“You two aren’t helping,” Lola said dryly.She was trying to formulate a way to ask the questions burning in her mind without sounding like the Mad Hatter, and also mentally preparing herself for more grief, which she would inevitably get from Katy and Maddie.
Katy snorted.“We’re definitely not making it any worse.”
Chapter 6
That Makes You A Queen.
“At some point you just have to embrace the crazy.”~Lola
The woman still seemed amused by them.Lola noticed her eyes were sparkling a little, but they were no longer red.She took a deep breath and gathered all of her pretend bravery, which was really just the compulsive curiosity that had plagued her all her life.“There’ve been some strange guys coming into where we work—”
“No Name Pizzeria,” Katy tossed out.“You should come by.We’ll hook you up with a free pie.We might even throw in dessert if you bring along a mini-gong.Lola makes a great peanut butter and chocolate chip pizza.”
The woman nodded, but her eyes stayed on Lola.“I’ve heard of the place.I’m sure I have a mini-gong somewhere in all of my centuries of collecting.”
“Centuries.”Maddie laughed.“Because you look so ol—”
Lola cleared her throat loudly.“I came because these guys had some weird tattoos.But not just weird, like,reallyweird.”The words tumbled out of her mouth like monkeys from a barrel.Did monkeys tumble out of barrels?No.But they probably tumbled down trees every now and then.I mean, they can’t have great grip all the time, right?Focus.She barked at herself.“The tattoos were so weird they kind of…” Here she goes.There was no coming back from this.It was one thing to tell her friends she saw disappearing tattoos.It was a completely different thing to tell a total stranger.“…disappeared.”
The blurred vision that often happened when Lola got lost in her thoughts cleared as she glanced at Maddie and Katy.Both girls stared intently at the old woman.They were probably waiting for her to declare Lola a nut-job so they could then tackle the poor lady and beat her with the cane she had leaned against the counter next to her.Maybe her BFFs were a little overprotective, but Lola wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“Disappeared?”the woman said slowly as she slid off her stool.She grasped her cane and leaned on it for support.“Did all of you see this?”
Katy leaned further back in her chair.“Before this, we thought Lola was the sanest one of all of us, but she’s the only one who has seen the mysterious disappearing tattoos.”
The woman looked at Katy, her eyes taking on the sharpness of a hawk searching for prey.“And you believe her?”Lola had the urge to stand in front of her friend, as if she needed to protect her from this little old lady.Little old lady with badass, spider tattoos, red eyes, and spider legs that grow out of her back,she reminded herself.
“Of course, we believe her,” Maddie chimed in.“If that’s what Lola says she saw, then that’s what she saw.”
The woman must have heard something in Maddie’s voice that piqued her interest because her scrutinizing gaze turned on Lola’s blonde friend.“But you don’t really believe it happened.”Her brow rose, causing more wrinkles on her face to form, which seemed impossible.“You might believe that Lola saw this thing, but that doesn’t mean you also believe that it actually happened.”
Maddie gaped, clearly unsure of what to say.“We don’t…”
It was clear her friends didn’t know exactly what to think about Lola’s story, but that didn’t make her angry.Theywantedto believe it had actually happened.They’d even told her so.And that was enough, Lola understood their skepticism.
“They didn’t take me to the nearest psychiatrist for an evaluation,” Lola said, drawing the woman’s attention.“That’s enough for me.They listened and—”
“Told her to lay off the paranormal-romance books she likes to read,” Katy cut Lola off and winked at her.
“Well, I’d say you’ve got good friends,” she told Lola.“I wonder, did you see anything else besides the disappearing tattoos?”
Lola’s heart sped up, and her palms began to sweat.“Um…” She hadn’t known how to tell Maddie and Katy about the impossibly strange features appearing on the men, not to mention spider lady right in front of her, and she didn’t think now was the time to try.She needed to make sure she had room to move in case Katy decided to attack.The girl was as unpredictable as the ocean during hurricane season.
“Nope,” Lola finally said, leaning back on her heels in a rocking motion.“Just the tattoos.”
“Hmm, interesting.”The woman gave Lola a smile that made it clear she didn’t believe a word Lola was saying.She didn’t have a clue Lola had just seen spider legs grow out of her ancient as hell back.Maybe, because it was just hallucinations.“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t have any sort of disappearing magical ink.A tattoo is just about the most permanent thing in the world.Once the ink gets under your skin, it doesn’t disappear.There is some ink that will show up well under a black light, but it’s still visible on the skin, just very pale.”
“That’s cool.”Katy swung her legs down, stood and clapped her hands.“That is what I want.A black light tattoo.”
“Of course you do.”Maddie groaned.“Because we’re around soooo many black lights.It’s like the black light district at NNP in our brightly lit dining room.”
“We could get Sal to get some black lights,” Katy suggested.“It would set a cool atmosphere.The NNP needs updating anyway.”
Maddie shook her head.“And the night club look issoin for pizzerias.”
Katy rolled her eyes.“Ignore her.She gets mad when something wasn’t her idea first.”
“If you’re going to sit in one of our chairs, it’s only appropriate I introduce myself.”The woman walked gingerly with her cane around the counter.“I’m Jaxine.”She bowed her head.“I’m afraid the things you’ve shared with me are much more interesting than the things I can share with you three.”She looked at Lola, her eyes landing briefly before moving back to the other girls.Maybe Lola was imagining things, but she felt like Jaxine was trying to secretly convey some type of information to her.“My family has owned this parlor for generations, and now it’s mine.I’m not the curious sort.I typically keep to myself, but I enjoy listening to the stories of others if they offer them freely.That’s me in a nutshell, short and sweet.”
