A Trick Shot (154)

PSI-4

“Is he hurt? Is he hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Seth said. “Here. Here.” Mordecai was fluttering around him like a bird at a feeder but somehow this was not resulting in the transference of Erik into the hands of a competent parent. “He had a pencil, but I can’t get him to open his hand… Mordecai, please!”

Ann stood up and pulled back her chair. “Em, sit down.”

Seth blinked at her and stared. Ann was a very pretty… almost a girl. Usually. Now her hair was ripped up and her dress was twisted practically sideways — with a tissue poking out of the top. She had ringed eyes and streaked foundation and a smear of blood-red lipstick that looked like someone had punched her in the mouth. Did someone hurt her? What happened here? What did they tell Erik about it?

If she was hurt, it hadn’t had much effect on her strength or stability. She took Erik from him. “I’m sorry, dear. It’s hard for Em to hold things just now.” She squeezed Erik tightly, rocked with him, touched her smudged lips to his hair and then set him carefully in Mordecai’s lap. Erik made no noise or reaction for any of this, but when his uncle’s arm went around him he drew up his legs and wrapped both arms around the red man’s neck.

“He can’t talk to me,” Seth said. “It’s too much. He couldn’t… I knew he wasn’t okay.” He shook his head and turned away. “I should’ve stopped everything, I knew he wasn’t okay, but I didn’t want to embarrass him… He screamed. He screamed.”

This had precisely coincided with Ann saying, if he had a suitcase, he’d throw it at me, but only Erik knew that and he couldn’t tell anyone anything at the moment. The thing about the suitcase wasn’t a priority, really. More screaming seemed like a better option. When he could.

“Dear one, is it about me and Ann? Is that what it is?” Erik nodded against him. He felt cold and flaccid like a cheap rubber doll. Heavy, dead weight, but damp and breathing audibly. “Okay.” Mordecai held his child’s head, rubbed his cheek and tried to make it warm. “I know. It’s okay. I’m sorry. I know.”

“Mordecai, what happened to your arm?”

“A bunch of jackasses beat me up downtown. That isn’t anything to do with anything.”

“They… painted it?” Seth said weakly.

“Seth, for gods’ sakes, stop trying to help.”

Ann crouched near and laid her hand on Erik’s back. His shirt was transparent between the shoulder blades, soaked through. “Sweetheart… I’m sorry. Milo and I are sorry. He’s not mad at me like that anymore, and I’m not mad at your uncle. It’s going to be okay…”

Milo had been wavering on the edge of still being mad, actually, but Erik had decided him. Now he was trying not to be anything. It felt like trying not to throw up. I-I can’t even feel my feelings. It hurts too many people.

Milo, I think that’s probably not right and if you go on thinking like that it’s going to hurt you a lot, but… right now, let’s try it. Both of us.

“…dooon’t,” Erik said. Very soft. And ragged, like a rusted hinge.

Ann didn’t know if he was commenting on her internal dialogue with Milo, or some other aspect of this awful situation. She took a step back and removed her hand too. Sometimes Milo had a hard time with touching like that. “I’m so sorry, dear. I’m not trying to hurt you, I just don’t know what to do.”

Seth drew a sharp gasp. Ann blinked at him and stared. Seth was never really a well-groomed individual. He didn’t have a lot of money for, say, clothing repair. Or food. But usually the head on top of the shambling pile of ill-fitting fashion separates was in fairly good shape — with a welcoming smile on it. Now his white hair was hanging in his face and his eyes were dark and haunted. No smile to be found, not even a hopeful one. It was like they were going to get an off-season storm.

Ann felt a twinge of fear, oh, no, we can’t cope with one of those now, but then she shook her head. It’s just so hard to watch somebody being hurt when there’s nothing you can do. She took a step forward, lifting a hand. He took a step back and bumped into the counter.

“Erik, let me see your hand,” Mordecai said behind her. “I know. I know. But if it’s hurt I want to see it. Please…”

“I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have let him have a pencil,” Seth said.

