Mixed messages
Chapter 2
Friends in Grimm places
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"I'm starting to think this is a terrible idea." Sandra grumbled as she paced through her kitchen.
Late afternoon sun shone in through the kitchen window onto the white linoleum floor. A gentle breeze swayed the bushy Cedar trees that lived past their dark brown privacy fence, and brown haired Misty trudged past their oak table, shoulders fallen. She leaned back against a Formica countertop, phone to her round, pinkish cheek. "No, you know that's not my intention. No! I'm not trying to bring the axe on my own mother. All we're looking for is parenting advice. Dad! Well, I'm sorry."
Sandra put her hand over the microphone on her phone, and whispered, "Cross your mom and dad off the list?"
Misty sighed, rested one hand in the pocket of her nurse scrubs and paged through her contact list. "Yeah. Your uncle Ralph?"
"Already called. Hey, what about your Aunt Sue and Uncle Marty? They were always really open minded."
Misty slumped, resting her chin in her palms while her wavy hair draped her face and brushed the table top. She sniffed, wiped her eyes, and said, "My Aunt Sue said, and I quote, 'What sort of God forsaken person would bring this curse upon her own family?'"
Sandra rubbed a calloused hand across Misty's shoulders, and said, "I'm sorry."
"We've been at this for three months and we haven't gotten anything but rejection."
"And death threats."
Misty nodded, thought for a minute, then asked, "Hey, what about your weird cousin down in Portland?"
"Jess Riley? The one who tries to rope me into killing and eating you every time I talk to her?"
Misty refilled her pink "World's Best Mom" coffee mug, smelled the nutty aroma steaming out of her cup, and said, "I guess."
"I hate talking to her. She's the least open minded Lowen I know, and I know a lot of Lowen. Last time I visited her, she served me Reinigen for dinner. I seriously doubt she knows any Grimms."
Misty took a sip of her coffee, sighed, pinched her forefinger and thumb against the bridge of her nose, and slouched down in the chair.
Sandra laid her hand on Misty's, gently squeezed it, and said, "I know, what have we got to lose?"
She stared at her phone for a long time, then finally hit the call button. Jess picked up quickly and they talked, exchanging pleasantries. A few minutes later, Sandra shot to her feet, bristling, and hissed, "You mean kill my own wife? No, absolutely not!"
She snarled at the phone clenched in her hand, cocked her arm back to throw it across the kitchen, and caught a glance at Misty. She paced back across the kitchen, exhaled and composed herself, put the phone back to her ear, and continued. "Jess, look, that's not why I called."
They talked some more. Finally, Sandra put her hand over the receiver and mouthed, "Jess knows a Grimm?"
After the call, Sandra ran a hand through her blonde hair, and stared out the window. She set her coffee cup into the sink and found a glass, sloshed some gin and tonic water over ice, squeezed in half a lemon, and sat next to Misty. She sipped, and finally said, "You'll never believe this. Jess says she knows a Grimm in Portland."
Misty gulped heavily, and said, "Portland? An actual Grimm? In Portland? That's barely three hours from here!"
They looked at each other with a nervous look. Misty stood up and paced across the kitchen while Sandra finished her gin and tonic and poured a second.
Sandra said, "We don't have to do this, you know. Maybe it's better if we forget about this business about meeting a Grimm."
Misty stared into her coffee cup, trying to still herself against wracking terrors. She lifted her head and all the color in her face was gone. "I don't want to. There's nothing I would rather do than run..." She trailed off, biting her lip. A tremble shook her body. She finally exhaled, stilled her shaking, and said, "But this is for Amanda."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I... I don't know why, but we have to."
Sandra took a sip and said, "Jess works in corrections. Apparently, the Grimm is a cop. My cousin says she met him when he brought in a Drang-Zorn girl that was having anger issues after fanging out. He wanted to make sure the kid was with Wesen to help her work through it. She said he's a good guy."
"Were any of the men from your baby adventure from Portland?"
"Of course not," Sandra said with a smile, "There was only one anywhere near here, and he's definitely not her father."
Misty quirked one eyebrow.
"Remember?"
Misty shrugged with a quizzical look.
Sandra looked around furtively before whispering in Misty's ear.
Her eyes shot open, and she blurted out, "Seriously?"
"I was desperate. None of the others were within three hundred miles of here."
Misty heaved a sigh of relief, and then her face brightened. "Hey, Remember Rosalee Calvert? From work? She moved back to Portland about eight years ago, when her brother died. She usually keeps her ear to the ground. I wonder if she might know anything about this Grimm."
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A few weeks later, Misty found herself with a day off work at the hospital, so she snuck down to Portland.
