The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  “How are things upstairs?” Tyler asked him.

  “He finally answered some questions.” Louis looked at the ground. Tyler usually didn’t pry into Louis’s professional business, but this was somehow different. It seemed he had a right to know and Louis knew he needed someone to talk to about it, but he didn’t want Mike Padgett to know anything. Mike had a big mouth.

  “Then who picked him up? Who took him to the Sands?” Tyler asked him.

  Louis shrugged. “Says he can’t remember a thing.”

  Tyler sensed something was up.

  “Oh, yeah?” He raised both eyebrows.

  “Well,” Mike spoke up “some things are best left alone. He saved old Billy’s life. No harm done. Ought to leave well enough alone.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Louis capitulated and stood up to help a man who was looking over an old car jack.

  The sound of a diesel engine attracted their attention. Mike and Tyler stood up to crane their necks above the crowd in the street. A flatbed truck was stopped behind the barricade on Main Street. A brand new, blood red Mercedes just like the crashed silver model belonging to Perry Aliger sat on the back of the truck in the middle of the street. Louis frowned and walked across the intersection to speak to the driver.

  “What’s up?” He asked when he was close enough to speak to the man.

  “I gotta a delivery for the place over there on the corner.” The driver nodded toward the Gift Shop.

  “For Perry Aliger?” Louis eyed the car wondering how in the world they had gotten there so fast with a new car. Boy, you get what you pay for.

  “Yep,” the driver nodded. “You know him?”

  “Yeah,” Louis nodded. “I know him.”

  “You know how it is.” The man grinned at him. “Money talks. They called me out at six this morning to make the run. You get used to it after a while. I’m ’sposed to pick up a wrecked one.”

  Louis explained an alternate route to the man that would take him around all the barricades and up to the back side of the building.

  “Boy, howdy!” Mike lowered himself carefully onto the crate. “I bet Parkway Chevrolet wouldn’t act like that if you wrecked your truck, huh Tyler?”

  “I’d be lucky to get a rent-a-wreck while they banged out the dents,” Tyler agreed.

  Louis came back to join them.

  “Must be nice,” Mike said watching the truck back down the street out of sight.

  “Money talks,” Louis sighed.

  “Well, he’s gonna miss Mr. Aliger,” Mike said. “He just come out the shop and headed off down the street.”

  A little while later, the truck pulled up behind the shop. They maneuvered around to watch him unload the red Mercedes. The man came round to the front of the shop and beat on the glass door. Mrs. Aliger opened the door and took the clipboard and keys from him. She closed the door leaving him outside for a few moments. When she returned, she handed him what looked like a check, some cash and another set of keys. He went back around the shop to begin loading the wrecked car onto his truck. Mrs. Aliger did not even come out to look at the new car.

  “Damn!” Mike commented when she closed the door. “Must be nice.”

  “Yeah,” Louis agreed. “I guess that’s the way it is when money means nothin’ to you.”

  “Uh, oh.” Tyler sat up in his chair and squinted at something down the street. “Look’s like Billy ain’t so bad off as we thought.”

  The three of them leaned to look down the street together like three meerkats on alert.

  Billy Johnson was walking slowly down the sidewalk across from the theater with his hands jammed in the pockets of his overalls. He should have been home sleeping it off. A white bandage stood out clearly on his head above his right eye.

  “Hmm,” Louis nodded. “Looks sober now. They cited him for DWI and failure to control speed. He’ll probably get his license suspended.”

  “No!” Mike shook his head. “How will he work with a suspended license?”

  “Guess that’ll be a bit hard, won’t it?” Louis said unsympathetically and looked at Mike. “Whaddaya care, Mike?”

  “He’ll just be maddern ever.” Mike looked sick. “He’ll blame us again.”

  “Maybe not,” Tyler told him. “You don’t think he’ll come over here, do you?”

  They ignored everything in front of them, as Billy looked directly at them. He cut across the street at an angle and headed in their direction.

  “Looks like he will,” Louis muttered and shifted in his chair, making it squeak loudly.

