A Tale of Two Tricksters

by Debbie Newcomb

  Jenn pretended not to be affected. “I’m dialing 911 right now. I’m about to call the cops on a creepy older man who’s been following me all night,” Jenn said, her finger poised over the call button on her phone.

  Luke sighed. “Very well. You’re no fun.” Then he turned around and left.

  Jenn sighed and closed her calling app. Even if she had called, Luke would have just left before anyone got to her.

  Julie walked up to Jenn. “Hey. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

  “No. Let’s head in,” Jenn said, shaking off her encounter with Luke. This was her scene and it was kind of a game to see how many free drinks she could get.

  The bouncer at the door didn’t seem to notice their fakes, but he did ask for a cover charge.

  “Maybe we can check this out another time,” Julie said.

  “No, I’ll cover you,” Jenn said, handing the bouncer the cash.

  “Are you sure?” Julie asked.

  “Yup,” Jenn replied. “Come on.” Jenn waited until they were inside before she told Julie that Luke had followed her here as well.

  “Seriously?” Julie asked. “Did you call the cops?”

  “I threatened to, and then he left,” Jenn answered, “but I think he might still be out there.”

  “Ugh. What a creep. What do you want to do?”

  “Let’s just stay here for awhile. Maybe he’ll give up.”

  “I hope so,” Julie replied, “but if he comes up to you again, call the cops right away.” She shivered. “I just need to get the car home so my folks can go to work in the morning.”

  “No worries. We won’t be here that long. Still, if we’re going to be here for awhile, we need some drinks. Follow my lead.” Jenn strutted up to the bar and Julie followed behind her. Through no coincidence, she ended up next to a man who looked like he had already had a few.

  “Hello, ladies,” he greeted them, his tongue thick. “Can I get you a drink?”

  “Gin and tonic for me,” Jenn replied. She pitched her voice higher and opened her eyes a little wider when she was pulling a con like this. She turned to Julie, who struggled to say anything. “She’ll have a cosmo,” Jenn filled in. They had to keep the momentum going. The bartender nodded and started making their drinks.

  “So, what brings you ladies here?” the man asked.

  “We’ve heard Andrew’s has the best drinks in town,” Jenn replied, giggling.

  “That it does,” the man replied, saluting Jenn with his drink before taking another sip.

  “Here you are,” the bartender said, putting their drinks down.

  “Thanks,” Jenn said with a big grin. She handed Julie her drink and picked up her own.

  “So, can I interest either of you ladies in a dance?” the man asked, in what he must have thought was a suave manner.

  Jenn giggled. “I couldn’t possibly, I might spill my drink. Besides, she gets pretty jealous.”

  “Jealous?” the man asked.

  “Oh yes,” Jenn replied. “I’m surprised she’s letting me talk to you. Usually my girlfriend wants it to be about us when we go out. She’s gotten in so many fights over it.” Jenn looked sad. “And she’s a black belt so, it never goes well for the poor men.”

  “No, I-“ Julie started to protest.

  “I know,” Jenn said quickly. “We’ll go get a table.” She turned back to the man who was now shaking. “Nice to meet you.” Then the two of them walked away.

  “What was that?” Julie asked.

  “What? I just got us free drinks.” Jenn sat down a took a sip. “This is pretty good.”

  “No, I mean, why did I have to be the jealous girlfriend?”

  “Oh. It’s one of my strategies. I’ve found guys like the idea of me having a girlfriend, but I have to put the idea of being ‘dangerously taken’ in there, or else they try to get a threesome. Creeps.” Jenn looked up at Julie. “Try your drink.”

  Julie took a sip.

  “You don’t drink much, do you?” Jenn asked.

  Julie shook her head. “Honestly, I just got the ID so I could see a band. They just had to play in a bar. Anyway, most of the people I see either drink just to get hammered, or don’t drink at all.”

  “Welcome to the happy medium,” Jenn said, saluting Julie with her drink.

  Julie took a bigger drink of her cosmo. “This is pretty good,” she admitted.

  “Great,” Jenn said. “When we’re done with these, I’ll get us a few more.”

