Unicorn Bait (17 page)

“Why don’t we drop this? No need to have bloodshed at the table,” their mother said. Naomi looked at her plate and didn’t say anything beyond one or two word answers for the rest of the meal.

She was in the kitchen helping her mother with the dishes when the matter was brought up again. Her mother was at the sink washing while she stood by with a towel. “You know the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to know that you’re safe and happy, but I might give up the knowing part if the rest could happen.”

She stopped drying the plate in her hands to look at her mother. “But if you didn’t know what good is the rest of it?”

Her mother turned to look at her. There was a frown on her face. “Naomi, I don’t know all the time if you’re all right. I had to start dealing with that the first day you went off to school. I had to convince myself that you were okay, and nothing bad would happen to you, and that hope was rewarded every time you hopped off the school bus and began jabbering about how your day at school had been. Then you went off to college and found your own place. I only see you now on visits. It was hard to deal with the fact that you weren’t living here anymore. I had to let you go, but I know you’re okay even if I don’t have hourly updates. I just have hope.”

“But what if the possibility of even visits were taken away?”

Her mother handed her another dish. “I would learn to deal with that too, and I would if you were safe and happy.”

Naomi looked down at the glass in her hands and began slowly wiping it dry. She wouldn’t have been safe that was one of the reasons why Tavik had wanted to send her back, but she thought she could’ve been happy. 

When she got home, she put Mom’s leftovers in the fridge. She was struggling with the nasty realization that her family would’ve wanted her to stay with Tavik. Sure, they might not have been overjoyed with her moving to another planet, but they would’ve seen her off and wished her well. It was a difficult realization. Her family would let her go if it made her happy, and she was starting to realize that she could let them go. But all this was moot now. She’d made her choice, and she had to deal with it.

She went to her living room to submerge herself in television to watch something mindless but stopped short when she saw a mouse sitting in the middle of the room.

“Hello, Naomi.”

She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The mouse was still there.

He stood on his hind legs and peered up at her. “Now you’re supposed to say hello back. It’s just general good manners. You do remember me, don’t you? You better not come after me with a broom. That’d be just rude.”

Next she pinched herself.

“Are you about to faint? Maybe you want to sit down.”

It was him. It was really him. She sat down on the couch. She did feel a little dizzy. “Mr. Squibbles, what are you doing here?”

“Thank the dark gods for small favors, you had me worried there for a moment when you seemed shocked to see me.”

“I am shocked.”

“I would think you’d have gotten over that by now.” He lifted his nose and sniffed the air. “Got any wine and cheese?”

“Wine and cheese?”

“Do you really remember me? Yes, wine and cheese.”

She dumbly went to the kitchen. She poured a saucer of Merlot and chopped some cheddar. She went back to the living room and set them down before him. She sank back down onto the sofa and stared as he took a moment to savor his refreshments.

“How is everyone? How did you get here?” she finally asked. She was still having trouble believing the familiar was there.

Mr. Squibbles wiped his mouth with his paws before answering. “Everyone is not well. I’m here to ask you to come back, and I got here the same way you did. I hitched a ride from a unicorn horn.”

“How can we go back?” That word had become Naomi’s favorite. How, how, how?

He merely shrugged his shoulders and told her, “With the horn you have.”

Her eyes went to the horn that sat in the glass case on her mantle. “We can’t use it. It’s broken.”

“No, we can’t use a broken horn, but we may be able to use a mended one.”

Her eyes grew round as she turned to stare at the mouse. “There’s a way to fix it?”

The mouse nodded, “I got the spell straight from the horse’s mouth, or rather the unicorn’s.”

She could go back? She hadn’t considered the possibility, and that was strictly true, but she had daydreamed about going back. She’d tried to stop herself and would deny it if asked. It had seemed just too impossible, but here was a talking mouse telling her it was.

“What do I have to do?”

He tilted his head up at her, and his front teeth showed. She assumed it was his equivalent of a smile. “It would be good to write this down. The list of ingredients is long.”

None of the items Mr. Squibbles rattled off would be impossible to obtain, but it wasn’t like she could just hop over to the grocery store and pick them up.

The other things Mr. Squibbles had said began to nag at her. “What did you mean everyone is not well? What’s happened?”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “Tavik is in peril. He broke allegiance with Errilol.”

“But that’s good, right?” Naomi asked.

“Yes, but we’ve lived at war for so long that no one knows quite how to handle it. Bands of ex-soldiers roam the land plundering towns, and Tavik won’t take up his sword to stop them.”

The news made her stomach twist with worry. She couldn’t believe Tavik would just give up like that. She knew her departure had upset him, but he had seemed resolved to it. He was so strong and determined. Surely, she wouldn’t have weakened him so much. Mr. Squibbles quickly offered what little good news he had. “Agatha has come out of her woods to help Tavik’s remaining men keep order. She even visits the castle now.”

Naomi gave Mr. Squibbles a thin smile at this added news. “I’m sure Mrs. Boon loves that.”

“You look tired. Why don’t you go to sleep, and we’ll start work tomorrow.”

“Shouldn’t we do something now? Time is of the essence and all that right?” she said, but talk of sleep made her want to yawn.

“How much time had gone by when the unicorn delivered you back?”

She shrugged. “No time really. I don’t think but a few minutes may have passed.”

“That’s right, and that’s how it will be when we go back. It won’t be hardly any time at all has passed.”

“How much time had gone by before you came here?”

“Four months. How long have you been back?”

“Less than two days.”

The mouse nodded. “The unicorns are very clever. It’s amazing that they’ve been nearly hunted to extinction.”

