Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Shadow Puppets
Chapter 5
"So how come we're both doin' the witchcraft thing? What about voodoo and shit like that?" Lula asked Tank as they drove out of the RangeMan garage. "They can put the bad mojo on, can't they? And I always wanted to go to New Orleans."
"How likely do you think it is that Joe Morelli's Catholic Italian grandma is practising African spirit worship?" Tank asked bluntly.
Lula looked insulted. "Don't you take that tone with me. We're tryin' to find out how two people got turned into muppets. Since when were we talkin' about likely?"
"And anyway, you're a Baptist from New Jersey. Would you have any idea where to start?"
"Well… no. Wouldn't you?"
"Not a damn clue. Just 'cause I look like the guy in Live and Let Die don't make me no Baron Samedi. I plan to find some help closer to home before trailing halfway across the country to check out a remote possibility. We're gonna start with a magic shop in Boonton that I found on the internet last night."
Lula looked at Tank speculatively.
"What?"
"You don't normally talk this much."
"Don't normally have a reason."
"I like it. Not that this don't suck for Steph and Ranger and all, but I like you like this. All take charge and stuff. It's kinda hot. Just so long as you don't actually start thinkin' you can boss me around."
Tank just shook his head and kept on driving.
"I'm just sayin', is all."
o0o o0o o0o
The Faerie Circle was a small store in an upmarket part of Boonton, New Jersey. It was grouped with a few others, all selling low volume, specialist items like dollhouses, scented candles and ballet shoes.
Wind chimes tinkled softly in a variety of tones as they pushed open the glass door. They walked into the dimly lit store and were immediately overpowered by a thick cloud of sandalwood smoke.
Lula made a strangled sound and rubbed her suddenly watering eyes. "God damn! I think my sinuses just burned out. This shit is gonna make my hair stink for a week." She opened her eyes and peered around the dimly lit interior. "Tank? Baby? Where'd you go?"
An ethereal face detached itself from a shadowy corner of the store and drifted towards her with a faint clinking sound. As it drew closer it resolved itself into a pale young woman draped in black robes with hair dyed an inky black to match. The clinking sound was supplied by the myriad silver bangles adorning both wrists and the large dangly silver and amethyst earrings hanging from her ears.
The spectral young woman extended both her hands out in front of her in an elaborate sweeping gesture. "Welcome to the Faerie Circle, sister," she intoned. "How may I be of service to you this day?"
"You can open a window for a start. How the hell do you breathe in here? And if I fall over in the dark and break my leg I'm gonna sue your skinny white ass."
The girl looked at her uncertainly. Lula was evidently not a lot like her usual clientele. "We have some crystal jewellery you might like, and some beautiful new additions to our range of dragon and unicorn figurines."
Tank materialised out of the darkness and moved to stand next to Lula. "We need advice on witches, ma'am."
The girl strangled a squeak of alarm as she looked up at the huge, black man. "We don't stock voodoo supplies."
Lula's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me? Did he ask about voodoo? No, he asked about witches. So why'd you automatically think about voodoo? I think you're just disrespectin' my man. Tank, do you think she's dissin' us?"
The girl started backing nervously towards the rear of the store looking panicky, and their chances of any useable information quickly receded with her.
Tank closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. "Never mind. We were just leaving." He took Lula's arm and pulled her out of the store.
o0o o0o o0o
"Damn, do you believe that?" Lula asked furiously.
Tank just concentrated on getting Lula away from there before she went back inside to really tell the store assistant what she thought. He kept hold of her arm and started walking slowly away from the store. "Come on, baby. Let's get a cup of coffee and settle your nerves."
Lula looked somewhat mollified. "Well, yeah, I could use a cup of coffee. It takes it outta you when you run up against attitude like that."
o0o o0o o0o
They found seats at a small café down the road and took an outside table.
Lula eventually calmed down under the influence of a cappuccino and a large apricot Danish. "That didn't go too well, huh?"
"It's only the first one. We can find another. I didn't see anything useful in there anyway."
"What are we looking for anyway?"
"I'm not sure, but somehow I doubt that it's dragon and unicorn figurines."
They were coming to the end of their coffees when a slight woman with reddish brown hair walked up to their table carrying a coffee cup in her hand. "Hi, do you mind if I join you?"
Tank looked around at the rest of the café. There were a few empty tables indoors that he could see. "If you like, but there are tables–"
"Thanks." She plunked herself cheerfully down and extended a slightly grubby hand. "Milly."
He raised his eyebrows and shook the proffered hand. "Tank, and Lula. Help you with something?"