“Seth, you do have a school,” Ann said.

He shook his head. “I knew he wasn’t okay. I shouldn’t… I’m sorry.” He raised a hand to stop her from coming any nearer. “No, I have to go. You can take care of him. I don’t know… I don’t know anything. I’ll go. You have enough to deal with. I’ll go.”

It came clear all of a sudden, like Milo pushing his glasses into place. It wasn’t the look of a coming storm, not a real storm. It was the look of Milo trying to politely excuse himself so he could go hit his head in the closet. Ann was drawn to it, and frightened of it.

He’s going to go buy drugs, she thought. Or get them some other way, if he can’t buy them. Because he’s hurt and if he hurts himself more, then he can be the one in charge of it. Because that’s how he learned to fix himself.

She wasn’t sure if she should let him. Sometimes it was the only thing that helped.

“…dooon’t,” Erik said. He drew a little sob.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry, dear one. I just need to see…”

Of course Erik knows, Ann thought. Of course he does. Either they’re talking to him and making him feel things that aren’t his, or he just knows Milo that well and he put it together like I did. And he thinks it’s his fault for going to school. She flinched and shook her head. No, Erik. Do you hear me like you hear Milo? I sent you to school.

“I…” Seth said. He bolted.

Ann went to Erik first, but quickly. She planted a kiss on the top of his head and whispered in his ear, “Erik, I am going to fix this… Em, I don’t think I can help you here. I’m just going to see about Seth.” She did not await any questions or a response. She ran down the back stairs. “Seth!”

He was walking up the alley, towards Strawberry Square, with his shoulders hunched and his head down. He didn’t stop.

Candlewood Park is that way, Ann thought. If he can’t afford the bus.

The school wasn’t.

She drew up her skirt with a hand and trod after him, negotiating the uneven cobbles in heels. She had learned how to run in high heels ages ago, all terrains. “No, please don’t go! I’d like you to sit with me. Please.”

He turned and he lifted his head, but he shook it at her. “Ann, you have… other people.”

“I sent Cin and Calliope to the park so I’d have room to yell at Em and he needs to look after Erik. It’s… It’s been hard. It’s just been hard. I don’t want to be alone right now. Please stay.”

He startled and swayed on his feet. She put a hand on his arm to steady him. “Seth?”

“Where do you want to sit?” he said.

“There.” She indicted the bombed out warehouse, with plenty of almost-walls at bench height. He didn’t look like he’d make it to Strawberry Square, and she didn’t like to go past the Dove Cot — especially looking like this. “It’s a nice day,” she added, smiling. “We don’t have to go back inside.” …where you’d have to look at Erik being hurt.

“Yes,” though it was more resignation than agreement.

They found a place that looked nice enough, dusty but not slimy. It was uneven and uncomfortable — more so for people of adult sizes and weights than the kids who hung around here all the time. If there was going to be any comfort, they’d have to make it themselves.

He preempted her, “You don’t have to explain it to me. If you want to talk, okay, I’m here for you to talk to, I won’t leave you alone, but you don’t have to justify…” He shook his head. “You don’t have to trust me with anything. I’m not asking. I know something bad happened and if that’s all you want me to know, it’s fine.”

“I’m…” Ann said. “I-I think… I think I’m too tired of it to explain it. I’d just like it to stop. Thank you for not asking.”

He nodded.

“Are the children going to miss you at school?”

“I told them to go,” he said.

Ann nodded. I thought you might have.

“We still have to sing when the trains go over,” he said. He gazed upwards and away, as if he were watching a train in passing right now. A long one. “Like you taught them. Even though it’s not loud anymore. I tried to teach them some Dylan.” He laughed weakly. “They like ‘Rainy Day Woman’ okay, but they still like the Frog Song best, because you taught them and you made it about us. I think we would’ve liked the Third Coalition Anthem a lot better if you’d done it like that, Miss Rose.”

“I wouldn’t mind teaching them again,” Ann said. “If you ever need… some time.” She smiled. “Or if you’d just like to see if I can get them to like Bob Dylan.”

