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The next few days nearly drove Marissa to the point of murdering Kira. Most of her shifts were spent doing the mindless little jobs, and whenever she could, Kira had her locked away int the office with paperwork, mostly out of the way of customers, and always away from Granny. But the third day of her shift she’d had enough and told Kira that. “Its not like I’m going tot fall apart again. Granny just startled me is all. Please, give me something real to do and not this light duty crap.”
“She does have a way of making you want to believe her, yes.”
“Now can I please get my old shift back?”
“I’ll see what I can do. I’ve rather liked not having to do the paperwork.”
Marissa tossed a handful of sugar packages at Kira, glad that the glass doll phase was over.
*****
Marissa was surprised to see Jason arrive at the coffee shop without Franny dragging him in behind her. “Not playing shadow today?”
Jason look confused. “Pardon?”
Marissa clarified, “Franny isn’t dragging you in here kicking and screaming.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jason shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I will just have a jasmine tea.”
“I’ll bring it over to you when it’s steeped.”
“No need, I will wait.”
“Suit yourself. So what’ve you been keeping yourself busy with? Haven’t seen you around the house much.”
“Just finishing up some course work at the university.” Marissa looked up.
“Oh? I didn’t know you were still in school.”
“I took some time off, I am finishing up some grad work.”
“In what.”
“Micro Biology with an emphasis in genetics.”
That got Marissa’s attention. It startled her so much she nearly spilled his tea. Jason saw her reaction and grinned. “You did not expect me to be into science.”
“More like I didn’t expect you to be into school. You don’t necessarily strike me as the brainyack type.”
“And what type did you think I was?”
Marissa smiled and answered truthfully, “The rich playboy who won’t ever have to work a day in his life type.”
Jason smiled in response. “You do not pull your punches do you?”
“With brothers like mine you learn not to.”
“Brothers, how many?”
“Three, I’m the youngest of four, and had to learn to defend myself some how.”
“You never talk about them, your family I mean.”
“Not much to tell, my mom didn’t know she was marring into a family of swamp rat hicks, and had never let my father forget it. She thought she was marring a high minded scholar, which my father is, rather than take a job at some prestigious school babysitting million dollar brats, he became the English teacher in how old high school. He didn’t want to educate the next generation of elitists on Wolf and Falkner he wanted to ‘inspire kids, that everyone counted as nothing to reach for the starts,’ his words not mine.”
“Sounds like you really admire him.”
Marissa smiled again, “Yeah,” but then looked down as she pulled the teabag out of the mug, her smile fading. “It really disappointed him when I didn’t finish college.”
Jason was almost as surprised by Marissa’s admission about school as she had been about his, “Why no? You are certainly smart enough.”
“What, you didn’t expect me to be a college drop-out?” She asked mirroring his early question.
“No, not at all. I had you pegged as the brainiach honor roll student.”
“And I was, deans list all the first year.”
“Then why only one year?”
“Couldn’t sit still, I felt trapped there. I wasn’t used to spending a lot of time in large crowds. Classes of over 200,” Marissa gave a shiver. “And the dorms, I thought I was going to go nuts, couldn’t stand living in someone else’s pocket.”
“If size was a problem, why no transfer to a smaller college?”
“I had a full ride there, it was the only way I could afford to go.” Marissa gave one of her customary shrugs. “Oh well, life goes on.”
“If you ever want to finish, UNO has night classes that are not that big.”
“Your tea’s ready.” End of subject, door closed, don’t ask anymore. Jason got the hint.
“How much?”
“No charge, Kira thinks you’re a well placed accessory.”
“What?”
“Girls com in and buy coffee just to look at you, some men too.”
The look on his face was so priceless Marissa had to hid her laugh with a cough.
“Mr. Havenward?” The mood was suddenly somber as Granny called for Jason from the doorway to the back. “Would now be a convenient time for that chat?” It wasn’t much of a request as a statement.
“Now would do fine. Mind if I take my tea back with me?” The second part was directed to Marissa.
“You break it, you buy it,” Marissa tried to joke.
When Jason was seated at the table he held out his left hand. “Care to look?”
“Don’t get cheeky with me boyo.” Granny adjusted her chair so she was right across from him at the table. “That girl is not Nicollet.”
