After the picnic
Time to escape?
Glorina
After the picnic, Jelana and I picked up the remains and repacked them into the basket. There wasn't much left, Belinda had packed it well, evidently. Tolly snored on, while Jelana and I talked about inconsequential things. I think she was hoping for a confidence, but I kept the tone light. But obviously, I wasn't the only one with a secret.
I almost asked her how she did that water trick, then remembered the magic was coming back into Tel; that had been one thing that had come out of the Times of Trouble. Magic was coming back all over the world, apparently. Not that most people saw much of it, unless they did something like befriend a unicorn. Perhaps she didn't even know how she did it. And almost certainly, she could not teach me.
Eventually, Tolly awoke with a snort, sat up, and stared us blearily for a few seconds, then wandered off into the woods, saying that he had some business to attend to.
"I ought to be getting back, too," Jelana said to me. "I enjoyed meeting you, Ms. Hoi. I hope we can meet again before you have to leave." She held out her hand to me, and we shook hands for a moment. Then I impulsively hugged her.
"It's Glorina, please," I said, then jumped back as I realized what I was doing. I couldn't let myself be impulsive. Ever. And especially not now. I couldn't let myself become close to people. I drew back in a panic, folding my hands for a bow. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have . . ."
"Glorina, Glorina, it's all right," she said, catching my hands in her own. Water flowed over them for a moment, then stilled again. "It's all right," she said again, as I calmed. "You really are afraid," she said, as I drew back and turned away. "Please, if you don't trust Tolly, trust me, or Jasin, or Belinda, or An. We'd all do what we can to help."
"I don't know what you mean about being afraid,” I said, my voice a bit chilly.
"As you say," she said.
Tolly came back up. "I'm glad you came, Jelana," he said to his sister, sweeping her up in a big bear hug. "Thank you," he whispered into her hair.
"Any time, brother-dear, anytime," she whispered back. Then she drove off on her motorbike, and Tolly and I were alone again.
"Well, that was . . . unexpected," Tolly said.
"To some of us, anyway," I said.
"I'm glad you got along so well with Jelana," he said.
"She's . . . she's kind," I said, truthfully. "Is she really old enough to be married?"
"Old enough, and is," he said. "The person she picked wouldn't be my first choice for her. But I've got to admit he is solid, dependable, steadfast. He has a good heart." Then, inexplicably, he threw his head and laughed. He saw me looking at him curiously. "Sorry, Ms. Hoi, private joke. Maybe someday I'll explain it to you."
"I'd look forward to that," I said politely. "Will I meet Mr. Falls?"
"Mr. Falls?" Tolly half-choked, then he threw back his head and laughed again. I looked at him, rather annoyed this time.
"Sorry again, Ms. Hoi. But 'Falls' is my sister's name, not her husband. Hmm. . . If anything, his name would be Wood. Daved Wood. If you stay here much longer, we might be able to make arrangements for you to meet him." He laughed again. "It can be harder to uproot him to go visiting than it is my sister. Her schedule is much more . . . fluid than his."
"Stop it," I said. "That one I got. And I expect that the others would be just as annoying if I understood the references."
He looked surprised, then contrite. "I'm sorry, Ms. Hoi. That was unkind."
"And could you go back to calling me 'Glorina', Mr. McLichtensen?"
He looked at me, surprised.
"Then I could go back to calling you 'Tolly'. It's only one extra syllable for you, but it would save me four. Or, I suppose I could call you what Jasin does."
"'The Big Guy'?"
"You know about that?"
"Of course." Tolly laughed.
"No, I meant 'Sir'."
"He calls me 'Sir'?" Tolly looked startled.
"All the time."
"I'll have to put a stop to it," Tolly grumbled. He looked at me thoughtfully. "Always practical, are we?" he said. "Very well, go ahead and call me Tolly if you wish. Or even Tolliver, though I won't guarantee I'll answer. Call me whatever you want."
I noticed he made no promise about calling me Glorina, but decided against pressing my victory any further. After all, we made considerable progress today. Then I remembered what was waiting for me at the end of the job, or probably sooner, once my real boss found out about the investigation. I suddenly rested my head on my hands against the dashboard.
"Tired, Ms. Hoi?" Tolly said courteously.
"I'm afraid my headache has come back, Tolly," I said, half-truthfully.
"Ah, yes, that convenient headache of yours. We'll see if Belinda can come up with a better treatment for them than a bottle and a half of rotnic."
"That's all right," I said. "I still have the other bottles. I could try a different dosage."
He snorted, as he drew the car into its parking spot. "Sometimes . . ." he began, then changed his mind and said, "I'd rather you see what Belinda has to offer."
"I'll consider it." With that, he had to be content.
I went up to my room, after telling them I probably wouldn't be down for dinner, the convenient headache, and all. I dug out the recorder.