“Maybe you should.” He dropped his head and pressed both hands over his eyes. “He hit his head on the desk. He hit it so hard, Ann.”

She winced.

Oh, gods, Ann, I think he learned that from me. I think… maybe just being around me. And they tell him about it.

“I shouted. I said, ‘Please go right now,’ but I shouted and I think that hurt him more. He stopped crying… But I think it was just like he couldn’t anymore. I scared him.”

That was so special when I was hurting myself and Calliope didn’t get mad or cry… Or get scared and yell at me. That must’ve been so hard.

She yelled to get Em, Milo.

Yes, but not at me.

Seth leaned forward and put his face in his hands. “I don’t know how to take care of him. I can’t take care of anybody.”

“Seth, you have a school,” Ann said. “You take care of everybody.”

“No. I can fake it, but not when it really matters. Alba knew.” He sighed. “Mordecai found out.”

“Alba was Erik’s mother.”

“Yes. She…” He turned his head aside. “I was a volunteer too, you know. Diane and I just showed up and said, ‘Hi, give us something to do!’” He smiled and waved at the empty space a little to Ann’s right. It came off both cheerful and sarcastic. “I could’ve… Well, no. Obviously I couldn’t’ve.”

Ann considered a moment and spoke slowly, “You could’ve taken Erik and run off like Em did, someplace safer, but Erik’s mother didn’t want you to do that?”

“I couldn’t have,” he said. “We worked together and she knew that. After the siege, I was on a park bench. Mordecai had a job and a house.”

Ann opened her mouth and closed it without speaking. This almost never happened, but it had been a very hard day and this was a very weird statement to unpack. Mordecai played violin on street-corners. And lived in Hyacinth’s house. Now, she and Milo had been quite impressed with Hyacinth’s house when they first moved in, but she had been in other houses since then. With metal. And shingles. And plumbing. Hell, even the doss houses had plumbing. If Seth really wanted to achieve Mordecai’s quality of housing in Strawberryfield, he could probably just move into an abandoned one and heat it with trash can fires.

Why doesn’t Seth live in Hyacinth’s house?

It’s because people walk off with pieces of the school, Ann.

Yes, but… I don’t know, couldn’t we steal him a building? It’s not hard. I don’t think Cin really has a deed or anything for this house, it’s just no one else wants it.

“I should’ve gone home,” Seth said. “I should’ve just gone home.”

Ann was reasonably sure everyone at Seth’s home had gotten shot to death. Robbery or something. Maybe just the war. She hoped he wanted to be there to save them, but she wasn’t going to ask. She took his hand and held it. “I’m glad you’re here with me now.”

“I wouldn’t go,” he said sharply. He drew back from her and shook his head. “Not unless you wanted me to. You asked me to stay. I wouldn’t hurt you on purpose.”

“Oh, no, dear. I know that.”

“He didn’t…” He winced. “No one at the house hurt you, Ann, did they?”

Ann drew a long breath and tempered what she might’ve said, “I think it is most fair to say I have been hurting myself. It is very hard not to do that sometimes,” she added. “Sometimes you need a very good friend to sit with you and help you stop.”

He turned away. “I’m ashamed of myself, Miss Rose.”

“Oh, please, don’t be. Not because of Milo and me.” She laughed a little. She couldn’t help it. Milo had come up with the image and it was funny. “That’s like you don’t have a shirt and you’re worried about that, but we’re over here with no pants or a dress on.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not sure I understand.”

“No, dear, you don’t have to. It’s too hard to explain and we’re tired of pulling bandages off today. You’re just going to have to trust me on this. There’s no point in your being ashamed about that around us.”

He nodded. It didn’t really matter — he was going to keep being ashamed no matter what they said and he promised he wouldn’t pry — but after that mention of pulling off bandages he couldn’t help picturing Ann and Milo in a hospital situation. A very specific one where they might tie your hands to keep you from hurting yourself that way.

