by Martha Carr
She woke up gradually, opening her eyes and lifting her head to look out the window at the lightening sky. She glanced down at her watch and saw that it was morning, jumping up as adrenaline shot through her veins. "The entire day has passed. What happened? Where is everyone? I need to feed Dexter."
Her eye caught a yellow post-it sticking out between the mattress and box spring that wasn't there when she fell asleep. She pulled it out and flipped it over to see several lines of small, crimped writing taking up the entire space. "My last wishes - just in case. Toni Parker." Underneath was a list of furniture, art pieces, dishes and even the dog and who Toni wanted to see get them. "Why did I get all the drums? Where the hell did you go off to, Mom?"
Maggie found her shoes, stuffing her feet into them, even as she was grabbing her phone and walking out the door, heading for the stairs. There was no telling what Toni Parker had gotten herself into and if she was in the kind of trouble that could get her killed. The continued warnings from the trees rattled around in her head.
She came down the last step and heard the familiar sound of the dog taking the corner too fast as he came running up to greet her, partially slamming into the wall with his back end. Maggie ran her hands over the dogs head, scratching him behind the ears. "At least I know you're safe. Where's Mom? Please tell me she's just leading a protest downtown and has chained herself to a parking meter."
"Maggie, is that you?" Kathleen's voice echoed from the backyard. "Come out and visit with me."
Maggie went outside, holding the screen door for Oscar as he took off through the yard after a squirrel that zigzagged back and forth before climbing a tree.
"One day he's going to catch one and then we'll see if he knows what to do with it," laughed Kathleen.
"Have you seen my mother?" The yellow post it was still dangling from her hand.
The smile faded from Kathleen's face as she glanced at the last will and testament of Toni Parker. "I told her that was a bit excessive but I couldn't talk her out of it."
"Did she say where she was going that required last rites?" Maggie felt her heart beating a little too fast. "She's not exactly equipped to do battle with anything."
"She had an errand to run. Didn't seem out of the ordinary, and frankly neither did the note."
Maggie looked at it again and sat down hard on a chair. "You're right. If this had happened last week I'd be saving this to show Diana over a beer. By the way, why does Diana get all the depression glass?"
"Toni seemed to think you weren't into owning much." Kathleen let out another laugh. "You were asleep for a long time. It must be tiring trying to protect so many people who won't sit still where it's safe." She arched her eyebrow and tilted her chin down giving Maggie a knowing look.
Maggie let out a sigh. "Diana says the same thing, but makes a joke of it. I have my reasons."
"Does it have anything to do with being an Elemental?"
Maggie looked up, narrowing her eyes and taking a longer look at Kathleen. "Who are you really? You didn't stumble upon my mother, did you?"
"Let's just say that was more fortuitous than I realized at the outset. I've been searching for someone like you for a long time." She shifted in her seat and Maggie saw the collection of stones in her lap. Kathleen covered them with her hand but not before Maggie saw the symbols carved into each one of them. "Don't mind me. I'm an old Peabrain working a little magic to place a ward on the house. The ones your father placed were powerful but they've waned over time. Too many with dark intentions have been able to render them powerless. It was time for an update."
"I didn't even know that was a thing."
"There's a lot you don't know and some of it I can teach you. Not much, I'm afraid. If the stories are to be believed, your abilities go beyond what I know, but I may be able to answer a few general questions."
"Okay," said Maggie, settling back into the chair. "I have one that's been bothering me. Why me? Why am I the Elemental and not Diana? She's the older one."
"Not everything works like an old English monarchy, dear. It's not about first born, it's about something that's harder to quantify. You were the one that came together in just the right way to be the conduit for everything." She shook her head, anticipating the question. "No one really knows. But on the right day, at the right time there was a clear sky split by a sudden bolt of lightning at the moment you were born. That was the energy from this ship passing through you. Any other child would have been killed, but for the Elemental it's priming the pump or turning on the lights."
