Emerald City Dreamer (8 page)

"
Do not be so accusing of Jina," Gretel said as she walked slowly towards the cage, "She is out looking for the man from the meeting yesterday."

Ah,
Sandy thought.
How was I supposed to know?

Gretel answered in that invasive way she had of reading minds. "She left a note on the fridge. She works hard. You could, how does she say it, cut slack?"

"
Right. Slack."

Gretel had reached the cage. "Can someone open this?" she asked.

Sandy unlatched the outer cage with the redcap still locked safely inside the jar. It pressed its paws against the glass and snarled.

"
If this works," Sandy said, "the glamour will be stored in there indefinitely, right?"

"
That's the idea," Hollis replied.

The redcap watched intently from within the jar as she removed the candle. A long string of spittle hung from its lip to its foot.

Gretel carefully set the bowl on the floor inside the cage in front of the jar. She closed and locked the door, and Sandy went to the panel. She pressed a button, and the glow which had been surrounding the jar disappeared. It was the kind of glow that wasn't noticeable until it was gone.

The redcap instantly relaxed a little and mushed its nose into the glass with its tongue hanging out. Nothing seemed to happen to the milk, but in a few moments, it slumped back in the jar and burped. Sandy flipped the switch and the imperceptible glow resumed.

"
That milk is empty. If you drink it now, it will be as water," Gretel said. "Many a time was I served food that had already been drained of its toradh. Or perhaps it was illusionary food. I never could tell; always I felt hungry, no matter how much I ate."

"
What do you see?" Sandy asked.

"
His aura is much more vibrant. He digests. Once it converts, he won't have anything to spend it on, trapped in that jar the way he is. So the glamour will remain trapped in there with him."

"
When could we expect output?"

"
Over the next few hours. Could be a day." Gretel picked up a notebook. "You don't have to wait here. I will record my observations."

"
Nonsense. I've got till Jina gets home." Sandy picked up a notebook of her own and sat down in another wheeled office chair.

"
Well, I'm going to get back to enzymes and photoreactive iron hydroxide. And fixing Wikipedia." Hollis pushed off a table and sent his chair spinning across the smooth tile floor back to his desk.

"
Don't get too comfortable," Sandy said. "Next time Jina goes out, I want you to follow her. You said you're good at that, right?"

"
I know exactly what you want," Hollis said. He wheeled away from the desk and looked at his phone, punching at the screen. "In fact, I can start now."

THERE WERE FOUR TRADER JOES' in Seattle proper. If you count the three on the Eastside, the one in Lynnwood to the north, and the one in Burien to the south, that made a total of nine.

By process of elimination, Jina had to assume her Mystery Man spent most of his time in Seattle, since he had seen the flyer and attended the meeting in the city. So he either lived here, or worked here, or both. Few people on grocery store wages would live in the city and work in a suburb, so he probably worked at one of the four Seattle stores.

Actually, she only needed to concentrate on two. The Capitol Hill store already received her regular patronage, and she'd never seen him there. The University District store didn't have anything remotely like an alley; they kept their dumpsters in the attached parking garage. The Ballard store also didn't have an alley, unless you counted the driveway that connected the parking garage to the store. And there were no dumpsters there for a faerie to jump out of.

That left one store: Queen Anne.

How many trips to TJs would it take to find him? She didn't know his name, and she couldn't just walk in and ask for the guy who could see faeries. Which meant she would need to visit repeatedly until she found him. Upon a random visit, he may or may not be on shift. Then, assuming he was on shift, he could always be on break, be working in the back, or otherwise out of sight. He could work part-time. Worse, he may be a stocker, only on shift afterhours.

It would take a lot of visits to find him. They would be eating frozen spanakopita, raspberry chutney, and Thai lime almonds for a very long time.

She had already attempted one visit, with no luck, and now she pulled her reliable old maroon Toyota into the parking lot for another try. There were no scarf-wearing stalkers in sight, so she left the iron sword in the backseat. If the faerie did show his face, the small knife she carried in her right combat boot could at least hold him off.

Jina crossed her fingers, walked past the fragrant display of spring flowers out front, and stepped into the store. She made a scan of the front checkout stands. And there he was. The Mystery Man.

A little cuter than she'd remembered. He wore the traditional Trader Joe's uniform: a Hawaiian shirt and khakis. He rung up bottles of fire roasted bell peppers and hand-crafted ale for a woman who looked to be getting ready for a Sunday afternoon BBQ. He placed her items in a paper bag, as she laid a plastic card on a stand originally intended for writing paper checks, decorated in metal coin currency from around the world.

Jina grabbed a bottle of Charles Shaw red wine and stood in his line.

"
Hey," she said when it was her turn.

"
Did you find everything you n... Oh, it's you. Hi."

He had trouble making eye contact and seemed embarrassed.

"
I found everything I was looking for. Two-buck-chuck," she said as she handed him the bottle, "and you. Where did you run off to?"

"
Well, after everyone laughed, I didn't want to stay... and I was late for an appointment." The register beeped as he scanned the bottle.

Jina wondered if they were talking about the same thing. "No one laughed."

"
They did, after I told my story." He seemed avoidant as he placed the bottle in a narrow paper bag.