“I know that,” Jason said solemnly.
“She is a direct descendent thought.”
“I know that as well.”
“Tread slightly with her; once started, the circle must be completed, one way or another.”
“What are you trying to tell me Miss Marie?” Jason asked sternly.
“Just this: once set in motion, some events cannot be stopped.” Granny became quiet for a moment contemplating. “There has been talk, from friends and non friends alike. Even rumors of a few gone missing.”
“How come we did not get word of this sooner? I thought you were keeping tabs on things. Is that not your job? Or are you getting too old for the burden?” Jason’s words were like acid.
Granny was unruffled, “Don’t go bringin age into this, you know I am more than capable. They are getting tricky, no more than one or two at a time, spread out over time, never twiced in the same area.”
“How close?”
“Nothing in our area, but I donna know how muc longer I’ll be able to keep them away.”
Let us know if there is anymore information.”
“That I will.”
Marissa looked up when Jason came out of the back. “So, what was that all about?”
“Granny likes you.”
“And how does that effect the price of rice in China?”
“She was warning me that if I hurt you, she would have to kill me.” Jason flashed her a quick grin.
“Well, hmm.” Marissa didn’t know what to say to that.
*****
“Hey ‘Rissa, could you do a favor for me?” Kira caught her just as she was taking off her apron.
“As long as it doesn’t include me taking run of the shop for a week.”
“I promise, this is something you’ll enjoy. Granny is driving me nuts and I need something to entertain her other than badgering me about making her a great grandmother.”
Marissa smiled at that, “And what can I do to rescue you from that dreaded fate?”
“Go pick up Granny a few books? She’s a sucker for a good ghost story or romance. Better yet if the book has both.”
“I think I know just the place. How many books should I get?”
“As many as you can with $50.” Kira handed her the money.
Marissa walked into her favorite bookshop, ‘Round ‘Bout Books’, a used book store that specialized in the odd and out of print books. They had a large section devoted to Paranormal Romance, right next to her favorite section, the historical romance.
“Afternoon Hal, how’s business?” Marissa greeted the owner, seated behind the counter with his small round Lennon style lasses reflecting back the light of the computer screen he was currently engrossed in.
“Mornin’ Marissa, can’t complain.”
“Hal, its nearly two in the afternoon, not quite morning anymore.”
“It will stay morning until all my responsibilities are over.”
“And when will that be?”
“Oh, I’d say about the day I retire.”
“You mean for the second time?” Hal was a tall thin man with stooped shoulders in his mid 60s. He’s opened the bookstore two year ago, when he’s been forced into retirement because of Katrina. “Anything new?” Hal kept track of the tastes of his regulars and if something came in he thought they would want, he set it aside.
“Now that you ask, I did get a few books in by that author you tend to favor. I put them right under the counter here.” Hal disappeared under the counter. “Been a while since you’ve been in.”
“Yeah, life got in the way of my reading.”
“Gonna have to talk to your boss ‘bout that, can’t be letting that happen.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Speaking of my boss, she’s the one who sent me here. Seems Granny is makin her wanna climb the walls, so I get sent in to find a few books to distract her.”
“Books for Granny Marie? I know just the thing. It’ll take me a few minutes to track them down. How many you lookin for?”
“Kira gave me a fifty and said get as many as I could with it. I immediately though of you.”
“Well, I’m flattered. I’ll just be in the back for a tick.” He disappeared through the narrow door way that lead to his storage.
Marissa wandered through the narrow isles. They were so narrow her shoulders just had enough room to brush past the freestanding book cases. Row after row of floor to ceiling book cases all overflowing with books. If this bookstore had existed when she first moved to New Orleans working here would have been her dream job. While waiting on Hal, Marissa found herself in the Self Help/Humor section; a bit of Hal’s own humor in the title. It had a little bit of everything in it, from Oprah to Dr. Phil to Crystal Healing and Wicca. Mixed in were joke collection books and the “You Know You’re a Redneck If…books. While aimlessly poking through titles something caught her attention, sandwiched between How to Survive a Zombie Attack and Is This A TARDIS I See Before Me? was one called How To Tell if Your Boyfriend is Really a Vampire and How to Keep Your Relationship Alive. What an obscure title, perfect for Kira! Quickly she grabbed it and arrived at the counter just as Hal shuffled through with a stack of books.