  Billy stepped up on the sidewalk. He appeared none-the-less worse for wear except for the bandage on his head.

  “Hey, fellers,” he said picking up one of the rusty wrenches on the table in front of them. “Where’d you get all this frilly stuff, Louis?” He eyed the lace-covered table. “You need more useful stuff like this.”

  “Beggars can’t be choosers,” Louis said lightly. “How you doin?”

  “Couldn’t be better.” Billy grinned at them as if it nothing had ever happened. He never had held anything he did against himself when he was drunk. He expected everyone else to do the same. He seemed to completely ignore Mike’s appearance and glanced at Tyler. “Got to get some parts for my old one-ton. Looks like I’ll be back to drivin’ it for a while.”

  No one said anything in response.

  “Ya’ll ain’t seen Joe Weiss round here?” He looked off down the street.

  “No,” they answered in unison.

  “Whatcha want with Joe?” Louis asked suspiciously. Billy had been arrested once before for beating the living daylights out of Joe Weiss.

  “Heard he’s got some free kittens,” Billy said off-handedly. “See ya’ll later.” He meandered back down the street leaving them speechless.

  “Did he say free kittens?” Mike frowned at Tyler and put his hand over his nose.

  “Yep.” Tyler stared after the big man.

  “Hey, Mister!” A kid with a chocolate mustache and a sticky bundle of cotton candy popped up in front of them. “How much for the Gameboy?”

  At precisely ten o’clock, Angelica propped open the front door of the Gift Shop with a cast iron chicken and turned on the ‘Open’ sign in the front window. Louis was leaning back in his chair watching her with one eye closed. She stopped to look at him briefly and then went back inside. Perry came out of the open door with dozens of shiny Mylar balloons clutched in one hand and walked out to the edge of the street to begin handing them out to the kids who soon gathered around him. The name of the shop was written in gold on one side and the words ‘Grand Opening’ appeared on the other. His supply was very soon exhausted as the kids dashed off down the street with the free balloons, advertising the Gift Shop everywhere in the process. Perry stuck his hands in his pockets and shot a side-long glance at them before strolling casually over to look at the table holding the Pandora Boxes.

  “So you’ve sold three already?” He looked at Louis.

  Tyler and Mike stared at him. There wasn’t a mark on him. Not a scratch or even a hint of a bruise. How do you jump off a bridge in the middle of the night into a nasty little creek with a wrecked truck and come up looking and smelling like a rose the next day? They looked at each other.

  “Yep,” Louis answered him. “Everybody likes ’em. Tyler’s wife bought one. Mildred Morris bought one when she found out where they came from...” He looked up at Perry. “Would you believe the old bat bought back a pair of her own shoes? And who bought the other one, Ty?”

  “Cheryl Martin,” he said. “She had her mom with her. She seems to be doin’ a lot better after that heart attack.”

  “Looks like we’re gonna sell everything.” Louis smiled at Perry and wondered about Mildred Morris’ interest in Aliger. What was it about the guy? And he remembered something Cheryl’s mother had said about already having one of the boxes. How in the hell did he do that?

  “That’s good.” Perry looked down at Louis wi
th an amused look as if he could read his mind. “I have to go help Angelica in the store.”

  “Hey!” Louis called after him as he walked away. “Nice car!”

  Perry glanced back at him and frowned. Louis turned around and laughed to himself. His wife hadn’t even told him about it. Wasn’t that just too weird?

  Perry cut across the yard and peered around the corner of the building at the bright red car parked by the curb. The three men turned to watch him as he went to the car and looked inside it through the driver’s side window.

  “Damn,” Mike said softly and turned back around. “Must be nice.”

  “Do you think we’ll have any more trouble out of Billy?” Tyler turned to ask Louis.

  “I don’t know,” Louis told him and reached into the ice chest to take out three canned drinks for them. “Here, have a Coke and a.... smile” They both frowned at him.

  “Well, bless my soul!” Mike took the red and white can from him and looked at it suspiciously. “Will miracles never cease?”