Jina gave him a puzzled expression. This was not how she'd envisioned this going at all.

"
Are you sure?"

"
Quite."

"
Well, I would never laugh at you. I was quite interested in what you said, and disappointed you ran out without even leaving your name."

Trey shook his head. "I doubt that. This faerie stuff, it's just make-believe bullshit, right?"

"'
fraid not. We're serious about pixies."

He laughed. She'd finally broken the ice. "Are you in the habit of stalking your support group attendees? Is that part of making them feel safe?" His voice had grown casual, joking.

"
You caught me. I actually have two bottles of chuck at home already. This was just an excuse to chat with you."

"
Well this bottle will be $3.26."

"
Remember when two-buck-chuck was actually two bucks?" she asked, handing him a five-dollar bill.

"
Yeah. Tastes like it should cost ten times as much."

"
Would you like to share this bottle with me sometime?"

"
Maybe. Lynne, right?"

"
Actually, it's Jina. I give my middle name in those meetings."

His eyes grew wide. "What, you don't trust them either?"

"
No, especially not the weird ones."

He chuckled. "What happened to respect?"

"
Even I have my limits." He seemed to take this personally, and she clarified, "You are not one of the weird ones. I believe you, I really do... Trey." She made a point of looking at his nametag so he didn't get spooked by her sudden knowledge of his name. "You have questions about what you see, and maybe I can answer them."

Trey glanced at the clock, and thought about it for a minute. "Okay. I get off work in an hour," he said. "How about coffee instead of wine? There's a good place a couple of blocks around the corner. El Diablo Coffee."

"
Yeah, I think I've been there before. See you in an hour."

She collected her bag and dropped it off in her car before heading down the street. She hoped he'd actually show. She was looking forward to going out to a nice Broadway restaurant for dinner with Sandy, and didn't want to wait around all afternoon.

As she walked, she thought she caught a glimpse of a man wearing a striped scarf, but when she turned her head there was no one.

At El Diablo, red devils glared down from bright yellow walls. In the murals, demons tormented sinful coffee drinkers by offering them more coffee.

Jina waited near the door. When Trey showed up, she ordered a Cortadito, two shots of espresso with caramelized sugar, milk, and foam. Trey ordered a Mexican hot chocolate. Most cities are lucky to have genuine Mexican food, but only in Seattle could you expect to find authentic Latino coffee.

Both drinks came in mugs with a devil face drawn in the foam. Jina's devil winked at her.

They walked to a quiet corner with a couch and colorful comfy chairs. Trey took the couch. Two cupids kissed on the wall behind him.

"
So were you really stalking me?" he started.

"
Stalking is a strong word. Looking for you, yes. I believe your story. That you see them."

"
You do? Then why did you laugh?" Trey took a sip of his drink and winced from a burnt tongue.

"
You keep saying that. Do you really think after listening to Kimberly without cracking a smile, that I would laugh at you?"

"
I could swear..."

"
It's possible you remember that happening. They can... make you see things that aren't really there. And Gretel - she was the girl sitting next to me - she thinks that goth girl was one of them."

"
You mean a faerie?"

"
Yes," Jina said, her voice as serious as she could make it.

"
I couldn't tell..."

"
She had her face covered, remember? Like this." Jina pulled her hair down over her eyes. "She could have been hiding anything."

"
You really believe this shit."

"
And you don't?" Jina said, fixing her hair. "You said you saw them. Look, a few years ago, back in Michigan, me and two friends were kidnapped by one of them. They can make you think you're..." Jina trailed off at the painful memory. "They can make you think anything."

"
Kidnapped? They do that sort of thing?" Trey set his drink down and looked thoughtful.

Jina picked at the foam in her coffee. "Yeah." Suddenly the devil-face didn't seem so cute anymore. She poked out its winking eye.

"
Sorry, I find it hard to believe."

"
Why? Given all the weird things you've seen in your life? Faerie abduction stories used to be as common as alien abduction stories are today. Which is probably where that Tom guy got the idea that aliens and faeries are the same thing." Jina shrugged. "Who knows, maybe they are."

"
What about Kimberly and Bluebelle?"

"
She's... a silly girl." Jina leaned back and rested her chin on one hand. "There are no sparkly, pretty faeries or beautiful, pure-of-heart Rivendell elves. That group you went to, that's just a front. Those flyers attract all kinds of people. We're looking for those who have seen, and been hurt, by real fae. So we watch the front-group until we discover people like you, people who seem serious. People whose stories match what we know..."

She paused a moment to let it sink in, then continued. "Normally I wouldn't track you down like this, but... A guy like you is rare. You didn't seem like you were coming back."

"
You're right. I wasn't planning to go back. So it's a front for what?" He picked his drink back up.

"
For a real support group, just like the flyer promised. It's like an Al-Anon meeting, only instead of talking about our abusive alcoholic spouses, we talk about faeries. It's invite-only, so people like Tom and Kimberly don't show up. So no one laughs."

"
All my life, I've been seeing these weird creatures." He motioned with his head at one of the cupids painted beside him. "At worst they've been harmless. And a few times, they've helped me out."

"
What do you mean?" Jina asked.