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Chapter Forty
They followed the bouncing Jenna inside, Anna smiling widely at her friends' apparent happiness. Since Jenna wasn't generally the bouncy type it was evident that her aunt was a positive influence. Jenna had described Harriet over the phone, so she was prepared for the elegant woman whose appearance and style seemed to belong in a 1940's smoky bar with a microphone in one hand and a glass of chardonnay in the other. Or maybe a cigarette attached to one of those long holders that women used to use.
Harriet was studying Anna with a bemused expression. "Vampire is not the word that comes to mind when looking at you sweetie. Fairy princess is more apt."
Anna smiled looking down at her attire. She was wearing a pale pink sweater that clung to her small frame and a blousy light green skirt. Her translucent sandals seemed to accentuate her little feet and her pink painted toenails peeped out from the straps. She could definitely see the pixie impression.
"My niece on the other hand, now she looks like a vampiress don't you think?"
Anna grinned at Jenna's mock insulted expression, but looking her over she had to agree. Jenna had straightened her long black hair and it curved around her face and down her back in a very flattering way. Her nearly violet eyes were brought out by the dark eyeliner and mascara she wore, and her lips were painted a wine color. Her outfit was stunning. A low cut blouse the same shade as her lips accentuated her generous breasts and small waist. Her pants were sheer black and looked tailored, fitting snugly around her ample booty, but loose and flowing down her legs and nearly covering the shiny black shoes she wore.
"You look incredibly sexy Jenna, seriously, if I were a guy I would want to do you." She glanced at the brothers and saw that Will definitely agreed but Josh...well he looked appreciative of her appearance, but it was more in the way someone might acknowledge their attractive sister.
Jenna was blushing under their scrutiny, "Enough of that, let's get comfy so my aunt can tell you what you came to hear."
They went in the living room and settled down. Anna snuggled up to Josh on the couch and Will sat on her other side. Jenna and Harriet sat across from them on the love seat.
"I swear you could be mother and daughter," Anna stated.
The two dark heads bobbed in unison, "We get that a lot," Jenna told her.
"Although I prefer older sister," Harriet added with a wink as she lit a cigarette and leaned back crossing her legs. "Jenna told me you seemed certain she was not of Faerian blood?" She directed this at Will.
He lifted a shoulder slightly. "Faerian women are healers,” he stated. “Even if you discount the fact that they generally have Anna's physical traits she doesn't fit the profile without that ability."
Harriet had a smug looking smile on her face, obviously enjoying the fact that she was about to school the know-it-all with things he didn't know. "And I don't either, isn't that right?"
Will didn’t comment, just looked at her expectantly.
"In your legends and ancestral history it talks about two groups of Faerian females who left their island home in search of mates. What it fails to tell you is that a short while later a group of Faerian males left the island in search of them." She paused to let that sink in. "Of course it's not in your history because the males never found the females. Eventually they gave up the search and joined a migrating people in France, a people we know of as Gypsies." She paused again and this time the trio on the couch became animated.
"That makes so much sense!" Anna declared. “Gypsies are fortune tellers and even in the movies they look like the two of you!”
Will and Josh were smiling and shaking their heads. Josh spoke up, "So your line sprung from these males and they had the gift of prophecy?"
"That's right, we’re soothsayers. Like you we can see Beschatten Sie Männer, or shadow men, and we live long lives, but instead of the gift of healing, our females can see the future, or at the very least sense it." She put out her cigarette and leaned back, the smug smile still in place.
"So how did you find about all of this?" Anna asked.
"Ahh. Well most of my life I thought I was crazy. The Faerian blood was passed to me from my mother’s line but her abilities remained dormant, as is often the case, particularly these days. My father was very a very religious man and he believed I was plagued by demon influences. When I was young they put me through shock treatment, then eventually on medications to treat Schizophrenia. The medications did serve to dull my abilities, I rarely saw demons once I became a regular user. But my life was no life at all. For sixty years I was little more than a zombie. If you've ever smoked marijuana from the time you woke in the morning until the time you went to bed, then you might’ve experienced the state I was in constantly. Then one day I received a phone call from a woman with a French accent who claimed she was a distant cousin and that she'd dreamt of me. At first I was convinced the call was a hallucination but then the woman, Dominique Moreau, traveled from France and came to my door. She was an older version of me, like I am of Jenna.”
“At one hundred and thirty years old she appeared to be climbing up on sixty, and she was still very attractive," she smiled at Jenna, "it's what we have to look forward to dear. Anyway, she told me of our ancestry and I learned I wasn't crazy after all." She smiled brilliantly, "It was the finest day of my life, and the first day of it as far as I'm concerned. To find out that not only was I sane but I still had a good seventy years left to actually live! It was a heavenly second chance. And I'm certainly not wasting it, am I hon?"
She posed the question to Jenna who shook her head emphatically.
“My aunt has the fullest life of anyone I know, well present company excluded of course, but she owns her own shop filled with herbs and natural soaps, and she does a little fortune telling on the side. She has an amazing group of friends as well. They're upbeat, eccentric, and all of them either own their own businesses or their spouses do. I swear they live the way Americans should, loving their work and using their talents to enjoy their lives! Thomas Jefferson would be proud."
"So these friends," Will jumped in, "are any of them like us?"
Harriet shook her head slightly, "Not Faerians, no, though they are more in tune with the spiritual world than most people. I was looking for others like myself when I came upon Ms. Georgina's Rare and Unusual Books. George and I became fast friends, which is quite fitting, George and Harri, don't you think? Well she was already acquainted with a number of like minded people, she has a book club you see, and I decided this was the place for me to make a life. I opened up my own store right next to George's, and the rest is history as they say."