  “Oh, shut up!” Louis popped the top on his can. “There’s no tellin’ what Billy will do when he starts drinkin’ and thinkin’ again. He needs to lay off the booze or he’s gonna lose more than his license. He never knows when to quit. I remember when he used to be an OK guy before his old man died. When they used to work on outboard motors over at the Fish Camp. That old boy knows his motors. He could put a Mercury outboard together with a blindfold on and one hand tied behind his back. It was a shame the old man lost that marina. I guess that’s when he started goin’ down hill. Then his grandpa’s property got sold for taxes. Old Hannah ended up with most of it before Mr. Lipscomb kicked the bucket. Billy and Hannah’s boy was plannin’ on goin’ into business together when he came back from Desert Storm. Course you know what happened. Old Hannah got all crazy after that and wouldn’t never even talk to Billy about it. So there it sits with the taxes pilin’ up on it again.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Tyler muttered and looked at him in surprise. “Billy ain’t ever mentioned it to me.”

  “Won’t be likely to,” Louis said with a self-important air and took a long drink off the coke wishing it could have been a beer. “It’s a real sore spot with him. He got drunk one night and went over to her house all crazy and killed four of her cats with a ball peen hammer. Hannah stuck a shotgun in his face. Good thing they were both drunk. He run off and she shot at him. It took us half the night to find him and then the rest of the night to talk her out of the gun. He don’t go over there any more.”

  “Wonder what he wants a kitten for?” Mike asked quietly.

  Louis got up to get more stuff to fill in the blank spots on his tables from his truck.

  A little after eleven, Paula Anne came back with a sack full of junk to put under Tyler’s chair. She planted another kiss on the good side of his mouth and spoke to Mike who looked at Tyler in surprise. He’d never seen Paula Anne pay any attention to Tyler at all. Aunt Mary stood on the sidewalk frowning at Mike’s appearance and shaking her head. It brought back several old memories to see the two of them sitting there all banged up. She was surprised they had survived so long. Tyler knew what she was thinking. Some things never change.

  Paula Anne plucked the box Aunt Mary had been looking at earlier from the table and handed a ten dollar bill to Louis. “She changed her mind,” she said brightly and took the box off with her as she escorted Aunt Mary across the street to her front door.

  Paula Anne came back to sit on the ice chest beside Tyler.

  “Aunt Mary said she’d be coming back to the Gift Shop a little later on,” she told them. “She wanted to freshen up a bit.” She leaned over to drag her packages from under Tyler's chair and took out her Pandora Box.

  “Did Tyler say you got these from Mr. Aliger?” She asked Louis.

  “Yeah.” Louis hooked one thumb over his shoulder. “Looks like he’s doing pretty good for himself.”

  Paula looked around at the shop and stood up.

  “I think I’ll go take a sneak preview,” she said as she kissed Tyler again to his amazement and headed for the open door of the shop.

  “You ought to get beat up more often, Tyler,” Mike told him as he watched her go. “She seems awful sympathetic.”

  Tyler just nodded.

  “Carla wasn’t pleased at all,” Mike said sadly. Louis laughed at him. He looked truly awful.

  Paula Anne stepped inside the dim shop and blinked. She looked around to see Perry Aliger’s head above one of the shelves where he was explaining the virtues of using white porcelain cups to serve red teas to two young ladies who were obviously smitten with him. He looked up at her as if he were expecting her and then excused himself to leave the two women staring after him.

  She’d never met him, but knew immediately who he was. Everyone in town was talking about him and she now knew why. He headed directly for her. When he was close enough for her to see his eyes, she felt herself blushing under his gaze. She glanced around and saw several other people in the shop including a very petite, dark-haired woman behind a glass counter. She automatically assumed this to be Mrs. Aliger as she also fit the description everyone had given of her. Paula Anne busied herself quickly with the nearest display which was a fascinating array of objects made entirely of feathers.

  “I see that you bought one of the Pandora Boxes,” his voice startled her even though she knew that he was coming to speak to her.

