Part 20

“I’ll go,”  Freak Beans says, taking his hat off and bowing with a flourish of his hand.

“Thank you Benny,” Mary says, taking a step toward him.

I reach out and grab the map.  “I’ll hold that, but I’ll go, sounds like fun, and besides, some of the notes on this thing,” I wave the sheet of paper, “Are mine.  Rush, you coming?”

“No, I will stay and keep eye on Cyrus.”  He takes another swig from his flask and manages to avoid coughing this time. 

“Suit yourself,” I say and clap him on the shoulder with my free hand. 

“So where are we going?”  Mary asks.

“My best guess would be to try to find the Black Bazaar, Lampman always talked about the place like it was still around.”  I say.

“And where is it?”

I close my eyes, trying to recall what Lampman had told me so many years before.  “Through the Walking Rocks, past the end of the tracks.  Out beyond the Devil's Rib Cage you will find the Glass Shore, the waves grinding the brown and green bottles against each other until the shards are no larger than grains of sand.  Find the path into the water and walk the way, across the underground ocean.  Through the lightless tunnel you will find an island and upon that island the Black Bazaar.”  It comes back to me and I find myself smiling.  “Sounds like we have some walking to do.”

“Ok,” Benny says, “Let me go get a few things and I will meet you back here in two hours time.  I suggest you get some food together, this is going to be a long trip.”

Both Mary and myself cover our eyes as Freak Beans blinks out.

“I’d better be going too,” Rush says, adding “Good luck, tovarishch.”  He winks at me and nods at Mary before he too is gone.

“What’d he say?”  She asked.

“He once told me it means friend.  I sure hope so.”  I look away from her to hide the worry on my face.  “Do you have a stash of food or anything somewhere?”  I ask, still looking away.

“No… you do?”

I ignore her question for now.  “What about money, do you have any?”

She reaches into her pocket and pulls a wad of crumpled bills out.  “Will this do?”

I reach for it and think better.  “How much is it?”

She straightens the cash as best she can, “Seven dollars.”  She pats down her pockets.  “No, eight!” She produces another scrunched up single.

“It’s not much, but it’ll have to do.  Come on, we’re going shopping.”  I take hold of her empty hand and concentrate on my own sphere.

We appear in the alleyway behind a Fairway and make our way to the front.  Upon entering, I can feel the eyes upon us, but I ignore them and grab a basket.  First stop we walk to the small bakery.  “Do you have any day old?”  I ask the tattooed man that eyes me suspiciously.

Soundlessly, he points toward a bin on a nearby shelf.  I look over the loaves and throw one in the basket.  My next stop is the canned goods.  “Well?”

I pick a few cans of my own while I watch her struggle to decide between mushrooms and asparagus.  She finally decides on the mushrooms and hands the can to me.  I put it back on the shelf.  “Will you eat those cold?”

“But your sphere can start any-“

“Start, yes, but if we don’t have anything to burn, starting the fire will be the least of our concerns.”

“Oh,”  She grabs a can of baked beans and a few cans of cocktail weenies. 

I grab a can of Spam.  I count the items in my basket, mentally tallying the total.  “Do you have a water bottle?”

“No,”  She hangs her head. 

“Don’t worry,”  I say, leading her toward the kitchen gadgets aisle.  I find her a pink one, which she wrinkles her nose at.

She picks a purple one off the shelf and throws it in the basket.  “Anything else?”  She asks.

I pick through our basket, “No, I think we’ve got all we need for now.  Come on.”  We walk up to the check out lanes, followed by an older man whom I assume is the manager of the store.  Waiting behind a middle aged blonde woman, her child sitting in the seat of the cart, I grow bored and begin to make faces at the boy.  He sticks his tongue back out at me and his mother turns around.

“Can I help you?”  She growls.

“No,” I say and wink at the boy.  He giggles, and she turns on him, but he is fast and manages to maintain a straight face the entire time they are being checked out.  As they pull away from the counter, I wave at him and he waves back, earning me another glare from his mother.

“That will be fifteen thirty-two says the freckled brunette holding the scanner and smacking her gum rather loudly.  I reach into my pocket and pull out my own wad of cash, counting out three fives and a single, handing them to her.  Mary opens her mouth to protest but I ignore her as I receive my change and am handed the four bags of groceries.  We are watched by the hawk-eyed manager as we make our way out of the store.

“How rude!”  Mary exclaims as we the doors slide shut behind us.  “You should have blinked us out while we were still inside, gave them all something to think about.”

I smile. “Come on,”  I tear off the label and the price tag from the water bottle, using the water spigot on the side of the grocery store to fill it up, dumping the first full bottle on the ground.  I fill it a second time take a sip, spit it out and dump it again.  Repeat and the water tastes better.  I screw the lid on and place it back in the plastic bag with the rest of the canned goods.

“Now what?”  She asks.

In response, I hand her two of the grocery bags, freeing my left hand, which I use to fetch my sphere from it’s pocket.

“Now we find you a bag.”  And we appear in the stone room, deep beneath the streets above.  I set down the remaining two bags and tell her to wait here.  As I walk down the old corridor toward the room I call my own, I pull the chain from around my neck.  I unlock the door when I get to it, and sigh as my gaze falls upon the bed.  I can feel it calling to me but I ignore it, instead going to my cart, which I had pushed in after my visit to Old Jenny.  I dig through the clothes and find an old green-brown JanSport bag and check it over for holes.  There are a few but none that I am too worried about.  I keep looking and come across a second bag, a red and black plaid number with a brown stain along its bottom.  It is hole-less.  A little more digging and I find a thermos of my own.  I use the Sigil Sphere and I am back behind the Fairway.  I again use the faucet to clean out and fill my bottle before I blink back, surprising Mary in the process. 

“You couldn’t have walked back?”  She asks, rubbing her eyes. 

I hold my bottle up in response.  I hand her the plaid backpack.  “Fill this up.”  I say and begin to fill the green-brown one with the canned goods. 

“Are you going to take my money?”  She asks as she zips the bag shut around the loaf of bread sticking out its top. 

“Not now.”

“Then when?”

“Lets get through this and we’ll talk money then.”

A bright flash has me rubbing my own eyes.

“You guys ready?”  Benny asks, tapping a black lacquered cane upon the ground, the steel tip grating upon the old stone.