“Thor?Is there a Thor there with you?Is Thor hurting you, Dom?”came the worried reply.
“No!”Dom shouted, then immediately softened her voice, nervously twisting a strand of hair around her index finger.“No.There’s no one here.I’m fine, but randomly shouting out that name is part of the problem I’m having.I don’t know why I keep yelling it.I don’t evenknowanyone named Thor, but I can’t control it.It just happens—and it happensa lot.”
“There,” the gentle voice said, almost a soft whisper in her ear.“That was easy enough, right?Now that we have the particulars out of the way, as I said, I’m Marty Flaherty.My loud, crude partner here at OOPS who answered your call—and is all bark, almost no bite—is Nina Statleon, and our other partner is Wanda Jefferson.We’re here to help you, Dom.I promise.But we can’t help unless you tell usallof what’s wrong…and I can sense there’s something else.Are you ready to tell me the rest of what’s happening?”
Dom glanced at the shiny instrument on her kitchen table.Telling this woman what had happened after she’d gone to that stupid swap meet three days ago was going to make her sound as if an insane asylum and straitjacket were too tame to contain her.
“Dom?”Marty coaxed.
Then a thought occurred to her—it was brief and fleeting, typically not the way her busy mind worked, flitting from one subject to the next without rhyme or reason.“Did you say you’re Marty Flaherty?As intheMarty Flaherty, who owns Bobbie-Sue Cosmetics?”
Marty giggled, soft and tinkling.“That’s me.”
Holy Meet Your Idol Day.“I love you!”she blurted out in a gush of words, before she could stop herself.“I’ve read all of the articles written about you over the years, and how you inherited a cosmetic company and turned it into one of the most successful multimillion-dollar lines in the business.I’m such a fan!I especially love your night cream.It’s so delicious on my skin.”
But wait.Her idol was awerewolf?She did say she was a werewolf, right?Werewolves owned corporations?
“That’s so nice, Dom,” Nina growled.“That you get to meet your idol.I mean, your idol could be anyone, like Mother Teresa or Gandhi, but you chose a slinger of goop.Well done.Now could we get past the OMG, I-love-you-and-your-crappy-concealer part of this interview and get to the fucking point here?”
More rustling scratched in her ear before Marty obviously yanked the phone from Nina’s hand again.“Pipe down, Dark Lord, and let me handle this!Now, Dom, we can talk about Bobbie-Sue later, though I’m flattered you know who I am.We were getting to what’s happening and why you think you need our help—aside from the random shout-out to Thor.”
Once more, she eyed the shiny instrument on her kitchen table, glistening under her hanging bamboo lamp.“So, I went to a swap meet the other day.One of the patients at my grandfather’s memory care facility loves a good trip to a swap meet.I volunteer there all the time, with events and road trips and so on.Anyway, her name is Pippy, and I offered to wheel her around while the others from the facility were looking at things.We were just strolling the aisles while I pushed her in her wheelchair, chatting, stopping here and there, when I saw…”
Her legs trembled, forcing her to sit down at the table next to the object of her terror.She kept her fingers in a tight fist so as to avoid touching it.
“What, Dom?”Marty asked.
Pinching her temples with her fingers, Dom swallowed.“I was looking at the things on a table.A bunch of rusty old tools and coins and stuff, and I was trying to figure out why Pippy was so interested in them.I mean, she usually likes silly tchotchkes, like those bubble hair ties and trinket boxes, shot glasses from around the world and…and Hummels, you know?”
It had been a brisk October day, and even though the sun was out, she’d been worried about Pippy catching cold.Lingering at this odd table that had caught her attention wasn’t a good idea.
“Anyway, I tried to distract her and move her toward another table, but Pippy clung to the edge of the table for dear life.”
“Okay, and then…?”
“Then…then I saw what she was so transfixed on.She ran her fingers over it as if she knew itpersonally.”Dom caught herself.She sounded like a raving lunatic.“I mean, as though she’d seen it before or…I don’t know what I mean.I’m just saying, she wouldn’t let go of the table and no amount of distraction, not even the lure of peanut brittle, could tear her away.
“Now, here’s the thing.I’ve learned a lot since my papa, er, grandfather, entered memory care, and one thing I’ve definitely learned?Do not poke the bear.As in, sometimes in order not to agitate someone with a neurological deficit—Pippy has early dementia—you kinda have to go with the flow.What I mean to say is, you pick and choose your battles.”
“Right.Of course.So, when you were going with the flow with Pippy, what happened?”
Dom bit the inside of her cheek before replying.“I did what I always do, I tried redirecting.I tried gently pulling her fingers from the table, but to no avail.Pip clung to that table like a piece of cling wrap.Then, out of the blue, she asked me if I heard it.Of course, I asked what she meant…”
Oh, remembering those moments when Dom thought surely she’d entered a glitch in the Matrix were some of the scariest of her life.
“What did Pippy say, Dom?”
“She said, do you hear that thing talking?Then she pointed to the beat-up, silver tool on the table.So of course, in the spirit of playing along and keeping her calm, I leaned down and listened…”
Dom paused then, because reliving it, saying it out loud, was almost as horrifying and preposterous as the actual event.
“Dom?What happened?I’m on the edge of my seat here, and don’t you fret about sounding like you’ve lost your mind.Believe me when I tell you, I don’t think there’s anything left that would surprise us.”
Swallowing hard, Dom looked at the dented silver tool, shiny and bright under the light of her kitchen chandelier, biting the inside of her cheek once more to keep from screaming.
“Well, go on then.Tell her what you heard, Dom,” a silky-smooth, almost reassuring voice said.
Goose bumps rose on her skin, racing along her spine, making her shiver with a violent shake.
