Frightened to the core, Scarlett hung up the phone. Bruno knew it was me calling! He’s got some kind of special power that tells him when I’m around! He must have been using it to find me when I was here last—but I can detect when he’s around, too, with my intuition that tells me when something bad is about to happen! I knew when he was approaching me last time in the mall, I knew where he was waiting to get me, and I had a premonition just now that it was him on the phone! We can sense each other’s presence—but why in the world is he stalking ME?
“Hey!” called Roger, peeking out of the backpack. “Why’d you hang up? Wasn’t she home? Did you get an answering machine?”
“Bruno,” she whispered numbly. “I got Bruno instead.”
“What?!” the mouse cried. “You got Bruno?! How did you do that?”
“He’s there with Rita!” Scarlett told him. “He knew it was me, Roger! He said my name, but I didn’t tell him who I was. He knows who I am!”
“Oh, God!” The mouse began to tremble. “He’s there with Rita? Is she in trouble? Did he hurt her? We have to call the police!”
“I don’t think he was hurting her. She was calling to him from the shower, and she didn’t sound like she was in trouble. I think they’re dating.”
The mouse gasped. “They’re DATING?!” he yelled.
“Not so loud!” Scarlett snapped, and she tried to collect her thoughts. “I think Bruno’s hunting for me, Roger! I didn’t tell you before, but he tried to kidnap me from this mall the night you were taken from the apartment! He’s got the same psychic powers I do, so he can sense where I am just as I can sense him!”
“You have psychic powers?!” Roger fairly shrieked. “WHAT psychic powers?!”
“Damn it, Roger, not so loud!”
“You’ve got honest-to-God psychic powers? You’re telling me you’re a real witch with supernatural powers, and Bruno the Giant Pyromaniac has the same super powers you do, and he’s shacked up with my ex-girlfriend and is trying to kidnap you and probably me, too? Is that it? Am I getting the picture?”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! And stop shouting!”
“I agree!” said a voice that was neither Scarlett’s nor Roger’s. Scarlett and Roger gasped and turned to look at the narrow entrance to the pay-phone alcove.
“Stop shouting!” said Tananda. She looked from Scarlett to the mouse with a wide-eyed gaze. “Everyone in the freakin’ world can hear you! Keep it down!”
“Oh, Goddess,” said Scarlett in redoubled horror, covering her mouth with her hands. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Forget it,” groaned Roger. He clamped a paw over his pink eyes. “Me and my big mouth. Jesus Harley Davidson Christ.”
“Are you two in trouble?” asked Tananda, eyeing the mouse in astonishment.
“Yes!” said Scarlett and Roger in unison.
For a moment Tananda was at a loss for words—then she straightened up. “Get back in the backpack,” she said to Roger. “Hurry, before someone comes in here. You—” She pointed to Scarlett “—put the backpack on. Pretend like nothing’s happened. Where’s this guy who’s following you?”
“Leeville,” said Scarlett. “He was on the phone, but he knows—”
“Later! Drop it for now!” Tananda turned and pointed a finger at Roger, who still clung to the top of the backpack. “And you get back in there right now, before I use you as a field hockey ball!”
Roger gasped and dived into the backpack. Tananda zipped the pack shut, helped Scarlett on with it, and herded her friend out of the phone alcove and away from passersby who regarded them with puzzled looks. They walked swiftly down the broad, yellow-painted mall corridor. “We need to find a place to talk,” said Tananda. “We can’t do it here.”
Scarlett noticed they were walking by a pet shop called Our Furry and Scaly Friends, the place where she and her aunt had purchased Roger’s cage less than a week earlier. She quickly nudged Tananda and pointed inside.
“We can’t talk in there!” said Tananda curtly. “Too open, too many people!”
“No, I have to buy something for Roger! It’ll only take a second!”
Tananda rolled her eyes. “Well, hurry!”
Scarlett hurried into the shop and, with the help of the balding owner, was back outside in three minutes with a bottle of mouse-cage deodorizer. There she found that Tananda had collected several of the other Leopards around her. “We’ll meet you all at Mahna Mahna’s later, maybe noonish,” said Tan. “I’m going with Scarlett to her place to de-stink her rat. We’ll bring something for the party.”
“Chocolate!” suggested Kristen. “Only Communists never eat chocolate!”
“Popcorn and chips!” said several others. “Cheese dip from the Cheese Guy shop!”
