As she reached for the banner hanging on the wall behind the Lincolns’ display, two things came to her. The first was that the banner was crooked, and didn’t have any writing on it, which was pretty weird, and the second was that the banner wasmoving.Itflexed under her fingers, a blunt head twisted up to hang level with hers, and oh no, that wasn’t a banner at all, that was ahuge snake.
“Okay, no one panic,” she started to say automatically, but then one of the twins shrieked, and the other one lunged for the carrier, knocking into Macy so hard she had to catch herself on the edge of the table. By the time she got herself steady, the cry ofSnakehad filled up the hall, the snake itself had disappeared, and people were stampeding for the doors like a herd of scared cattle.
And things were going so well,Macy thought with dismay, and then she stood up straight, cupping her hands around her mouth.
“Everyone proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion! Stop running, stop pushing, everything is under control! I said stop pushing, there is no damn need to push, there isnevera need to push!”
She, Devon and a handful of volunteers got the atrium cleared out, and Macy herself went up to the top floors to do a quick walk-around. The whole time, her back prickled as if someone was watching her, and she told herself firmly that as big as the snake was, she was a full-grown woman, and there weren’t any snakes that routinely ate people.
Except maybe for anacondas? Aren’t anacondas the ones that drop down on people and squeeze them to death?
She glanced up at the dropped ceiling nervously, but nothing dropped down on her. Fortunately, the offices and community rooms had been locked up tight in advance of the science fair, and within twenty minutes, she was out in front with the milling populace. She spotted the Lincoln sisters, Alika still holding the mice, and Devon, who was preventing a pair of teens from going back in to get a phone.
“All right, this could be worse,” Macy muttered, but then she groaned inwardly as Keith Parker made his way towards her across the green.
Keith Parker was small, frail, possibly older than God, and he had been the mayor of Clearwater for two years back when Macy was in grade school. He had opinions about everything from the number of maples planted on the town green to the coyotes that never bothered anyone who didn’t bother them first. Since Macy had taken office, it seemed like every conversation she had with Keith Parker started with,now when I was mayor—
“Keith, hi,” Macy said with a big smile, but he barely noticed, shaking his finger in her general direction before he had even gotten close enough for a conversation.
“Now, when I was mayor, we never had snakes in the city hall! We took care of our pests with a regular round of exterminators and–”
“I’m sure you did, and believe me, we’re going to get this taken care of as soon as possible. Everyone? Everyone, if you could listen up?”
Devon, wise to the way of crowds, whistled shrill enough that the people next to her fell back, and Macy nodded as an expectant silence fell across the crowd.
“All right, thank you. Yes, there is a pretty big snake somewhere in City Hall, and we are going to take action immediately to get it out and back where it belongs. Until then, the building will be locked down. If you have left anything vital inside, let me know, and I will see about getting it for you. Ourfirst order of business is to make sure that the snake is removed, got it?”
There was a series of discontented murmurs that were drowned out by the chorus ofyes’s,and Macy nodded to Devon.
“Devon will make a list of everything you might need retrieved, and I’m going to make some calls.”
“Used to be we’d call the state, have them send a specialist from Springfield,” said Keith Parker, and she grinned at him as she power-walked away.
“That sounds a little extreme. It’s fine, though, don’t worry. I know people.”
Macy liked knowing people–it made her feel a little like a hardened detective in a noir film. The truth was, however, that if you grew up in a small town like Clearwater, Illinois, you just knew people. Everyone did, whether it was Manny Belton who was the best butcher for venison in the county or Lee Braden, who worked at the local library and could find the parts for any car made before 1990. So when she said she knew people, Macy definitely did, and this time, she was talking about the wolf shifter family that lived out on the west side of town.
Sitting on the back steps of City Hall, she dialed up Rikki Madsen, who answered on the second ring.
“Oh, heya Macy. I can’t talk long, I’ve some errands to run here in a sec. What’s up?”
“Hi, Rikki. I’m at City Hall, and I have problem. There’s a pretty big snake running around, and I think I might need some of your expertise on it.”
“Er, I think my expertise is that snakes give me the willies and that you should call a specialist who handles snakes?”
“Ha, that’s what I would think too, but things are a little complicated. You see, this snake had horns.”
“Horns?”
She pictured again that bluntly triangular head angling up to look at her, flicking a forked tongue towards her face. She had been so close that she could see its large clear eyes, the delicate row of pits along its lower jaw, and the two curling ram’s horns that stuck up from its head.
“Yeah, horns. Curly ones, like off a sheep. I’ve never heard of any snake like that, but I was wondering if you or your family might have some input before I call county animal control.”
“Oof, that certainly sounds like our kind of thing. Hang on, here’s Wil. Gimme a sec.”
Macy leaned back on the steps as she waited, unable to keep her leg from bouncing restlessly. With a frown, she pressed her heel against the concrete step to keep it still. Her mother had always called her a fussbudget, and admittedly it had been way worse when she was little, unable to contain her tapping and bouncing and fiddling. She’d gotten better as an adult unless there was something stressing her out, and apparently she was stressed out right now.
There’s nothing to be stressed out about. What we have is a Situation, and I am dealing with it. I am getting the information I need to figure this out and to make sure that everything is resolved quickly and safely.