It’s got to be so hard being two people. I can’t even manage one.

“Do you think Erik knows?” he said.

“They like telling him things that upset him,” she said. “I think he probably knows you wanted to do something he wouldn’t like, but not that we’re back here having an awkward conversation about it instead. It would be very good if you could stay and tell him that you’re all right… after he’s had a little time to get on top of being upset about Milo and me.” She touched his hand. “But if you really can’t, we understand. I can talk to him about it. And… I think I might like to give you some money. If you need to go. Just in case.” Ann had learned how to pick up quick spending money in Strawberryfield right around the time she’d learned how to run in high heels, and begun her contentious relationship with the ladies at the Dove Cot and others like them. She wouldn’t like him to do that. It would be especially hard for him, he didn’t even look like a girl. “It would be better for you,” she said, as if she were recommending an apple instead of a candy bar.

“Miss Rose… Ann… Please don’t say things like that,” he said. She… they… were so young. He was still teaching at Ann and Milo’s age. At a real school with walls and doors. He was barely out of college. He wouldn’t be able to sit here and divine what a drug addict might do for some money and discuss it so calmly. At the very least there would be a lot more swearing and protest involved. What? Don’t do that! Why would you do something like that? Can’t we take you to a hospital or something? Not this… resignation. Somehow it was even worse than people yelling at him and calling him disgusting.

Why do you know these things? he thought painfully. Why didn’t somebody grab you and take care of you and stop you from knowing these things? Why do you understand so much about me already?

“I’ll stay,” he said. “I’m not going to go when you want me to stay but, please, please don’t say things like that.”

“I’m sorry, dear,” she said, but she thought it was only because he didn’t want to talk about it. “We don’t really have to say anything. We can pretend we’re two strangers waiting for the bus if you want to. I just like having you here. Is that okay?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

She put her arm around him, maybe not quite like two strangers waiting for the bus. But he let her, so that was all right.

———

He had leveraged Erik onto the kitchen table and managed to get most of the pencil out of his hand when he heard Calliope’s voice come into the front room, sounding worried. “Milo…? Ann…?”

Mordecai was no slouch at applying vicious sarcasm to any situation and he made no exceptions for himself. He replayed the sound of a prize fighter’s bell at the back of his mind. Goddammit, I’m not done with round two yet! What kind of irresponsible asshole is in charge of this bitched-up situation?

…Cousin Violet, he answered himself.

Calliope peeked into the kitchen, holding Lucy against her. “Em…? Oh, no, what’d we do to Erik?”

“We upset him to the point where he can’t talk about what’s upsetting him. I’ve made all the obvious guesses, but it’s not making much of an impression. Also, I’m trying to get what’s left of this pencil away from him.”

“You poor kid. Is that a number two HB?” She tried to hand him Lucy so she could have both hands free for Erik.

“Calliope, please. Broken arm. Broken arm! Please try to think sensibly about trying to help me before you try to help me!”

“Oh, you’re doing the yelling,” Calliope said. She backed off a pace.

“I am sorry. I just…”

“Why didn’t you idiots send him out of the house?” Hyacinth demanded from the kitchen doorway.

“Of course we sent him out of the house, but it didn’t make any difference!” Okay, yes, he was doing the yelling. At least he could savage Hyacinth without feeling guilty about it later. “Why aren’t you in here helping me with triage instead of snapping at me and making him more upset? Why are you back here with Calliope when we might still be screaming at each other?”

Hyacinth took Lucy and deposited her in the kitchen sink, along with her purse. This was Milo’s fault. If Milo didn’t want there to be babies in sinks, he needed to put a lot more thought into Version Three of Erik’s old highchair. The goddamn Lu-ambulator had quit following them and auto-collapsed in the front room when Calliope picked up Lucy. “She got suspicious,” Hyacinth said.

“So you spilled everything and came home instead of coming up with a plausible excuse or distracting her with a shiny object or something.”

“Yes,” said Hyacinth. “Hey, kiddo, how about you let me get a look at that hand…?”