“Beer!”
“We’re not supposed to buy beer, diptard! We’re underage!”
“Then get bail money for our moms so they can buy us beer!”
With a cheer, the other Leopards elected to free their mothers from jail before any further shopping for party supplies, and the group broke up.
“You don’t drink, do you?” Tananda asked Scarlett as they left the mall.
“No,” Scarlett admitted, the deodorizer stuffed into a side pocket of her backpack. “My aunt would kill me if I did, and I hate the taste of alcohol anyway.”
“I don’t drink all that often,” Tananda said. “My mom said if I was going to drink, I’d better do it in front of her so she’d know about it, so we each kill a beer a couple times a week after school.” She reached over and unzipped Scarlett’s backpack. “Hey, Roger or whoever!” she said into it. “Do you drink?”
“I could use a whiskey on the rocks right about now,” came Roger’s voice from inside the pack.
“Roger!” said Scarlett, shocked. “You don’t drink!”
“I never said I didn’t drink!” Roger retorted. “And I’m a mouse! I don’t drink all that much!”
“We’re going someplace special to talk,” said Tananda to Roger. “You can probably get a whiskey when you get there.”
“Thank God,” said the mouse in the backpack. “It’s been ages.”
“Are we going to Mahna Mahna’s party?” asked Scarlett nervously.
“Later,” said Tananda. “That can wait. We’re going to see someone who can really help you.”
Scarlett stared at her friend. “Who?”
Tananda rubbed her chin. “He’s an old guy, but he’s cool,” she said. “He helped out a bunch of us Leopards years ago, and he still helps us out when he can. He’s like a really cool uncle. You ever see a TV show called Sick, Sad World?”
Scarlett shook her head. “It’s supposed to be kind of weird and gross, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but a long time ago, some of us Leopards were on it. They did this special exposé about violent girls, and our scout group got to be the main story. They still show that episode sometimes on reruns ‘cause it’s so popular. You know that kids’ scout group that used to be around here, the Blue Belles?”
Scarlett’s eyes grew wide. “The one the police shut down ‘cause the kids were running it like a gang? I heard about that! That was you?”
Tananda gave her a toothy grin. “Got a little blue bell tattooed on my ankle and everything. Some guy named Axl did it for me. I don’t think he believed I was eighteen, though.”
“Didn’t they send you—I mean, all those girls to a juvenile-delinquent camp?”
“Yeah, but that was all right. One of the main counselors there was this old guy who used to be a Marine or something. He got us straightened out fast, but he wasn’t ever mean and he really cared what happened to us. He always did the right thing, even when he wasn’t sober. It was his idea to start a field hockey team at Lawndale High and get us in it, so he talked to Chairman Li and Miz Morris so our, um, how’d he put it, our ‘antisocial impulses would have an acceptable and rewarding outlet.’ That means we can fight all we want, and it’s okay. He always comes to our games, too. He was there this morning until our moms got into it with the Oakwood moms. He said he’d be at the Dutchman Inn for the rest of the weekend if I needed him. He’s got family in the area, I think, but he doesn’t like most of ‘em.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “He said he’d be there if you needed him?”
“Yeah, it sounds weird, but at the game he said something bizarre might happen to me today, and I might need to tell him about it. I didn’t know what he meant until I saw you talking to Mickey Rat back there—”
“Don’t call me that!” Roger yelled from the backpack.
“Shut up! Anyway, I knew right off you two were the ‘something’ he was talking about. You couldn’t be anything else.”
“Wait a minute!” Roger stuck his head out of the backpack. “Is this guy really huge, built like a concrete wall, fond of matches, name of Bruno Nagy?”
“No, that’s not him, and get back in there!” Tan took a half-hearted swipe at him with her right fist. Roger squeaked and disappeared into the pack.
“How’d he know that you might need to talk to him?” asked Scarlett.
“‘Cause he’s psychic,” said Tananda. “Just like you and your rat.”
“He’s psychic?” cried Scarlett. She came to a halt.
“I’m not psychic, and I’m not a rat, damn it!” yelled Roger from inside the backpack. “I’m just a mouse that talks, okay?”
“Yeah, psychic like you,” said Tananda to Scarlett, ignoring Roger. “What’s your problem?”
“It’s just that—I don’t think—I mean, I just—oh, I don’t know what to think. I give up.”