  Jenn did manage to get them a few more drinks that night. Most of the time, she maneuvered a man to buy her a drink, but once she tried offering to buy someone else a drink, and then realizing she didn’t have any money on her. That one didn’t always work, but this time she scored a free drink off of him and left before he realized what had happened.

  “Is this how you always get your drinks?” Julie asked. She was on her third drink and was flushed. Jenn figured she probably was as well.

  “Most of the time,” Jenn replied. “You have to pick out the right person for the con, though. For example, don’t go after a couple. If you try the romance angle, one of them might hit on you and cause a big scene. It’s better to avoid them. I haven’t really tried asking girls, either. It’s typical that a guy buys a drink for a girl at a bar, I’m not sure how it works when it’s two girls. When you pick a guy, choose one who’s a few years older than one you should be dating. So, the kind of guy you like,” Jenn teased.

  Julie laughed a bit too loudly. “I just think they’re hot. I don’t want to date them.”

  “I stand corrected,” Jenn replied.

  “Although, I do like to date girls a year or two older than me,” Julie admitted. She gasped. “Oops.”

  “I guess that’s why you didn’t want to pretend to be my jealous girlfriend,” Jenn replied.

  Julie nodded, still red.

  “Duly noted,” Jenn said. She shrugged. “Just don’t be jealous while you’re dating someone and you should be set.”

  Julie looked at her for a moment, and then laughed, relieved. “Is that your philosophy when you date someone?” she asked.

  “I haven’t really dated anyone,” Jenn answered. “If I’m single, I can do what I like and get these things for free. If I’m dating someone, then I’m limited and I’m sure they’ll except things from me.”

  “I understand,” Julie replied, nodding her head sagely. “You’re afraid.”

  “Afraid?” Jenn asked. “This is definitely our last drink,” Jenn thought. “Julie’s never this blunt.”

  “Afraid that it won’t work. That you’ll try to date some guy and he’ll end up leaving you. Or a girl. Or whoever. You don’t want to fail at it.”

  “No, people just take too much energy. Besides, you know me. By the first date, I’d be cheating him out of something. By the second, I’d make him think I’m someone else, and I’d break his heart by the third date.”

  “So you have tried,” Julie responded.

  Jenn sighed. “Once. I just wanted to see how far it would go. It turns out I was the one who walked away first. He was really clingy.”

  “Three dates isn’t clingy,” Julie corrected her. “If you want to hear about clingy, there was this girl I dated in high school-“

  “I didn’t know you dated any girls in high school,” Jenn broke in.

  “That’s because I was closeted. Now I’m out, mostly. Anyway, she texted me all the time and she wanted to see me every day. When I was at work, she texted me every hour. I swear it was cute at first, but it got to be obnoxious. Who has that much to say?”

  “Psycho, clingy lesbians, I guess,” Jenn replied.

  Julie laughed. “You’re funny, but she wasn’t too bad. This guy a friend of mine dated was psycho. When they broke up, he trashed her car!”

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah. He slashed her tires, broke all the windows, and keyed his name in the paint on the side. But he got the wrong car! She had the same kind of car
as her neighbor and he got the neighbor’s car instead!”

  “Really?” Jenn asked, pondering how she could duplicate this sort of thing. “Sucks to be the neighbor.”

  “I know!” Julie said. She looked at her phone. “Crap. I’ve got to go. Good thing I don’t work tomorrow.”

  “I think we’ll be all right to leave,” Jenn replied. She kept an eye on Julie, but she wasn’t wobbly when she stood up or when she walked out. “Maybe it wasn’t the booze talking,” Jenn mused.

  Once they got outside, Julie said, “See you later.”

  Jenn replied, “See you.” They split off to go to their cars. Just before Jenn unlocked her car, she saw Luke across the street. “I’d better take care of this here so he doesn’t follow me home,” Jenn thought, opening her purse a little bit. She crossed the street and confronted him.

  “That was quite a show you put on in there,” Luke greeted her. “All for some free drinks. I wonder what you’d do for some real stakes.”

