12:9
Ivan stopped and swayed, fingers pressed to his forehead. Kim pulled up short and looked at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.” He lowered his hand and shook his head. “Just got dizzy for a moment.”
The shaking of his head seemed to set off some kind of something because he swayed again, enough that Kim would call it a list. She slid in close to him and pressed at his shoulder, directing him to lean against the back of the chair Gwen sat in. He curled his fingers hard enough his knuckles stood out stark against his dark skin.
Prairie stopped and spun around then hurried to Ivan’s side. “Are you okay?”
Ivan lowered his head for a mikro, drew a deep breath, then shook his head and turned to look at Prairie. “I’m fine. Just a little dizzy.”
Prairie frowned then rose up on her toes to press her finger to the side of his neck. “Your pulse is thready. And your skin is clammy. You need to sit down.”
Ivan pushed back from Gwen’s chair. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine. Sit!”
Ivan goggled at Prairie’s order. Prairie stared back, unflinching. The stare off dragged out for several heartbeats, which in Ivan’s case were apparently thready, and then he sighed and walked back to his desk with slow steps and sat in the empty chair. He planted his elbows on the desk and his chin on his knuckles and glared at the screen. The dark screen.
Kim shifted her attention from the screen to Ivan’s face then back to the screen. “When did the screen go dark?”
Prairie looked at the screen. “I didn’t notice.”
“It’s probably not relevant.” Kim shifted her attention back to Ivan. “You sit here. Prairie and I will chase mice.”
“Fine.” Ivan’s tone was super grudging. Kim was half-surprised his lower lip didn’t poke out. Then he shifted his chin to his left hand and started groping at the inside of his jacket with his right.
“Do you need something from your jacket?” Prairie asked.
“Hungry. I have a few protein bars.”
He had to be really hungry if he was stating that. Hungry. Dizzy. What had happened to him when he was carried away and were their other friends going to be in similar states when they got reunited with their bodies?
“Here,” Prairie gently pushed his hand aside, pulled back the side of his jacket and reached into the deep pocket there. As she pushed back the jacket the mouse in Ivan’s pocket scrambled free, scampering down his chest before jumping for the floor and running off around the column. Prairie followed the motion with her eyes.
“Darn it!” Then she shrugged. “That’s a problem for future Prairie.” She turned back to Ivan’s jacket, withdrew a bar, and quickly unwrapped it before pushing it into Ivan’s hand. “I wish I had some juice for you to drink.”
“Juice would be good.” Ivan took a bite of the bar and chewed slowly. His throat flexed as he swallowed and then after a mikro or three in which he must have decided the snack was going to stay down, he chowed the rest fast enough it was almost a magic trick how it disappeared.
After that he sat back in his chair and stared at the blank screen. “Okay. I’m good.”
“No,” Prairie’s tone was firm. “You are not. You will stay seated while Kim and I find the mice. Leaning down to pick things up right now won’t be good for you. You are too big for she and I to get off the ground if you fall over.”
“I won’t.”
“You won’t stay seated or you won’t fall down?”
“Fall.”
“You won’t. Because you are going to remain in your seat.”
Prairie’s expression said she would brook no more argument. It was impressive. Little but fierce. She had to be a terror in the ER.
Ivan gave a mighty sigh then reached for his jacket pocket.
“Still hungry?” Ivan nodded at Prairie’s question. She pushed his hand aside and pulled another bar out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and handed it to him. “Eat.”
Once he was chomping down the second bar with almost as much enthusiasm as he’d disappeared the first Prairie stepped back then cast her eyes at the ground where the mice had begun to migrate back around she and Kim’s feet.
Turning back to Ivan, she asked. “Any more bars?”
“Yes.”
“Can I have one?”
“Sure.”
Ivan reached a hand with a tiny tremor into his jacket and held a bar out to Prairie. She took it, pulled back the wrapper, and pinched off a little bit of the bar then stooped down to lay it next to her foot.
“Ooh, look at that delicious snack! It would be a real shame if a mouse grabbed it.”
