“Yeah, well, I have to go into those. It’s my job. However, my job does not say I have to do manual labor in an attic with a human.”
Laughing to myself, I opened the box she’d just gotten down from the rather dangerously tall stack my mother had made. I mean, I get that she was trying to preserve space in here but a stack of boxes that almost touched the ceiling wasn’t exactly a smart move.
“Do you want me to look in this one?” Gee asked as she got the next box down.
“Yes, please.”
“And it’s a white stuffed puppy right?”
“Yep... well, maybe not exactly white anymore. It was well loved so the fur may be a little discolored now.”
Gee grumbled to herself as she began rummaging through her box.
I shifted through the items I’d packed away only eight years ago because I’d been unable to haul them off to the local Goodwill. A small purse with sequined letters that said Las Vegas made me smile. My mother had taken me on a writer’s convention with her there once. It had been one of the last times she’d taken me with her. I always got bored but on the Las Vegas trip I’d found a friend... I think. Shaking my head I pushed it aside and found a Backstreet Boys t-shirt I’d gotten for Christmas one year. God, I’d been such a dork. A shoebox greeted me next that I knew without looking held all the letters I’d written back and forth with Miranda during school. They were full of insightful things such as “Do you think Kyle likes me?” or “Did you see the way Ashley’s butt looks in those jeans, she needs to go on a diet,” or my favorite, “Do you think Mrs. Nordman has a new chin hair today?” Yep, that shoebox was priceless. Unfortunately there was no stuffed puppy dog. Frustrated, I closed the box up and shoved it to the side.
“Well that one was a bust--” I slammed my hand over my mouth to keep from hooting with laughter. Gee was posing in front of the tall mirror that had once been in my ‘princess’ bedroom. But that wasn’t the funny part. Gee had found my dress up clothes I’d not wanted to part with back when I was ten but didn’t want in my room anymore either. She’d put on my Tinkerbell dress with a pair of Snow White plastic heels that her foot didn’t come anywhere near fitting into. On her head she was wearing the veil headpiece that had gone with my Jasmine costume.
“How do I look?” she asked twirling around faster than a human would be able to making the Tinkerbell skirt float out in front of her. I’d always twirled in that dress too trying my hardest to get it to stand out so perfectly.
“Fabulous, you should so wear it for work,” I chirped then let out a trill of giggles.
“Dank wouldn’t know what to think If I showed up looking like I was ready for a trip to Disney World. He’d be afraid to send the soul with me.”
I sank down on the box behind me unable to stop laughing at the ridiculous sight.
“You’d scare him... to death!” I began laughing harder at my own little pun.
Gee started to say something else when a woosh behind me turned my laughter into a small squeal.
“What the heck, Jaslyn? This isn’t a party,” Gee complained and I eased some realizing Gee knew the gorgeous pale redhead that had appeared in my attic. Her perfect translucent features were so similar to Gee’s when she was in “transporter” mode that I quickly put two and two together.
“I’m sorry, Gee,” she stopped and slowly took in Gee’s wardrobe with a confused frown on her face.
“Quit gawking Jas and tell me why you’re here,” Gee snapped. The dress-up clothes disappeared from her body and she was once again dressed in her jeans, hoodie and boots.
“Oh, um, yes... well, uh Dankmar needs you.”
Gee’s attention shifted from the transporter to me. “What about Pagan?”
“Oh, uh, he didn’t say. He just said he needed you.”
The frown on Gee’s face told me she wasn’t so sure about this. But if Dank had sent for her then it must be important.
“I’ll go spend the day with Miranda. We can look for the pu-- the thing later,” I piped up.
Gee nodded at me, “Okay, well go on down now before I leave. You don’t need to stay up here by yourself.”
“Okay.”
I headed for the stairs then glanced back at Gee to ask her to please let me know if something was wrong but she was whispering with Jaslyn in a pretty intense conversation so I left them alone. Gee wouldn’t be gone long. Dank wouldn’t let her be. Besides, Dank was fine. He was Death. No need to worry.
Dank
“What’s going on Dankmar?” Gee demanded as she arrived with Jasyln at the graveyard outside the small funeral home in Pagan’s town. I’d been surveying Wyatt’s grave to see if there had been any traces of activity. His soul had not been left to roam the earth. The only other place it could be was with Ghede in the Vilokan. If so, it was completely off the radar. Finding him would be near impossible. No Deity or being created by the Creator had ever been to Vilokan. The island under the sea was for the Voodoo spirits and the souls they claimed while on earth.
“Wyatt. His soul wasn’t meant to be taken. He was never on the books.” It still sounded unbelievable when I said it. Even after speaking with the Creator. Choices had been made. With the power of restitution on Ghede’s side this could grow worse.
“What?” Her incredulous tone didn’t surprise me. I’d had the same reaction. This had never happened. And if I didn’t find a way to stop it the Creator expected me to hand over Pagan or her mother to Ghede. Neither of those were an option.