  “That’s the whole point,” Jenn replied, annoyed, reaching into her purse. “I get something small and walk away. When the stakes get bigger people get too invested.” While she was talking, Jenn whipped her mace out of her purse and sprayed it in Luke’s eyes. He tried to grab her hand, but she deftly pulled away and sprayed him again for good measure. “The next time I tell you to leave me alone,” Jenn told him, loudly so he could hear her over his yelling, “I expect you to do it.”

  Then she crossed back to her car, got inside, and drove home.

  **

  When she woke up the next morning, Jenn realized she would need to get more pepper spray. Her mom had gotten her some when she went to college, but Jenn was sure she never expected it to be used. Jenn decided to stop by a store while she was out breaking and entering in the Velvet Tango Lounge. Jenn smiled at the thought. She’d better get ready quickly so she could get to the bar around lunch time.

  Jenn rolled out of bed and pondered her closet. She needed to look cute, but no so cute the construction workers wanted to pursue her. Jenn pulled on a long tank top, and a pair of shorts that had raggedy hems. Her hair was too short to really do anything with it, but Jenn brushed it out until it behaved a bit more. She put in some dangly earrings and looked herself over. It would do. She slid her feet into some strappy wedges, inhaled her breakfast, and was out the door.

  It was strange to see campus town so empty during the day. When classes started up again, it would be much harder to drive here, or find a parking spot. Jenn found one close to the Velvet Tango Lounge, but not so close she could see the bar from her car. She didn’t want them to know what kind of car she drove in case anyone got suspicious.

  Jenn got out of her car and strutted a little down the street. When she saw the construction workers outside of the bar, she gasped a little in surprise and then smiled. “Boy am I glad you’re here today!” Jenn said to the first one she saw. “I forgot my wallet behind the bar last night and I need to get it.”

  “Behind the bar?” the man asked her, looking her up and down.

  “I work here,” Jenn said, smiling, “and I set down my wallet, and I must not have picked it back up. I’m just going to go in and grab it, if that’s all right.” Jenn flashed him her most dazzling smile.

  “Sure,” the man said. “It’s all yours until we finish our break.”

  “Thank you,” Jenn said. “I’ll be quick.” She dashed down the steps to the front door, no easy feat in her wedges, and walked inside confidently. If it was strange to see campus town empty, it was even more strange to see the Velvet Tango Lounge during the day. Where at night it seemed mysterious and suave, it almost seemed overdone in the daylight. Walking quickly, Jenn went to the back wall and found the lock Luke had opened. She wouldn’t have much time, but she wanted to at least see what that hallway looked like without him.

  Jenn pulled out her bobby pins and stuck them in the lock. As she gently tapped the hook upward, Jenn realized this lock was more complicated than most she had picked. Usually, she was about halfway out of the lock by now. Jenn willed her fingers to work swiftly, but accurately. Finally, Jenn felt the last tumbler click into place and she eagerly turned the lock open. She opened the door.

  She was met with a closet full of liquor and cleaning supplies. Jenn stared at it blankly. This was the only door on the wall. There was no way she had picked the wrong place. Why did it open onto a closet instead of a hallway? Jenn heard boots on the stairs outside the door. Quickly, she closed the door and pulled her wallet out of her purse. She smiled and walked to the door just before the worker she’d talked to before came in.

  “I found it!” Jenn said. “Thank you so much for letting me in.”

  “Sure,” the man said as she breezed past him.

  Jenn walked down the sidewalk back to her car, pretending to be happy, when inside she was fuming. Luke had tricked her again somehow. She definitely had to pay him back for this, but how did he trick her this time? There was no way she had opened the wrong door, but it had led to the wrong place. “Maybe there was a secret switch that moved the closet away,” Jenn thought, but she knew she was grasping at straws. There had been nothing odd about it when Luke had opened that door. “Maybe he used magic on it,” Jenn thought. Part of her dismissed the thought immediately, but part of her wondered if it was true. Nothing else seemed to make sense, and he did seem to have magic.

  Jenn sighed. It was clear that she wasn’t getting anywhere trying to go through the bar. She’d have to go back out to the prairie and see what she could find there. Maybe Achi had left another feather helpfully pointing to an entrance to their hideout. “Yeah, and maybe I’ll ride a flying pig inside it,” Jenn thought, turning on her car.

