"You want chocolate raspberry swirl or mint chocolate chip, or you want to tell me what's bugging you?"
"What?" Marian stared at Aaron who gazed back through the rapidly fogging glass of the door to the ice cream section.
"Ever since the library, you've been as antsy as a nervous cat."
Marian jammed her hands into her pockets. "Mint chocolate chip." She watched as Aaron grabbed the package. "And Nurse Ames."
Aaron stepped back, let the door slam, looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"As we came out of the library I saw a woman several yards away in a brown coat. She was as um, hefty as Ames."
"That doesn't make her—"
"She turned and walked away, but then turned back. She had her coat hood up so I couldn't see her whole face. But she kept looking in our direction and followed us as we headed toward the car. I don't know, Aaron, maybe I'm just paranoid."
"Yeah, uh, um, wow. Cold." He set the ice cream into the crook of his arm, rubbed his hands together. "Let's go find Virginia."
"Tell her?" Marian said as they walked along the frozen-food cabinets.
"You bet."
Marian felt foolish casting glances along every aisle until a woman in a brown coat halfway down the candy lane looked up as they passed. Marian grabbed Aaron's coat, pointed at the aisle.
"There. Surely two women can't have the same awful hairstyle."
"Let's do it this way." They ran down the next aisle, slowed and went around the end by a display of Christmas beers. Aaron stopped, carefully peered around the corner. "She's headed for the other end. She—damn! We've got to find Virginia."
They found her on the other side of the huge store examining cabbage heads.
"We think one of the people who held us is here," Aaron said.
She tossed a head into the basket, swung it around. "Let's go. Aaron, why don't you put the ice cream in?"
Aaron looked at the package like he'd never seen it before. "Uh, yeah."
They got into a line with three people ahead of them. "Stay alert," Virginia said. When the line was down to two, Marian stole a glance.
"Express lane, five down. Watching us."
Aaron turned and brazenly looked in that direction.
"Her," he said.
"You're sure?"
"Mousy hair, heavyset, double chin, usually a barrette where head meets neck."
"That could fit anyon—"
"Brown spot on the back of her left hand," Marian said.
"Confirmed," Aaron said.
"I can't see it," Virginia said, "but then I didn't get my eyes fixed, either."
Marian turned. The woman wasn't looking in their direction now, but the hand holding the giant Hershey bar had a brown splotch almost the same color as the wrapping. The chill of knowing that was indeed Nurse Ames was ameliorated a little by being able to see such detail at that distance.
"Let me know when she gets to the register."
About the time the person in front of them began to send his cart through the scanner tunnel, Aaron said, "Candy bar scanned."
"Go." Virginia shoved the basket aside and they hurried through a closed check-out station and out through the automatic doors. "Left, Aaron." Virginia headed toward the next store, an office supply warehouse.
"Over here," Aaron said once they got inside.
"Good thinking. You two stay behind the desks and stuff." As Aaron and Marian ducked behind a large wooden desk, Virginia positioned herself so she could see the front doors. "Yep, here she comes." She moved slowly around behind a bookshelf. After a moment, she shrugged. "Let's try it. On this side of the store if we can."
They ran straight for Tontine's balky, smoky '78 Ford Fairmont whose odometer read 72,876 miles but was rumored to be on its third trip around.
"Come on, come on," Virginia muttered as the engine took a few seconds to catch. Smoke billowed from the exhaust as she backed out; she jammed the car into gear and headed for an exit. Just as the traffic light went from yellow to red, she gunned the engine. The car jerked in response and almost died in the middle of the intersection. Finally she got it going at a good clip, but exhaust smoke left a well-marked trail.
"Check for cars that might be following us," Virginia said. "I wonder if she knows this one."
"I think she was at the library," Marian said.
Virginia grimaced. "All right, keep a sharp eye out. Who is she?"
"All we know her by is Nurse Ames," Aaron said, looking out of the window next to him. "Never told us her first name, never heard anyone call her anything except Ames. Except when Marian called her Nurse Igor."
Marian wasn't sure if any of the other vehicles were tailing or not; all seemed to go around or turn off as usual. Finally, Virginia pulled into a driveway on the north end of Grid Manor.
"You still have the keys, Marian?"
"Yes." She jumped out of the car and ran to the gate, grappled with the large lock until it snapped open. As the car passed, she cast furtive glances around, but saw nothing. She pulled the gate shut, made sure the lock was secure, then ran into the "garage." Aaron and Virginia already were piling barrels and sheets of wood and metal behind and over the car.
"Let me get the books out," she said.
Aaron pointed. "They are."
"York, where's Tontine?" Virginia said as soon as she saw someone inside.
