Helen sighed deeply.“Let’s see, it went something like: I can see no reason to endorse her as a Technician considering she didn’t complete the training.When a situation arose outside of her comfort level, instead of embracing the challenge, she opted to depart.Furthermore, or consequently, she failed to complete the training with me virtually and pretty much told me to piss off.She fails as a technician.”
Azrael didn’t want to be impressed, but she was.“You said that, almost verbatim.Is there something I need to know?”
“About what?”
“Isshefit to remain as a Technician?”
“As my other half said, that is your job, not mine,” Helen said.“She is who you think she is, but I wouldn’t invite her over for tea.As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t invite any of them to my home, outside of the one that was here.The other half invited him, but I like him, so, it’s all good.”
“You don’t like the others?”
“I don’t like people in general.”
Azrael wanted to probe deeper but was uncertain what to ask that wouldn’t prevent Cranberry from shutting down.The training program was a first and an unusual process, but she and Jesús had agreed it was best to form a bit of cohesion for the team and allow Cranberry a look inside the processes of how other Technicians set up their workspaces.
Azrael said, “This training program was a first.Bad Apple assessed your ability to reason and make organized decisions.The Lemon analyzed your ability to follow directions, and stick to a plan of action.Passion Fruit tested you on doing the tough jobs, calculating risk, and getting your hands dirty.”
“And the Sour Grapes?”
“She was test of loyalty,” Azreal added.“We know who she is, we know the situation, and we know how she is.The questions is, once you learned, even though you may not care for her as a person, did she earn the loyalty of silence from you as a team member, whom she feels she can trust?”
“That’s the correct word, trust,” Helen said.“I was inside each of their homes.I knew when they woke up, what time they went to bed, and even if they evacuated their bowels with a book or just their cell phones.I ate at their tables and slept under their roofs.The trust instilled in me with what I learned about each of them goes to my grave.”
“Are you telling me that if I asked you straight out what happened at the house with Donovan and Sour Grapes that made you leave, you would not give me an honest answer?”
Again, Helen sighed, “I will always give you an honest answer.What happened in that homes is I learned and leaned into my skill.Not only can I see auras, but I can see people, and I saw them.I saw Tiffany Morrow, not the anthropologist, the lady with letters behind her name or the college professor.I saw her.In my eyes, just like that Donovan dick, they saw a reflection of themselves and didn’t like it.The whole scenario felt wrong in my gut; therefore, I removed myself from being around two people who made me feel uncomfortable.”
“Is your gut ever wrong?”
“The two times I didn’t trust it, one left me barren, and the other got me snatched by a psycho who called me his Chocolate Queen,” Helen said.“I have learned not to question myself anymore.If it feels wrong, then it is wrong.”
“Okay, and this weekend, you are going to visit your cousin Cherry and meet the new baby?”
“She is my sister, by the same father,” Helen said.“Perhaps.”
Helen looked around the space she used for crafting.It was a wonderful space where she could think and sort through matters.In the morning, she would go to the post office and drop off the invites for the start of an official new life with Mustang.
“Boss, one last thing,” Helen said.
“State your need.”
“The boy, Oscar.Mustang has agreed to make him our foal after the honeymoon of course,” she said.“Can we get an assist on some documentation?I don’t want to be beholden to the Archangel.”
“I thought you said you weren’t planning on having any kids,” Azrael said.“Are you getting the urge to be a mother?”
“Hell, no,” she chuffed.“I’m Aunt Helen to the boy.I’m Aunt Helen to Lemon’s brood as well as Apple and Cherry’s.No need to change the nomenclature at this late grazing in the pasture.Cranberry out.”
She ended the call and looked around the room.Her gut was telling her not to go to Louisville this weekend.A quick call to check on Cherry led to a fifteen-minute conversation on the tenderness of her nipples, the weird smell from her coochie, and her desire to ride Michael Neary until one of them drooled.Helen ended that call as well, coming from her crafting room holding the brochure to the Missouri Quilt Company.
“Jay,” she said, “can you possibly take off a couple of days?Maybe Friday and Monday or Monday and Tuesday?”
“I can check.What’s up?”he asked, watching her with mild curiosity.
“You gave me this for Christmas,” she said, holding up the brochure and gift card.“Let’s do this instead.We haven’t had a Helen and Jay outing in a minute, so maybe this weekend can be about us.A simple lunch at a place on the way, a nice dinner, find a hotel with some serious amenities, that kind of thing.”
“I like the way you think,” he said.“You don’t want to see the baby and Naomi?”
“What I want, or rather what I need, is some us time.A new adventure, buy some fabric, maybe find the tulle, lace, or organza to make my veil.Heck, I might get lucky and find some embroidered cranberries to go around it so I don’t have to do it.”