"What happened to Dominique?" Josh asked.
"Oh, she stayed with me while my mind cleared of all the drugs and then returned to France. She is nearing the end of life now, still sharp as a tack but she claims she's ready for the next adventure. We keep in touch by phone and letters and I intend to make a trip out to see her sometime in the next year. I think perhaps Jenna and I will go together," she looked at her niece who was elated by the news.
Anna bolted upright from her relaxed position on the couch. "I think I saw her!" she exclaimed.
"Who?"
“Dominique, when we were in Montmarte!" She looked at Jenna, "I was lagging behind you guys and I saw this older woman writing a letter, and as I was watching her she glanced across the road and I followed her gaze and there was a shadow man there! But when I looked back at her she was writing again and I thought I imagined it. She had the same color eyes as…"she looked at the two women, "well both of you."
"Well they don't say it's a small world for nothing," Harriet mused and then perked up. "Well I'll be Goddamned, I think Domini mentioned you in a letter she sent!" She hopped up and went into another room. A few minutes later she came out with stationary, scanning the contents.
"Here it is. It says "I saw one of those dark creatures just now, they still have the power to dampen my mood, though only for a moment. A pretty young girl just walked passed me and then turned and looked back so I waved and she smiled. There’s something about her, I feel as if I've seen her before in a dream, though these days my "vision" isn't what it used to be." Harriet looked up at them and grinned. "I would bet my bottom dollar that was you."
"It was, I did look back and she did wave!" Anna loved moments like these, when you could see pieces of the grand puzzle of life fit together in such a way.
"Old Domini will get a kick out of this when I write her next."
Anna suddenly felt strange as she thought about being in France. It had been before everything happened. It was only a few months ago but in a way it felt like years. Time was a funny thing, how it could move so slowly at times and rush by at others.
"Anna, you there?" Jenna waved a hand in front of her eyes and she blinked and laughed.
"I was just thinking how France feels like a million years ago."
"I know, for me too."
Harriet clapped her hands together. "I would like to take all of you out for dinner. You can meet some of my friends."
The boys were enthusiastic about the idea of grub, so they wasted no time moving towards the door.
They spent the next several days with Jenna and Harriet, hanging out with the woman’s friends who were exactly as Jenna had described. At one point she remembered Jenna had mentioned something about involving Jess and asked her about it. She replied that her aunt had the definite sense Jess would be brought in at some point but it was a little hard for both girls to imagine Jess fitting into Harriet's world. She was a small town girl through and through, but then you never knew. Changes could and did occur.
The guys did some exploring of the area on their own. They fit in perfectly and seemed content to hang there for awhile. They found several places to make some money shooting pool and after the fourth day they rented a motel room in town. Anna decided to stay with them at night, she was worried they might ditch her if she appeared too comfortable. She really liked Harriet, and of course she loved Jenna, but her place was with the brothers and she couldn't see herself settling anywhere at this point.
A week and a half later they received a call from their dad telling them to head west and Anna found herself saying goodbye to Jenna once again.
"Nevada? Are you going to Vegas?"
"Looks like it."
"You better keep in touch."
"Right back at you."
They exchanged a quick hug and Anna slid into the back of Will’s car, leaning through the middle of the seat as they pulled away from the curb.
"So what's going on?" She asked.
"More strange happenings with the teaming up of the possessed. Not clear on the details yet, dad said to get our asses out there, so we're going." Will fiddled with the radio finding a classic rock station.
"Does he know I'm still with you?"
The guys exchanged a look.
"I take that as a no."
"Don't want to hear his shit until we have to," Josh said.
"What do you think he'll say?"
Another exchanged look.
"That's getting annoying. Out with it."
Josh sighed, "I'm sure it will be something along the lines of "What the Hell is orphan Annie still doing with you-and-you stupid assholes are gonna get yourselves killed making poor choices and not listening to ME, the MIGHTY ONE."
"Wait, what about what happened in North Carolina? Did he watch the news?"
"Actually, what we heard on the radio about us got turned into some post traumatic stress thing, apparently the cops didn't want to own up to having lost us so they made it seem like the witnesses were seeing things. Which works out well for us."
"Yeah, but he must have heard something about it."
"Nah, dad doesn't watch the news, or much television at all, he calls it the "brainwasher". He gets his news from the internet and local newspapers."
"Umm...youtube? Hello, if there was anywhere the witnesses were going to talk about it, it would definitely be on the net."
"That's true, but since he hasn't mentioned it I'm assuming he hasn't heard about it. He's really not the type to neglect to demand answers for something like that."
Will, who was quiet during their back and forth, cleared his throat. "Actually, I might have kept track of the net and who was saying what, and I also might have sent viruses to the blabbermouths' computers."
Josh looked at his brother in surprise, "And you didn't mention this?"
"Well, I thought you'd probably lecture me on freedom of speech and censorship." He flicked a glance at Josh who was scowling, and said defensively, " I was just holding them off, if they decide to say something about it in the future, A, dad won't be looking for it, and B, without pictures no one's gonna believe it, probably they'll convince themselves of their own post traumatic stress."
"Well, that solves that problem," Anna said diplomatically earning a look of disapproval from Josh. "What, you want your dad to ask why I'm leaping over lines of cars?"
"Not the point."
They settled in silence for awhile. Anna was surprised to find there was a small part of her that was looking forward to seeing the big jerk, and not just because it would be fun to see his reaction to his sons' defiance of his wishes. Although there was that too.
Generously created for me by @son-of-satire