“Did Ann and Milo go?” Calliope asked weakly. “Did they not want to be here anymore?”

“Ann ran off after Seth and I don’t know what the hell that is…”

“Candlewood… Park,” Erik said.

Mordecai blinked at that, but whatever it meant it wasn’t going to help Calliope so he finished his original thought first, “…but she’s not mad at me anymore and she’s not at all mad at you. She doesn’t blame you. I think she and Milo are mad at each other more than anything else. Dear one, are you worried about Seth?”

It is not at all fair to give me this many opponents at once, Violet, he thought. And not even anyone to do tactics.

Erik nodded slowly as if waking.

“Didn’t you think to do yes and no with him?” Hyacinth said. She pulled her doctor bag off the counter. “I mean, you’ve lived with Milo long enough.”

“He couldn’t give me anything! Hyacinth, how dumb do you think I am?”

“You don’t want me to answer that. Here, honey, let me see…”

Erik winced. It came a bit delayed, as if there were still some kind of clog or short in the system, but it was a vast improvement over blank and staring. “Staples?” he said.

“No. That’s no place for staples and it’s not that bad. It’s just going to be annoying for a few days and I’ll put a bandage to remind you to be careful with it. No mountain climbing.”

“I’m… sorry.”

“Please don’t be sorry, Erik,” Calliope said. “We should’ve taken you to the park with us. It took me too long to remember Cin doesn’t go out of the house for no reason.”

“Excuse me, I am super spontaneous and unpredictable,” Hyacinth said.

“Not about leaving Barnaby and Room 101,” Calliope said.

“It wouldn’t have made any difference, Calliope,” Mordecai broke in. “They would’ve just told him whatever it was at the park.”

Erik put up a hand to interrupt. There were fine red scratches on it and a glistening application of salve, no bandage yet. “Wouldn’t… scared… Seth.” He cringed and put both hands over his face. The one with the salve went over his metal eye and he didn’t notice it stinging. “All… the… kids…”

“I’m sorry, dear one, that must have been awful,” Mordecai said. It was automatic, like ‘bless you’ after a sneeze.

Erik shrugged and shook his head. He ought to be used to everyone thinking he was weird by now. He’d go back and feel awful about that part when some other kids saw him coming and crossed to the other side of the street or wouldn’t pick him for baseball or something. “Seth… hurt. That part… Awful.” He looked up, his gray eye winced narrow and the metal one with its shrunken iris protecting the lens, as if waiting for a blow to fall. “Milo… so… mad.”

“Milo?” Calliope said. She cast about for signs of a struggle. Milo wasn’t safe when he got mad like that. He didn’t want to hurt people, but if you hurt somebody enough to make him mad — not scared or unhappy but really mad — then you weren’t people anymore. “Is Ann okay?”

Erik sobbed. He shook his head. He kept shaking his head. He didn’t know. You couldn’t split them up and wait for them to cool down, that was the bad part. And it wasn’t like when Ann got frustrated and wanted to hit Milo with a shoe — although that was bad enough. Milo wasn’t used to being mad. He didn’t know what to do with it. He let it erase him.

He wished he never made her if she was going to take things away like that. He forgot they were friends…

“Ann is okay,” Mordecai said. “Milo is okay too. They still have a lot to work out, but they’re over the worst part. They’re going to be okay. Ann is with Seth and they will look after each other if any of them need it.”

“Where are they?” Calliope said.

“Oh, the hell if I know. They ran out the back.” He was trying to be comforting, but he couldn’t help being annoyed. “They could be doing the dark rides at Papillon Island by now!”

Calliope opened the door and looked out. “Ann?”

“…Or they could be sitting three feet away having a lovely conversation while I try to look after Erik with one functioning arm!” Mordecai snarled from behind her. But he was scared and he needed help, so Calliope felt safe ignoring any hurtful things that came out of his mouth. That was just a thing he did, like the toaster that put rude words on the bread. She closed the door on him and went down the back stairs.