“Hey,” said Tananda. She stepped close to Scarlett and put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, okay? Look, maybe you can use your powers or something and tell me if this is the right thing to do. You gotta trust me that I know what I’m doing.”
Looking unsure, Scarlett nodded, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Is this the right thing to do, to go with Tan to see this guy? she thought.
For a moment, she felt only vaguely foolish. Then her mind cleared. She felt no sense of immediate danger at all. Go with her, said a soundless voice deep inside her mind.
She opened her eyes, now at peace. “You’re right,” she said. “Let’s go.” The two girls started off again, Tananda pointing the way.
“Who’s right?” called Roger from inside the backpack. “Would someone tell me what’s going on here?”
“We’re getting help,” said Scarlett in relief. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Would you mind telling me a little about Roger Rat there?” asked Tananda. “If that’s okay, I mean.”
“I can do my own talking!” Roger snapped, then added in a lower tone, “Scarlett, you go first.”
As they walked, Scarlett and Roger began to fill Tananda in on the goings-on since the day Scarlett rescued a frightened white mouse left over from a science experiment at school. For once, they left out nothing.
“So, that was Bruno the Giant on the phone,” finished Scarlett, several blocks later. “He’s the same guy Roger was looking for before his parachute got sabotaged, only now Bruno’s with Roger’s ex-girlfriend and is trying to kidnap me, I think, but I don’t know why. And there’s that weird lady at Good Time Chinese and her dog, and I don’t trust her because she knew you and I were poking around back there, and that’s the place where Roger was turned into a mouse, and now her dog’s following me around, maybe, and I don’t know what to do!”
“Remember the part about Brian Taylor trying to get all his friends to kidnap me!” said Roger, still inside the backpack. “That’s important! Don’t let ‘em do it again!”
“We won’t,” said Tananda. “I mean, I won’t. Oh, hell. Look, you guys need protection. I gotta tell the other girls something so they can help out, okay? Lemme just tell them there’s some people bothering you, and we’ll keep a lookout for dogs and giants and aliens and all that crap.” Her face glowed. “We might even get into a fight!”
“Go ahead and tell them a little bit, but not too much,” Scarlett said in surrender. “This whole thing is getting crazier by the minute.”
“But don’t tell everyone about me talking or anything, okay?” called Roger. “I don’t want to be dissected!”
Tananda shook her head. “You know, for a mouse, you’ve got a lot of mental issues. Don’t worry about it, though. I won’t tell. This is a great secret!”
“As long as it stays a secret,” Roger grumbled.
“So, you’re actually an old guy stuck inside a mouse?” Tananda asked, making an ick face. “That’s like really creepy. Are you a pervert?”
After a moment, Roger poked his head out of the backpack. “Excuse me?” he said. “You beat up other girls with a hockey stick, and you are calling me creepy?”
“What I’m doing is socially acceptable,” said Tan. “We get uniforms and a school budget for it. You, on the other hand—don’t let me catch you sneaking around our locker room waiting for a free show. I can towel-snap your butt into next year just like that.”
Roger gave Tananda a look that was pained, disgusted, and annoyed all at once, which was a remarkable feat considering he was doing it with a mouse face, then muttered something impolite and disappeared from view.
“Don’t pick at him, please,” Scarlett said. “He’s really okay.”
“Whatever,” said Tananda with a shrug. “He’s your boyfriend, not mine.” She then pointed ahead to a sprawling, six-story hotel with an illuminated wooden shoe on the roof. “That’s the place.”
The Dutchman Inn had a run-down 1970s look to it, with a décor heavily dependent on orange furniture and brown wood paneling, but it still did a good business thanks to its location by the Interstate. Tananda led Scarlett right past the check-in/check-out lines at the front desk, over to the elevators.
“We’re going to room five-thirteen,” said Tan, punching the elevator buttons. “You’ll like him. Uncle Max is cool.”
“Uncle Max?” said Scarlett nervously.
“It’s what we call him. He hates it.” The elevator arrived, and the two girls got in. Tan punched the button marked “5.”
“Is this safe?” said Scarlett as the doors closed.
“I don’t know,” said Tananda. “You’re the one being chased by a giant.”
“No, I meant . . . forget it.”
They got off at the fifth floor and headed down a hallway. Tananda walked up to the door marked “513” and pounded on it with a fist. “Hey, Uncle Max!” she shouted. “Get off the toilet and answer the door!” She turned to Scarlett. “He hates that,” she said with a grin.
