staring at him.

  She groped for the door handle, pulled on it, and the interior buzzer went off the moment the door opened.

  Which meant the keys were in the truck.

  So Maddy got in, too.

  But her purse nearly made her fall back out when she sat on it.

  It would probably help if she watched what she was doing instead of watching William watch her. She pulled her purse free and tossed it onto the passenger seat, then pulled the seat belt around and clicked it shut�
�all without taking her eyes off him, the loud ding of the key buzzer keeping pace with her thumping heart.

  You can do this! she silently screamed, groping for the key and pulling it out just enough to stop the infernal beeping. Stop looking at him! Just close the door and start the truck, and go . . . somewhere.

  Somewhere important, she thought.

  She was also pretty sure that she had a time constraint.

  But there was something else nagging at the back of her mind; something she was supposed to do first.

  “Maddy!” Charlotte shouted from the entrance. “If you’re going to the docks, bring me back some rock seaweed so I can make us some more face cream.”

  Fairly sure she nodded again, Maddy finally managed to close the door and turn the ignition at the same time, starting the truck as she continued to stare at William staring at her—his marine-blue eyes gleaming in the hot August sun.

  She groped at the window buttons when she suddenly remembered the something else she needed to do. She rolled down the rear window, realized her mistake, and rolled down her window.

  “Um, are you still interested in that favor you asked for yesterday?”

  His eyes grew guardedly intense, and he nodded ever so slightly.

  Maddy took a deep breath. “Then . . . yes.”

  She’d intended to say more; something cheeky that she’d thought of last night as she’d lain in bed staring up at her ceiling. But when his eyes went from intense to downright dangerous—though he remained utterly still except to nod again—Maddy reversed the button and rolled her window back up.

  She adjusted one of the vents to blow directly on her flaming face, pushed down on the brake, pulled the gearshift into drive, and slowly pulled away—not daring to glance out the window at him again.

  She did look in her rearview mirror when she reached the road and saw William still standing there in the middle of the parking lot staring after her—his cuffs rolled up his sexy arms and his large, masculine hands balled into fists at his sides.