Blood & Flowers (14 page)

This made even Tonio look a little nervous, but he just said, “That's an interesting interpretation.”

“Blue. Something blue. Wigs. Skin. Anyway, I can get rid of all those body parts,” Floss said. “It was getting creepy.” She prodded Max on the foot. “Lighthearted. Just like you said. But with an edge.”

“Twirl lights,” Nicholas said. “That's what we use Fred's bicycles for. Ride them around and around and they can illuminate different puppets at different times.”

“The songs can cross,” Tonio said. “We use Persia's music hall idea, and she can make play lists the same way she's been making the Dau Hermanos menus. Each song should complement what came before and what comes after.”

“I ride a bicycle very nicely, you know,” said Max. He seemed to be talking to Nicholas while Tonio seemed to be answering questions I hadn't heard Floss ask. Lucia made new shapes with her fingers—bird, dog, elephant. Shadow puppets without the shadows.

“Could we get the audience to sing along?” Tonio asked.

“Depends on the songs,” I said, “but it'd have to work at least part of the time.”

“Because otherwise we have to have voice amplification.”

“Megaphones?” said El Jeffery.

“As long as the lights travel, voice won't be that hard,” said Nicholas.

“I'll do any puppet you want,” said Lucia. “Two at once, even. But you all know I don't want to sing.”

“‘Mustang Sally' was damn good,” Nicholas said.

Lucia blushed. “For you. Not for anyone else.”

“We'll make it work,” Tonio promised, and he wasn't just talking to Lucia. “We've got something exciting to play with now. Different. Fun. It can go in interesting directions.”

“Back to that idea of audience participation,” I said. “Backup singers for Lucia's puppets rather than strict karaoke?”

At that point every voice overlapped and all the words ran together like rainbow colors when the sky is wet and gray and the sun is just stumbling through. And just like that, snap, we were together again in a way we hadn't been since Major. Cohesion, some fun, “moralism without didacticism,” and when I
heard Floss say, “Mr. Fox is just like Major. Power in reviews compared to power in money,” to El Jeffery I knew we were Outlaws again, too.

“A morality play,” El Jeffery said when he was filled in on the plot. “Just what we need.”

T
he upstairs of Dau Hermanos looked much like it had when everyone had been trying to pull the first Mr. Fox together. But it felt completely different. There was a contentment in the air that was almost touchable, and a pleased but busy look on our faces.

Bron noticed. He came upstairs more and more often and peeked around doorjambs. I was alone, doing mock-ups for posters for the windows of the restaurant one afternoon when Bron actually came through the door instead of peeking into the room. He walked with the soft steps of a tired kitten.

“If I stayed here to watch, would I bother you?”

I shook my head.

“Because everyone else is very snippy when I try to get them to show me what they're working on.” Then, as if he'd realized that he was picking on my playmates, he added, “Not that they shouldn't be. I guess putting a thing like this together is a little…”

“Insane,” I supplied. “And each one of us goes through throes of importance at different times. Mostly it's just one or two at a time. Otherwise…”

“You'd kill one another?”

I laughed. “Probably. This way there's always at least one person to hold someone back.”

“Do you make a pact?” Bron sat next to me on the wide, whitewashed floorboards. He sounded honestly interested. “You know, Persia can only be crazy when Tonio and Max are sane?”

“Nope.” I grinned. “Just lucky, I guess.”

Bron looked unconvinced, but all he said was, “Sing three?” His fingers floated above the words on my poster.

I sighed. “No, it's supposed to be read ‘Sing Cubed.' I thought the number looked more dax, but now I
wonder.” I glared at the poster, then asked Bron, “What do you think?”

He tilted his head. “Cubed,” he muttered. “Three. Times three. Oh! I get it. Sing, Sing, Sing, right?”

“If it's so obscure that it took that long, something's obviously wrong.”

“No, no, not at all. I think that's good. Make them stop long enough to look at it, figure it out. It'll make them pay attention.”

“You think? Because I could just use Mr. Fox.”

“No.” He dragged the word out. “Too much history here for that.”

“The fairy-tale thing?”

“Right. You are, after all, in the land of magic, and that's where all those tales take place. Sometimes people ascribe bad connotations, which doesn't mean you shouldn't use it as a backdrop for the play, just that I wouldn't suggest it as your prime source of advertisement. Stick with ‘Sing.' And stick with the word ‘cubed.' If you use the word instead of the number, it's much more attention getting.”

When Floss and Nicholas came in forty-five minutes
later we had a sign with a background of black washed to gray. The words were in golds and reds:

 

Sing Cubed!

IT'S FUN! IT'S FABULOUS!

It's Audience Participation Puppet Karaoke!

 

And we were in the middle of a debate about the angle of the smaller letters announcing dates and times. Since we were still deciding dates and times, this was more an exercise in layout design than anything else, but we were enjoying ourselves.