The mice held back then one darted forward. The one that was almost invisible against the dark floor. Before it could grab the bar Prairie snapped out a hand and grabbed it around the middle. It twisted and aimed its mouth at her finger.
“If you bite me, Ben, I will bop you.”
The mouse started and stared at Prairie who pursed her lips and returned the stare.
“I will.”
The other mice scattered when Prairie grabbed the one, but they didn’t go far, their little gazes locked on the action. The mouse settled back in her hands then squeezed a paw free to make a beckoning gesture. A gimme gesture. Prairie picked up the crumb of snack from the floor and placed it in the mouse’s paw. It immediately jammed the piece in its mouth and chewed vigorously then gulped.
“It looks like you are hungry.” Prairie rose to her full height and headed around the column of computers until she came to the desk where Ben’s unresponsive body sat. She looked at Kim trotting along side her. “Do you have any food on you?”
Kim patted the side pocket of her cargos and pulled out some red licorice whips. When she offered them to Prairie the other woman waved them off. “Anything else?”
Reaching into her back pocket Kim pulled out a packet of nuts. “Nuts?”
“You are.”
“Ha.”
“We are going to need more if everyone is in the same state as Ivan. I have some cookies and a nectarine. Hopefully everyone else carries emergency snacks.”
“I guarantee you Gwen and Siobhan do and you just know that Dempsey probably has a cupboard full of them in that bag of his. Maybe even an icebox.”
Prairie grinned. “Probably. Okay.” She stopped at the desk with Ben at it and gently placed the mouse close to the box with flashing lights. When she reached for the mouse’s tail it tried to take off. Not the tail. The mouse. Kim tapped her hand down on top of its back and held it to the desk then looked at Prairie. “Got it?”
“I do.” Prairie gently maneuvered the long tail around the back of the box.
A mikro or four later a flash of light emanated from under Kim’s hand, momentarily blinding her. Her hand hit the desk, the mouse under her palm having disappeared. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision and turned to look at Ben just as he reached up and rubbed his jaw before cracking his neck to one side then the other.
“Ow.”
Kim focused burning eyes on Prairie. “Two down. So, black arm mouse probably Abe.”
“Probably.”
“How do we tell the others?”
Prairie just shrugged. “I guess we grab them and try them with the different computers?”
“Makes sense.” Kim stooped down and held her hand out. “Here mousey, mousey!”
Prairie made gimme hands at her. “Candy.”
“You have cookies.”
“Candy.”
Kim heaved a sigh and then handed over the licorice. “Fine. You better hope I don’t get hangry soon.”
“I won’t give him all–” Prairie’s words stopped as Ben reached out with remarkable speed and snatched the candy from Prairie before shoving it into his mouth and making a show of chewing that was quite similar to the way his mouse host had scarfed down the energy bar crumb.
The look he gave Prairie was full of an innocence he could not, in a million anos, claim that it drew a chuckle from Kim. “Sure you won’t.”
“Any more?” Ben’s question was muffled by the candy he was still masticating. Prairie sighed and pulled a cookie out of her pocket. She had barely held it forward before Ben was snatching it and jamming it into his mouth.
“S’good,” he mumbled around the snack. “I’m so hungry.”
“But not for brains, right?” Kim asked. “Not for brains?”
Ben gave her a look questioning her sanity. She was used to it so just smiled at her own humor.
“Do you have any snacks on you?”
A look of chagrin suffused Ben’s features at Prairie’s question. “Oh. Yeah.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a grinder. A whole freaking grinder. Wrapped in cellophane, so it didn’t smear condiments in his jacket. He started to unwrap it and move it towards his mouth, but Prairie stopped him with a gentle hand to his wrist.
“Are you still very hungry or are you just hungry?’
“Uh–”
“If you are just hungry we are going to need you to keep that for the others. For now.”
Ben’s lips tightened on a mulish expression then he made a big show of rolling his eyes and holding the sandwich out to Prairie. Prairie took the sandwich, unwrapped it, and pinched off a piece then dropped to her knees next to Kim.