Marissa looked at the cover of a few of them and nearly chocked. “Hal! You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t give these to Granny.”
“When it come to Granny, the gorier the better, believe me.” Hal winked. “There’s also two of your books. Didja find something that you were interested in?”
“I thought Kira would find this amusing.”
Hal looked at the book quizzically, “Usually I remember the books, but this one escapes me.”
“You can’t possibly know every book. You’ve got in here, there has to be thousands.”
“10,452 to be exact, and that’s not including the ones I’ve yet to inventory.” Marissa’s jaw fell open. Hal winked and tapped his temple. “Photographic memory, and a really, really good inventory program.” He scanned the book, there was a long pause and finally the computer burped up an unhappy sound. “Hmm, must not have put it in the system. Well, I’ll just give it to you for half off the cover-price, will that be alright?”
Marissa paid for the books and loaded them into her backpack and headed back to the coffee shop. Best to give Kira a break from Granny as soon as possible.
******
“Hey Granny,” She was fiddling with some knitting and didn’t look like she was happy with it. “Watchya working on?”
“A piece of crap. Mr. Havenward has been looking for you. Kira thinks I need something to keep me busy.”
“Odd, wonder what he wants,” Marissa looked to the café door, would he still be out there? “But speaking of keeping busy. I stopped by Round ‘Bout Books.”
“Oh really, how is Halender doing? I always knew he’s end up with a bunch of books.”
“Hal’s doin good. He heard you were staying for a while and he also heard you were stuck in that chair for a while and he thought you might be a little board so he sent on a few books he thought you might like.”
“That’s sweet.” Granny took the stack of books and smiled as she flipped through them. “Halender has always been good at picking books I’d like. But you and I both know Halender didn’t “just hear” and send some books. Kira sent you didn’t she?”
“Hal had a few books set aside for me.” Marissa avoided answering. “I picked up for Kira too, is she around?”
“Out front if I’m not mistaken.”
“Thanks.” Marissa slipped out into the cafe. Tammy was behind the counter building a latte for a customer. “Hey Tammy, is Kira around?”
“Naw, she had to run to the bank. She’ll be back in a few minutes. Want anything while you want for her?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it myself.” Marissa poured herself some hot water for tea.
“Ah, there you are,” Jason came up to the counter. “Franny wanted me to ask what time you got off work.”
“About 30 minutes ago. I’m just waiting for Kira. I picked something up for her and I wanted to give it to her. What did Franny want?”
“Not sure, she just asked me to find out what time you got off work.”
“Your still here, perfect. Marissa can you get something for me from the basement?” Granny asked from the doorway.
“Sure.” Marissa set her mug down and went to the back.
Granny paused at the door, seeming to consider something, “On second thought, Mr. Havenward, would you lend a hand? The trunk will be a might heavy.” Jason gave the old woman a quizzical look but followed after Marissa.
She already had the rug rolled aside and was struggling with the recessed handle, when he approached. If someone didn’t know what they were looking for, they would never spot the trap door leading down to the cellar.
“Here, let me,” Marissa moved aside to give him a go at lifting the awkward door. To her surprise, he didn’t even appear to strain as he opened the door, but the hinges did give a loud groan of protest.
“So, what are we getting for you, Granny?” Marissa asked as she started down the narrow steps.
“Two old steamer trunks of books.”
“Steamer trunks of books?”
“Yes, they are very old. You bringing me these books made me think of them. I promised myself I would transcribe them before they rot away down there. They are journals of my mother and her mother and so on, they go back many years. I fear I’m the only one who can read them anymore, and I don’t want their stories lost when I’m gone,” Granny explained.
“If you want any help with the transcribing, I’m pretty good with computers.”
“Thank you for the offer. The trunks should be fairly easy to spot, last I saw them, they were under the south side of the building.”
“Okay, we’ll find them.” Marissa continued on down the steps.
“Is not transcribing the journals a little risky?” Jason asked in a low voice as he started down the steps himself.
“It’s the only way. Now be a dear, they’re gonna be heavy.”