  When she got to the prairie and got out of her car, Jenn immediately went to her trunk to find tennis shoes and a couple of socks. It wouldn’t do her any good to cover her feet in blisters by walking too far in her sandals. Miraculously, she found a matching pair of shoes and a pair of socks that were the same color. Jenn pulled them on and got going on the first trail. She looked for any tall rock formations, or even anything at eye level. The first trail turned up nothing.

  Sighing, Jenn left the loop, and went onto the second trail, but she was beginning to get tired and hungry. “Maybe I should let Luke keep his damn secrets,” Jenn thought, kicking a pebble. It smacked into another, larger rock, and Jenn sat on this rock. She couldn’t remember seeing any tall rock formations out here, anyway, but how else would Achi be flying around? Jenn leaned back on the rock she was sitting on, and then it hit her. She’d been going about this all wrong. A cave didn’t have to come up above the ground. Achi’s entrance might be under the ground. Jenn could have smacked herself.

  Hurriedly, Jenn got off the rock and headed back to the first trail. She started at the end and, sure enough, she saw a hole in the tall grass not too far off the trail. Careful not to leave too many bent grass stems behind her, Jenn made her way over there. There was, indeed, a hole in the ground, and it looked like a rock tunnel that came straight up. Jenn slid her fingers around the edge until they caught on something. Jenn snatched her bleeding fingers away but saw one of Achi’s feathers was stuck to the rock. “Gotcha,” Jenn whispered.

  She straightened up, headed back to the path, and began to plan. Since she was going underground, it wouldn’t matter what color her helmet was, although she would need a helmet light. It wouldn’t really matter whether she climbed it during the day or at night because very little sunlight would get in the cave, but Jenn wanted to climb down at night so no one would get in her way.

  Jenn made it back to her car and drove home, trying not to bleed too much on her steering wheel. The cut didn’t look that big, but it was bleeding quite a bit. “My mom’s going to start worrying about all these bandages on my fingers,” Jenn pondered. She realized she should probably put a first-aid kit in her car, or at least a few bandages. She certainly had enough other stuff in there.

  When she got home,
Jenn ran to their first-aid supply to cover up her cut before she bled on anything. She checked her phone and realized she still had time to get out to the climbing store and get a few practice climbs in before her parents would start to worry. They’d be glad she took up climbing again, either way.

  Jenn ate a quick snack and headed out again to withdraw some money from an ATM before she drove out to the climbing store. It was a giant place, part store and part climbing wall, and it was perfect for Jenn’s needs today.

  Jenn was greeted by a perky redhead behind a desk. “Hello, how may I help you?” she asked.

  Jenn decided on a forty-five-minute climbing session. As she was climbing up the wall, with her belayer below, it hit Jenn just how dangerous this could be. She wouldn’t have a belayer when she headed into that dark cave at night. She had no real way of knowing what was down there. It could lead to an underground lake. Jenn’s foot slipped, and she clung to the wall for one breathless moment before she got her foot back in place again. Then again, if she wanted to have a chance at knowing what Luke was up to, she had to do it. It seemed like he was the only one who could work the door in the bar, but the cave in the prairie was probably a different story.

  Jenn reached the top of the wall and began the trip back down. Her trip into the cave would be this easy. She just wasn’t sure about coming back out.

  Jenn pushed all of these thoughts out of her head as her feet hit the mat. She still had more time on her session, so she chose a different wall, and started climbing up that one.

  After she was done, Jenn headed into the store to buy what she was still missing. A helpful employee named Howard came over to check on her.

  “I’m doing a traditional night climb,” Jenn told him.

  “Then you’ll probably want a gear sling so you can carry more cams and nuts,” Howard said.

  “A gear sling?” Jenn asked.

  Howard helped her pick one out, and suggested she take a few more cams and nuts as well. Jenn took the longest rope she could, since she wasn’t sure how far down the cave went.

  It ended up costing a bit more than she’d thought, but Jenn still had plenty of cash to cover everything. “Have a great climb!” her cashier said.