Twisting she pointed at Ben with her free hand. “Stay there!”
His woof got a smile from Prairie before she turned back to the mice then placed the piece of sandwich in her palm and laid her fingers flat. “Look at that. A yummy snack. Sitting right there.”
The mice held back, just out of arm’s reach. Several of them shifted and then sang, “We’re all gonna die!”
“No, you aren’t.” Prairie’s tone promised candy and cookies and every other delicious thing in the universe. The mice eyed her like she was a witch in a gingerbread house. “Oh,” Prairie made a big show of dropping the piece of sandwich and then pulling her hand back a tiny bit, “look at that. I dropped it! It would be a real shame if a mouse grabbed it.”
“A real shame,” Kim echoed.
“Such a sha–” Prairie hadn’t finished the word before one of the mice ran across the space and snatched at the piece of sandwich. Before it could retreat Kim snagged it. The piece of sandwich fell out of its paws. It leaned out of Kim’s grasp to watch the cascading snack with a look of sheer sorrow. Prairie leaned down and picked up the piece of sandwich then gently held it out to the mouse.
“Here.”
The mouse snatched the piece from Prairie, lifted it to their mouth, and carefully nibbled an edge. Then it slanted a glance at Kim before another nibble.
Kim rose to her full height with Prairie right behind her.
“Who do you think this is?” Kim gestured slightly with the mouse. Prairie eyed it for a moment. “I’m not sure.”
“Maybe Siobhan?”
“It does seem to be very polite.”
“Then probably not Gwen. She’d be poking me. Probably.”
The mouse quivered in Kim’s grasp. Almost like it was laughing.
“I’ll try Siobhan.” With that Kim walked around the circle of desks to where Siobhan sat two down from Ivan with Dempsey between them.
Ivan wasn’t moving a whole lot. Mostly just resting with his eyes closed and his hands clasped on the desk. But even those slight movements – shifting in his seat, chest rising and falling with his breaths – made the preternatural stillness of Dempsey and Siobhan’s forms more obvious.
The light from the monitors in the central column cause Ivan’s shadow to dance as he shifts subtly. Dempsey’s and Siobhan’s shadows stay fixed behind their chairs. Another indication of their stillness. Another nail scraping Kim’s nerves.
It was only a matter of time before it was rectified but the sheer, unnaturalness of their stillness plucked at her nerves so the hairs on her arms rose and a tingle gripped the base of her head where it met her neck. Like it was a weapon, held at the ready, still until the execution order was called.
They were like those creepy baby dolls in movies that sit there all baby doll like with their creepy unblinking eyes – or worse the ones with eyes that blinked – and then they’d turn their head and say something and you’d almost wet yourself.
Kim eyed the side of Siobhan’s face as she placed the mouse close to the computer and Prairie grasped its tail to move around the box. Placing a gentle hand on the mouse’s back so it didn’t flee, she preemptively clamped down with her PC muscles, just in case Siobhan turned and said something causing her to wet herself. Because no one needed wet drawers. Just saying.
Siobhan didn’t move. Prairie looked over at Kim and shook her head. “I plugged it in. No light.”
“No light.” Kim bit her lip. “Guess this isn’t Siobhan.” She leaned in to mouse eye-level and whispered, “Who are you?”
The mouse did not reply. Neither, thankfully, did creepy not-dead Siobhan. One loss; one win. She’d take the win that didn’t involve her pee reflex.
“Try another desk?”
Prairie eyed Dempsey’s desk then shifted to look around Siobhan’s back at Dan’s desk to the right.
“Dempsey or Dan?”
Kim shrugged. “I guess either would be polite. Pick one.”
“Dempsey is closer to me.”
“Okay.” Kim picked up the mouse in gentle fingers and followed Prairie to the desk on the left where Dempsey sat staring at the glowing screen. His shoulders were so wide that Kim had to bump up against him to get close to the desk and place the mouse down.
“Excuse me. Sorry.” Bump, bump. She placed the mouse next to the computer close to Prairie and Prairie did the tail thing again. And there was no light.
