Gilded Latten Bones

102

The ladies from Fire and Ice stopped by. Jon Salvation floated in their wake. Crush bubbled. "It was so exciting, Mr. Garrett!" Mike sneered over her shoulder, silently pointing a fat red arrow at that "Mister."

Salvation declared, "This child can sing!" Both a statement and an expression of wonder.

I said, "You should write a play with lots of singing."

"And dancing," DeeDee said. "I'm a good dancer, Jon."

Salvation shuddered. He looked like he might melt.

Mike continued to be amused. DeeDee's dancing probably involved a progressive movement toward her birthday suit.

I told Salvation, "I had an idea the other day you might think about. Suppose you send your understudies out to put your plays on in other towns and cities? You could keep them going for years."

He stared at me for a while, then said, "I think Tinnie is going to work out. She's really dedicated. It's like she's trying to lose herself in something." He glanced at Strafa, just downstairs after returning from the Hill. She shook her head at me.

She looked the girls over, never down her nose, which left me that much bigger a fan. She had no problem being around the kinds of people who can be found around me. I had to make an effort to get along with the kinds of people to be found around her.

This was going to be an unusual relationship.

Strafa asked Mike, "You ready to go to my house?"

Mike nodded. "Mr. Salvation. Are you sure it's all right for us to take the coach?"

"No problem. I'm used to walking. And I need to talk to Garrett."

Yet another of Mike's secretive smiles.

She figured Salvation was taken with one of her charges.

She asked Strafa, "Can we stop along the way? None of us have anything but what we left the house wearing."

"Of course."

DeeDee and Crush were not in their work clothes but DeeDee's taste tended toward flashy trash.

"Before we go," Mike said. And dragged me back to the kitchen. Dean and Dollar Dan scrunched up and let us in, Dean automatically beginning to rattle teacups. He had gotten the window fixed already.

Mike pressed up against me tight. I said, "I'm flattered but. ."

"You ought to be. That Salvation."

"What about him?"

"Is he really as naive as he seems?"

"Oh, yeah. More so. He's good at faking being cool."

"So he doesn't know about us?"

I understood. "Actually, he does. He thinks it's all kind of romantic."

She shook her head. She sneered a little. Part of me was proving not to be loyal to any one woman. "You're alive after all." She relented, stepped back. I was not as flustered as she had hoped. She asked, "What's his interest? Guys his age, it's usually Crush. But he treats her like he doesn't know she's a girl."

"He knows. I guarantee. But he doesn't want her to think that's what's on his mind. If he's interested in anybody that way, I figure it's you." Which I said for the hell of it.

"Which is why his drool is all over DeeDee's shoulders, I suppose."

"He's shy. He doesn't know how to interact with a refined lady."

"Wiseass."

"He's good people, Mike. Don't mess him up."

"We never mess first. It's one of my rules." She turned to the door but had a wicked thought. "But I'll let me break it just this once."

She stepped back against me, wiggled a little. "You and the Windwalker split up, stop by." Chuckling, she winked at Dean, pushed off, and left the kitchen.

Dean said, "You don't want her, I'll take her."

"You old villain." I took half a minute to catch my breath and let the swelling subside, then headed up the hall to make my farewells.