“I’m comin’, I’m comin’, all right already!” someone shouted behind the door. “Gimme a minute!” A moment later, the door opened and a gray-haired gentleman with a professional air peered out. He wore a shirt, slacks, tie, and polished black shoes. A tall glass of clear liquid and ice cubes was in his right hand. “Ah, jeez,” he growled when he saw Tananda. “Whaddya lookin’ for, kid—my wallet?” His face suddenly cleared, he set his glass on the floor, and he reached for Tananda with both arms. “C’mere, Greenie! Good to see ya!”
Tananda threw her arms around him and they hugged for a moment. The old guy kissed Tan on the top of her head, gave her a last squeeze, and turned to Scarlett, who hung back in the hallway. “C’mon in,” he said, waving her into the room, “and bring that rotten bum Roger with ya.”
Scarlett was halfway into the room when she realized no one had yet told the old guy about Roger. Her head jerked around in a flash, but the old guy was even quicker and reached inside her unzipped backpack. “Roger!” he shouted. “C’mon outta there!”
Before Scarlett could stop him, the old guy pulled a squirming white mouse out of the pack and held it up in the air. “You old bum!” the old guy roared with delight. “You miserable bum! You stinkin’ bum! Good to see ya!”
“Ohmigod!” shrieked Roger with huge pink eyes. “Ohmigod! Don’t drop me! Aaagh!”
The old guy put the mouse down on a desktop in the room, next to a row of liquor bottles. Roger sat there for a moment, quivering all over—then looked up at the old guy. “Max?” gasped the mouse. “Max Lane? Good Lord, is that really you?”
“In the flesh!” said Max. He picked up his drink again and took a deep swallow, then spun around and pointed at Tananda. “Hey! Stay outta the booze! Drink your mom’s stuff, not mine!”
“Oh, bite me,” said Tananda, but she put the bottle of Jack Daniels down again.
“You know this guy?” Scarlett asked Roger in amazement.
“That’s Max Lane!” exclaimed Roger, quivering in excitement. “He’s a detective, too! He was the guy who hired me to work with him on the Bruno Nagy case!” He turned to Max, his pleasant manner evaporating. “Where the hell have you been, damn you?” he shouted. “I got killed waiting for you to give me the word on Bruno! What happened?”
“What happened?” Max barked. His dark eyebrows knit together as he glared at the mouse. “The son of a bitch blew up my D.C. office just like he did my Baltimore office, and he almost blew me up with it. Then I almost killed myself tryin’ to get to the airport to warn ya not to jump right after that, ‘cause I had a feelin’ somethin’ bad was comin’ your way, but you and the others had already gone up and jumped! It was Bruno that had your ‘chute lines cut! Someone at the airport owed him a favor, and cuttin’ your lines was the payback. Sounds like some people at the state capitol owed Bruno favors, too, ‘cause the investigation afterward wasn’t worth squat.” Max drained his glass, then sadly looked down at the mouse. “I’m sorry, buddy. I’m sorry for what happened to ya. I couldn’t stop it.” Max’s dark expression eased, and he shrugged. “Least ya got to come back. Not many people get to do that.”
“But now I’m a mouse!” Roger roared.
“Better that than a hamster,” said Max. “Hey, you want a whiskey on the rocks, like old times?”
The mouse bristled for a moment . . . then exhaled, looking weary. “Yeah,” he said. “Thanks.”
“You two were hunting for Bruno?” asked Scarlett, wondering if this would all turn out to be a dream but fearing it wouldn’t.
“We were,” said Max. He took a shot glass from a drawer and filled it a quarter full with whiskey, then spooned crushed ice into it from an ice container and pushed the glass in front of Roger. The mouse immediately got up, stuck his nose into the shot glass, and began lapping up the whiskey.
“But Bruno got you both back and then got away!” Scarlett said.
“He did,” said Max somberly. He started to pick up a bottle of scotch, then reconsidered and put it down again. “I’ve been on the run for the last year. As long as I keep moving around at random, he can’t get a fix on me or stick a trap in my path. If I wasn’t a psi like him, I’d be dead already. Probably wouldn’t even get reincarnated, either.” He nodded in Roger’s direction. “Some people have all the luck.”
“Uncle Max?” Tananda put a hand on his arm. “This guy’s trying to kill you?”
