The Spotted Tail

“She stays aloof,” he said, anticipating her question, as he draped her dress over an empty chair.

The waiter skidded to a stop by their table.

“Soda for both of us,” Garon said before the waiter could speak. The man dashed off again.

Garon leaned back, looking relaxed like he was enjoying the sunshine.

“Something’s changed,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows.

“We’re sitting here rather leisurely,” she said.

“Tache did something remarkable.” He looked awed.

The waiter plopped their drinks down.

“I’ll have the club sandwich with chips,” Garon said, before the waiter could ask.

“Hot dog. Oh, with fries,” she said, feeling like she had to order in a hurry before the waiter dashed off again.

Garon sipped his drink, watching the people.

“What did he do?” She wondered what Tache did that was remarkable other than open doors and drawers.

“Who?” He appeared absentminded.

“Tache,” she said, reminding him.

“Ah, yes. He protected someone that wasn’t his to protect.”

“What does that mean?”

“A Tail normally protects their person and no one else. That’s a full time job.” He took a sip of soda.

She nodded in agreement. Tache was very busy and she had to be careful that he got enough sleep.

“Tache went out of his way to protect a young boy from a couple of bullies. That’s rare in a Tail,” he said, meeting her eyes. “That’s very good. A Tail that thinks about the safety of others and not just his person and himself is almost unheard of.”

“But Tache said Shaloonya was very upset.”

“Because he jeopardized their position. She was only thinking of herself and me. She didn’t care about the boy or even Tache, for that matter. By saving the boy, Tache revealed his presence. Shaloonya managed to have them escape in the sewer, or at least that’s probably what the men they were watching believed. We know how they escaped and how they were delivered.” He looked across the street where the delivery truck had stopped earlier.

Tache was filling her in on the details while Garon spoke. His version of the story was matching Garon’s, except Tache said Shaloonya tried to rip his tail off.

“However, by revealing his presence, the men realized I knew where they were and that I was watching. They panicked and moved their operation.” He looked pleased.

“Now you don’t know where they are,” she said, wondering why he was pleased.

“On the contrary,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s why I’m so pleased with Tache. The men moved their operation into a building that I already watch in other ways. The building they picked told me a few things about them that I won’t go into right now.”

“How do you know this?” shee said, knowing she had been with Garon the whole time and he never got even a phone call to inform him.

“Gadgets,” he said, patting his pockets. “Alarms came in and alerted me while you were shopping.”

“Oh, that’s why you frowned. I thought it was the dress.”

Garon sipped his soda.

“But if he jeopardized his position, that also jeopardized me,” she said.

“Your Tail is devoted to you. Tache is young. He probably didn’t understand just what he and Shaloonya were doing. However, the fact that he is young and helped that young boy is extraordinary. Younger Tails tend to be more self-centered than the more experienced ones. Your grandma is extremely pleased.” He leaned back when the waiter skidded in with their food.

Paxine didn’t realize how hungry she was, and the food made her forget to ask how her grandma knew already. She stuffed her mouth, feeling that if she didn’t eat fast, something would happen to cause them to have to run. Good junk food wasn’t something she liked to waste. However, Garon continued to be at ease, savoring his food. She finished long before him. However, she had saved one piece of hot dog.

“You don’t have to worry about feeding your Tail,” Garon said, seeming to read her mind.

However, Paxine noticed when he flicked something into a nearby planter. She folded her napkin onto her plate making the piece of hot dog disappear into her hand and into her backpack. Her ankle chain warmed with Tache’s enjoyment of his snack. That is when she realized her backpack needed an emergency care kit for him, and she resolved to put one together as soon as she could.

Paxine tilted her glass to get the last drop of her soda. “That was good.”

A pigeon landed in the planter near Garon only to squawk and flap off, leaving behind two feathers. He chuckled, rising and leaving money on the table. The waiter dashed in.

“All yours,” Garon said.

“Thank you, sir. Come again,” the waiter said, grabbing the money and their dishes.

The flowers moved in the planter and Shaloonya dropped to the ground. She padded over to Garon putting her head against his leg. He stroked her coat.

The lunch crowd was thinning now that the lunch hour was done. She hoisted up her backpack. He picked up her dress, heading straight through the area toward a side street. They were the only ones walking down this street, and the sounds of the downtown traffic faded behind them.

Paxine thought the area was creepy. Each building ended where the next began and each one was gray brick with two windows on each story. There were few businesses and most of the buildings looked like converted apartments. Curtains covered most of the windows and there was little visible behind them, except for the occasional plant plastered to the window looking for more light. She expected the apartments were empty since everyone was at work.

The city blocks were long and with each block, the area became dingier and more run down. One car passed them; otherwise, there was no traffic or people in sight.