“Calliope…” Ann said. She tried to stand up and run at the same time and fell off the wall. Milo might’ve tripped her. He didn’t want her to have access to Calliope yet. Or at all.

Don’t you DARE hurt her, Ann! Don’t you DARE be mad at her or lie to her or screw this up any more than it already is! Don’t you DARE!

“Ann…” Seth tried to help her up. And then Calliope tried to help her up, also.

“No… I’m sorry. I’m sorry, dear…”

“Are you hurt?” She wasn’t sure which one of them asked it, but it didn’t really matter.

“No… Only a little bit. It’s not your fault.”

“I’m really sorry,” Calliope said.

Seth blinked and looked up at her, then he backed away. But he didn’t leave. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to do that.

“I know,” Ann said. “But we’ve already done that part and we don’t need to do it again.” She sat down on the wall, which brought her more in line with Calliope’s height. Calliope still had hands on her arms to help her and she reached out and did likewise to keep them that way. “Milo…”

…Don’t you DARE, Ann!

“…Milo really doesn’t want me to be the one to talk to you about this. But since I’m here right now, and I’m the only one of us who can actually say words,” she added through clenched teeth, “I-I have to try. We’re not mad at you. I’m not and he’s not. We both know what happened and we know it wasn’t on purpose. Okay?”

Calliope nodded with her lips pressed together over a sob, a hard line like a strike through the word. “Yeah,” she managed, finally. “Okay.”

“Milo…” And she sure as hell did not want to bring this up now, but if she didn’t there was going to be another fight. “He wants me to tell you he is very sorry he forgot about saying he loved you.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Calliope nodded a little more. “That was really nice of him. But you don’t have to worry about it. I mean, I’m not gonna hold him to that. He was super high. I think he just meant it like how I love chocolate milk.”

…That is exactly how I mean it and you are so amazing and I will make sure we always have milk and chocolate syrup in this house forever even if I have to hide some or put magic on it to keep Barnaby from ruining it.

Ann just stared. She might’ve been smiling, a pained little ghost of one around the edges, but she wasn’t sure. She is so good at understanding him… and he is so damn stupid I want to stab him in the brain with a fork.

“I saved the paper where he said it. Does he want it back? He did some really great circles, and a unicorn.”

“If you like it, he’d like to give it to you.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Calliope approached Seth with her hand extended for shaking. “Hi. I got Milo stoned on hash brownies back when I first moved in and he really hated it. Did Ann tell you already?”

“Um… No, but I guess it makes more sense now.” It didn’t really. It made even less sense than what he’d been imagining — it was so little! But he only had a piece of it. Ann offering him money if he needed to go was nothing at all if you only had a piece of it. He accepted the handshake and Calliope pulled him into a hug.

“Are you okay?” Calliope said softly. “Did Em lay into you for what happened to Erik?”

“Huh?” He pushed back from her.

“I mean, I get why Ann’s messed up, but I can’t figure a reason for you. Unless it’s just ‘cos he’s yelling at everyone in there. If he needs something, he pushes everybody away. It’s really weird. He knows right where to hit you so it stings, though. That part sucks.”

“No… No, I… Does he do that to you?” Tiny little Calliope who never hurt anyone (accidental hash brownies aside) and who didn’t need to be doing tactics so people wouldn’t die?

She shrugged. “Off and on.”

“Off and on,” Ann agreed, but with a great deal less equanimity.

“I think I’ll go in there and kill him,” Seth said.

“Erik wouldn’t like it,” Calliope said, frowning. “Do you wanna stay for dinner?”

“What?”

“I mean, he’d like that. And I’d like that. You look awful and I’d like to feed you and comb your hair and paint you on black velvet like a sad clown.”

Seth turned his head aside and raked his fingers through his hair.

“No, you guys need a mirror real bad.” She tugged on his arm. “Come on inside.”

“I don’t think I’m quite ready for one of those yet,” Ann said. But she did go in with them.