The Spice Shop's door swung open with a welcoming jingle. Misty stepped in, and she went back one-hundred years. She wondered at the old store full of herbal remedies and bookshelves stacked to the brim.
A woman's voice echoed from among the shelves to her right, "Can I help you find anything?"
She slowly took in the sights and smells of the stacks of bags, boxes, and jars filling the well worn shop. She inhaled scents of cinnamon, cassia, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and the pungent, spicy aromas of a hundred more herbs, greenish smelling teas, and spicy medicinal concoctions. She brushed her fingers over glass jars with carefully written labels.
Wooden floors creaked and flexed as she wandered down one aisle and ambled up the next. Finally, she spied an olive skinned woman with wavy brown hair, an ochre sweater, brown pants, and a tan canvas apron, stacking glass jars of orange powder into wooden shelves. Misty's face immediately brightened, and she called out, "Rosalee!"
The woman looked up at her name and recognized her old friend. "Misty! Oh my gosh, is that you? Wow! It's so good to see you!" Rosalee's face brightened, and she set the jar of tumeric back into a box.
"How are things going? I was in the area and decided to stop by!"
"Crazy! You remember I got married right? Well, we have four kids now! How are you and Sandra doing? How's Amanda?"
"Four kids? You? Rosalee Calvert has actual kids? You swore you would never have any! I've got to see some pictures!"
Rosalee brushed her hands on her apron and escorted Misty to the dark wooden desk by the old cash register. She slid out her purple phone and found her album of pictures. Misty flicked through dozens of pictures of brown haired, brown eyed children, and smiled from ear to ear. "They are so cute! I never would have believed I would be looking at pictures of Rosalee Calvert's kids! This is crazy, right? Well, Sandra and I are doing well. Can you believe Mandy turned thirteen two months ago?"
"Thirteen! My gosh, where does the time go? She was so little when I left. Show me some pics."
Misty pulled out her phone and paged through dozens of pictures of Amanda with herself and Sandra.
Rosalee smiled but kept staring, quizically, at pictures of the blue eyed teen with olive skin and curly hair. She asked, "Do you have a picture for me?"
Misty smiled a broad grin, set her purse on the countertop, rummaged through a wallet stuffed with coupons and cards, and pulled one out. She said, "Absolutely. What sort of mother would I be if I didn't have an extra picture of my daughter?"
"So, has she fanged out?"
Misty bit her lip, looked away, and said, "Oh, she's Sandra's daughter if you know what I mean."
Rosalee snorted, put her hand over her mouth as her eyes glittered. She joked, "She's a handful?"
"You have no idea. Her mother always teased her that she hoped Sandra would have a daughter just like herself. Tell me about your husband? I remember he's not Fuchsbau?"
"Monroe is Bludbad. The kids are still too young to know. They're all healthy though."
"That's all we can ask for right?" Misty paused and looked around to make sure the shop was empty, then leaned in close, and whispered, "Rosalee, you know a lot of people, do you know any Grimms?"
Rosalee checked the shop, and asked, "Why?"
"For a friend. A friend has a mixed Grimm kid and would like some, uh, parenting advice."
"I do know a Grimm. He's a Portland police detective. He's my husband's best friend."
Misty's surprise was interrupted when the spice shop's wooden door swung open with a welcoming jingle. A medium height, athletic man, with close cropped black hair, a black bomber jacket, and bluejeans stepped in. He walked straight up to the counter, looked directly at them, and said, "Hey Rosalee! Have you seen Monroe?"
Rosalee slid Amanda's picture into her pocket and whispered, "Speak of the devil and there he is."
Misty's brown eyes popped open and she stared at The Grimm standing mere inches from her. She unconsciously shifted her body away from him.
He looked at the two women and said, "Is this a good time? You look like you're in the middle of something. I can come back later."
"Nick," Rosalee gently laid a hand on Misty's hand. "This is Misty. She's an old friend of mine from Seattle. She needs some Grimm advice."
"I'll be glad to help any way I can."
Misty involuntarily wogued into a Steinadler and stared into her own feathery reflection, suddenly floating in the darkness of Nick's Grimm eyes. He looked away, but she stood like a stone, shiny black feathers trembling, and peered over a long, orange beak.
Rosalee rubbed her hand across Misty's feathery back, and said. "It's fine Misty. He's a close personal friend of mine."
Misty retracted back into human form and watched his eyes turn blue. She exhaled, and said, "I never even knew Grimms actually existed till a couple months ago. I thought it was a legend or an old wives' tale. Anyway, I have a friend who has a mixed Grimm kid and needs some parenting advice."