Garon crossed the street to the next block. These buildings looked boarded up and abandoned. He headed for the fourth building. There were stairs that ran up to the front door and down to a basement door. Trash littered the stoop to the basement. He headed down the stairs to the basement door, taking out a metal key from his pocket.

She didn’t know if she wanted to follow him.

“This way,” he said, unlocking and opening the door.

The room beyond the door was dim, lit by a single light bulb hidden within a dirty glass globe. At the opposite end was a doorway leading into darkness.

Garon pushed her in. “Can’t stand out there too long.”

She didn’t think she wanted to stand too long inside either. He closed the door behind them.

“This way.” He walked ahead of her to her relief.

More lights behind dirty globes, hung from the ceiling, lighting their way. Pipes and wires, of all sizes, lined the walls, hiding gritty cement. The floor crunched underfoot.

Paxine felt like they were traveling under the entire length of the city, through corridor after corridor. The air alternated between stuffy to damp to stale. The only sound was the crunching of their footsteps. Ahead of them, leading the way was the gray shadow of Shaloonya, who obviously been here before and knew her way.

The only think breaking up the monotony of the pipe-lined corridor was doors that looked like they hadn’t been opened in a hundred years. She was sure she didn’t want to open any of those doors, imagining all sort of horrors, cobwebs, and rats.

At one such door, the worst of all for rust, Shaloonya stopped. Garon reached up to a small metal box fastened to the wall, opening it without a noise. He took out a key, holding it up for her to see.

“Remember the keys on the bracelet I gave you,” he said.

Paxine raised her arm with the bracelet. One key matched the one he held. He held up another key, the key he used to open the basement door. It was the same as the other key on her bracelet.

“What good is a key if I don’t even know where I am? How would I find the door?”

“What are the numbers on the keys?” He turned them so she could read the two keys he held.

Paxine checked her keys against his.

“Forty-two,” she said, reading one key.

“The door is on 42nd street, fourth house, second door, meaning basement,” he said in explanation.

“Seventeen R?” she said, reading the second key.

“The seventeenth door on your right.” He turned the key in the door.

The door didn’t open, but the whole section of wall containing the door pivoted open.

“Wow,” she said, thinking of secret passageways. Did this lead to her grandma’s, she wondered, stepping into the corridor behind the wall.

A light switched on overhead and the section of wall pivoted closed behind them. He led the way again with lights switching on and off as if guiding them down the corridor toward a door. This door was different from all the others. It wasn’t rusty, looking brand new.

Garon placed his hand in the middle of the door. There was a whisper of gears and the door swung open. Again, lights turned on as soon as they entered the room. The door closed on its own behind them.

“Your hand will open that door, too,” he said.

Paxine blinked twice, staring at the shelves full of wire, glass and such, and the empty table in the middle of the room.

“This is your shop,” she said in amazement.

“One of my shops.” He hung her dress on a hook on the wall.

“One? You…this isn’t your shop I visited?” She was sure this was the shop she and her grandma had been in.

“Nope.” He rummaged through a nearby shelf.

“You’re sure?. It looks exactly like it. It has an empty table.” She wasn’t sure she believed him.

“The table is my workspace. You always need a clean place to work.”

Whack.

Paxine let her backpack slip to the ground, so Tache could hop out. He disappeared with Shaloonya and soon there was the faint sound of crunching. She was relieved he got to eat.

Garon put a handful of items on the table, moving to rummage through another shelf. The only sounds were the Tails crunching and of Garon rummaging. There was the faint scent of baby oil and caramel. Fine dust coated everything. She was amazed how many shelves full of things there were. She hated to think of dusting the place. Then she laughed to herself. She was sure, based on the dust, that Garon didn’t like dusting either.

She kicked her backpack out of the way and Tache’s wooden spoon fell out.

“What’s that?” Garon said, rushing past Paxine to pick it up before she could.

“It’s a spoon,” she said, thinking she stated the obvious.

“A wooden spoon.” He examined it as if he had never seen a wooden spoon before.

“It’s Tache’s spoon. We were in grandma’s spice shop. He bit it so grandma had to buy it.” She didn’t understand why he was so interested in a spoon.

“Very nice.” His voice was serious. He put the spoon on the table with the other items, then disappearing and returning with a second chair.

“Have a seat,” he said, sitting down in an old rusty metal chair. “I’d like to show you some things.”

He positioned some glasses on his nose, picked out a caramel from the items on the table, and popped it into his mouth. Next, he took a pair of tweezers and picked up some metal slivers.

Paxine didn’t think metal slivers were very interesting, even more so since they didn’t look like anything. In fact, they were almost invisible if not for Garon moving them so that light glinted off them.