Nicholas leaned over my shoulder. His hand brushed against my hair. “Cubed?” he asked.

Bron held up three paint-splattered fingers.

“To the third power,” Floss said. “Remember the name of this thing?”

Bron grinned and waved his three fingers in the air. Nicholas said the exact same thing Bron had said. “Of course! Tricky, but good. Make them think.”

“See?” Bron said. “It works exactly the way we planned.”

Floss nodded. “I like it.” Then she turned to him and said, “I need turquoise dinosaur fur. Is Elbe still selling knickknacks and ephemera?”

Bron nodded. “He is. Fred said something about needing to go to Elbe's just this morning. I'm going to be busy soon with the early dinner folk. But if you and Fred go together, you know your chances of a direct hit will increase. Two are always better than one when Elbe is involved.”

“Especially if one of the two is Fred,” Floss agreed.

“This sounds interesting,” Nicholas said. “Can I go too?”

“And me,” I said, jumping up. “Anyone who sells dinosaur fur will most likely have something excellent that I really need. Or want.”

“Only turquoise fur. No other colors,” Floss cautioned me.

“That's okay.” I patted her shoulder. “Fur colors aren't one of my major sources of interest.”

“But light source is one of mine,” said Nicholas. “Would this Elbe have anything I could use?”

Bron laughed. “Elbe has everything. It's getting to
him that's the problem. Taking Fred will help. He and Elbe have a bond.”

As if he had been summoned, Fred walked into the discussion. “Actually, I've been wanting to see Elbe,” he said, after Floss explained what she needed. “Now's as good a time as any.” Nicholas and I followed Fred and Floss outside, and the Elbe search began.

Finding Elbe did take some time. Fred and Floss wandered in what seemed to be totally random patterns, passing each other now and then. Their mouths moved, but no discernible words came out. Nicholas and I started out trying to follow them, but it all became so complicated and convoluted that we finally gave up. We settled down on a bench in front of Dau Hermanos, and since I couldn't do anything but relax, that's just what I did. I was so relaxed it was almost shameful.

Floss walked past us, headed north. I watched her lazily, not turning my head, just letting her slide in and out of focus. Nicholas said, “It's good here. I like it.”

“It seems safe, doesn't it? Warm. Easy. All that talk before about rulers and powers and dangers—it's like a book of myths.”

“Do you miss it?” he asked suddenly. “Where we were before?”

I sat up straight, relaxation gone. “You sound like you think we're never going back.” Even to myself, I sounded scared. Nicholas was right, it was good here, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to stay forever. Fred crossed behind Nicholas and bisected Floss's path. I tried to take the nervousness out of my voice and added, “They promised. We can still go home.”

“Maybe we won't want to.”

“Wait. Law school?”

He shrugged. “There must be some kind of fey court system. Maybe I'll talk to Fred or Bron.” He looked past my shoulder, then switched his gaze to my face. He repeated, “It's good here, Persia. Being with you here is even better.”

He looked at me for what seemed like a very long time and I forgot to worry about staying or going. I forgot to worry about anything except Nicholas. His eyes smiled, and when he moved to kiss me I was there before he was. It was a good kiss, a
B&B
kiss but better, because there was no acting required. They
kept improving as we went along, these kisses. Very nice. Very promising.

When we broke apart Nicholas started to say something, but he never got the chance because behind us Floss said, “Ah,” in a satisfied way. I looked over Nicholas's shoulder and, as if it had been there all along, a log building stood decked out in a wraparound porch, prayer flags hanging from the roof edges and fluttering in a nonexistent breeze. On the porch was an old-fashioned drink cooler flanked by two white rocking chairs. The word “Elbe” was written in blue on a board placed over the front door, and the whole place was framed by a perfect rainbow. I heard ice-cream truck music coming from inside.

“Hey,” Floss yelled, in full stevedore voice. “Are you coming? Got to catch him while he's here.”

By the time Nicholas and I got to the steps, Fred had disappeared inside and I could hear laughter. Floss slammed through the door. Nicholas and I walked with care, holding hands like Hansel and Gretel approaching the witch's cottage, but as soon as we were inside, I could tell that we didn't have one thing to worry about.

Elbe's was exactly like Knobbe's, and completely different at the same time. The atmosphere was Knobbe casual and Knobbe cluttered, but the stock was uniquely Faerie. I looked at the cauldrons and bolts of velvet, the arrows and the dried herbs, the shoes and the jars labeled “Wing Repair.” I could see why Floss had wanted to come here for her dinosaur fur.

Fred was at the counter making a yellow and green wooden yo-yo do tricks that would have made a yo-yo professional sick with envy. He was barely watching his hands. Instead he was wrapped in deep conversation with a man who had Einstein hair the color of a blue Popsicle. He had one gold hoop on his left ear and two silver hoops on his right and a thick silver band on his right thumb. When Fred's yo-yo finally tangled in its string, he laughed like he'd heard the joke of the century.

