Slow Down, Whirlwind Who: Echo, Maddy What: Meeting, Walking, Minor Shenanigans When: After Samhain Where: Searchlight Ratings: Low (Language)
When Echo got back from James’, she did some meditating before crashing for the night, so she got up feeling clear-headed again. She’d unpacked some more stuff, bringing in some things from the truck. The newspaper she’d found was a day older when she took a look at the limited classifieds section, circling a few possibilities for trailer rentals. With little to do during the day besides watch television, she opted to skip out on a round of talk shows and go out.
She managed to make contact with the manager of one of the parks, and they talked for twenty minutes about leases and security deposits. She took an application to look over as she left the office, stepping out into the sunshine.
The last time she was at the diner, she’d heard there was an old silver mine on the edge of Searchlight, and the carefully folded application went into the back pocket of her jeans as she pointed her feet in that direction. Probably boarded up, but even so she liked exploring the little pieces of history of the place.
The current ‘Madame Luna’ was just twenty-five years old, but she had inherited the family palmistry business from her great-aunt and recently taken up residence in the shop in an old trailer in Cactus Patch Mobile Home Park, shortly after her great-aunt retired and took off on an RV tour of the US national parks. The younger ‘Luna’ had learned to read palms, tea leaves, and tell fortunes from the best. On any given day, roughly seventy-five percent of what Luna said had mystical merit. The other twenty-five percent was gibberish, made up when her senses wouldn’t cooperate or her customer led a deeply boring life.
Her most recent visitor was Maddy Rigby. It was that same wild-eyed, blonde-haired woman who stormed out of Luna’s trailer, slamming the door so loudly that a wreath of ribbon and jangling bells flew off and rolled into the dirt by the stoop. “Bitch,” she mumbled, coming down in a flurry of boots with eyelets laced up to the knees, ripped hose, denim shorts, and a sleeveless shirt tied off at the waist. Maddy picked up the wreath and set it on her head like a crown, then paraded up the street, ignoring the furious call of, ‘Give it back, Maddy!’ through an open window.
“Whoa!”
Echo was coming around the corner when the blonde barreled down the stairs, and as the bells on the wreath made noise she took a lively half-step backwards, out of the other woman’s path. To her left, the window slammed shut with a clatter, and she watched with a bemused expression as a ‘Closed For The Day’ sign appeared behind the glass.
“Slow down there, whirlwind. There’s no fire.”
She said it good-naturedly as she caught up on the blonde’s right, one thumb hooked through a frayed belt loop. “Unless she told you she saw one, and you wanted to have water ready.”
“Ooh, fire!” Maddy held up a finger at the stranger. “Now there’s an idea…” The ribbon and bells tinkled as she continued her march away from the single-wide. “Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your money on her,” she told the brunette. “If she was any good, she’d predict the world of hurt I’m about to put on her. Madame Luna. Give me a break. Her name’s Lisa, she was my roommate, and she just stuck me for two months’ rent so she could move here.” Maddy laughed at the absurdity of the turn of events, her mouth a bright slash of red lipstick over white teeth. “Oh god, that’s not where you were going?”
“Nah, I was going in the other direction, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
The shifter cast a look over her shoulder as they got farther away from the trailer, indicated the wreath. “I like the fashion statement, though. You could start a trend.”
She might have been kidding, but most of her sense of humor was the deadpan kind, where she could tell a joke without cracking even half a smile, so there was a thirty percent chance she was serious.
Maddy took the wreath off her head and examined it. “This is just a distraction to keep her from noticing what I really took.” She winked at her walking partner and sent the disc careening into a neighbor’s yard like a musical frisbee. Out of nowhere, a dog ran up and grabbed it, bucked its head in delight, and began tearing around its front yard with the new toy. “So where were you going? Oh. Maddy.” She offered her hand as an afterthought.
“Just out to see the mine. Well, I guess it used to be a mine, since most of the silver ran out a long time ago, but sometimes you can find fragments or arrowheads and stuff.”
The brunette offered a hand in return, “And it’s nice to meet you, Maddy. I’m Echo.”
She cast a last look backwards at the fortune teller’s trailer, returned her attention to the other woman. “Might smoke a joint, haven’t decided yet. You’re welcome to come along unless you were serious about that fire.”