  She looked up into his eyes and nodded, unable to do more at the moment. It was true what her friend Dottie, one of the bank tellers at First National, had told her about him. She found herself staring at him.

  “I’m Perry Aliger and I think you must be Tyler’s wife, Paula Anne?” He stuck out his hand. Paula Anne took his hand and jumped when his touch set off a shock that felt like the shock she always received from the door handle of her car on dry days when she was wearing her nylon jogging shorts.

  “I’m sorry.” He smiled at her and she forgot the shock immediately.

  “Yes, I am.” She returned his smile and felt her cheeks flush a deeper shade of pink. She couldn’t wait to get back to Dottie. She hadn’t felt so silly since she was fourteen years old. “I mean, yes I do... I did! I bought it from Louis.”

  “I see.” He looked at the feathered mask she had in her hand with the box. “Are you interested in masks?”

  She looked down at the beautiful purple and red extravagance and laid it back on the shelf.

  “No, not really,” she shook her head. “How’d you know who I was?”

  “I saw you earlier with Tyler’s aunt from across the street,” he told her. “She’s told me all about you.”

  “She has?” Paula Anne had never thought Aunt Mary even knew she was alive until a few days ago.

  “Yes.” He had a strange, almost amused expression on his face as if he really, really knew everything about her. “My wife tells me you teach gymnastics.”

  “Tumbling, actually,” she said and looked down at the feathered novelties again.

  “You haven’t decided what to write inside your box,” he told her.

  “Uh, no. That’s a very interesting notion. I mean the story about the box. But, if it could really be true, wouldn’t it be... I mean, couldn’t it be sort of dangerous?”

  “Why?” He asked, following her as she moved on to examine the potpourri on the next stand.

  “Because if I put something really bad in it and someone found it...” She glanced up at him. If she didn’t already have a husband, she would have gone after this one in a hurry. She blinked and stuck her hand in a bin of loose flower petals, dried oranges, cinnamon sticks and colored cedar shavings. Did he have any idea he had that effect on her? She glanced at his wife. The picture perfect profile was busy helping an elderly lady at the counter. “Then it would be passed on to them if they... if they opened it.” She brushed her hand on her jeans and looked at him again. No way she could stay in the same room with him for more than a few moments.<
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  “Then we’ll have to put it somewhere very safe,” he told her quite seriously.

  “We?” She glanced around. Was anyone witnessing this strange exchange. “Where would we put it?”

  He shrugged and nodded to a man who trundled past them carrying a flower vase full of fuzzy dried flowers.

  “That would be a secret,” he whispered.

  She would have thought he was joking except for his expression.

  “This is silly,” she said and picked up a clear plastic box of dried apricot slices. “It’s only a legend. An unusual one, but I’ve heard of Pandora’s Box of course. I mean, I know the story. I actually came to look at you. I mean I came to look at your teapots.” Paula Anne couldn’t believe her own tongue was turning on her. What would Tyler think if he could have heard them? He nodded and took her arm gently and pushed her along the aisle toward the back of the store.

  “We have a very good selection,” he told her when they stopped in front of a tall display that held every kind of teapot, apparently in the world. Beneath the teapots in a wooden cabinet were hundreds of boxes and plastic wrapped blocks of tea. Some of them had nothing but Chinese symbols or Japanese characters on them. Paula Anne had never seen such a variety of tea.

  “I’d like to get some more of that green tea you gave Dottie. She gave me some of it the other day. It was great.”

  He smiled and she felt herself melting again! She wished he would go away, but didn’t really want him to.

  “I’m glad she shared it with you,” he said and picked up a green and black box covered with Chinese writings. “This is Lung Ching, one of the best green teas in the known world.” He handed it to her. She wondered if he knew some other world that might be unknown. “That is the powdered form. Fairly easy to brew in a porcelain teapot.” She thought she would like to brew something for him in a teapot. She shook her head. “Or this, Pi Lo chun. We have it in loose leaves and bagged leaves. Whichever you prefer.”

  “Witch?” She looked up at him. If she were a witch, she’d brew him all right.