Maggie leveled her gaze at the old woman. "Were you there when I was born?"
Kathleen clapped her hands together in delight. "No, but I would have loved to have seen it. I've only read about the birth of the Elemental."
"Then how did you know..." Maggie shook her head. "My mother talks too much."
"She caught me putting the ward on the house. I guess she needed someone to tell. It's alright, I know how to keep a secret."
Maggie took another look at her. "I'll bet you do." Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced down. "Duty calls. I need to run home, feed my dog, change and get to work."
"Oh, you got a dog! Safe travels, Maggie Parker. Take a page from your mother. We all need people we can lean on."
Chapter Ten
Maggie drove the El Camino toward work, but she hit a detour long before she got to the station. A neatly stacked pile of cars blocked the main road on South Congress and as Maggie backed up to take another route, water from a fire hydrant blew out the top. The blast of water rose in the air, curling at the top and bending into a slide, splashing down half a block away. Fish tumbled down the water and hit the street, growing legs and walking away.
She stopped the car and leaned forward, looking through the front window up at the sky even as large bass ran by her car.
"Bernie, is this your doing?" she muttered, throwing the car into park and leaving it by the side of the road. "Bernie! Bernie, are you here?" She called out as she ran alongside the waterfall, but the sound of the rushing water drowned out her voice. A man dressed in a dark suit stood in the middle of the road, a look of fear and confusion on his face. He opened his mouth to yell something at Maggie but all that came out was a trail of bubbles that engulfed him, spinning him around and lifting him into the air.
Maggie took off at a run and grabbed onto his ankles, pulling as hard as she could to bring him back down to the ground. Her muscles strained as she pushed down on his body, resting her knees on his chest.
"Think about your intention," she yelled over the loud, rushing water that was still filling the street and was splashing up onto her knees. "What was it you were thinking about?"
The man opened his mouth as another bubble escaped. He pressed his hand over his mouth, his eyes wide.
"Try again and breathe."
He took in a long breath as two small bubbles escaped his nose, lifting him inches off the ground. "I wanted to get out of here, as fast as possible," he mumbled through his hand. The smell of roses wafted everywhere. "Have you seen what's happening? It's everywhere!"
Maggie looked at him, confused. "You didn't do all of this?"
He shook his head, his hand still pressed to his mouth and pointed with his other hand in the direction the water was flowing. Maggie lifted her head and looked in time to see a small crowd of people in different clusters. There were bubbles floating around all of them.
"That can't be good." She looked down at the man. "You have to calm down and try to think of nothing at all." She eased off of his chest and saw that he floated just above the ground. She ran back to her car and opened the trunk, grabbing an old extension cord. "This will at least keep you relatively safe," she said, as she tied one end around his ankle and the other around a no parking sign.
He clutched at her arm, even as she said, "I have to go. I have to try to help." He shook his head hard, clutching tighter. "I can't stay." She pulled her arm away but he lur
ched trying to grab her. Too late, she saw that he was looking behind her, trying to pull her back and out of the way.
She whipped around in time to see the ground erupt and crumble as something pushed through to the top.
"Bernie! What are you doing?"
Popping out of the top was the old gnome, covered in a thin layer of dirt. He spit dirt out of his mouth, rubbing his face and smoothing down the green sweater with pink piping that he was wearing. "Finally, I found you! The signals are all off in this area. I've been tracking you for well over an hour."
"We need to figure out a better way to find each other. What's with the mole impression?"
"The energy is off in this area. It's like a hot zone. I've never seen anything like it. Peabrains are getting woke right and left with no warning, no preparation. The magic is popping out of them." He was flapping his arms, sending up a cloud of dust. "Worse, one set of bubbles is affecting another like it's all connected. One Peabrain sets out an intention that does something to the Peabrain next to him."
A cat turned into a dog and back into a cat again, arching its back and spitting before taking off to hide underneath a car. Two Peabrains looked at each other startled.
