07 Dream a Little Dream
“Those girls enjoyed those donuts,” Pappi said.
Adam nodded.
“And I appreciate you helping out with the Asylum. Ophelia will not say it but I will. Thank you.”
“Honestly, it was my pleasure.”
Earlier that morning, he had walked into the kitchen with two boxes of donuts and a briefcase full of paperwork. Serita sat at the table expectantly. Ophelia leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee and a smirk.
Donuts distributed, Adam opened the briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers.
“The solution is simple,” he began. “This building was constructed in the early twentieth century which makes it over a hundred years old. It has a rich history and is a living example of several varieties of architecture. So a historical preservation society is going to pay the back taxes and then file to have the site declared a historical landmark. This society recently lost their director and you sent in your resume.”
“I don’t know anything about history,” Ophelia countered immediately. “Hell, I don’t even have a history myself.”
“Directors do not have to know anything about history. You just hire people that do. Just like you don’t know anything about programming but you hired people that did.”
She conceded the point with a shrug.
“Besides,” he continued. “This is a cover. We are just protecting the property. There was no Perdition Falls Historical Preservation Society until this morning. I’m having records created that go back a few years just to give the cover some depth. Also keep in mind, the city plans on annexing the property. Filing as a historical location will hold them off for a while but not forever. But I have some ideas on that.”
“Do you?” she said with a lifted eyebrow.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Serita asked through a face full of chocolate icing.
“Well, of course he would,” Ophelia said. “I was being facetious.”
“Whatever that fuck that means,” Serita muttered.
“Language,” Ophelia snapped.
Serita rolled her eyes and attacked a bear claw.
“So,” Adam continued. “It really doesn’t matter what you do with the property. We should be able to protect everything and everyone indefinitely.”
“‘We’?”
Adam nodded. “Until you tell me to step aside.” He put a reassuring hand on the stack of papers. “All of this is free standing. It works with or without me. You sign the papers and take responsibility and I can walk away. Consider it payment for last night’s operation.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“However,” he said. “It all works better with me.”
“Of course it does.”
Serita giggled, earning a dark glance from Ophelia.
“Now, for tax purposes and other reasons, I had to make you a person. This is your social security card.” He pushed an envelope across the table. “And, look at me.” He lifted his phone and took her picture, messy bun and all. “I’ll have you a real driver’s license in a day or so. I suggest dissolving any other identities. You’re using your real name now.”
“Why?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Serita interjected.
“Maybe I don’t like my real name.”
“Mother gave you that name because she thought it was pretty.”
“I don’t have a mother.”
Serita sniffed. “Whatever.”
“I’m not sure why you are hiding,” Adam said. “Besides, hiding in plain sight is the best kind of hiding.” He snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering. “You may have to keep your ‘Susan, project manager’ persona for a while. Give two weeks notice or don’t but people might see you around town or they may see us together.”
“Together?”
Adam smiled. “Are you saying you won’t have dinner with me again?”
Serita froze mid bite and shifted her eyes to Ophelia, who shrugged and took a sip of coffee.
“I might think about it,” she said. “But I liked that job. Do you think they’ll still give me my bonus?”
“Only if you stay two weeks.”
“Shit.”
“Language,” Serita intoned dryly. Ophelia ignored her.
They finished up on details. The director position for the Perdition Falls Historical Preservation Society came with a salary. That seemed to lighten her mood some but she still wasn’t signing papers.
“So,” Ophelia said. “I sign all this and according to you, it’s all free standing. But that doesn’t cover the new deal.”
Adam opened his hands. “I don’t really have one.”
She seemed incredulous.
“No deal?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said I don’t have one to offer other than information exchange. You hear things. I hear things. We share information.”
“Go on.”
“I will not ask for an operation like last night.”
She held up a hand. “Wait. You can always ask. I just want the freedom to say no.”
Adam nodded. “Fine. I can work with that.” He took a deep breath. This was going better than he had anticipated. “Frank is going to be a problem. Do you want in?”
“Oh, I want in. I may deal with that one before you do.”
“That situation is delicate. I would like some discretion. Can you check with me before you do anything?”
“Eh,” she said. “We’ll see.” She stood up to get more coffee.
Maybe it wasn’t going as well as he’d thought.
Pappi walked in and Adam came to his feet without thinking.
“Adam!” Pappi called out. “I thought I heard your voice. Looks like everything worked itself out last night.”
“Yes, it did,” Adam replied and took Pappi’s offered hand. There was a slip of paper in his palm. Adam took it and eased it into his own pocket as he sat back down.
“Coffee, Pappi?” Ophelia asked.
“Oh, if the water’s hot.”
Pappi inquired about all the paperwork and Adam patiently explained everything. Pappi declared it a solid deal and then let the conversation drift to small talk over coffee and what was left of the donuts.
Ophelia eventually signed the papers after Pappi sternly told her that she was just being difficult. Adam packed everything back in the briefcase and said his goodbyes and left.
Outside, he checked the piece of paper Pappi had palmed to him. “10:30 PM” was scrawled across the back of a business card for the Hellcat Jazz Club.
•
The Hellcat was located downtown in one of the more upscale neighborhoods with shops and restaurants in tourist friendly arrangements. The entrance was down an alley beside a clothing store. A colorful neon sign of an angry jazzed-up cat clawing at an upright bass marked the entrance to an elevator that led to the basement. The alley obviously received a bit of attention in terms of cleaning. The wet concrete lay free of trash and debris, reflecting the wild colors of the neon flashing overhead.
Adam’s display read 10:29. He stepped into the alley and saw Pappi waiting for him in the shadows, well past the entrance to the elevator. He wore a slightly dated but well fitted black suit with a bright purple bowtie. He leaned on a black lacquered wood cane that sported a silver skull as a cap. His dreads were pulled into a ponytail.
