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Way I see it, a man’s gotta keep himself grounded. No matter how crazy or bizarre his life gets, he needs some simple, mundane things to do to keep himself from going nuts. Given I already had the Master of Chaos in my brain whispering all sorts of loony things about life and the Wild to me, I figured it’d be best to try and do as many normal things as possible when I wasn’t planning my temple heist with Imogen.
Excuse me. Lady Lugh.
Anyway, there’s few things more normal than a man visiting his family, especially when his little niece is sick. Poor Valerie weren’t looking too good when I dropped by my sister’s the next day. She was awake, which I suppose might’ve been an encouraging sign, but the Ice Flu was still clearly doing its work on her.
She was the oldest of Therese’s kids, which wasn’t saying much. By my reckoning, seven years old is too young by far to be considered the eldest of anything. But even so, she was the sort of eldest child who knew it, and insisted on trying to take on any and all responsibilities her seniority might entail. Girl was barely old enough to walk the first time she attempted to help her mom in the kitchen, and she was insisting on helping care for baby Constance at the ripe old age of three.
Never in my life had I seen a kid so full of energy, or so sure of herself. That’s why it was such a shock to see her like that: stuck in bed, her skin white as a cloud, lips turning blue and purple even as she shivered and shuddered under multiple layers of blankets. Even with all that, she still tried to get up when I walked into her room, til I put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from that foolishness.
“Hey,” I said. “How’re you feeling?”
“Bad,” Val told me.
I smiled. It was hard for me not to smile when I was around my sister’s kids, sick or no. But on that day my smile wasn’t quite genuine, and I think she must’ve recognized that, even as young as she was.
It was just hard for me to muster up much cheer seeing her like that. I wanted to—believe me, I did. A girl in her condition needed some cheer in her life. But looking at her in that bed, all I could think about was my dear old Granny, feeble and shivering in her last days. The Ice Flu took her from us, and here it was again threatening to take my niece away too.
Therese was thinking the same as me, I could tell. One look over my shoulder to where she was standing in the doorway, and I could see plain as day that she shared my worries and my fears just from the look on her face. She was probably feeling much worse than I was too, on account of it was her kid, her flesh and blood, who was on death’s door.
But it’s a mom’s job to worry, and it’s an uncle’s job to be fun. So I kept on smiling, even though my heart wasn’t in it, and I held up the little honey bun I’d bought from Fiona’s on my way over.
Her bakery still hadn’t gotten a new chocolate shipment in, but that was alright. Val loved her some honey buns.
“For me?” my niece asked, and her voice was so small I might’ve cried if no one was watching me.
“That’s right. Feeling hungry?”
She was, and I reckon that was a pretty good sign as well. When the Ice Flu gets real bad, you don’t feel hungry at all. You feel empty, but that ain’t the same thing as hungry. You need food, but you ain’t got the desire for it, and if you eat too much your stomach churns it all back up. You just lose the drive for eating, as Ferengris might say.
I helped Valerie sit up, and I talked with her as she ate. Ferengris lingered over us, watching her eat, his expression more serious than I’d ever seen on him before, but he didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask. When Val was done, she settled back into bed, and soon enough she was snoozing away.
Therese was waiting for me back in her kitchen. She wasn’t alone.
My brother-in-law, Lonnie, ain’t never been the sort of man I’d seen eye to eye with. He’s a big fella, broad and strong, with muscles he’s built up over years and years of daily hard work. I reckon I could’ve respected that, if only he weren’t also a judgmental ass. The man looked down his nose at me, and he strutted around like he thought his shit don’t stink. If not for my sister, I might never’ve seen my nieces and nephew at all, cuz of him.
Lonnie was sitting by the kitchen table, bottle of beer in his hand, and judging by the sweat and dirt on his collar he must’ve only just gotten home from the construction yard. He’d been telling Therese about his day, but he stopped abruptly when he saw me standing there in the doorway. His expression went from tired and neutral to tired and annoyed.
“I see your brother’s seen fit to pay us a visit,” he said.
Therese’d been scrubbing away at a pot in the sink, and she spun around and glared at her husband. “Now Lonnie, don’t you be starting nothing. He’s just here cuz he’s worried about Val.” Then she looked at me. “Jackson’s behaving himself today, ain’t that right?”