"Workin', second floor," answered a man in overalls.
"I'll get him," Aaron said.
"Right. Big room."
Virginia faded by the fourth floor and Marian slowed to her pace. Once on the ninth floor, she went to the picnic table and dropped the books on it. She sat down and almost immediately, Merlin jumped to the bench next to her. She idly began scratching his ears.
Virginia dropped onto a couch. "Whoosh! If we're going to play skullduggery, I'll have to get into shape."
Within a minute, Tontine jogged into the room, Aaron at his side. Ken followed, then Black King Leo and White King Sam.
"Aaron's filled me in," Tontine said as he sat down next to Virginia. "You're absolutely sure about this woman?"
Marian nodded.
"Damn good at drawing blood," Aaron said as he sat next to Merlin. "She could hit a vein from a mile away."
"I don't know if we lost her in Office Depot," Virginia said. "And I have no idea if she followed us back."
Tontine nodded. "All right, neither you nor Aaron will leave this building unless both Ken and Virginia and either Leo, Sam, or I are with you. When you go out, wear clothes and hats to obscure your faces. We'll pretend Ken and Virginia are your parents. Use different names."
"You be Suzie and I'll be Frank," Aaron said.
"You're already too frank," she muttered, causing him to lift an eyebrow.
"We can hook up the interior restrooms," Black King Leo said. "There's a new guy, Albert, used to be a plumber. He says he can do it."
"Good," Tontine said.
"All we need to do is scrounge the fixtures," White King Sam added.
"I'll buy the stuff," Marian said.
"We don't want to deplete your cash," Tontine said.
"I want to. You people are doing all this for us, I want to help out as best I can." She shoved hair aside. "A couple of toilets aren't going to drain me."
Aaron raised his eyebrow again.
Tontine nodded. "We're also going to beef up the night watches and start a daytime patrol."
"OK, Tontine, fine, but what's gonna prevent someone from sneakin' in?" Ken said from the rocking chair. "Strangers come in and out all the time. Unless you start givin' out badges or somethin' you can't stop 'em."
"I know." Tontine sat a second, gazing at the floor. "That's going to have to be an honor system, with us at the core. Keep your eyes open, recruit people we know we can trust, and stay alert."
Aaron stirred. "The next question is, why are you d—"
Tontine stood up abruptly. "Because it's necessary." He turned and started walking away. "We're starting now. Let's draw up a schedule." As he headed for the ramp, the others got up and began to file out, including Virginia and Ken. The two kings each winked at them, Black with his left eye, White with his right.
Marian looked at the floor as the steps descended the ramps. Events completely out of her control blew her along again, just like when she was a kid. The adults then made the decisions, the adults now made the decisions. But I am an adult. I have not died and been reborn, I have been—
A thump startled her. Merlin had jumped off the table and seemed to be scratching at the floor. Then he reared up on his back paws and swiped at something in the air. He jumped back up on the seat, then leaped up on the tabletop. The cat hunched down, staring intently at a bright red spot that quivered and shook. Merlin lowered his head, gathered himself, then pounced with a resounding thud.
"Merlin, you're acting like a kitten." She reached over and rubbed his neck.
"Well, if his mistress can be a kid, so can he."
The cat sat down, acting nonchalant. "Mrow."
She put her face next to his, rubbed his back. "You are a silly cat."
"Mrrow."
She straightened. "What was that, anyway?"
"This." Aaron pointed a penlike device at the floor. A red dot appeared and began to move in patterns. "Virginia's laser pointer. We discovered Merlin has a thing about itty-bitty red dots."
"Well, at least you two are getting along." She pulled off her jacket.
"I've always liked cats, but I avoided them like the plague because of allergies. In my normal life, right now I would be half-dead from finding said cat sleeping next to my face this morning."
"I guess the Holn cured you of that." She shook her hair to free tangles.
Aaron toyed with the pointer. "That's amazing enough, but what really gets me is, how did they know I had allergies in the first place?" Aaron pulled the pile of books toward him. "I didn't know you checked out Tony Hillerman. Seekers of Spirits. 'Belagana faith-seekers start turning up dead.' Dibs."
"Not so fast. That's a new one, and I saw it first. Virginia has seconds. Remember, it's her card."
"Yeah, yeah. So what else is there? Human physiology, astronomy and A Tale of Two Cities. Hard, harder and hardest. Thanks."
Marian stepped over to a box on the floor. "No one's left any mending. Good. I'll start the Hillerman." She snatched it from Aaron's hand. "Thank you very much."