“Punctuality,” Pappi said, as Adam approached. “A most admirable quality.”
“I agree.”
“Those girls enjoyed those donuts,” Pappi said.
Adam nodded.
“And I appreciate you helping out with the asylum. Ophelia will not say it but I will. Thank you.”
“Honestly, it was my pleasure.”
Pappi nodded and stood silent for a moment, watching.
“So,” he said finally. “I imagine you have questions.”
“I do,” Adam said flatly. “What is Mahin doing in my dreams? And how did she break my conditioning?”
Pappi smiled. “You’re asking questions only Mahin could answer. However, I can tell you that we were here long ago. Humans were young and we were worshiped as gods. Mahin was called ‘Nocala dun Makra” which roughly translates to ‘the Scourge of Dreams’. Dreams are her thing you see. We all have our thing. Mahin has dreams. Monsieur Portierre has gates and passageways.”
“And you?” Adam asked without hesitation. Pappi’s smile faded.
“War,” he said. “Conquest.” His eyes smoldered in the shifting light.
Adam didn’t know what to say to that. Pappi tapped his cane on the concrete.
“I saw potential in humans when we were here before. I was not sorry to be here again. But I was shocked how indiscriminate their weapons had become. They would destroy themselves before they saw any of that potential. And I can’t have that. I need humans, Adam. I need you. You will spread out through the cosmos and rule much. With a little guidance, of course. But you cannot destroy yourselves.”
“So what’s the play?” Adam said.
“What’s the play?” Pappi said. “Isn’t it obvious? Wait for humans to grow up. Watch them settle the planets of their own system. And then, when they are ready, Monsieur Poitierre will teach humans how to move without moving and we will find the stars. And from there, humans will be my army and there will be war.”
Adam felt anxiety rising through his chest. “But why me? Why? Why is Mahin in my head?”
Pappi took a step forward and Adam took a step back.
“There is a power here, very close. In Perdition Falls.”
Adam shook his head. “I am not that power.”
“But you know her!”
The remnants of his conditioning clawed at his mind. Secrets. Keep the secrets.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Adam said in a low voice.
“Of course you do. You work for her. We can feel her. Her power. So Mahin searched the dreams of thousands, following lines of power through countless minds until she found yours. And your mind was chained and she broke those chains. She freed you.”
Adam closed his eyes again against a wave of nausea. He remembered that dream. Mahin’s face close to his, purring. Needles of ice in his mind. “This will hurt, lovely,” she had said and then white hot light poured into the wrinkles of his mind.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” Pappi said.
“The conditioning is necessary,” Adam said automatically.
“Then return to it. Go back to her and beg for the chains.”
“No!”
“Why not? It’s necessary.”
Adam clinched his teeth, driving out the pain. “Not for me.”
Pappi slowly nodded. “That’s right. I need you free, Adam.”
“Why?”
“That power you serve, I can’t name it. I don’t know it. But I can know you. I may be able to trust you. I’ll take that risk and hope that you see the benefit of peace and balance and maybe you’ll come to understand that you and Ophelia need each other.”
“She knows all of this?” Adam asked.
Pappi shrugged. “A version of it. I don’t think she is aware of the power you represent.”
“I can’t tell you anything.”
Pappi gave another slow smile that was less than friendly. “You don’t get it. Mahin already knows everything. She walks through your dreams and picks at your mind like it's a cake at Sunday dinner. She knows what you know but you don’t know everything. And I don’t need to know everything. I need your influence. Keep all things balanced for us. We do not want a confrontation with your power. We are waiting and just need a place to sleep. That is all. Our time comes long after this although it will be but a day and a night to us.”
“How do I stop her?” Adam asked, shaking his head. “I can’t have her in my dreams.”
Pappi’s face actually fell to sympathy.
“What will you give me?” Pappi said, placing both hands on the cap of his cane and planting the tip between his feet.
“I cannot give you loyalty.”
Pappi gave a slight shake of his head. “Not yet.”
“But I’ll play along. I’ll keep the balance if I can.”
“That’s vague.”
Adam nodded heavily. “It is.”
Pappi thought for a long moment. “That’s a start.” He took a deep breath and looked up at the neon flashing above and then slowly lowered his eyes to Adam. “Your dreams lack lucidity. Find your center. Control your dreams. It won’t stop her but you’ll be able to contend with her.”
“Lucidity,” Adam said softly. “Like lucid dreaming?”
“Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?” Pappi laughed. “We are done here.”
“But what now?”
Pappi walked to the elevator. “Live. Make decisions. Live with them. We discovered what we needed to know. There is a balance of power. Protect it. You do not want humans in the middle of that war. Hell, I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of that and war makes my dick hard.”
The elevator opened. Pappi put his cane up to keep it open. “Live. But you realize of course that it doesn’t matter what you do, To creatures like us, the path is long and a human’s life is a spark in the fire.”
“Then I can do what I will?”
Pappi smiled. “Always.” He stepped into an elevator lit with the colors of the neon, blues folding into reds. “I like you, Adam. That says much. And I like the name ‘Adam’. ‘The first of men’. It suits you in ways you will come to know.”
Pappi chuckled as the doors closed.
Rain began to fall. The noise of the street and the city seemed to suddenly press into the alley. A couple turned the corner, arm in arm, stumbling and laughing on their way to the elevator. Adam ducked his head and moved toward the street to get out of their way. His mind still twisted in on itself under Mahin’s white fire and the chains of conditioning. He had to find a way to stop her.
But for now he would do what he could.
I will do what I will.
The chain snapped taunt though. Pulling down that thought as much as he clung to it to preserve his sanity.
I will do what I will.
For there is no god . . .
There are no gods . . .
Only Abigail.