“Huh? Oh.” Max sat on the edge of the bed, playing with his glass. “Yeah, that’s about the size of it. I got a little premonition I better be movin’ on, so I gotta check out of here in a few minutes and go somewhere else. Ya can’t go with me. I’m like a big bull’s-eye, and I don’t want you anywhere near me in case Bruno gets a major itch for a firework show.”
Tananda’s eyes narrowed, and her lower lip stuck out. Scarlett thought she was on the verge of crying. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Uncle Max,” Tan said.
“And nothing’s gonna happen to me, Greenie, as long as I keep movin’. I was gonna visit with my favorite nephew in town, but instead I think I’m gonna head for the Midwest next. There’s a family reunion comin’ up in Sloatstown in a few months. Hmm, forget I said that. Don’t want to tip Bruno off.”
“Mister Lane?” said Scarlett.
“Max,” said Max.
“Um, Max, do you have any advice for me? That guy Bruno is—”
“He’s after you, too, yeah. That’s ‘cause you’re a psi, like me and him. He hates other psis, hates them more than anything. Wish I’d known that earlier.”
Scarlett’s heart sank. “So, is there anything that—”
“You could run for it and take Roger with you,” Max interrupted. “But if that’s not an option, you might think about turning the tables on Bruno.”
“Do what?”
“Go after him instead of him comin’ after you. Bruno’s got a big ego. He’d never believe anyone like you would go after him—no offense. He was surprised enough when I did. He didn’t like that at all. If he had two psis goin’ after him, that would rattle his cage a little. You must’ve gotten away from him once already, and almost nobody ever does that. Who knows, you might find out something about him we could use to stop him.”
“Like what?” Scarlett asked, though she had already rejected the idea of a high-schooler like her hunting down a psychopathic monster like Bruno.
Max waved a hand. “Well, like, where’s he from? He appeared out of nowhere a couple years ago. Roger and I traced him back to Lawndale, but he must’ve been somewhere else before then. Where was he? How’s he get around? Does he have any friends in the area? Does he have any weaknesses?”
“Would the police help?” said Scarlett.
A queer high giggle rang through the room. Everyone turned to see Roger holding on to the edge of the empty shot glass with one paw, slapping his hind leg with his other forepaw as he guffawed. “Would the police help?” he repeated, then put a paw to one ear, pantomiming a telephone conversation. “‘Hello, officer? I’m a witch and I want to report a giant magical pyromaniac who’s trying to kill my talking mouse!’” Roger doubled over in further laughter, then suddenly began to hiccup.
Tananda turned to Scarlett with a fierce look. “The Leopards will protect you, I swear it! And we’ll protect you, too, Uncle Max!”
“Look after her and Roger instead,” said Max, getting to his feet. “Forget about me. I’ve gotta protect myself for now. Party’s over, folks. I gotta get packed. Sorry I couldn’t stay longer, Greenie. Give the other girls my best.”
Scarlett scooped the hiccupping Roger into her backpack, then shook hands with Max Lane. Tananda gave Max a long hug before she and Scarlett left. Tan wiped her eyes several times, but Scarlett saw Tan’s rigid, angry face and left her alone with her thoughts until they reached the street.
“Why does he call you Greenie?” she asked Tananda.
Tan didn’t answer for a block, but finally wiped her eyes again and said, “‘Cause I dyed my hair green a couple of times. It’s sort of our little joke.”
Scarlett felt a need to say something, but what she instinctively said was not what she had really meant to say. “I won’t let Bruno hurt Max,” was what came out of Scarlett’s mouth. “I’m a psi, and I won’t let it happen.”
“Thanks,” said Tananda with feeling. “And we’ll watch out for you, too.”
They reached out and held hands for a few moments as they walked. The moment was spoiled only by a loud snoring sound coming from the backpack.
“Damn drunken mouse,” said Scarlett. The two girls burst into laughter and let go of each other’s hands. They decided to head for Scarlett’s place before going to Mahna Mahna’s as-good-as-a-victory party, and the rest of the day went fairly well, despite Roger throwing up twice and Scarlett having to run home when the police showed up to arrest the underage beer drinkers and their moms.
Back in her room that evening, Scarlett sat at her desk and looked at Roger, still snoring among the freshly deodorized wood shavings in his cage. Through all the craziness of that Saturday, she was sure of only one thing:
Bruno is going to kill Roger and me, and it’s going to hurt a hell of a lot when he does.
Last updated 12/23/06