She gave Merlin another hug and headed toward the rocker. The cat had earned room and board by catching his first mouse the day after his arrival. That spurred Tontine to come back from a shopping trip with canned and dry cat food, water and food bowls, a litter basket, a package of cat litter, and three cat toys.
She settled into the rocking chair not too far from one of the new space heaters bought with her money. In addition to the heaters, the cash bought some extra blankets and bedrolls. It also had bought a catered Thanksgiving dinner to the mansion, an incongruity she had found delightful.
She had just opened the book when she noticed Aaron standing to one side gazing at her.
"Yes?"
"You look so imperial in that chair. The Queen of the Underground on her throne."
"Don't be silly." She set the book down. "My grandmother had a rocking chair. Big, covered with cushions she made herself. She taught me to sew. She was everyone's typical grandmother, plump, curly gray hair, twinkling eyes and an easy and gentle laugh. I used to sit in that big lap a lot, in that rocking chair. We'd rock back and forth as she read to me, or showed me how to thread a needle, or just talk to me. When the diabetes killed Mom, she moved in with us and lived long enough to see a heart attack kill her son, my Dad. As a child, I used to get jealous when Arlene would be in the lap instead of me. I was always jealous of Arlene." And Arlene damned well knew it.
She shook her head. "That was another lifetime." She looked at her small palm, stopped rocking. "What would it be like to live like this for the rest of our lives? This size, this shape? How long would we live?"
Aaron grimaced, sat on the footstool. "Not too long if Charlie and Sandra and Perry are indications."
She wrapped her arms around her. "I can see Perry and Sandra, but Charlie I have a hard time getting a fix on."
"He sat to our right at the round table. A truck driver, the one I compared myself to when I made that joke about the Maserati."
"Oh, yes . . ." A picture of the burly child formed in her mind. "Poor Charlie. Why did his father do that?"
"His father feared what Charlie had become."
Marian sat with that cold thought in her mind, hugging herself a little tighter.
"I don't even know if I'm divorced, or whether Janessa simply annulled the marriage. She signed all the papers, then had me out of there before I could see them."
"Conrad, at least, was spared this."
"What would he have done if the plane crash hadn't killed him?"
"I don't know." She shook her head. "I like to think he'd be brave and kind, because that's what he was. I just—" Conrad's round face formed again, hovering in her mind, image captured and held from the last time they had made love and he'd propped himself on an elbow and looked down on her, fingers gently tracing a figure on her abdomen, both bodies shining with sweat, sunlight cascading in the open window—
She snapped her head around, hair flying across her face, breath ragged. Tears threatened to overflow.
"I know the feeling," Aaron said softly.
She looked at Aaron, who slowly reached out and touched her forehead with a finger, then moved it down her face, pushing hair aside. How could he know? The touch was gentle, and once the hair was clear, he retracted his hand.
She in turn reached out and gently pushed an errant lock of his hair back. "Are we—" She shook her head. "No. Forget it."
"Oh, for a good jolt of gonadal juices right now."
"You'd embarrass us." She smiled.
"Yeah. So?" He got up, walked over and picked up one of the books, came back and flopped on the couch.
"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity—'" He closed the book, looked at the cover. "Is this guy writing about us?"
* * *
[["The Alden Commission issued two rulings today pertaining to the Rewound Children, as the Group of Seventeen are now being called. These are the people the extraterrestrial Holn are purported to have turned into children.
"The court, a three-judge commission empaneled to hear legal questions surrounding the group, met in special session last week to hear the cases.
"The first case is out of Berkeley, California. Tom Johannes Cathen, a Rewound Child, sued the state of California seeking the right to register to vote. His argument was that he still is thirty years old and he has the mental faculties to make careful decisions. The state denied the petition, but attorneys appealed to the commission. That ruling went against Mr. Cathen, with the judges citing their own ruling that everyone in the group was a child in stature and nature. Come back in ten years, the court, in essence, said.
"Meanwhile, in Amarillo, Texas, two of the Rewound Children, Linda and Jerry Rithen, were sued by their creditors, including three credit card companies and two banks, over nonpayment of debt. Federal court in Texas referred the matter to the commission. The Rithens, who had been married before metamorphoses but whose marriage has since been annulled, used that same commission ruling as a defense, asking how they were supposed to pay their bills when they were barred from working. The creditors argued that the debts were incurred before metamorphoses. The commission sided with the Rithens, saying that even though the debts had been incurred before the change, they were incurred when the Rithens still had had a reasonable expectation of being able to repay."
"Rolf, excuse me, this is Kerry Sherman in Atlanta. What do these rulings say as a whole?"
"Very simple. The judges are saying you can't have it both ways.
"Rolf Treadwell, CNN, Washington."]]