She nodded sluggishly. She heaved herself up and stumbled into her bedroom. She had barely any energy to think before her head hit the pillow but to wonder why the unicorns would help them. It hadn’t sounded like Tavik even knew that Naomi had been sent for so who had spoken to the unicorns and got their help or…and Naomi’s mind slipped away into sleep. She dreamed that night of unicorns. They spoke to her, and she understood what they said, but when she awoke the next morning, she couldn’t remember what they’d told her or what she had said in return. She scratched her head and tried to make herself remember, but the dream was like water. It slipped away faster the harder she tried to pin it down. She heard the television from the living room. Still struggling to remember, she shuffled into the room to find Mr. Squibbles had found the remote and was channel surfing.        

“Good morning.”

“Naomi, your world is very strange. This box is amazing. What’s it called?”

“Television, and it will rot your brain.” She shuffled into the kitchen to scrounge up some breakfast. Something was nagging her in the back of her mind. She was forgetting something. She looked at the kitchen clock and jumped. It was nine fifteen. She was supposed to have been at work at eight. She looked around the kitchen in panic. She grabbed the phone and called the bank. She spoke to one of her coworkers and apologized saying she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t come in. Luckily, she didn’t abuse her sick day privileges so her coworker didn’t harass her too much for not calling in sooner. She thanked her for wishing her well and hung up. She stared at the phone after replacing it in its cradle. She needn’t worry about her job she realized. If she wanted to do the right thing, she should just call and say she quit. She doubted she was going back to work ever again. The thought actually perked her up. She hadn’t loved the bank. It’d been an all right job but nothing special.

As she poked around in her cabinets, she began to make a list of what she would miss, not the material things like she had done while on her first trip, but important stuff like the people who she would never see again. The thought of saying goodbye to her family and friends made her wonder if she were doing the right thing. Tavik may need her, but this was her home. The other half of her brain reminded her that she had friends on the other planet and a possible new family with Tavik. She decided to not think about it for now. She looked at the list of ingredients that she would have to get for the spell.

A metal nail

A bucket of fresh milk

A strip of non-dyed cloth

Five acorns

Nine drops of her blood

A fist-sized rock from a stream bed

Seven fresh roses with thorns

A handful of rich earth

She knew she had nails in her toolbox and a roll of medical gauze in her first aid box so she didn’t need to worry about those. She picked up her purse and keys, told Mr. Squibbles to be good, and went out in search for the other items. She went to the local park first and got the acorns and the stream bed rock. The organic supermarket had unpasteurized milk. The price took her breath away, but she got it anyway. The florist couldn’t supply her with roses with thorns. They only had specially grown thorn-less roses. She knew where she could get regular ones, but she’d hoped to avoid involving those she’d have to say goodbye to.

She parked outside her parent’s home. Her mother came out to greet her. “Naomi! What a nice surprise! Are you off from work today?”

She nodded and looked toward the rose bush against the front of the house. “The roses are doing really well this year.”

Her mother turned to look at them too. “I’m using a new type of fertilizer.”

She couldn’t bring herself to ask for the roses. She looked at the house, and her eyes settled on the window to her old room. It had been converted into her mother’s sewing room, but it was where she’d grown up, or not as Bobby would like her to believe.

“Mom, can we go inside and talk?”

Her mother looked at her, and her eyes crinkled a little when she nodded and led the way inside. They settled in the kitchen. Her mother poured them each a cup of coffee. Naomi held the mug in her hands and blew across the rim to cool it as she tried to think of how to say what she wanted, but her mother beat her to it. “You’ve met someone.”

She froze and stared at her. “You can tell?”

She smiled and nodded her head. “I know that distracted look. Only a man could make a woman think so hard. When can we meet him?”

She grimaced and sipped her coffee. Here goes nothing she told herself. “You can’t. He lives really far away, and I want to go be with him, but with it so far away, I don’t know if I’ll be able to visit you guys ever again. I wouldn’t be able to call or send letters.”

“Where are you going, Timbuktu? Of course, you can call us. Call us collect.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t be able to call. At least, I don’t think so,” unless Agatha had some spell, Naomi finished silently to herself.

“You wouldn’t be in trouble would you? This man isn’t into anything illegal is he?”

She was sure she’d land in trouble once she returned, but she didn’t want to tell her mother that, but then again she didn’t want to lie. “Things can get difficult where he lives, but I’m pretty sure I can handle it. He isn’t into anything illegal. He’s sort of in the government.” More like he is the law, she mentally corrected.          

“Well, how did you two meet? What’s his name?”

Her eyebrows rose at the way her mother just breezed right along with the subject. “His name’s Tavik. We met sort of on a blind date. His mother set us up.” She was going to burn in hell for all these half truth, but if she told her the truth, her mother would be feeling her head and calling the doctor.

“Tavik? Well, that’s an unusual name. When did you two meet?”

She shrugged. The unicorn horn made judging time very difficult. “A couple of weeks or so ago.”

“A couple of weeks? And you want to move away and be with him? Are you sure?”

She nodded.

Her mother reached across and patted her hand. “You know you’ll always have a home here.” She smiled but couldn’t be too reassured by the idea. She highly doubted she would be able to run home when the going got tough.

“Mom, can I pick some of your roses and take them home?”

Her mother looked a little surprised by the request but nodded her head. “Of course, take as many as you want.”

She got a pair of clippers from a kitchen drawer and went outside to cut seven roses. As she was carefully wrapping a paper towel around the stems, her mother came out.