Folly fishes a card case from her pocket, thumbs it open, and withdraws a sketch. She takes Julian's hand; with her other hand, she holds the picture out so they can both see it. It shows a gated path up a sandy hillside to a large white house.
She takes a deep breath, squeezes Julian's hand to let him know she is ready, and concentrates on the image.
They step through.
The forest around them is gone, replaced by a wide, private beach, the stuff of which romantic movies and relaxing holidays are made. They hear the sounds of gentle surf not far behind them. Before them, seagrass-covered dunes slope upward to a ridge lined with beautiful beach homes well-separated by distance, foliage, and security fences.
Folly has reflexively kicked off her shoes and stands scrunching her toes in the soft sand. She stares up a bit wistfully at the white house at the end of the path before them, and at the ornamental but sturdy-looking iron gate that blocks the way. She has not yet let go of Julian's hand.
"Shall we?" she asks.
"Let us," Julian says. His shoes--boots, rather, crunch on the sands slightly as he leads Folly toward the gate. "I'll trust you to deal with any cameras for now. I have enough knowledge to deal with the keypads and entry systems." He glances at the gate to be sure there is none before moving to open it.
Folly holds up a finger to forestall him. She reaches carefully between the iron fenceposts just to the right of the gate and feels for something -- a slight indentation. She presses it, and a small hidden compartment pops open. She withdraws the gate key and hands it to Julian with a wry smile. "Either she wasn't expecting me to come back, or she's not trying to keep me out. Or maybe it never occurred to her to try."
As she finishes speaking, the breeze from the ocean picks up. Her mother never used to have security cameras, but if she happens to have had any installed since last Folly was here, Folly feels certain that those with a view of the beach path are about to be obscured by blown debris.
She picks up her shoes and waits for Julian to open the gate.
There's a bit of seaward wind and it does seem to have picked up.
Julian sets the key into the lock and opens the gate. He lets Folly through and closes it behind her. He's not very careful not to leave fingerprints, but, then again, it's not likely his are in any database. Then they head up to the house. "Are we better off waiting for her if she's not here, or should we plan to find her and speak with her?" he asks Folly as they mount the hill toward the back door.
Folly takes a moment to consider before answering. "We should check her calendar, which if she's still doing things the way she used to will be in the kitchen. That should tell us whether she's in town, at least, and whether she has dinner plans out or means to be home this evening."
"We'll do that. Which door is the fastest way into the kitchen?" Julian looks at the house speculatively, as if by looking at it, he could determine the safest way to enter it. "I'm considering shorting all the power to the house out, but if it relies too much on electronic systems--particularly for the calendar--I'd rather not."
"Mm. Perhaps you shouldn't, then," Folly replies thoughtfully. "When I lived here she still used an old-style paper calendar, but that was years ago. She may well have switched."
She indicates a stair up to a deck off the upper floor. "That will be the fastest way to the kitchen," she says. "There are sliding doors off the deck into the main living area, just adjacent to the kitchen. The downside is that it's all glass windows and doors between the living room and the deck -- ocean view, and all -- so we'd potentially be visible to anyone in the living room who was paying attention."
"If they were the sort who were able to overcome the unlikelihood that they'd be looking," Julian reminds Folly. He cuts toward the stair up to the upper deck and with Folly's help, circumvents the security system again and opens the door.
He steps in and turns to look at Folly. "Tell me where the calendar is," he says.
Folly, looking over his shoulder, can see there's no problem finding Brij. She's standing in the archway that separates the kitchen from the living room, pointing a revolver at Julian and Folly.
"Other side of the woman with the gun," Folly offers helpfully. Her eyes are fixed on her mother. She drops her shoes, but keeps her hands where Brij can see them.
"Hullo, Mum," she says, and gives her mother a wry smile. "Miss me?"
It could almost be a request.
"Put your hands up, both of you," Brij says, sounding a bit shaky.
Julian obliges her without argument.
"Now tell me what you're doing here and who the hell he is." Brij is not lowering the gun just yet.