"Interesting question. I don't know. Maybe."
He frowned. "Listen–"
"Don't worry, I'm not selling anything. Nothing you could get in a store anyway. I just sometimes feel like I need to talk to people. There usually turns out to be a reason, and it isn't timeshare sales, I swear."
Lula shrugged at Tank. "At least she ain't wearing black robes and singing."
Milly grinned. "You've met Morgan then. Down at the Faerie Circle?" She said the name in a breathy tone accompanied with a theatrical wave of her hand.
"Oh yeah. All dangly earrings and toy dragons. We met her."
"Yep." Milly took a sip of her coffee. "Good for incense and model unicorns, is Morgan. Not a lot else though."
Tank watched Milly carefully. "So what do you do, Milly?"
"I work with plants. Hence the topsoil layer." She examined her fingernails ruefully. "It never comes off entirely, not unless I want to say goodbye to a layer of skin at the same time. I'm sure it keeps me healthy though. A connection to the earth is never a bad thing. Well, only if you're wearing white clothes, anyway, and I decided that they were pointless for someone like me a long time ago."
"And, if I were, say, to be seeking the help of someone that was more use than Morgan, where would someone like you say that I should start looking?"
She shot him a cheerful smile. "Someone like me would say, you wait for her to find you. So what can your friendly neighbourhood herb-woman do for you, Tank?"
o0o o0o o0o
Lula went indoors and got some more coffees and some toast as well, while Tank outlined their unique problem back in Trenton. By the time she returned, Milly was shaking her head in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, guys, but what you're describing just isn't possible. Not unless you're Harry Potter anyway. The Eye is real enough, and a whole lot of other things that people put down to superstition and old wives tales, but changing people into things? Not a chance. Now if you told me that they had a sudden case of boils, or if he had developed a bad case of the floppies–"
Lula snorted.
"–then I'm your woman, but muppets? That's not the kind of magic that exists outside the storybooks. I think you need to start looking for the puppeteer."
She looked keenly at Lula as she sat down. "He your man?" she asked, nodding towards Tank.
Lula nodded. "Uh huh. Why?"
"It okay to talk in front of him?"
"I guess."
"You get pains sometimes, don't you?"
Lula looked away slightly, not meeting either of their eyes. "Maybe."
Milly continued to gaze at her steadily.
"Yeah," Lula said quietly. "Got cut up bad a couple of years back. Why?"
Milly fished in her pocket and pulled out a small bag of herbs and a plain card with a name and telephone number on it, dropping both into Lula's hands. "Drop a tiny pinch of that into hot water every night before you go to bed. Consider it a gift. Call me when you need more."
"And now," she stood up and drained the last of her coffee, "I have a date with a row of beans. It was good to meet you two. Enjoy the rest of your shopping." She grabbed a round of toast off the plate and walked away eating it.
o0o o0o o0o
Lula fingered the plastic bag of herbs in her pocket as they drove back in silence in the failing light. Tank was a huge, silent presence at the wheel radiating tension. Finally he broke the silence, his voice thick with uncharacteristic anger.
"How could you do that?"
"Do what?" she asked quietly, although she thought she already knew.
"How could you let me hurt you and not tell me? Do you think I could forgive myself if I hurt you?"
"That's why, right there."
"Damn it, Lu! I love you. I can't touch you knowing that I'm hurting you."
"Yes you can. Don't you ever stop."
"I don't want to hurt you. I can't. It doesn't have to change anything else."
"Yes it would." Her own voice was rising now, becoming shrill in the close confines of the SUV. "It would change everything."
"Why?"
"Because it's worth it. The pain is worth it," and now she was shouting despite him only being a foot away. "When you touch me, I feel clean. I'm not a cut up, ruined whore any more, I'm just Lula, that loves you. I used my body to make a living when I had no choice. Now I do, and I choose to use it to love you. And a little pain now and then don't matter compared to that. So don't you dare take my choices away again."
She folded her arms and flung herself back in her seat, staring out of the window at the street lights starting to flicker on in the evening gloom and trying to stop angry tears from falling.
She studiously ignored the hollow ticking of the indicators as he prepared to make a turn. She ignored the crunch of gravel under the tires and the lurches as the SUV entered an uneven, potholed rest area. She couldn't ignore it when she was pulled across the console of the SUV into a tight embrace that threatened to cut off her air supply.
"Damn fool woman," Tank growled at her. "You'd be making my hair fall out if I had any. Take your damn herbs, and keep your damn choices, okay?"
She nodded and sniffled, not trusting herself to answer.