———

Hyacinth had had a couple minutes to straighten out Mordecai and Erik, so there was less yelling, but nobody really did anything about dinner. Eventually Mordecai put on some more water for tea and there were already cookies on the table for everyone to stare at. After a self-conscious attempt to adjust his hair and general arrangement in the downstairs bathroom, Seth accepted some advice from Ann and Milo about how to spot-clean his clothes. Ann eschewed all reflective surfaces and had Calliope try to clean her up with a damp paper towel.

Nevertheless, when Maggie and the General came down to either have dinner or have an update on why there wasn’t any dinner (odds were about 80/20 in favor of dinner these days) it was obvious something was up. Erik had his hand all bandaged and Ann had two mascara-blacked eyes like a joke about domestic violence, and all of them were staring blankly at the cookie jar with cold tea in front of them, while Lucy happily defrosted in the sink and chewed on Hyacinth’s purse strap unattended.

Maggie digested this with increasing dismay, unable even to put together what the problem was. (Seth’s presence was throwing her. He didn’t have anything to do with the brownies.) With clenched fists and toes digging into the insides of both shoes, she demanded, “What the FUCK is going on?”

“Magnificent!” the General said.

“The other shoe hit the fan,” Erik said.

And Hyacinth laughed at her. Which was not smart. Maggie set the hem of her skirt on fire.

“Oh, shit!”

“Magnificent, put Hyacinth out at once!”

“It’s not funny! I’m always coming in halfway through everything going to hell and it’s not fucking funny!”

Hyacinth picked up her skirt and swatted a hand at the flames before jumping matter-of-factly into the big flowerpot with the water in it.

“You will not have dinner this evening,” the General said. “Return to our room.”

Mordecai stood. “Hang on, at least let us tell her what…”

“You will not tell her anything if she is going to ask like that.”

“I don’t even want any dinner!” Maggie snapped back. “I’m sick of it! I’m sick of it!” She turned and stamped out.

Erik emitted an unhappy sound and sank lower in his chair. If he wanted to go after her, he’d have to go past the General. That might’ve been too hard on a good day.

Mordecai was willing to make an attempt. He still had a lot of leftover yelling. He pointed fingers too. “Listen, that girl has been through nine flavors of hell ever since Erik got hurt and all you ever do for her is shut her up in that room and throw math and tactics at her. Don’t you think she is justified in being a little pissed off?”

“It does not therefore follow that I will allow her to set people on fire without consequences, Mordecai. It is fortunate that your particular charge has thus far proven incompetent at magic.”

“If you teach her how to set people on fire and not how to cope with her own emotions, what the hell do you expect her to do? You’ve got her in a box! She only gets out Sun’s Days and bank holidays. Everything else she knows is filtered through you! If she’s not getting any help and she can’t handle any more strain, that is on you!” He had advanced to within three inches of her face, as she had not been considerate enough to back away, and he flung up a hand like he had a fistful of fairydust, “You shouldn’t have any goddamn dinner! You should go to your room and think long and hard about what you’ve done to that poor kid!”

She took a step towards him. He took a step back — but he left one foot right where it was, damn it! They looked as if they were about to break into an extremely aggressive tango.

“If I am going to have any dinner this evening, it is evident I will need to go out and purchase it myself,” the General said. “I leave you to whatever mess this is you have made and ask only that you keep it confined to the kitchen. I will deal with my daughter.” She abandoned her reluctant dance partner and vanished upstairs.

“I should get takeout,” Hyacinth said, dripping. She had not bothered to climb out of the flowerpot. “Seth, you like Xinese, don’t you? Xinese?”

Seth had both hands clamped over Erik’s ears. Meanwhile, Ann had drawn the boy into her lap and was hugging him so tightly he was nearly in a state of sensory deprivation.

I should’ve taken Ann’s money and bought drugs, the blue man thought. He nodded slowly to Hyacinth’s offer of Xinese.

“Hey, how come Maggie doesn’t go to school under the railroad bridge like a normal kid anyway?” Calliope said, frowning.