"This is your grandfather, Mum," Folly says in a very calm, soothing voice, as if it were the most natural, everyday thing in the world for a heretofore-unmet several-century-old relative to show up unannounced in her mother's living room. "You know, from the diary."
She lifts her hands, as much to give Brij a better look at her as because she was asked, and adds, "Also, I'm pregnant."
"You're what?" Brij says and takes a good look at Folly's belly.
A flash of annoyance passes across Julian's face so quickly Folly's almost not sure she saw it, as if he wanted to relieve Brij of that annoying weapon and is just too far away from Brij and too close to Folly to risk it.
"P-r-e-g-n-a-n-t," Folly repeats slowly, drawing the word out almost but not quite to the point of insolent obnoxiousness, as if her mum were a bit hard of hearing. "I'm sure you're thrilled to know you're going to be a gram. Perhaps you should put the gun down so we can talk about it. And anyway, the father's not here, so you can't shoot him."
Brij's expression goes momentarily very ugly. "Which of them's the father, then? Syd or the other one? Or do you know?"
The impassive expression of which all others are but Shadow settles over Julian's features.
"His name is MARTIN, Mother," Folly replies, giving the last word an emphasis born of annoyance. "And yes, I KNOW."
She only manages not to add I'm not you because her mother is still holding a gun.
"Don't get cute, Folly," Brij says, as if she'd heard the unspoken bit. "What did you come home for? _Martin_--" and she lays emphasis on the name "--leave you without child support?"
She does not appear to notice that Julian is edging away from Folly.
"I THOUGHT," Folly replies, barely suppressing an eye-roll, "that you might care to be invited to the wedding. But perhaps not."
She carefully does not look at Julian or otherwise draw any attention to him.
"I'm surprised you bothered. Considering you've snatched every one of your so-called friends to go off to Neverland and left me." Brij glares at Folly. The gun hasn't wavered much, and Julian is still moving slowly to the side.
"'Snatched'?" Folly scowls. "We came and got Soren just a couple of months ago, and then OTHER people came and found US all on their own, and now here we are back to talk to---"
She blinks. "Wait, where's Haven?"
"I don't know," Brij snaps. "Isn't that your department?"
"Oh, I've been off in Neverland," Folly replies, barely managing to keep her own voice down. "But she was on my list. Right AFTER YOU." She stretches out the last two words to emphasize her point.
At least it's easy to keep her mother's attention away from Julian. Even if Folly rather wants to do so by flinging something at her.
For a guy who normally rides around in shining armor on a big white horse, Julian is remarkably stealthy.
"I could tell from the way you left me DRUGGED IN A HOTEL ROOM last time."
It occurs to Folly that maybe pissing off the irrational woman pointing a gun at her might not be the wisest thing she's ever done.
Folly scowls. "But you were--- That was--- We had---"
She cuts herself off abruptly and sighs. "I'm sorry, mum."
Brij's jaw works a bit and she lowers the gun a bit. Folly can hear the smug tone in her voice as she says "That's more like it." There's no mention of actually accepting the apology, or apologizing for anything she said or did on that car trip.
In the same mildly contrite tone of voice, Folly says, "Can we sit down and talk, then, maybe?"
"You and your--hey, where did he go?" Brij raises the gun again.
Julian has vanished, and doesn't seem immediately inclined to reappear.
Folly shrugs -- slowly, so as not to startle her overexcited mother by a sudden movement. "Dunno. Possibly he slipped off to the loo -- we've been traveling for a while." Calm, slow, even. "I guess sudden disappearances are sort of a family trait."
"It's one I could do with less of." Brij lowers the gun a little again, but she moves to put her back against a wall. "Now what about this wedding? Are you planning to drag me off to Neverland this time?"
"I suppose that depends a lot on you," Folly says carefully. "Do you want to go?"
Brij lowers the gun more. "I don't know yet. Can I come back when it's over?"
She glances around for Julian, but he doesn't seem inclined to reappear just yet.
"That should be do-able," Folly says. "If you decide you want to. Which..." The corner of her mouth quirks up in an expression halfway between sheepish and amused. "It turns out Syd is King of Neverland -- part of it, anyway -- and it's kind of exactly how you'd imagine it to be. Which might affect how much time you want to spend there."