“No light.”
“Wrong person. Try Dan?”
Prairie spared a look for Ivan next to Dan’s chair. “Are you still okay, Ivan?”
Ivan opened his eyes and looked at Prairie then nodded. “Just a little tired but I’m feeling better.”
“Fantastic.”
“I’m just going to,” Ivan trailed off and closed his eyes again. Prairie felt his pulse then gently patted his shoulder before moving around Kim to approach Dan’s desk to the other side of Siobhan. She looked back at Kim, brows raised, and Kim stepped over to the desk with the mouse in a soft grip.
Kim placed the mouse close to the computer on Dan’s desk. Again he was wide enough at the shoulders and chest that he filled the chair and she had to sidle to get close enough to place the mouse. Once she had it caged lightly in her fingers on the desktop she lifted her chin to Prairie who took the tail in hand and moved it to the back of the box.
Boom. Light emitted from beneath Kim’s fingers, burning an image of three of the fingers into her eyes. She blinked hard to clear her vision and then shifted her burning gaze to where Dan sat. Almost immediately he shifted the toothpick dangling from the corner of his mouth from left to right. Well, okay. He also blinked. Several times. But that toothpick movement, after the complete stillness, was the real capper that told Kim he was all right. Or would be.
“You hungry?” She murmured. He nodded slowly and lifted a hand to fumble at one of the pockets in his TAC vest.
“I’ve got it.”
Kim brushed his hands away and unfastened the pocket so she could reach in for whatever he had there. Book or food, she was fine with either. Her fingers brushed against what felt like a banana. Pulling it out she determined it was, in fact, a banana. She eyed the pocket, then eyed the banana, then eyed the pocket once more. Then shrugged because impossible dimensions of pockets were pretty low on her “huh” list today.
Dan lifted a hand towards the fruit. His fingers kinda fumbled around, not doing much to grasp it, so Kim pulled it back enough that she could unpeel the fruit and then pushed it towards his mouth. She ended up stabbing it with his toothpick which had him turning his head and looking at her with lifted brows.
“Uh, yeah,” Kim carefully placed the half-peeled banana on the desk in front of him. “I’m going to leave this here. Eat it.”
Another toothpick shift. Then he frowned and lifted his hand to roll the toothpick between his fingers before pulling them back and staring at the banana squished between his thumb and forefinger.
Kim gave a visual shrug. “Oops?”
He released a long breath through his nose and slowly shook his head in disappointment.
“Okay, yeah,” Kim backed away, hands up. “Eat your banana. I have to—Oh, look mice!”
“That was smooth,” Prairie murmured as she stepped up beside Kim.
“Yeah.” Kim looked down. “Mouse!” She moved forward at a slow pace, trying to keep her steps light as she approached the mice clustered outside of arm’s reach. “I’m gonna try for the Abe mouse.”
“Okay. I’m going to–” Prairie cast her eyes over the group of mice, “grab another one. It will be faster if we both get one.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Kim squinted at the group of mice, seeking out her target. “Got it! Them. Got them.”
Without giving any warning that might scatter the mice and make it harder to grab one, Kim lunged forward, hand out. She pounced, like she imagined a cat might, and snatched up a mouse. Only when it was wriggling in her grasp, trying to get free, did she look to confirm it was the one with the black arm. It, of course, was not.
She lifted the mouse close to her eyes. “Which one are you?”
The mouse did not answer. Shocker.
Kim looked over at Prairie who was standing up with a mouse in her hand. “I didn’t get Abe.”
Prairie waved her mouse. “I didn’t either. I guess we just start process of elimination?”
“I’ll go to the right, you go to the left?”
“Okay.”
Abe sat next to Dan. Kim skipped them and moved over to Gwen’s desk.
“Hey, Prairie?”
Prairie called back. “Yes?”
“How does this tail thing work?”
“There’s a flat part on the tail, shaped like a rectangle. There’s a hole in the back of the box it should fit into. Tab A into Slot B. Easy.”
“That’s what he said.”