"Ok, well, my kids are still pretty young. We get all our parenting advice from Rosalee, her mother in law, and father in law. Here's my card if your friend wants to give me a call. Rosalee is pretty familiar with Grimms now too. Is there anything in particular you want to ask?"
Misty shifted from one foot to the other and rocked, pondering how to ask the next question without losing her head. She looked at her friend, and said, "I don't know how to ask this... All the stories we were taught..." She trailed off as she motioned to Rosalee and herself, and she started shaking.
Rosalee laid her hand on Misty's trembling hand, and said, "The kid isn't going to hack you up with an axe or murder you in your sleep."
Nick gently chuckled, and said, "We aren't like that, but you should have seen Rosalee, when she saw me for the first time."
Rosalee chuckled, smiled at Nick, and then at Misty, and said, "I was convinced The Apocalypse was here, and he was going to chop off my head, but instead, he caught Freddy's killers and introduced me to Monroe, my husband."
He shrugged, chuckled, then winked, and said, "I must have left my axe at home that day."
Misty's posture straightened, her trembling stopped, and she pushed on. "Really? Ok, so would you try to keep the kid away from Wesen?"
"Absolutely not, especially if the kid is part Wesen. We're part of this world. Bad things happen when you isolate Grimms like that. They end up believing Wesen are weird mutants or monsters, and that justifies hunting them. Grimms like that have no concept that Wesen are people too. My honest opinion is that it's better to immerse the kids in the Wesen world they are part of. Maintaining close Wesen friendships is important to me."
"What about when they first, you know, change?"
"The first month for me was the worst. It's a gigantic flood of adrenaline and rage. I had no idea what was going on. I saw monsters everywhere, and wanted to fight and kill everything around me. It took a little while but I got used to it. Making Wesen friends helped me the most. Rosalee and her husband saved my life in more ways than one. Has your friend's kid started having nightmares?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"It's normal. It's just part of being a Grimm. You said the kid is mixed?"
"Half Lowen."
Rosalee snuck a glance towards Misty, then stared off into space.
Nick continued, "Does the kid wogue?"
"Yep."
"Cool! I'd love to meet them. There are hardly any Grimms in the world. The children of Grimms usually turn out Kehrsite."
Rosalee's ease around The Grimm proved contagious, and Misty found herself relaxing because of Nick's natural charm and friendliness. He was the exact opposite of everything she expected out of a Grimm.
Rosalee winked at Misty, and said, "Misty, Nick has four kids. They're mixed too. Nick, do you want to show Misty a few pics of your kids."
A big grin lit up Nick's face as he pulled out his phone. He proudly displayed dozens of pictures of a tall, blonde haired girl who looked eight years old, a black haired boy about four, a curly black haired girl about two, a blonde baby boy, his petite, blonde wife, and himself. Misty stopped and stared at the picture of his curly black haired daughter. She touched the screen, and said, "You have a beautiful family."
Nick blushed.
She brushed her fingers across the screen, zooming in on the youngest girl's blue eyes, curly hair, and olive skin, and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what sort of Wesen is your wife?"
"She's a Hexenbiest."
Misty's eyes popped open wide. She involuntarily wogued, and stepped back. She paused, black feathers trembling, and stared at the door, then back into Nick's eyes and finally at Rosalee. Her orange eyes peered, quizzically, over her long, sharp beak, as if calculating odds on making it out before Hell finished freezing over. She looked into his eyes again, then back at Rosalee leaning on the old countertop. Rosalee simply smiled and nodded. She finally shook the feathers on her head, transformed back into her human form, closed her eyes, and exhaled. "Sorry! I didn't think Grimms and Hexenbiests could have kids."
Nick leaned on Rosalee's countertop, chuckled, and said, "We get that a lot."
Misty was about to ask him another question, when he interrupted with, "Hey, Rosalee, have you ever heard of a Wesen called a Koalemus?"
Misty scratched her head and tilted it slightly to one side. "A Koalemus?"
Rosalee snickered. "Oh, I've heard of those. It's like a bad idea fairy. Sort of like a Musai that inspires you with stupid ideas."
Misty laughed out loud. "That's actually a real life thing?"
Nick grumbled under his breath. "I wish it wasn't."
He held out a card, and said, "Misty, it was good to meet you. I would love to meet these friends of yours. If you need any help, feel free to give me or Rosalee a call."
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A few hours later, Rosalee slid Amanda's picture out of her pocket and laid it on the worn countertop.