She pauses and adds, carefully, "Also... we sort of accidentally ran into your father on the trip here. Which is also kind of a family trait -- accidentally running into each other, I mean. He may want to come with us, too."
It's a good thing Brij is no longer pointing the gun at Folly because the reflexive balling of her hand into a fist comes too damned close to pulling the trigger. "When? Where?" Her jaw sets angrily.
"In the forest. The national park up at Winterness," Folly says, her voice even. "He sort of tried to shoot us, too."
"I did _not_ try to shoot you!" Brij protests. "I had no idea who you were until I saw you, Little Miss Vanishes to Neverland. And the last time I saw you and some of your friends--" Brij trails off and glances around again for a look for Julian.
Julian has not yet made a reappearance that Folly can see.
"So he's coming to the wedding too?" she finally asks after deciding that she's not going to be able to find and/or shoot Julian.
"I rather doubt it," Folly says mildly. "He doesn't exactly seem like the going-to-weddings type, does he? But he's considering the offer to relocate to a bigger, wilder forest."
She pauses a moment, thoughtfully. "What do you think Neverland is?"
Brij's face curls into a sneer. "If it's your friends' idea of heaven, a lot of loud music and tattoos and rotten taste in clothes."
Folly smiles in imitation of sweetness. "And would you still want to go if it were?"
"That depends on whether I can get back," Brij snaps.
Folly nods; her expression grows more serious. "Would you believe me if I told you time doesn't necessarily run the same way there that it does here? You could almost certainly get back here, but... it might not be like what you expect. If that makes sense."
Brij glares at Folly "That's always your excuse. It's what you said when you didn't come back for years last time. You don't want me to come, do you? You're trying to scare me off."
Folly looks at her mother and sighs. "Maybe this would go better with an example." Her eyes narrow in thought -- and then glint as a terrible, terrible idea occurs to her.
She reaches slowly, carefully, for the pocket where she's stashed her trumps. "Do you remember the cards I showed you last time?" she asks.
Brij's eyes narrow, mirroring Folly's. "I remember."
Folly withdraws a small card case. "They're more than just pictures. Maybe this will help you understand."
She thumbs open the case and withdraws a card, finding the one she wants by touch alone. She holds it up for a moment so her mother can see -- a young man that Brij might recognize from the cards Folly showed her last time. Then she gazes on it herself, concentrating.
"Ossian? Are you there?"
"Yes?" Ossian's voice carries clearly, but he's obviously somewhat distracted.
"It's Folly," Folly replies. Her voice sounds concerned, perhaps, but no urgent. "Are you free to take a short call?"
Brij is staring at the card like it's sprouted an extra head.
//This is not a good time.// Ossian's mental voice channels sadness mixed with excitement.
"And I am Ossian, painter and singer." Ossian says, bowing. "It would be troublesome if we were lost in time as well as space here."
//I would appreciate if you'd keep the link up for a few minutes though. This could get ugly//
"Of course," Folly says, and frowns. She pauses, not wanting to tax Ossian's thoughts unduly during what is obviously a tense moment; but concludes quickly that they'd both be better off if she had some idea what to expect.
"Where are you?" she asks.
"What are you doing?" Brij asks, moving to snatch the card from Folly. But before she can do it, there's a thump, a clatter as the gun strikes the floor and does not go off. Brij doesn't join her in the contact.
Jullian's voice says, "What an excellent distraction. I wouldn't have considered it myself."
Ossian smiles "As far as we know, Paris is not allied with any fish-men."
"So who are you allied with then?"
//Huon//
Folly's eyes widen. Ossian detects a hint of irritation from her, but as it began before he answered her it probably has to do with something on her end of the contact. "Julian is with me," she says. Then, for Julian's benefit, she adds, "Ossian is talking to Huon. Is Mother secure?"
She doesn't dare look away from the contact to see what actually happened to her mother; but her nostrils flare as she instinctively checks the air for the scent of disturbed potting-soil.
There doesn't seem to be any, but this time Folly and Brij weren't close to a potted plant.
