Author Note: ….more fun for the kiddies! I'm keeping my eye out for you Nancy Drew's and Hardy Boys…you are so close!

T7S

Chapter 09 – South of Mount Hump

T7S

Hyde quietly opened the basement door and shut it behind him. He knew Kitty was resting and didn't want to disturb her. Forman was most likely hiding from Red in the basement and surprisingly enough he was.

But he wasn't alone.

"Jackie? What the hell are you doing here?"

Startled by the intrusion, Jackie jumped in her seat, "Steven? What are you doing here?" She set her magazine down on the spool and looked over at Eric, "Did you invite him?"

Eric shrugged, "No. This is a surprise to me." He looked up as Hyde took off his shades, "Hey, weren't we all just down here smoking a welcome home to you a week ago?"

Eric nodded, "Yeah and then we woke up in some weird ass places."

Jackie looked shamed," I passed out on a staircase with shag carpeting."

Hyde sat in "his" old chair and admitted, "I woke up under the kitchen table. Man, I'm glad your mom mops her floors…could've been worse."

The pair on the sofa laughed and Eric turned down the television. "So what brings you around a week AFTER mom gets home from the hospital."

Hyde scratched his head, "Well, you know me….I'm not exactly a nurturing kind of guy…"

"…you could say that again," Jackie uttered sarcastically.

Hyde ignored the burn and continued, "Yeah, well I knew that you and Red would take care of her and I thought I could come around on the weekends and help out."

Jackie sighed, "Well gee Steven, if you had called or came by earlier, you would have found out that Eric and I are wonderful caretakers for Mrs. Forman."

Hyde snorted, "You? Caretaker? Of yourself maybe."

Eric butted in, "Not fair pal. Dad kind of forced us into it – it was take care of mom or pay rent."

"But you don't have jobs." Hyde argued.

Jackie rolled her eyes, "Thanks to Mr. Forman we do now! He wasn't going to let us hang around for free. Everyone but Mrs. Forman is working."

Eric nodded in agreement. "You would never guess where we are employed."

Hyde kicked a booted foot up on the spool coffee table and smirked, "This is gonna be easy. Jackie is make- up counter girl and you...are ticket stub man at the theater."

Jackie squeaked, "That would've been so much easier!" Every woman needs makeup!

Eric frowned, "Yeah, I can tear a stub just as good as anybody else."

Hyde crossed his arms over his black tee. "Okay, I'm wrong….so what do you do?" The next several minutes created more amusement for Hyde than he had in a few weeks. He actually had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh out loud at Eric's predicament. "Well you know…the Mr. Bonker's incident….it kind of sealed your fate."

"Hardy-har-har….actually it was Schotzie and now it's any kind of road kill that hunters don't eat." Eric complained.

Steven looked at Jackie and was actually impressed that she had a prestigious position. "Maybe you could really save lives with that job. Good for you."

Jackie felt a small measure of contentment that her ex-boyfriend approved. "Well, if you are ever having a stroke or a delivering a baby….call my ambulance company." Damn, it felt good to say that! Thank you Red Forman! She stood up, "I'll let you two boys talk. I promised Mrs. Forman I'd roll her hair at bedtime."

Jackie sidestepped the coffee table and paused in front of Steven. She wanted to say something but it would have seeedm forced and she wanted them to stay friends….at least the civil kind of friends they were now.

Keep it simple Jackie! She repeated that mantra to herself as she ran up the stairs.

Hyde waited until Jackie left, still disbelieving she was sleeping in Laurie's room and working a job? What a total 360 from the spoiled teenager he had known these last few years! He leaned forward with his arms on his thighs. "Hey Forman. What are you doing tomorrow night? Kelso found out about a carnival out by Mount Hump. I don't know about you, but it's been a while since I made second base with a chick…"

Eric's eyes lit up. "Ferris Wheels? Midgets on bicycles? Count me in man!"

Hyde laughed, "I don't know about the shorties on bikes, but the Ferris Wheel yeah…sure. Leo's going and I think we're gonna have a good circle time."

Eric figured that a break from tending to his mom and having fun was a great way to end the weekend. "Yeah. Sure…but let's ask Jackie. I mean she's been working just as hard as me and she deserves some circle time."

As much as it grieved him to say it, Hyde replied, "Yeah – that's good. Invite her. Oh! Leo wants Donna to come down too. Can she come down for the weekend?"

Eric hadn't thought about a day trip for Donna. Madison was quite a distance away from Point Place. "I guess I could call her dorm and hopefully she'll answer." Did Donna miss him?

Hyde got up and put his hands in his jeans pockets. "You know what's weird about this carnival?"

"What's that?" Eric replied.

Hyde answered, "Well, usually those things come to town in the spring and summer. Why are we having a carnival in the middle of winter?"

Neither man had a good answer for that.

T7S

Jackie was bundled up in her warmest hooded coat with mittens and she was squeezed in between Michael and Fez. Leo was reclining in the back of the Vista Cruiser while Hyde got shotgun. Dammit, she was the other caretaker, she should have got shot gun! Still, Fez wasn't angry with her and she loved roller coasters and it had been a long time since she "circled" with the gang.

Kitty actually convinced her to go. Plans had been made to give Mrs. Forman and manicure and facial but the older woman just wanted a quiet pain-free night of watching television with her husband. How romantic was that! Mentally, Jackie sighed…to have someone that loved you that much. If only she could be so lucky!

Fez leaned forward so Eric could hear them over the radio, "And why couldn't Donna come to the glorious carnival with us?"

Hyde looked over his shoulder, 'She didn't have a ride man."

Fez put his chin on Eric's right shoulder, "And why didn't you go up and get her? Hmmmm?"

Eric's eyes met Fez's in the rear view mirror, "Because this automobile-o-death would not make the round trip to Madison and back and then on Sunday do it again."

Fez grinned, "You said do eeet again! You bad boy!"

From the back of the car Leo's sleepy voice said, "The sun doesn't need to come out today."

All of the Vista Cruiser's occupants had a "what the hell" expression on their face. What was Leo talking about?

-o-

The light gray stone mortar was set carefully on a colorfully weaved placemat. Next to it was the well worn pestle and a dish of dried herbs. An assortment of odd shaped bottles held other items labeled in Latin on the masking tape stickers. Tatiana hummed an old Romanian lullaby as she plucked the dried blossoms from a peyote plant and dropped it into her mortar bowl. The pistachio green color of the plant reminded her of Neapolitan ice cream.

She knew exactly how to draw the mescaline from the plant and although it would smell like stinky leather boots, the end result was worth the odor. Dried leaves crackled in her hand and she wiggled her fingers dropping the pieces into the mortar. Reaching across the table she unscrewed the cap of jar containing tiny bits of sensimilla plant. Nimble fingers added some shavings of alder bark to aid in the consistency of her blend.

Tatiana gently ground the ingredients to a fine powder and only then did she reach for the bottle with the skull and crossbones picture on it. This bottle held her psilocybe and muscaria mushrooms. The chemicals in this dose had to be exact or the "ingester" would have adverse affects. That happened ten years ago to the king and Ana did not want to repeat that disaster!

This little tea party was only for a select group of Tarot cards. Tatiana beamed because she knew they were on their way.

The King would finally be here.

Tatiana clapped her hands three times and for a brief second it sounded liked thunder.

She wasn't smiling anymore.

Tatiana was grinning.

T7S

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Disclaimer:

Please please PLEASE note that the author does not recommend mixing peyote, psilocybe or muscaria mushrooms or sensimilla to anything at anytime…EVER!