Prairie’s startled laugh carried through the stillness. Kim grinned then gently placed the mouse on the desk near the box.
“Gwen,” she murmured, “if you are Gwen, excuse me while I grab your tail.”
The mouse looked up from the cage of Kim’s fingers then poked a paw out and gently patted her hand. A small wave of heat flowed from the paw and seeped into Kim’s skin.
Kim took the tail in hand, running it through her fingers until it stopped with the box like ending resting against her fingertips. Very slowly, careful not to tug too much, she leaned around the box and run the end of the tail over the back of the box blind. She had to press her cheek to the monitor. The bright light from it burned her eyes so she closed them. It made it easier to envision where her fingers were going anyway.
She felt a bump as the boxy end of the tail came into contact with something. Twisting her wrist she maneuvered her little finger around to feel the surface of the box, determining there was an opening there and it felt rectangular.
She curved her wrist a little to aim the end of the tail as best she could and slid it forward until it slipped into the opening. She felt a slight click as it found its home and then there was a flare of light and the bright light coming from the monitor disappeared, leaving her with a bit of vertigo as the eye closest to the screen went dark and the one farther away went light in response to the flare from the mouse.
“What?” Siobhan’s voice carried to Kim.
“Are you hungry?” Prairie’s question followed.
“What?”
That was as much as Kim heard because then Gwen shifted so she could grasp Kim’s wrist in gentle fingers.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Kim turned to look at her. Gwen must have shifted forward because she was so close Kim almost bumped noses with her and her eyes crossed trying to see Gwen’s features. “You’re welcome,” she whispered back.
“What took you so long?’
Kim reared back at Gwen’s question. “Really?”
Gwen grinned a Gwen grin and then released Kim’s wrist so she could boop her on the nose. “No. D’uh, as Abe would say.”
“You hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“I bet.”
“You have any snacks?”
Gwen slowly lifted her hand to scratch at the back of her head. “I do.”
“Where?”
“Pocket.”
Gwen lowered her hand from her head and started fumbling at her side.
“Here.” Kim brushed Gwen’s fingers aside and reached into the pocket of her coat. She pulled out a bag of chips then reached back in and retrieved a packet of pickles. “Pickles?”
“I like pickles.” Gwen reached towards the pickles. Her fingers flapped against the packet. “Gimme pickles.”
“Here.” Prairie came around the column holding out a potion vial. “Siobhan said drink this. Your energy was drained.”
“I want pickles!” Gwen stuck out her lower lip.
“You can have pickles after you drink this,” Prairie said with the patience of someone who spent a lot of time talking to recalcitrant patients.
Gwen heaved a sigh and opened her mouth like a little bird. “Feed me.”
Prairie grinned then leaned in to pour the potion into Gwen’s mouth. Gwen smacked her lips together then smiled at Prairie. “Not as good as pickles.”
She turned and looked at Kim then held out an imperious hand. “Pickles!”
It was Kim’s turn to grin as she dropped the packet of pickles on the desk then put the chips next to it. “Stay here. Let the potion work. Then once you are up to it pickles.”
“Pickles!” Gwen blinked then squinted into the light coming off the central pillar of computers. “Everyone else?”
Of course their big-hearted friend would think about the others.
“We’ve got Ivan, Ben, Dan, and it sounds like Siobhan awake. Only need to reconnect Patti, Dempsey, and Abe with their bodies.”
“Connect?” Gwen frowned. “Bodies?”
“Do you remember being a mouse?”
“A mouse?”
Kim nodded all solemn-like. “A mouse.”
Gwen slowly raised her hand to scratch her head. “Not really. I,” she wet her lips and looked towards the ceiling, “remember being short?”
“Yes. Because you were a mouse.”
“Weird.”
Kim nodded in agreement at that barely adequate description. “Weird.”
Gwen looked over at Patti sitting to her right. And shuddered. “Weird.”
“Oh, yeah. You were all like that. Lights on and no one home. It was freaking creepy.”