The warning in her voice was none too subtle. I nodded and said “that’s right.” Then I made my way cross their kitchen, to the front door. “If y’all’ll excuse me... You two have a good night.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Therese. “You’re staying for dinner, ain’t you?”
Her husband laughed at that. “He sure as fuck ain’t! Thief knows better than to break bread with an honest man!”
“Lonnie!”
“It’s the truth, darling.”
“No, no,” I said, raising my hand to calm my sister before she could go leaping to defend my honor. “I’ve imposed on y’all long enough. Besides, I’ve got other plans for the evening.”
I didn’t look at Lonnie as I spoke. I didn’t trust myself to do so. I knew the sight of his smug face would’ve broke me, and there’s no way I could’ve held myself back from socking the man right in the head. That would’ve been a mighty big mistake on my part—like I said, Lonnie was a big fella, and starting a physical altercation with him would not have done good things for my health.
So we said our goodbyes and I took my leave. The temperature was dropping as the sun set, but the humidity was rising and the moisture in the air was doing its best to keep the sun’s heat around. I walked the streets of New Alms bathed in the orange light of dusk, and I knew that I was a damn liar because I sure as Perdition didn’t have any other plans for that night.
I walked along, ignoring the sight of Ferengris walking alongside me. He was practically dancing, watching the clouds and watching the passerby. For an ancient god of the wilderness, he sure seemed fascinated and charmed by every little thing. He even dove into the canal as I passed it, which was a strange thing to witness since he didn’t make any splashes when he hit the water.
Syl was curled up on the steps of Miss Nora’s. The black cat raised her head up to watch me as I headed inside. The eye on her forehead was closed, and if you didn’t know to look for it, you might not’ve even realized it was there at all. I suspected that Syl was well aware that a three-eyed cat would attract all sorts of attention, and that she was keeping her third eye closed so as to keep a low profile. I was also pretty certain that she was keeping an eye on me. Never met a cat that clever in my life.
My hand gripped the knob, and I glanced down at Syl to see if she intended to follow me inside. She didn’t. Her head was back down and her eyes was all closed again. Whatever her reason for being here was, it apparently didn’t preclude dozing off at her leisure. I turned away from her, opened up the door, and stepped inside.
Miss Nora’s place in the evenings is quite a bit different from her place in the mornings. When the sun comes up, the rooms are filled with sleepers and the ground floor plays host to a pack of groggy and bleary-eyed women in pajamas. When the sun sets though, those rooms become full of ladies of the night plying their trade, and the ground floor plays host to a whole crowd of men negotiating prices with some girls in their most flattering outfits and most enticing makeup.
Hobie let me through—fine guy, Hobie. Not much of a talker, but men don’t get hired to guard brothels cuz of their conversational skills. Paula was over in the corner playing piano, Carlie and Miss Nora were working the bar, and the most hopelessly optimistic young man in the world was trying to convince Hanna and Quinn to work with him at the same time for around the price of a meal at Jerry’s. I made to make my way up the stairs to my apartment, but was intercepted by Lilly before I could take more than a few steps.
“Miss Nora’s worried about you,” she told me. “When are you gonna stop spending all your time at that rich lady’s house?”
“Hopefully soon,” I replied. It was a strange thing, having a private conversation in that lobby. The patrons were always loud and raucous, so you had to raise your voice to talk to anyone even if they was beside you, but at the same time you also wanted to be talking low so no one else could make out what you was saying. It was a delicate balancing act, that. “We’re doing the job two nights from now.”
Lilly nodded, but didn’t look pleased at all. “I don’t trust her.”
“I know you don’t.”
“Why are you even working with her?”
“Got my reasons.” I glanced at Ferengris. He was happily mingling in the crowd, a great big smile on his face as he leered at the men and women all around him negotiating deals for sexual services. I couldn’t even begin to guess what he thought about all this.
“Even if she’s got something on you, there’s gotta be a way out of it,” Lilly insisted. “It sounded like you got something on her, too, so don’t they cancel each other out?” She might’ve gone on, but it was at that moment that a hand alighted on her shoulder.
“What’s this about someone having something on Jackson?” Eric asked.