Nothing of interest on the tapes. Tolly making arrangements for the picnic basket with Belinda, and discussing where he was going to take me.
"Not the Old Meadow," she said. "You always get to brooding up there. And it's rather isolated. Might frighten her off again. Why not Tryst Falls? It's closer to home, and always has a few people around at the tables this time of year."
"No, people are what we don't want. And I don't want my sister involved if I can help it. I think this could be messy when it all comes out."
Well, it seemed like he couldn't help having his sister involved. Whatever she had to do with Tryst Falls. And it was going to get messy. But I wanted to do my best to make sure it would only splash on me, not on them. I should have left already. But I was afraid.
Then the tapes didn't click on again until just a couple of minutes before. They were still talking, in fact.
I shook my head. I didn't really want to do this.
"Was it you or Belinda that I have to thank for Jelana showing up at my picnic this afternoon?" Tolly asked dryly.
"I really couldn't say, sir," Jasin's voice came back blandly.
"Huh. You really do call me 'sir'," Tolly said. "I'd never noticed that before. But, whoever it was, thank you. It really was a good idea. She relaxed and opened up for Jelana like she wouldn't have done for me."
"And it was a mistake," I told the recorder. "But she really is better at that than you are."
"Not that she let anything slip that she didn't want to, of course."
"Not a word," I said. "At least, I don't think I did. A laugh, maybe, and a hug, but not a word."
"Well, that's something, anyway," Jasin said. "What did the unicorns say?"
I sat up straighter. Unicorns? I hadn't seen any unicorns.
"They said she was about as truthful as I was," Tolly said dourly.
Jasin had a short coughing fit.
"Yes, well, I told them that was less than helpful," Tolly said. “But they wouldn't be any more specific than that.” He sighed. "And I was hoping to get a bit more of an idea of what so terrified her last night."
"You sure she was terrified?" Jasin asked. "As tightly controlled as she is, maybe she only wants us to think that she's terrified."
"Not as drunk as she was," Tolly said. "But still, I asked the unicorns and they said she usually keeps her fear in a box, but it's always there."
"Tightly controlled, like I said."
"I'm still surprised she never asked why I changed my behavior toward her," Tolly said thoughtfully.
"Well, it's only been a day. Hardly time for a 'never'." Jasin paused. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. how did she react when you changed behavior?"
"Hmm? She called off dinner early, claimed she had a headache, and retreated to her room."
"And two hours later," Jasin said grimly, "she was back down here . . ."
"Totally smashed," Tolly said. "She didn't need to ask . . ."
"She knew," Jasin finished.
"Oh . . . no, no, no," I whispered. "Don't come up with the obvious answer. Don't." Not that it would ultimately make much difference.
After a moment, Tolly said, "You search the other office, I'll search this one."
"What are we looking for?"
"How should I know? Something that doesn't belong?"
"You have seen your office, haven't you, sir?" Jasin's voice was now coming from the inner office recorder.
"Call me Tolly," he said absently.
I could hear things moving around, but they didn't seem to be close yet.
"What, sir?"
"Call me Tolly. Or Uncle Tolly. Half the town does. Those 'sirs' are annoying."
"It's never bothered you before."
"I've never noticed it before."
"And how many years have I been working with you, sir?"
"I have no idea. Found it! I think." His voice grew quite loud on the tape, then was replaced by white noise.
I quickly turned that recorder off, and continued listening to the other two.
"Let me see, so I know what to look for." Jasin's voice started coming from the outer office again. "Where did you find it?"
"Under a shelf."
I heard a small plastic sound, as if he tossed it on the desk.
"Small little thing," Jasin remarked. "Won't be easy to find it if she left one in your other office."
"Maybe she didn't. I never showed her the office."
"Did you ever leave her in this office, with the other office door unlocked?"
"It's never locked. How should I know? We only started suspecting her yesterday."
"Well, then, maybe you should start locking the door, sir."
"I told you to stop saying that."
"No, sir."
"Oh, for crying out loud. I'll help you look."
It didn't take them too many more minutes to find the one in the inner office, now that they knew what they were looking for. Fortunately, it never occurred to either of them to look behind the door to the other office, so I could still hear them, if not as clearly.
"What are you going to do about this, sir?"
"Naught."
"Naught? Nothing?"
"The damage's been done; we can't do anything about that. We've found her bugs. And she knows it. Now we'll watch and wait and see what she does."
"I can do nothing, too," I said. "And I'm probably better at it than you are." Then I fell back on my bed. I was slipping further out of control. Nothing was going right. "I have to get out of here." No. I can't. There was no escape. No escape. Maybe I could still salvage something of this. Somehow keep the worst of it from splashing back on Tolly. Who cared about Tolly? I needed to get out of here while there was a chance I would still live.
If you like this post, please consider liking, sharing, or subscribing. If you really like it, please consider leaving a tip.