Gwen went quiet for a moment, staring at Patti. She pushed her hands against the arms of the chair and started to rise then fell back into the seat. “Woo.”
“Yeah. I think you need to give the potion a few meros and then eat something.”
“Pickles.”
“Pickles.”
Gwen went quiet again, her gaze focused on Patti. Then she shifted her attention down towards the floor. Kim followed the motion, seeing Sass standing under the chair clutching onto another mouse. When it saw their attention it looked up at Kim and Gwen and warbled, “Mama!”
Gwen looked at Kim. “I was a mouse?”
“You were a mouse.”
“So, Patti is a mouse?”
“She is. Probably.”
“That mouse.”
It wasn’t a question.
“You sure?”
“I think so.”
“Okay.” Kim very slowly pushed away from the desk and with the smallest possible motions sidled over to where Patti sat. Then she looked at Sass. “You got her?”
Sass nodded, moving the majority of its body with the motion. “Mama!”
Believing she was not going to have to snatch and grab Kim slowly lowered herself down and held out her hand, palm up. “It’s okay, Sass. Help me pick her up?”
Sass eyed Kim’s hand and then very gently nudged the other mouse forward into Kim’s palm before stepping into it themselves. The other mouse shook, its entire form vibrating. Kim raised them up to eye level and murmured, “I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”
Very slowly she rose from her crouch and then placed her hand down on the desktop, knuckles pressed to the surface and palm still full of mouse.
“I need to,” she hesitated then gestured at the mouse that wasn’t Sass’ tail. “I’m going to grab its tail. Her tail.”
Sass followed the movement of Kim’s hand with an intensity that was a little intimidating. Then very slowly it unraveled one of its arms from around the other mouse and took its tail in their paw before pushing it carefully towards Kim. With the solemnity that trust demanded, Kim took the tail and reached around the computer to plug it in.
A flash of light and then there was only one mouse in Kim’s hand. She shifted to look at Patti who blinked slowly and then reached a slow hand towards Sass. Kim slid her hand forward and Sass stepped out of her palm and onto Patti’s arm where she clung with both front paws, stared up at Patti, and warbled, “Mama!”
“Sassy,” Patti mouthed and smiled. Then she turned and looked at Kim. “That was weird.”
“It is a word we have been using for it.” A thought occurred to Kim so of course it rolled right out of her mouth, “So. Weird? That song? Was that you?”
“What song?’
All right then. “It was just a song.”
“We’re all gonna die!” Sass sang out, chant-style.
Patti started and looked intently at the mouse. “That feels oddly familiar.”
“Uh huh. You were singing it. As a mouse.”
Patti’s frown was epic. “As a mouse?”
“Yeah. Anyhow. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“You got any snacks?”
“A few.”
“You should eat them. One mikro.” She held up a finger then hollered around the column. “Siobhan?”
“Yes?”
“You got any more energy potions.”
“Yes.”
“Can I get a few?”
“Sure.”
There was the sound of a chair scraping the weird composite stone floor and then Siobhan came around the column of computers. She stopped for a moment to lean over Gwen’s shoulder and stare into their friend’s face.
“Are you okay?”
“Pickles.”
“Pickles?”
Gwen waved at the packet of pickles on her desk. “I want pickles.”
“Is anyone saying you can’t have pickles?”
“Kim was all like ‘no, Gwen, you cannot have pickles!’”
Kim jerked a look at her. “Did not.”
“Drink your potion, Gwen. No pickles for you.”
Siobhan turned a look of censure on Kim. “Really?”
Kim heaved a dramatic sigh. “No.”
“I want pickles!”
Patti shifted very slightly. “I hear there’s potions?”
The question drew Siobhan’s attention and she pushed away from Gwen, after nudging the packet of pickles towards their friend. She approached Patti with potion in hand, popping the cap one-handed with the air of someone who’d done it a time or twelve, then held it out to Patti.
“Can you take it yourself?”
“Not sure. I’m pretty drained.”
“Probably because of that song.”
Patti frowned at Siobhan. “What song?” She looked at Kim. “The song Kim mentioned?”