"Your mother will be secure in a moment. Does Ossian need my aid, or a rescue?" Julian asks.
"Not yet," says Folly quietly, "but he asked me to keep the link open, just in case."
As uneasy as it makes her, she leaves Julian to deal with her mother as he sees fit. The man regularly wrangles a giant horse and a pack of slavering hunting-dogs, after all....
//Keep Julian away at the moment. We are learning things//
Ossian cocks his head to and says "A vital question for the peace of our time is: which brother?"
//Ask Julian for the name of the brother Huon killed.//
"Ossian has asked for the name of the brother Huon killed. Do you know it, kinsman?" Folly asks Julian quietly, without taking her eyes from the card.
Julian says, "I'm afraid not. He was not of our kin, and he's long-dead, and those things slip one's mind after a few centuries when one wasn't involved. Your mother will be coming around soon, you know."
"Ah. Yes." Folly frowns into the contact. "Julian doesn't know -- Huon's brother was not one of our kinsmen. And events here may require that I break contact soon. My mother may... need to speak with me." She winced a little; she expected more yelling than speaking.
Julian is silent, waiting for the trump contact to end or to assist Folly if needed.
//It's ok. I think the immidate crisis is over here. Thanks, Folly.//
Ossian is walking, and whispters to Brita beside him "Well, we certainly learned some useful things. Should we try to witness Pinabello's walk? Or have we already moved out of that time zone?
"Greetings from Folly, by the way."
"Oh, yes, hullo, Brita!" Folly says when she gets enough of a visual to realize whom he is with, though she knows Brita can't hear her. "I suppose besides the surprise encounter with Huon, things are otherwise okay with you? Is there any news you wish me to report? I will look into this... Pinabello... when I am able." It seems clear she is repeating the name to fix the feel and the sound of it into her memory, and perhaps also to see whether it rings any bells with Julian.
Julian doesn't say anything immediately that indicates he knows who Pinabello was.
After a moment, he says, "Folly, your mother will be coming around in a moment."
Folly nods and, getting no urgent news from Ossian, says a quiet farewell and closes the connection. She turns to see what state her mother is in -- and whether the gun she heard clatter to the floor has been moved out of the way.
The gun is stuck into the waistband of Julian's jeans.
Julian is standing by calmly, leaning against the bar, and waiting for Brij to come around. Brij is on the floor with a couch cushion under her head and has been expertly handcuffed. Where the handcuffs came from is not immediately obvious.
As Julian said, Brij appears to be about to come around.
Folly waits and watches calmly, just out of reach of her mother's limbs (cuffed and otherwise) but -- alas -- still well within earshot.
Brij's eyes flutter open after a moment. She starts to sit up, struggles a bit, realizes she's cuffed, and falls back against the cushion thoughtfully provided by Julian. Her gaze settles on Folly.
"What the fuck is going on now?" she asks.
Julian looks at Folly, to see if she wants to field this one. If she wants to let him handle it, Folly intuits Julian has a ready answer. However, it's probably one in accordance with his idea of parenting.
"Great-grandfather took a gun away from you," Folly replies calmly, "perhaps on the grounds that it wouldn't be good for the baby. But that saved you getting shoved through a magic card, so I'd say you've come out about even. Do you remember what we were talking about?"
"Was it 'how my daughter turned out to be such an ungrateful bitch?'. No... that's right, it was the part where you wanted to take me to Neverland just like Syd had your boyfriend take you." She struggles a bit more with the cuffs. "Are you going to undo these?"
Julian is drawing in a breath to say "no".
"Are you going to behave yourself?" Folly asks. Before her mother can answer, though -- as if it were a rhetorical question, or the answer were obvious -- she continues blithely, "No, I mean the stuff after that. Where you didn't believe me when I said time moves differently in different places. Did you see the card when I talked to it?"
"A little," Brij says. She's getting that look that says Folly had better stop or there'll be hell to pay.
"And what did you make of it?" Folly asks calmly, as if this were all just a pleasant chat over tea.
"It reminds me of something a man I knew once talked about," Brij replies, tone sharp as a knife, "but he didn't show me his. Not that, anyway."