It shouldn’t’ve surprised me to run into Eric Etterna at Miss Nora’s. It weren’t like he wasn’t a regular patron, after all. Thing was, I don’t think I was in the right headspace to see him that night. My mind was preoccupied with my niece, and the coming robbery—Lady Lugh and I had finally settled on a plan of action—not to mention the risk of me losing my soul to the Wild God riding along in my mind and body. Last time I’d seen Eric was nearly two weeks before when I’d turned him down on the arcblaster robbery, and now here he was looking at me with an expression of concern like he used to back when we ran in the same crew.
“No one’s got anything on me,” I told him. “I’m just in something of an uncomfortable business arrangement is all.”
“You know if you need help, all you gotta do is drop by,” Eric said. “I’m very good at making problems go away. You know that, Jackson.”
I smiled, in spite of myself. It was just nice to see him so concerned for little old me. “I know that, Eric. But I’d prefer to play this close to the chest. Couldn’t live with myself if anyone stuck their necks out for me on this one.”
Lilly frowned. “You’re liable to get yourself killed, thinking like that.”
“That true?” Eric asked. His eyes were boring into mine, like he was trying to pick out my secrets by spotting them somewhere in my pupils. “You mixed up with any dangerous sorts?”
“Just the rich kind.” I gave him the easiest smile I could manage under the circumstances. “Nothing I can’t handle, as I’m sure you know.”
Eric kept looking at me, all concerned and worried like, and then his lips cracked into a smile. He laughed and clapped me on the back. “Now that, I do know!” Turning his attention to Lilly, he went on: “You should’ve seen this man when we crashed Lord Glimrock’s wedding party. Never seen someone sneak through a crowd without drawing any attention like that. How many costumes did you change into that night, Jackson?”
“Three,” I told him. My smile’d gotten bigger. “There was the butler first, then I was a guard, and then I was a maid.”
“A maid?” Lilly laughed.
“Damn straight, and he cut an attractive figure in that outfit too!” Eric chuckled. “I doubt if there’s any rich folk in the city Jackson couldn’t pull one over on—except maybe for yours truly.”
“Now, Eric, you know I’d never dream of trying to pull one over on you.”
“I should hope not! Drink?”
Well, I sure wanted to. In that moment, having a beer with Eric, talking and laughing like old times, sounded like just about the best thing I could be doing. I couldn’t think of a better use of my time—but time was the issue, wasn’t it? One look at Ferengris was all the reminder I needed of what the stakes were, and I had a long day of work ahead of me preparing to rob the Cerenites.
“I better not,” I told him. “Early day tomorrow. Big job’s coming up, and I gotta make sure everything’s just right.”
“If you need anything, you know who to ask,” said Eric.
I nodded, smiling at him, then turned to go. As I did, Eric turned to Lilly and asked her: “Now how much for a night with your lovely self?”
She giggled—it was that fake giggle that all the girls here seemed to share—and I didn’t hear her reply. I stopped by the stairs and watched as the pair of them made their way to the other staircase. Lilly caught my eye as she climbed the first step, gave me a sheepish smile. It was almost apologetic.
Why she’d felt the need for apologies, I couldn’t say. But the image of her and Eric in bed together was suddenly strong in my brain, and I hesitated on going on up to my apartment. Instead I just watched at where the two of them had disappeared up the stairs.
“Feeling jealous?”
I must’ve been more tired than I thought, since I hadn’t even noticed Rita coming up to stand beside me until she spoke.
“Why would I be jealous?” I asked her. “Jealous of what, anyway?”
She just arched an eyebrow at me, and looked meaningfully at the staircase I’d just been watching.
I shook my head and made to go, when she spoke again:
“Want me to spend the night? No discounts.”
Well, I was tempted. I was mighty tempted indeed. Rita always liked to flaunt her figure, and when she was dressed up for work she was right indecent. Her dress was so low-cut I was half-convinced I’d be able to see down past her navel to between her legs if I looked hard enough, and it boggled the mind that the fabric had yet to slip off her magnificent breasts.
Only thing stopping me from saying yes was the thought of Ferengris watching us together. That cooled any passions Rita—or anyone else—had inflamed right quick. So instead, I shook my head, thanked her, and headed upstairs to my apartment.
She watched me go up. Didn’t say a thing.
When I got to my room, I collapsed onto my bed and spent the night trying not to imagine Eric and Lilly together, and wondering why the thought of that should bother me so, and when I finally did fall asleep I dreamed of them whispering under the bedsheets together, and giggling in a way that didn’t sound fake at all.