"Now that one I've seen before."
"Really?"
"Oh sure, cat lover versus dog lover. It's a real thing with you guys." A tiny trail of bubbles flew out of Bernie's mouth, popping into a stream of fireflies. The scent of strawberries mixed with the smell of fish.
Maggie eyed the gnome suspiciously. "Bernie, did you have something to do with any of this? Turn the wrong valve or send up some kind of weird vapor."
"Not you too! Jack has been saying the same thing all day. I have touched nothing, not a single dial. Besides, these are popping up all over. Little hotspots of magical activity that go away after a few hours."
"Temporary, that's good news!" A fight erupted among a group of neighbors, swarms of snakes and frogs appearing in bubbles. Maggie ran toward them as police sirens could be heard in the distance.
Bernie was right behind her, shooting out a line of bubbles to contain them. "Come on, which one of you ordered the bow and arrow? It was you, wasn't it?" Bernie put his hands on his hips glaring at a man with a goatee and a bun on the top of his head. "It's not easy seeing inside so many Peabrain heads at once. I feel like I need a good shower and some strong liquor. Maybe a plate of tacos."
"How long does this normally last and how do we hide it from the general public?"
"If it's like the awakening in Tuscon, we only have a few more minutes." A snake slithered through the water and curled around Bernie's ankle. "There are some strange little freaks living in this neighborhood. What's with all the reptiles? Maggie, go! You need to get out of here and I'll meet you later."
"No, you need my help cleaning up this mess. I don't know how to reach you. Yelling at the ground doesn't work." The water rushed around her, rising up to her ankles and another fish ran past.
"Fixing this is beyond your scope at this point. Don't worry, we prepare for something like this," he said, just as a fish leaped over his head, slapping him in the face with a fin. Bernie took a look around, throwing up his hands. "Some kind of Freudian nightmare! Who puts out the intention for an endless supply of walking fish?" The words whistled between his teeth. "Talk about your fast food. Oh now, look what you got on my sweater." A muddy green streak of slime went diagonally across the middle of the green sweater.
"It's like a giant game of Jenga. All of this somehow flows together and makes sense to these Peabrains," he said. "We will unravel it all and put the place back together."
"I can't imagine how you practice for this. Not your usual kind of natural disaster."
"Trust me, we've got this. Get out of here before your work buddies arrive and see you. That will be harder to fix."
"Who is we?"
Bernie picked up a nearby bat that had fallen and knocked a clear path around the encroaching fish. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. "I found the source," he yelled, as the ground erupted, and heads popped out of holes. Huldu gnomes pushed themselves out of the ground and immediately went to work, blowing bubbles to contain the fish and put the fire hydrant together. A few made their way over to the neighbors who were all hiccupping bubbles.
Maggie took one last look over her shoulder. "Find me after six at the Mean Eyed Cat."
Bernie waved to her and gave her a nod and just as quickly turned his back to send out a series of bubbles while uttering, "In ordinatione!" The fish fell over and flew backward in a rush, shrinking as they were swept back into the stream. Maggie watched in awe until she saw the police cars getting closer and she took off at a run.
She reached the car just in time as the police swarmed the area and watched as the gnomes wrapped themselves in bubbles, disappearing below the surface. The energy was ebbing just enough to restore order and disappear, leaving a neighborhood of Peabrains dazed and confused with a strange story to tell. "My mother is going to love this one," muttered Maggie, as she turned the car away from the scene and headed to the station.
Chapter Eleven
Maggie listened to the police radio as she pulled into the parking lot at her favorite convenience store.
The radio crackled and a hesitant voice spoke up. "Uh, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of a crime here, Sergeant. A lot of confused citizens, possibly on something?" Someone in the background was muttering about an adult rave but was cut off by the officer holding the radio. "We've called in the paramedics to be sure..." The voice in the background piped up with... "could be a little something they smoked..." and the radio cut out again.