“The song that arguably kept up all from scattering across the palace. That song.”
Patti’s frown deepened. “I really don’t remember a song.”
Siobhan hummed a few bars of the bluegrass the mice had been playing and singing. Patti’s head cocked to the side. Then she picked up the harmony. Then she frowned some more.
“It feels familiar. But I don’t know it.”
“Weird,” Kim and Siobhan said in synch. Then they looked at each other and laughed before repeating, “Weird!”
“You all are weird,” Patti grumbled.
Sass peeped in such a way that Kim was able to assume agreement.
“Ben! Stop!” Prairie’s voice carried around the column of computers then there was a bright flash of light and the sizzle of ozone on the air before there was the distinctive thump of a body hitting the composite floor.
Kim and Siobhan turned in the direction of the sound. At her desk Gwen pressed her palms into the arms of the chair and rose to slightly unsteady feet before turning that way too.
“What happened?”
Ben’s groan came in reply then Prairie’s soothing tone, flavored with just a hint of humor. “I think Ben tried to open Dempsey’s bag.”
Gwen swayed and pressed her hand down on the desk to steady herself. “That was dumb.”
“That was Ben,” Patti corrected. “Possibly synonymous.”
Ben groaned again and then grunted.
“Sounds like he’s not dead.” Gwen lowered herself back into her seat. “For some reason I don’t feel compelled to run to his rescue. Not just because running reaks of effort and right now I’m tapped but also,” she raised her voice to carry in the largely silent space, “stupid should hurt!”
Ben groaned then there was a shifting sound and his voice carried, saying with a wobble, “Worth it!”
“Kim!” Prairie hollered.
“Yeah?”
“Dempsey Mouse running your way!”
Kim squatted down and squinted around the glare of the computer column. “Left or right?”
“Left. I mean maybe your right?”
Swiveling on her heels, Kim turned in time to make out the speeding figure of a mouse coming from her right. She dropped down on her ass and threw out her leg to the side so the mouse smacked directly into her inner thigh. It fell back with the impact then rolled backwards, a confused look on its little mouse face.
Siobhan lunged in and closed her hands around the mouse before it could gather itself and keep running. “Got you!”
She looked to Kim. “What now?”
“Take him. It. Whatever. Over to Prairie.”
“Okay.”
Siobhan disappeared around the curve of the column. A few mikros later Kim heard Dempsey drawl, “Did he touch the bag?”
“He touched the bag,” Siobhan confirmed.
“Bad idea.”
“You think?” Ben groaned and there was the sound of him pushing up from the floor that carried easily in the preternaturally quiet space. “I think it was a great idea. If it worked.”
“You’re an idiot,” Ivan said.
“And you are the best friend of an idiot. That makes you what?”
“An idiot,” was Ivan’s drawled response. “Nothing to debate.”
“What happened?” Abe’s voice piped.
“Apparently we were mice,” Dan said.
“Not exactly.” There was a short pause then Ivan elaborated. “It seems our spirits were removed from our bodies and put inside mice.”
“That is weird!”
Apparently weird was the word of the day. Hey, if a word fit they should use it. The fact so many of them were falling on it to explain the situation indicated either it was in fact weird or that they spent way too much time together and were forming a shared language.
Eh.
“It isn’t that weird.” Prairie’s voice got louder and a moment later she came around column of computers. She had a hand under Abe’s elbow, supporting their usually bouncy friend, and was looking up at Ivan as she walked. “As I explained to Kim and Ivan there are religions where it is part of their celebrations.”
“Turning people into mice?” Abe asked.
“No.” Prairie smiled at their friend. “Having spirits enter hosts. The spirits are called riders and the hosts are called horses.”
“So, we weren’t mice, we were horses?”
“No, the mice were horses. As far as it make sense to me. You were riders.”
“Oh.” Abe’s expression clouded for a mikro then cleared. “Anyway. I’m super hungry.”
“Do you have anything to eat?”
“Does any person with Magick leave the house without something?”
“If they are stupid,” Patti suggested.