“See how this one curves this way and that one curves that way?” He placed the slivers on his finger. “This one is warming up to the heat from my finger. The other one isn’t. This causes one of them to spin. As it cools, the other one picks up the heat emitted and that one spins. The result of them spinning is a wound up clock.” He looked pleased.

“Huh?” She hadn’t understand a single word he said.

He lowered the metal slivers onto the table. To her surprise, they weren’t metal slivers anymore but a spider. She blinked. A metal spider made with slivers so fine that if she hadn’t seen him put it down, she wouldn’t have known it was there.

He released the spider from his fingers. The spider crawled across the table, maneuvering over caramels and tools, stopping at the edge.

“This is a Screamer.” He looked like a kid with a new toy.

“A Screamer? It doesn’t make a sound.” She tilted her head as if listening. Was he serious?

“Not one that you can hear, but they can.” He shrugged a shoulder toward the other side of the room where Tache and Shaloonya stood, staring. Despite how tiny and invisible the Screamer was to her, the Tails pinpointed exactly where the Screamer stopped.

He picked up the Screamer with tweezers.

“What’s it for? Finding Tails?” She wondered what good was something that screamed silently?

“No, it’s for tracking people. Let me demonstrate,” he said, enclosing the Screamer in his hand. “Now, let us say I want to track you, but I don’t want you to know about it.” He stepped away from her. “I need to warm up the Screamer so it has the energy to go as far as I need it. Once it’s warm, I get as close to my target as I can and then I release the Screamer,”

He bent down as if he was checking his shoelace, releasing the Screamer, which was almost invisible crawling across the floor.

’The Screamer knows where to go,” he said, watching the Screamer head straight for her. “It needs to find a new heat source and you’re the closest warm object.”

The Screamer crawled up onto her shoe, under her jeans and onto her sock. Paxine shivered at the creepiness of it, pulling up her pant leg to reveal it attached to her sock.

“You would never have known it was there,” he said, removing the Screamer from her sock using the tweezers. “Also, no mechanical scanners or detectors would pick it up. However…” He paused, pointing at Tache and Shaloonya who were following the Screamer with their eyes. “They will be able to hear it and follow it even if it is quite some distance away. As long as it’s near a source of heat, like your body, it will continue to scream.”

“But deactivators would …” she said.

“No. You didn’t listen. No mechanical scanners or detectors will pick it up. Deactivators don’t work on a Screamer, because a Screamer works off heat, not a battery or electrical source. Here, let me show you how to make one.” He put the Screamer into a metal box.

Paxine leaned in almost touching her nose to the table. The metal slivers were so fine. She could understand why Garon used tweezers.

“See how this side is dark and this side is light?” he said, moving the metal so she could see it. “The dark absorbs the heat faster than the lighter side. This causes the metal to spin and winds up the Screamer. Heat loss activates the Screamer to move. Constant heat stops the Screamer.”

“I see,” she said, starting to understand what he was saying.

“This is physics. Something to study in a few years.” He kept his eyes on the metal slivers.

“More homework.” She rolled her eyes and laughed, but she was getting more interested in Screamers.

Garon twisted and twirled the metal slivers together, holding out the new Screamer in his hand.

“The Screamer won’t move because it has a constant source of heat, but it is screaming,” he said, pointing to the Tails whose ears were twitching. “You should see how dogs react.”

He chuckled, putting the Screamer on the table. “Now I have removed the constant heat source. It will crawl to find another heat source or until it is unwound.”

The Screamer crawled over every object on the table, dropping off the edge, landing on the floor and stopping a few feet from a cabinet.

Tache moved in to investigate, almost touching his nose to the Screamer, which came back to life, crawling toward him. He backed up, but the Screamer kept coming. Tache panicked as his butt hit the cabinet, jumping four feet over the Screamer to escape.

Garon laughed, scooping up the Screamer. “Not so good for sneaking up on Tails.” He laughed some more.

“Yeah, those are cool. Creepy though,” she said with a shiver, wiping her sock as if the Screamer was still clinging there.

“Well now. Let’s take a look at this spoon,” He spun the spoon around his fingers.

“A spoon isn’t mechanical,” she said, thinking that was why Garon liked the spoon.

“Nope. Not at all. This is a big spoon.” He tapped it with a finger while he thought. “It would make a nice weapon.”

Paxine imaged herself hitting an assailant over the head with the spoon, having the spoon break, and the assailant laughing at her.

“Are you sure?” she said, making sure he wasn’t joking.

“Oh, yes.” He jumped up with excitement to grab more tools from a shelf. “Hold this.”

She held the spoon while he drilled a hole through its entire length with a long thin drill bit. Then he slid a piece of thin white plastic tubing into the hole.

“Splendid,” he said, holding out the spoon, admiring it.

“Pea shooter?” she said, not knowing what good a spoon with a hole drilled through it was.