She parked the car and took in a measured breath, letting it out slowly, almost smiling at the repeated exchanges on the radio that kept getting cut off.
"Do you smell fish?"
"We're going to go check out another call on Slaughter Lane."
"Why is everything so wet?"
"Get in the car!" The radio buzzed again and then went silent.
It started with a small chuckle and grew to a rumble in her chest that exploded into laughter inside of the dark blue El Camino. "Whoa! Wait!" Maggie sucked in air, pressing her lips together but a few snickers escaped and she started laughing again. "Come on now," she said, hitting the steering wheel. "This is keeping you from morning coffee."
She pinched the bridge of her nose and took in another deep breath, letting go of all the tension that had been running through her body. "Diana will definitely not believe this one." Maggie got out of the car, the occasional giggle still escaping and made her way inside the store. Joey looked up from the coffee station, already pouring Maggie a tall cup of French roast, black, popping a lid on the top.
"I saw you coming." He held out the cup, shaking his head and waving his other hand. "It's the least I can do after, you know. The little incident."
I almost took a bullet to the brain, Joey. She nodded, clearing her throat.
He leaned in to hand her the cup and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose. Maggie looked down at her damp shoes and back up at Joey, not saying anything.
Joey put his hands together, a pained smile on his face, his eyes watering from the smell. "Are you hungry? Of course you are. We have a few nice taquitos left. Wait right here." He ran toward the back and Maggie wrapped her hands around the hot cup, slurping off the top. A large man came bustling in and headed toward the coffee, nodding at Maggie as he passed her. He stopped cold in front of the coffee and whistled. "Whew! Who's been sleeping with the fishes?" Maggie took another large slurp of the hot coffee, backing up slowly toward the door. She left oily, wet footprints with every step even as the man waved a hand in front of his face and sniffed the coffee, before pouring himself a cup. "Whoa doggie, thank goodness this coffee is so strong. Hey Joey, you back there? Can you put it on my tab? What happened here?"
Maggie got out of the way of the door and let the man pass by her. He blinked hard and looked more closely at Maggie
, wrinkling his forehead. "There's got to be a helluva story that goes with this, I'll bet." He held up his hand. "No need to tell me. Not sure I can stand the smell long enough to hear it."
Joey came trotting out from the back, carrying a paper bag full of taquitos as Maggie pulled out a ten-dollar bill and left it on the counter. "Keep the change, Joey. Sorry about the rest."
He shook his head. "You've done so much after the..."
"I know, the little incident." The almost got my head shot off little incident. She took the bag and made her way out of the store, still slurping the coffee. At the car she put her coffee on the ground and slipped out of her shoes and dropped them into the truck bed, covering them over with an old towel and a five-pound weight. She dug her favorite running shoes out of her gym bag and held them up, looking down at the damp edges of her pant legs. "Yeah, that's not going to work. O'Malley and Moss will never let this one go." She looked down at her watch and back at the pants. "I'm already a little late. No time to run back home."
She dug around in the metal box she had secured in the truck bed and pulled out a pair of black pants with an old blood stain from a crime scene. "These are slightly better. Maybe." She let out a sigh and looked up at the convenience store at the busy windows with ads for the lottery, Gatorade and a local rodeo that was going to have Little Britches breakaway roping.
Joey could be seen through the glass door scrubbing the floor where Maggie had been standing. She looked back at the pants and took a good whiff of the surrounding air. "Whew! That is bad." She pressed her lips together and bit her bottom lip, holding out her hand and staring at her palm. "Bernie, you're busy, and... doesn't matter." She shook her head. "I can do this. Sure, yes, why not?" Her confidence built as she ducked behind the truck bed and held out her hand. "Set an intention and let it go. Clean, dry pants. Simple." She blew out a breath, puffing out her cheeks. "Okay, here goes. Clean, dry pants. No blood stains, no fish smell. Why do I sound like I'm ordering from Burger King?"