Julian gives her a look that would freeze the blood of a lesser woman. "What was this man's name?"
Brij swivels her head. "He didn't tell me his full name. Or at least not his real one, if Folly is right. But he called himself Uwe."
Folly folds her arms across her chest. "And just think how much trouble we could've saved if you'd deigned to mention that the last time we had one of these pleasant mother-daughter chats," she says with forced sweetness, though at least half her attention is on Julian.
She doesn't know much in any depth about genetics, but she makes a mental note to check whether homicidal sociopathy is one of those things that skips a generation.
"Would that be the one where your boyfriend beat me up?" Brij asks sweetly.
"Perhaps you would be 'beaten up' less often if you were less provoking," Julian suggests. "Your paramour is at war with the rest of the family." He turns to Folly. "I suggest we take her to Bleys. He might find something useful to do with her."
It's impossible for Folly to tell whether Julian is joking or not.
"Useful?" Folly asks with a faintly skeptical arch of her eyebrow, but then the corner of her mouth twitches. "Ah, well, I suppose he does have that enemy that needs annoying."
Not funny not funny not funny, she repeats to herself over and over again, but it doesn't help. She covers her mouth with the backs of her fingers.
"You can't do that! It's illegal!" Brij really starts trying to get out of the cuffs now.
Julian makes a slight noise than in a less urbane gentleman might be called a snort. "We're the princes of the universe, granddaughter. We are the law." He reaches for something that Folly can guess is his Trump case.
Brij says to Folly, "I'll be delighted to be in your wedding, baby. Are you ready to leave?"
Folly can't quite stop herself from rolling her eyes. "I've got at least one more errand to run while I'm in Texorami. But I'm sure your grandfather would be happy to get you settled somewhere...."
Butter wouldn't melt in Julian's mouth. "I think we should send her to Bleys, still." He pauses meaningfully. "Unless you have a better idea, niece."
Folly is silent for a long moment, thinking. "If we are to send her to any of your brothers, I daresay he would be the best choice. He seems... temperamentally well-suited to the task." And less likely than some of the others to slap Brij or sleep with her, she doesn't add, figuring Julian may well have come to the same conclusion. "I I understand he has relevant experience -- though of course I've never met his mother." Her tone is as mild as if they were discussing an applicant for a secretarial position.
"The other options are to leave her to her peace, such that it is; or drag her along with us -- and perhaps make her talk to her father, if we do track him down again, although I like that less than the other two options." She looks to Julian for his opinion, although it's reasonably obvious she expects the first opinion will come from her mother.
"Send me ahead. I'll need time to prepare for the wedding, I'm sure. How much have you planned?" Brij is not looking at Julian, not at all.
"Very little so far," Folly replies. "It turns out that talking to you was near the top of my to-do list."
Julian says, "I'm sure Bleys will have opinions about wedding preparations." The corner of his mouth might be quirking up, just a little, as if he were having trouble breaking out into a grin.
"Oh, yes," Folly agrees, not-quite-smiling herself, "I'm sure that between my mother, Bleys, and the Queen, they will come up with something... fabulous."
"No doubt," says Julian, managing not to smirk by dint of will, and steps back to draw out his trump of Bleys.
Brij watches him in a strange mixture of fascination and fear. "What exactly is he _doing_ again?" Brij asks Folly suspiciously as Julian starts talking to the card.
"Hmmm?" Folly turns her attention from Julian back to her mother. "Oh, the cards. You can think of them as a very high-tech sort of mobile. Only without the tech." She pauses a moment as she decides against using the word 'magic' just now. "Oh, and they also work as a sort of transport."
"Transport to where?" Brij asks, as Julian continues his conversation with Bleys.
"To whom may be the better question," Folly replies. "It's a connection to whoever is on the card. Or wherever, if it's a picture of a place." She pauses. "Explaining the specifics of the 'where' is a bit more complicated if you don't believe in Neverland."
She looks completely serious.