She leaned over and stared at the picture of Sandra's daughter, the tiny, olive skinned girl with blue eyes, and a mound of dark brown curly hair. She pulled up her phone and flicked through pictures of Nick's family. She laid Amanda's picture next to one of Nick's mom and his daughter, Cathrine, and marveled at the uncanny resemblance.
Sandra's daughter is thirteen? Rosalee did the math. That was a couple years before Nick and Juliette started dating and it was well before he Grimmed. I know Sandra wogued to check if he was Wesen, but his eyes wouldn't have turned black, so she wouldn't have known. Nick couldn't see Wesen before he Grimmed, so he never would have known she was Wesen. She chuckled, considering how completely impossible it all was, as she compared the three similar faces.
She remembered "Sandra's baby crazy" all too well. I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised, Rosalee thought to herself, Sandra was so obsessed and driven. She travelled some place every single weekend chasing after guys.
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A few nights later, Sandra dug into her closet. She rummaged under dresses and shoes, past old boxes, and worn wrapping paper, until she burrowed all the way into the back of her closet. Her fingers finally located the prize, hidden in the closet's darkest recesses, an old locked box. She unlocked it, and dug out a dusty file. The plain manilla folder was simply marked B.
She flipped through a stack of printed copies of dating website profiles. She set all the ones marked W to the side and carefully arranged the remaining pages marked K.
Sandra brought the file out, past a dark kitchen window, and a microwave clock showing midnight. She laid it on the kitchen table in front of Misty, and said, "Here are the Kehrsite ones."
Misty sipped coffee from her pink "World's best Mom" mug, still dressed in nurse scrubs, unwinding from her emergency room nursing shift, while the ceiling fan turned above her head. She flipped through dusty pages, peering at names, and slid one out. She tapped on the profile picture, and exclaimed. "Ha! I knew it! Him!"
Sandra looked up from her glass of gin, surprised, and said, "Really? How can you tell?"
Misty laughed, then said, "That's him! Rosalee's detective friend! I met him! That's his name - Nick Burkhardt! Here's his card! That's the Grimm! He's got a two year old that looks just like Mandy! Where did you find him?"
Sandra turned Nick Burkhardt's Portland Police detective card between her fingers, checked the faded profile printout and her pencilled notes, sipped her gin, and said, "Indianapolis."
"That's a long way from Portland. Hmmm."
Sandra shrugged, and asked, "So Rosalee really has a husband and FOUR kids? Our Rosalee?.
"Yep, I got to play with them. Three boys and a girl. She's married, her best friend is a Hexenbiest, and her husband's best friend is this Grimm, Nick!"
Sandra chuckled as she reminisced. "So much for Rosalee swearing off men. She's friends with a Hexenbiest AND a Grimm? Portland really is weird. I knew she was open minded but wow!"
Misty sipped her coffee as she perused Nick Burkhardt's old internet profile a second time. "Well, we do have a daughter who's a Grimm. Maybe we ought to get to know them."
Sandra set her glass down, frowned, and said, "Are you crazy? You said the Grimm is a cop and his wife is a Hexenbiest. What if this cop starts harassing us? What if his lawyer wife drags us to court. What if the Grimm is an axe murderer and kills all of us, including Mandy?"
"They're Rosalee's friends! They have four kids. He really didn't seem like either the sort who hacks up Wesen with an axe or the type who would kidnap somebody's kid."
Sandra grimaced, clenched her fingers around her glass, and said, "There are still too many who think people like us don't deserve to keep our kids! We know couples that lost their kids when the courts found out!"
"That was over ten years ago."
"Remember Marcia and April? Mandy was five when the courts took Joseph."
"Rosalee would have told me something like that."
"Rosalee is different now."
Misty snickered, took a sip of her coffee, and chuckled at the old internet profile. She said, "I still can't believe Rosalee is friends with a Grimm who's married to a Hexenbiest."
Sandra rolled her eyes, and said, "And they have four kids too? What do they put in the water down there? Mixed Grimm/Hexenbiest children! I wonder what those kids are like."
"Remember the old saying 'What do you get when you cross a Grimm and a Hexenbiest?'"
"Everybody dead."
"Could you ever imagine a Grimm crossed with a Lowen would end up being our little Mandy?"
"I know, right, she just looks so, I don't know, normal?"
"That Nick guy isn't a big guy at all. He just looks like every single person on the street."
Sandra sat up in her chair, cupped her hand on Misty's, and said, "You know, if Rosalee's Grimm friend really is Mandy's father, then I especially don't want to reach out to them. We just can't take that chance."
Misty turned and looked up the stairs towards Amanda's room, then squeezed Sandra's hand, and said, "I agree. We can't risk losing our daughter."
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3.7k words 1/26/21 r5