“Practice, my man. Practice,” he said, as Fred rolled the string back onto the toy. “You'll never get any good if you don't practice.”

“So you say.” Fred's voice was lazy and relaxed.
I didn't realize he'd heard us come in but, without turning around, he added, “These are our friends, Elbe. Persia, Nicholas, meet Elbe of Elbe's Old-Fashioned Emporium.”

Elbe said, “Ah, part of Floss's group. Everyone's waiting for the show, you know. You're the talk of the neighborhood.”

I glanced at Nicholas. “That's vaguely alarming.”

“No, it's not,” he said, and he grinned. “More like exciting.”

“Exactly right,” said Elbe.

“But we just finally got things organized enough to really think we could pull this off,” I protested.

Elbe shrugged. “We're fey. We travel good news at a rapid rate.”

“Nicholas needs lights,” Fred said.

“Traveling lights. But I don't think I want candles,” Nicholas added.

“Why not faerielight?” Elbe asked.

“I don't know much about it, and even if I did, I don't have any handy,” said Fred. “But that might be an alternative.” Their voices faded away as they
walked to the back of the store.

I heard floorboards creak behind me. I turned and saw Floss walking toward the counter holding handfuls of turquoise fur. When she said, “Look! Perfect!” tips of the stuff got into her mouth.

I took a few pieces away from her. “You're going to choke on that,” I said. The fur was soft, soft, and smelled like baby powder and fire.

Floss blew fur off her lips. “Thanks. Anything you need?”

I looked at all of it in pure delight and said, “How could I possibly know?”

Fred, Elbe, and Nicholas came back just then. Nicholas looked very pleased. He held a box that glowed with a soft, clear light around the edges, and Fred said, “I am buying this yo-yo. Very nice balance.”

Floss put her fur down, and I added mine to her stack. “Seriously, Persia,” she said. “If you want anything, get it now. Elbe never stays in one place for too long.”

He sounded half apologetic when he said, “So many people need so many things.”

“Bookmaking?” I asked. Elbe pointed to the far west wall. When I got there I breathed out, “Oh,” on a long exhalation. The waxed threads alone were mind-boggling. They were arranged in careful rows following the color wheel, but every shade and tint was there too, not just normal color-wheel colors. Green, but not only light green, green, and dark green. There was willow, spring, frog, moss, fern, sage, olive—everything. Each color was like that. There must have been hundreds to choose from. I said, “Knobbe Three would be beside himself.” If I'd had this before, those Dau Hermanos menus would have been unbelievable.

When Floss came up behind me and said, “Ready? Elbe has to be going,” I was still simply standing and looking, on a color high.

“Persia?” Floss said, and she jiggled my arm.

“Not in a million years, Floss. I couldn't even start to be ready. Why didn't anyone tell me about this before I started those books for Bron?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I guess we never thought about it. It's Elbe. Everyone already knows.”

“Not me. I didn't.”

“You do now. Take what you want, and let's go.”

“Floss, I can't,” I moaned. “Just look at all of this.” I picked up a spool of cherry red with a brilliance that said the cherries had just been picked from the tree and turned into thread by fey magic. I waved it at Floss and repeated, “Look!”

She sighed, a huge deep sound. “If you want something, you need to take it. Elbe has to go.”

When I still stood there, just looking, she grabbed two colors from each group. “I can use some of these too,” she said, and she caught my arm and walked me up to Elbe.

Almost before I knew what had happened we were standing in an empty spot near Dau Hermanos. Floss held her armload of fur tied with a bright pink ribbon, Fred twirled his yo-yo, Nicholas held his box of light and chewed on a peppermint stick as long as his forearm, and I held a perfect package wrapped in soft cream cloth with razor-sharp corners tied with a jaunty, green striped bow.

“Wow,” I said. “Talk about trippy.”

Floss glanced at me over her pile of turquoise fur. “What? It's just Elbe.” She shook her head and walked toward Bron and Rohan's. Fred followed her, his yo-yo walking behind him like a trained dog. Nicholas grinned. “Come on, Persia. Let's get my light upstairs. Then we can unroll your package and see exactly what Floss has decided you'll need.” He looked down at me and jiggled his box of light. He sounded a little hesitant when he added, “Maybe we could work on that kiss a little more too. You know, that one we tried just before Elbe came?” He acted like he thought I might have forgotten.

“I didn't forget,” I said, and I smiled at him. “Really.”

He grinned himself, looked relieved, and nodded. “To get really good at something you have to practice. Just like the theater.”

He was so sincere. I clutched my package a little tighter and leaned in to him. My lips touched his ear when I whispered, “Maybe we should just do the practicing now.”