Brij draws in breath to say something to Folly, but Julian speaks up first, cutting her off. "Bleys has agreed to take her. Hand her to me and I'll send her through." Folly intuits from his tone of voice and expression that whatever he and Bleys have been discussing, it has upset Julian deeply.
"Wait! What? I'm not going anywhere!" Brij protests.
The tone of Julian's voice prickles the hairs on the back of Folly's neck. She draws herself up to her full height and fixes her mother with a Look, level and almost alien in its intensity; the power of her heritage seems to hang like a mantle about her. "This is your chance to learn who and what you are. We will not force you to go -- but understand that we may not pass this way again. Not for a very, very long time."
She pauses to let that sink in, and then asks, "What is your choice?"
Another protest. "You can't leave me behind!"
Julian extends his hand to Folly.
Folly lets out a long-suffering sigh, though the corner of her mouth quirks up very slightly, almost imperceptibly. She brushes the hair back from her mother's forehead and plants a quick kiss there, as she might to a recalcitrant child for whom she nevertheless carries a degree of rueful affection.
"Be good," she says, looking into her mother's eyes, though she knows those words will make no difference, except perhaps to piss Brij off even more. But that's something, anyway; if she holds on to her anger it won't leave much room for fear. "I'll see you on the other side. Soon." With that, she takes her mother's cuffed hands and passes them to Julian.
After the rainbow shimmer of her mother's passage has faded, Folly lays a hand on Julian's shoulder, gently and a bit tentatively. "What's happened?" she asks softly.
Julian has relinquished the trump contact. He turns to look at Folly and takes a moment to choose his words. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that Cambina fell from Tir this morning in Xanadu. She's dead. Vialle was supposedly with her, and is missing. Random's gone to look for her." He stops there, although he seems to have more to say.
Folly breathes out an expletive, and her eyes widen. Her fingers tighten against Julian's arm, some combination of steadying herself and comforting him.
Her mind is reeling -- forming and re-forming the list of whom she should call -- but she waits for Julian to continue before she says any more.
Julian, unusually, moves to put an arm of his own around Folly, perhaps to steady her. "We'll need to return to Xanadu in short order. The family is gathering."
Folly nods and leans into his proffered arm with a murmur of thanks. Julian might not naturally be the cuddliest of uncles, but his simple gesture brings unexpected comfort. Folly takes a quiet moment to still her thoughts and decide which of the several desperate actions scrabbling for her attention to heed next.
She glances absently about the room. Her eyes fall on a sleek silver rectangle perched inconspicuously on an end-table: her mother's laptop.
She looks up at Julian. "There are just a couple of things I need to do first. I don't expect it to take long."
She collects the laptop and settles onto one end of the couch. Flipping the computer open, she is unsurprised to learn that her mother -- never particularly tech-savvy -- has not even bothered to password-protect it.
Julian goes off into the kitchen. As Folly works on the computer, she can hear him puttering about. It sounds like he's making tea.
It takes Folly a few minutes to feel her way around the system, to remember the things Martin had shown her in the Texorami library... was that only a few weeks ago? It almost seemed like half a lifetime ago... but soon enough she has found a browser program.
She stares at the empty search field for a moment. With a deep breath that performs the same service as the fingers she can't cross while she's typing, she enters 'Haven Cooper'.
The first thing that comes up is her wedding announcement in the Texorami newspaper. Folly doesn't know the man, but he seems to be some kind of noble. It sounds like the kind of thing Haven's family would have arranged.
As Folly is reading the announcement, Julian returns with two mugs of tea and a plate of cookies which he must have found somewhere in the kitchen. Clearly her mother had had guests recently, or it's a good thing Julian didn't have preconceived notions about what he'd find in the kitchen, because Folly wouldn't have expected to find what he brought her.
Folly looks up from frowning at the screen as Julian returns. "Oh, thank you," she says as she accepts a mug of tea and takes a cookie. She gestures at the rest of the couch by way of invitation, if Julian would like to sit.
At Folly's gesture, Julian settles on the couch with his own mug and takes a cookie, as if they were at tea in Castle Amber.
She nibbles at the cookie while she finishes reading the announcement, looking for any other familiar names (besides Haven's family) or useful information. "I think I understand why this friend of mine didn't spontaneously wander into Xanadu," she says.