“God no, those things go up like a book of matches,” Maddy said, voice raising as if the prospect was unspeakable. “I want to piss her off, not roast her.” Since she’d driven all the way to Searchlight and had nothing else on her plate, Maddy decided an unplanned adventure wasn’t the worst idea. At least she wasn’t wearing heels. “I’ll tag along.” The soles of her shoes thumped on the gritty surface of the road as they headed... somewhere, ostensibly in the direction of a mine. She slipped a pair of sunglasses up her nose. “So. Echo. What do you do with the arrowheads once you find them? Are you a collector?”
“Sort of. I was the kid who always signed up for school museum trips first, lagged behind the group because I’d get so distracted by the exhibits. Everybody else got more excited about Disneyworld and even Six Flags, but an old fort or learning about how people stored food before electricity was way more interesting.”
She had actually found some silver fragments on a solo trip to New Mexico the past summer, but had elected to be cautious and not handle them. Even if the lore was exaggerated and it wouldn’t kill her outright, she hadn’t wanted to test the theory without people around to help if she needed it. The gravel under her shoes crunched.
“You can’t really pick up stuff in parks, though, or you’re not supposed to. They have rules about it ‘cause it throws off the environment for birds and other wildlife and I’m really sure I sound like a geek right now.”
“Yes. You do.” Maddy smiled, a brilliant flash of humor behind her sunglasses. “But who cares?” she offered in her singsong voice. “I’m a geek about things, too. But I don’t think I’ve ever gotten excited about a fort unless it was made of pillows.” She strolled onward, posture straight as an arrow, making her 5’5” stature seem taller. “The way you explained that rule almost made me want to follow it.”
Maddy’s phone buzzed merrily in her hip pocket. She pulled it out. “Ah, she’s onto me.” The blonde showed Echo the screen, a text message from ‘Heinous Wench’ demanding to know where the fuck her Auntie’s cherished pack of tarot cards had gone.
“Heinous Wench sounds like a band. Maybe that’s why she gave you such a bad reading, her real ambitions are elsewhere.”
Echo adjusted her sunglasses and added, “So no-go on moving down here, then? ‘Cause it’s not so bad, just a little quiet.”
Maddy snorted lightly. Had Lisa/Luna ever given her a bad reading? With a backward tilt of her head, she replayed the months they’d shared an address and could only recover one memory of tea leaves in which her roommate advised her to ‘explore her inner world before looking outwardly for validation.’ Maddy had ashed in the cup and asked, ‘How’s that for validation?’
She wrinkled her nose and took a gander at the streets on the edge of town. “Looks kinda boring. Present company excluded.” The whole freckles and husky voice thing was working for the brunette. “C’mon, wouldn’t you rather live someplace exciting? Or at least one with traffic lights and a Starbucks?”
“Exciting’s relative. I went to Mardi Gras a couple of years ago and Burning Man last June. Lots of drinking, lots of partying, lots of naked people. A Starbucks would be nice, but I could never live in a big big city full time. Not as easy to hide in plain sight.”
They’d left the trailer park behind by then, and Echo shrugged. “Quiet’s different than weird, though. There’s been some of that too.”
Burning Man, huh? Her assessment of the woman next to her shifted slightly. “There’s weird everywhere, if you know where to look,” Maddy said. Tacoma was weird. LA was super weird. Las Vegas had its own vibe. There were no lines painted on the street to traipse along and pass the time, so she bent down and scooped up a rock, tossing it in the air.
“So what do you need to hide?” The blonde scanned Echo for unusual appendages. “You got a tail or something? Or are you in witness protection?”
“I only have a tail when the moon turns full.”
Either Maddy knew or she didn’t, about the things that went on beneath the surface - going to a fortune teller wasn’t entirely an indicator unless you really believed it could work - and if she didn’t, she’d find out if she was hanging around Searchlight. So it was both a joke and not a joke.They walked past the truck stop, and Echo made a mental note to stop in at the convenience store for something to eat.
“What do you do up in the city, then?”
“Oh no shit!” Maddy thwapped Echo on the upper arm. “You’re a shapeshifter.” She planted her hand on her breastbone. “I’m into apportation. You know, moving things from one place to another,” she snapped her fingers, “just like that? See… Watch.” She took the pack of tarot cards between her palms and focused on them as they walked, right out front where Echo could see them, too. Faster than the eye could process, they were gone, leaving Maddy’s palms pressed flat, but later as Echo walked she might begin to notice them in her far pocket on the opposite side from Maddy. “I work at the Rabbit Hole part time. It’s a bar for people like us. I also design costumes for performers.”