“Or poor,” Gwen added in a soft voice, “Not everyone is as lucky as we are.”
“True. And now I’m super sad about the poor Magickers.”
“As a former poor Magicker,” Ben said, limping up next to Gwen, “I am happy to accept your regard.”
“Eee, you are literally the richest of us all.”
“Now.”
“So, tell me, why do you keep trying to steal from Dempsey?”
“I’m not trying to steal. I’m just exercising my curiosity.” He donned a look of patent innocence which was strongly checked by his mischievous grin. “And maybe steal just a little. Don’t want to get rusty.”
“Just zapped,” Dan drawled.
“Touche, Sir.” Ben gave a dramatic golf clap. “Touche.”
Dan turned to Dempsey who was leaning on him a little as his knees wobbled. “That was impressive.”
“Mess with the bull you get the horns. Mess with the bag,” he tapped the bag now strapped securely to the side, “it’s worse.”
“Is this everyone?” Siobhan asked, always the one to draw their team back on track when they threatened to wander off on a quest for magic beans or the mental equivalent of that.
“Sound off!” Ben made a cheerleading gesture, hitting his chest with his fists then flinging them both into the air. “Ben!”
“We know you’re here, Ben,” Dempsey muttered.
“Dempsey!” Ben hollered.
Siobhan heaved a super big sigh then started doing a head count. “Yes. That’s everyone.” After confirming that she reared her head back to look at the giant column of computers. “Can someone explain where this is and how we got here?”
“Well,” Kim said, “As Prairie mentioned your souls were somehow, as yet undefined, removed from your bodies and your bodies were put here to stare at computer screens like giant creepy baby dolls. Prairie and I didn’t get taken away.”
“Why?”
“Kirby,” Prairie said at the same time Kim said, “Fire.”
Siobhan nodded, real slow. “Okay. That explains little but probably not necessary. Then?”
“Kim used Air to try to find you after we’d done some other things and Air brought you, as mice, or actually riding on mice. Playing bluegrass.”
Because that was a very relevant detail. Not. But it was a detail.
“Bluegrass?”
Kim and Prairie nodded, practically in unison. “Bluegrass.”
“One mouse was playing a banjo. Another was playing a mandolin. And there were two guitars.”
“Is this important to the story?”
Kim shrugged. “Who knows what’s important?”
Siobhan waved a hand. “Go on.”
“Then Prairie, genius that she is, figured out your souls were not in your bodies. And then Ivan’s mouse or,” Kim slanted Ivan a glance, “Maybe Ivan?”
Ivan nodded. “Close enough.”
Kim started back up, “Ivan communicated with Prairie and gave us the clue we needed to figure all this out.” Kim waved her hand, encompassing the dark around them, the desks and chairs, and the column of computers. “And that’s it.”
“I feel like there are things missing.”
“Maybe? But that’s the gist. Nightmares–”
“Nightmares?”
“Oh, yeah, I didn’t mention that? All of us were on nightmares but Kirby and Fire got Prairie and I off them. Which is why we weren’t mice. Or inside mice.”
“I’d ask what you were smoking but I do recall feeling shorter and I don’t remember getting here so I will graciously accept your story because–” Siobhan stuttered to a stop, waved her hand, then picked up, “Whatever. So,” She turned to look at Dan. “What now?”
“Now?”
“You are the one that read the story.”
“There were no mice in the story.”
“Okay.”
“Or computers.”
“Is this lack relevant?”
Dan gave the by now standard, “Unknown.”
“There were dreams in the story, right?”
“Yes.”
“So this is loosely adhering to the story. It stands to reason we still have to, as you said,” she made air quotes, “follow the story. So what’s next?”
Dan looked around the space, squinting as he focused on the column of computers. “Prince and Princess.”
“What about them?”
“Gerda found the Prince and Princess in the castle.”
“So,” Ivan ventured, “we need to find the Prince and Princess.”
Dan shifted his toothpick. “Seems like.”
“Well, then,” Ivan said, “that’s a place to start.”
Enter The Woods 