She tries another search on Haven's married name. She's looking in particular for ways to get in touch with her. She doesn't really expect to find Haven's personal mobile number or anything, but an address -- physical or electronic -- or the contact information of someone close to her might work.
If that turns out to be a dead end, however, she has a backup plan.
There are a number of familiar names in the announcement, but they're all people Folly knew through Haven and not close friends of hers. Once she starts trying to find contact information, Folly searches for a while, but doesn't come up with an easy way to get hold of Haven.
Folly's mouth twists into a thoughtful frown as she considers how best to enact her backup plan. It's a bit of a long-shot, in that it hinges on Haven having kept some of her adolescent habits.
But on the other hand, Folly is a daughter of Amber; if she presses this tiny act of Will onto the universe, perhaps it will tip in her direction.
"When you were in the kitchen, did you happen to see my mum's purse?" she asks Julian.
"I didn't notice one way or the other; it wasn't what I was looking for," Julian answers. "Shall I fetch it?"
"Please, if you don't mind," Folly replies. "I'll need one of her credit cards."
Not that she really needed her mother's credit card specifically; but the trail that it would lead amused her far too much to resort to some other option.
She navigates to the homepage of the Texorami Press, and from there to the Personals page. She and Haven (and, later, the other members of Happenstance) had spent many a late-night hour giggling over the funny, clever, desperate, and/or obscene four-line slices of humanity therein.
Here's hoping Haven is still paying attention.
Folly clicks on the "Place an Ad, You Poor Lonely Bastard" link and selects "Women seeking Women". She stares at the screen a moment as she decides what to say, what names to use, eventually settling on the ridiculous instrumental code names they sometimes jokingly used:
Celesta: I WANT YOU.
(to be in my wedding)
Love, Viola (and P.S. Tom misses you too)
She reads and re-reads the ad a few times to make sure; then, with a little smile, clicks 'OK'.
Julian produces the credit cards from Brij's purse in due times. Brij has a selection to work from.
By the time Folly is done, Julian has settled on the couch again. His expression seems to say "now what?"
Folly shuts the laptop and sets it aside. It is only a tiny thing she has done, but perhaps it will be enough to nudge Haven in the direction of Xanadu -- if she wants to be there.
For the next little while, Folly will just have to wait and see. In the meantime, there are other pressing matters to attend to.
"I should try to reach Martin," she says to Julian as she pulls out her trump case and finds Martin's card by touch. "Do you know whether anyone has told him what happened?"
"Bleys didn't say one way or the other. I'm given to understand that he doesn't answer trumps often, so I doubt he's heard," Julian says by way of understatement. He starts to come to his feet, mug in hand. "I'll be on the porch if you need me."
"Thank you, Julian," Folly says, holding his gaze for a moment before returning her attention to the card in her hand.
She concentrates, willing a connection. "Martin... sweetheart..." she intones softly as she waits for an answer.
There is no response.
Well, he is probably still a long way away, at the fuzzy edge of Order. With a slight frown, Folly pushes a bit harder.
There's still no response.
With a sigh, Folly replaces the card in its case. She stands, stretches, and -- as she ponders her next move -- begins moving aimlessly about her mother's house, peeking into cabinets and closets and calendars, into drawers and diaries.
In her mother's room, her eyes fall on a small wooden jewelry box, hand-carved in the shape of a scallop shell -- a gift, years and years ago, from her father to her mother. It occurs suddenly to Folly that perhaps her mother, having been whisked rather unexpectedly away from here, might appreciate a few personal items.
She gathers up the jewelry box and a few items of jewelry -- focusing on those that seem hand-crafted of natural materials, and that seem by their location on the dresser to have been most recently or most frequently worn -- and tucks them carefully into her satchel, along with the notebook by the bedside half-filled with her mother's scrawlings. Folly can well imagine that the next few pages will soon be filled largely with profanity directed largely at herself. The thought brings a wry smile to her face. Poor Mum.
She winds her way back through the house and out onto the porch to find Julian.
Last modified: 26 December 2008