Jason nodded and followed Marissa into the dimly lit basement. The only light came in from the hatch Jason had just come through. Marissa could barely make her way in the direction she remembered the light switch had been. Suddenly the light came on and Jason was two feet in front of her at the beam with the light switch, with his hand on the switch.
“How did you?”
“I see pretty well in the dark, and I really did not want to have to take you to the emergency room with a concussion.” Jason smirked.
“Why a concussion?”
“Look where you were about to step.”
“Marissa looked down and sure enough, right where she would have stepped was a haphazard pile of old rusted pipes. “Oh, thanks.”
“It was no problem. Now, where are these trunks?”
“If they are the trunks I think they are, they should be in that far corner. But I only remember one, maybe the second is behind it.”
The basement was a maze of boxes and random metal shelving filed with more boxes. She knew the building had been in Kira’s family a long time, but it was never as obvious as when she had to get something from here.
Marissa finally found the corner that she remembered last seeing the old trunk. Sure enough it was right were she thought she would find it, with about another ten years worth of stuff stacked on top of it.
"This is going to be fun," Marissa said, not meaning a word of it.
"It shouldn't take too long if we just start moving the boxes." Jason grabbed the top box and started rearranging them to get to the bottom.
Seeing how easily he moved them, Marissa grabbed one herself to move it and nearly dropped it. “Damn, what’s in this thing, a load of bricks?”
Jason plucked the box from her arms, “You really should not be trying to carry things that are too heavy for you.”
Marissa watched shocked as he moved a box that easily weighed sixty pounds as if it were two. She stood back and watched as he did the exact same thing with the last two boxes. While his back was turned she gave the steamer trunk a tug, yup, very heavy. Interested to see what would happen, Marissa stepped back and watched.
Jason took hold of the trunk and pulled it out of its place, wedged between boxes on each side. The trunk moved with no problem! Once he had the trunk free of it’s confines he lifted the trunk as if it weighed nothing. She followed behind dumbfounded as he continued to carry the trunk up the steps.
“Here you go Miss Marie.” Jason set the trunk down.
“Did you find the other one?” Granny asked lifting a brow.
“Not yet, we were going to look again once we brought this one up.” Marissa answered from the steps, still watching Jason oddly.
“Good, I know its down there somewhere.” Granny caught the expression and gave her a knowing look.
Jason caught the exchange but chose to ignore it; women confounded him.
Marissa turned around and went back down the steps and wound her way back to where the old trunk had been. It only made sence that the other one would be somewhere near by.
“If you are going to try crawling around looking for the trunk under things, would it not be better for you to take off your bag? It is going to get dirty getting drug around on the floor.” Jason was leaning against one of the stacks of boxes.
Annoyed that he was right, and she had totally forgotten about her purse she pulled it off and tossed it at Jason. “If you aren’t going to help me look at least you can be a dear and hold that for me.”
Jason caught the bag with one hand and smirked. The bag she used as a purse was something he would expect from a college hippy type, a canvas messenger bag with patches and patters drawn on it with pall point pen. It really was like a college bag because it felt like it was full of books. “What do you have in here, a bunch of books?”
“As a matter of fact yes, I’d just come back from the book store when you got here.” Marissa kept up her search for the missing trunk; so far it was nowhere near where the other one had been.
“Pick up anything interesting?” Just because he knew it would irk her, Jason opened the bag and pulled out the first book his hand touched.
“Would you please not go pawing through my bag?” Marissa snapped when she saw him with her bag open.
Before Marissa could stop him Jason had the book out, “What the heck are you reading this for?”
Startled by his adverse reaction Marissa looked at the book in question and laughed, How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is Really a Vampire was in his hands. “Oh that book. I picked it up for Kira, she has a funny obsession with mythical creatures actually being real and part of regular society.”
“So you do not believe in the existence of vampires?” The look on Jason’s face was more than the mere curiosity that Marissa expected to see, his question appeared to be serious, even deadly so.
Before Marissa could give an answer there was a loud crash from the direction of the steps causing the both of them to jump.
Jason was already standing at the bottom of the steps looking up by the time Marissa rounded the last row of shelves. There was no more light coming down the steps, leaving him in somewhat darkness.
Marissa skidded to a halt next to Jason. “What happened?”
“Trap door closed.”