“Yeah, I saw an ad in the paper for that place,” Echo replied. “Are there bands and stuff? I haven’t seen any live music for a while, that might be a reason to head up the highway for a night or two.”
As she’d suspected, the entrance to the mine was thoroughly boarded up, but there were several large rocks in a loose cluster close by. The Were took up some space, got out her baggie of smoke. Her supply was still a third full, but she’d marked Derek down as an unofficial source for knowing where to buy.
“Do you partake?” she asked Maddy. “I should have asked before, probably.”
Maddy’s eyebrows went up. Wow. Not even a blink at making that deck of cards disappear! Either Echo thought it was a magic trick or she was really used to unusual people. “Mmhmm,” she said, nodding at the question about the baggie. “Rabbit Hole’s not really a band sort of place,” she added, taking a moment to pluck a clump of mascara out of her eyelashes. “It’s more of a speakeasy for the not quite human. My advice? Don’t sip anybody else’s drink.” Frankly she was surprised there was an ad in the paper. She wondered if the ad had a spell on it so that only ‘other’ types of people could see it. The bar was inside a rift with an unlisted address.
The blonde went to inspect the boards on the opening of the mine. It wouldn’t be too hard to pry those loose, but she had zero urge to wriggle around inside an abandoned mine in Searchlight, so she didn’t suggest it. Instead, she shielded her eyes from the bright sun, which her sunglasses were powerless to overcome, and climbed onto some of the nearest rocks. A lizard skittered from underneath. “Hey, what kind of tail do you have? Is it a furry one or a scaly one?”
“Furry. Though I’ve known some people who turn into alligators and stuff. It’s not as common, but it happens.”
The day had gotten hot, and Echo looked up at the blue expanse of sky before starting to roll a spliff. She’d forgotten her water bottle back in her room. It was still sitting on the table next to the window. She’d have to check the cooler section, buy a couple of bottles of soda.
“So I’m guessing you’re not actually from Nevada? Seems like everyone I’ve met lately has drifted in from someplace else.”
Were-gators? Maddy imagined most people just got flat-out eaten, not nipped and turned. So that was pretty unreal. “Tacoma,” Maddy answered, balancing on one foot and then climbing higher. “Then LA, then here. You?” She looked back into Searchlight, light bouncing off the surfaces of the trailers and low buildings, the fading paint jobs of cars that started out red but looked suspiciously pink on top. Her own car was down the street from the trailer park. Belatedly she remembered a Snickers bar she left in the console, which would be roughly the consistency of soup when she got back.
“Louisiana, out on the water.”
The shifter dug a plastic lighter out of her pocket and got the joint going, inhaled the sweet-smelling smoke before holding it in. She’d been a casual user for a while, but seldom lit up in front of people she didn’t know well. But since Maddy didn’t seem to mind, she was relaxed about it.
“Well, mostly on the water. Shrimp season runs from May until nearly Christmas, depending on what you’re trawling for, but I usually hang it up at the end of July to do repairs and other stuff.”
“That explains the accent!” Maddy took in their dusty, sun-bleached surroundings. “You couldn’t have picked more different scenery… she observed hypocritically.” Tacoma wasn’t exactly known for its sunshine, Maddy supposed. “Whatever you do, don’t hit up the cajun restaurant near UNLV. They just unleash a container of Old Bay on every dish and call it good.”
Her phone buzzed again in her pants pocket. Maddy rolled her eyes and took it out to see a text from Lisa/Luna, this time asking if they could work out a payment plan. It seemed her old roommie had gotten the picture that Maddy was going to slowly take the back rent’s value in sentimental items if she didn’t pay up. Smart girl. Maddy thumbed a text back. “I hate to cut this short, but I think I hooked my fish,” she said to Echo, in keeping with the boat theme. “Will you forgive me? Oh and pass me back that deck of cards?”
Maddy pointed at Echo’s pocket and waggled her fingers.
The Were snorted, used her free hand to take the Tarot cards out of her pocket. “Just a suggestion, but you should probably give those back,” she said, handing them off to Maddy. “The deck picks up the energy of the teller, makes the readings more accurate. Or something like that. She’ll just give out more bad advice otherwise.”
“These were just leverage,” Maddy said, taking them back. “She gets what she wants when I get the rent she owes me. Fair is fair.” The blonde smiled sweetly. “Enjoy your treasure hunt.” She waved and headed off, turning back once to point at the rocks and say, “Oh, there’s a snake under the big one.” She shrugged and headed back into town.