I didn’t realize I was leaning on the steering wheel, gazing dreamily at his thighs, until he stomped down off the porch and came to lift his bushy eyebrows at me through the driver side window. “Jo? You arright?”
I said, “You have great legs,” which in no way answered the question, but made him chortle with delight and open Petite’s door for me.
“You come by in the middle of the night to tell me that?”
I laughed as I climbed out of the car. “Not really. I didn’t mean to come over at all. Petite wanted to visit.”
Gary gave the car a sly smile and a pat on the roof. “I’m flattered, darlin’. It ain’t every day a pretty girl half my age wants to drop by late at night to see me.”
Now there was a man who knew how to treat a girl. I beamed at Gary. “Love me, love my car.” Or maybe it was the other way around, but he treated her like a lady, and that was what mattered. “She is half your age, too, isn’t she?”
“Yep.” Gary ushered me toward the house. “Guess this old dog hasn’t quite lost it yet.”
“Gary, you’re still going to have it when I’m a withered old wisp.”
“Flattery,” he pronounced, “will get you everywhere. What’s goin’ on, Jo? These ain’t your usual visiting hours.”
I screwed up my face and kicked my shoes off as I went into the living room. “I know. Sorry if I woke you. It’s just that I just got back from a—” My throat seized up. There were things I just hated to say, and it disconcerted me when they started pouring out from my mouth like it was natural. I sighed, took a deep breath, and tried again: “A coven meeting.”
Gary’s eyebrows shot up with surprise, moving his white hairline back half an inch. I didn’t think he looked anything like Sean Connery, but for a moment he reminded me of the sexy old Scotsman. “‘Scuze me? Coven? With witches?”
“With witches.” I dropped into the couch and pulled a quilt over myself.
“What’d they want? How come you didn’t invite me?”
“They wanted to open up a passage between worlds and invite an ancient American Indian spirit into this one to help end the heat wave as a precursor to saving the world.” I thought that summed it up pretty nicely. “Oh, and I didn’t invite you because I’m an ingrate.”
“I love ya anyway.” Gary leaned forward, sitting on the front edge of his comfy chair, big hands laced together. He wasn’t exactly Rodin’sThe Thinker, but he looked solid and practical and made me feel better. “What’s the catch?”
I dragged the quilt over my head. “They need my help.”
Gary chuckled. “Hiding ain’t gonna make it go away, doll. Wasn’t it just yesterday you were say in’ this heat wave might be your fault? Sounds like you got your work cut out for you.”
I pulled the quilt down again and looked at him unhappily. “I don’t like this, Gary.”
“C’mere, darlin’.”
I got up, trailing the quilt after me like Linus, and sat down on the arm of his chair. Gary put an arm around my hips and gave them a hard hug. “Someday all them walls you got built up are gonna have to come tumblin’ down, Jo, and when they’re ready there’s gonna be nothing you can do about it. Might be easier on you if you start pryin’ some of the bricks out now.”
“Might be,” I said very cautiously. This was bordering on the territory of Things Joanne Didn’t Talk About. “But I wouldn’t count on it.” I didn’t want to be nasty. I just didn’t want to open up that conversational path right now. Gary gave my hips another hug.
“I reckon you’re gonna do what you have to do, sweetheart. In the meantime, whaddaya think you’re doin’, showin’ up at this hour and interruptin’ an old man’s beauty sleep? Get goin’. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I didn’t point out he’d been awake when I arrived, and got going, feeling like I’d dodged a bullet. Gary’d never made mention of being actively aware there were things I didn’t want to talk about, and I didn’t know what I would’ve done if he’d pressed it. Everyone else who’d pushed me about them had been on a psychic plane, and I couldn’t just disappear from Gary’s living room the way I could from my garden or the Dead Zone. I wasn’t ready to deal with my personal demons yet. It was kind of nice to know, though, that Gary would be there when I was.
Petite deigned to drive me home, and I went to bed trying hard not to think about the things I didn’t want to think about.
Saturday, June 18, 5:50 a.m.
For the second morning in a row, I was early. I was very impressed with myself, especially since this made three whole days I’d been up early, and I didn’t yet seem to be suffering from the mind-numbing tiredness that had accompanied my previous shamanic experiences. Maybe I was getting better at this.
“I think that’s the idea,” Judy said good-naturedly. I nearly flinched out of my skin, which was an unfortunately realistic possibility on this level of existence. I got my psyche under control and settled back into my skin before getting to my feet.
“Judy. I’m glad you’re here. I need some answers.”
“Again,” she said, “I think that’s the idea.” Her eyes were bright with amusement, despite their blackness.
“Yeah, but don’t be difficult, okay? I’m good with all of the openness and the accepting and the learning.” Okay, I wasn’t really, but that wasn’t the point. The skies over my garden darkened perceptibly and I scowled at them. “I’m trying to be, okay? Look.” That was back to Judy, who sat down on a bench and folded her feet up under herself cozily. She looked more at peace in my garden than I did. It was annoying. Thunder rumbled, and I set my teeth together, trying to find the reasonable voice that I knew had to be buried somewhere inside me. “I need to know about someone named Virissong.”
Judy’s entire body language changed, her head tipping to the side, birdlike, anticipation and curiosity in the set of her shoulders and the way she leaned forward. “Where did you come acrosshis name?”
I let out an explosive breath. “So you’ve heard of him?”
“Certainly. Anyone who travels the astral realms enough eventually meets or hears of him. I didn’t think you had the experience, though.”
“I’m full of surprises. What can you tell me about him?”
Judy smiled. “I think I can introduce you to him. It’ll mean another journey to the Lower World. Are you ready?”
I glanced skyward inadvertently, wondering if I’d get another glance of the thunderbird if I tried another Lower World journey. “Yeah, I think so.”
“He isn’t always easy to contact,” Judy warned. “This may take all of your lesson time today, and it’s not really what you need to be learning right now.”
“Tomorrow,” I promised. “Tomorrow we can do whatever comes after power animals.”
“More power animals,” she said with another smile. “But this time we’ll do it as a healing journey. You’ll be searching for an animal to help someone else.”
“Who?”
Judy shook her head. “That remains to be seen. Are you ready to begin this journey?”
I straightened my shoulders and nodded. “Let’s do it.”
There was no side trip to the Upper World, no thunderbird visitation. The drumbeat caught me, and I fell, chasing after Judy, into the Lower World. When I hit the earth—rich and loamy, full of nightcrawlers and clicking bugs—a jolt went through me, one part connection to the Lower World and one part disappointment that I hadn’t been moved to sneak away again.
“There’s more ritual,” Judy was telling me, “to asking someone like Virissong to come to you than there is in calling power animals. Begin with a power circle. Start in the north.”
I bit my tongue on asking which way was north, and tried to figure it out on my own. The Lower World felt flatter than the real world, as if I might be standing on the face of a compass. I closed my eyes, trying to feel the world around me through the darkness. After a moment I felt light and heat to my right, and turned that way.