About two hours later, the car pulled up to a mansion fit for a film. It had a beautifully manicured yard, albeit nothing compared to the gardens that Amy had shaped. The white manor had a large front porch with giant white columns holding up the second story, just as the glittering illusion showed and a swing with an elderly lady lazily gliding back and forth. The pair got out of the car and headed towards the manor.
“Hello, are you Mrs. Walcott?” Theo asked as they approached then reached his hand out to shake hers, “I’m Theo and this is Ms. Amy, we’re investigating a murder that happened at Shady Acres Behavioral facility in Evergreen Louisiana and we thought maybe you could help us.”
The lady, who had seemed startled to have guests, began to smile, then took the offered handshake. “Well hello Mr. Theo and Ms. Amy, I am Mrs. Walcott, I was hoping you would come visit me!”
Theo and Amy sat in the neighboring chairs and before Theo could begin, Amy asked, “Did you make calls to Shady Acres a few months back?” impatient to have her mystery solved.
“Oh no dear, I made calls to you.” The lady gave Amy a knowing smile.
“Do you know me?” Amy asked, thoughts racing through her head.
“Well, I know of you,” Mrs. Walcott remarked, “You did kill him didn’t you?”
Amy’s eyes grew wide, “how did you kn..”
“Oh don’t worry dear, I know what kind of man Marsh was, and I know that you were only doing your job. I just wanted to warn you of what was going to happen, but you know how they’re always listening in, had to use code. I’m so happy that the two of you found me though.” She seemed relieved and excited.
“Okay, I have a few questions,” Theo began, “one, how did you know Marsh, two, what kind of man was Marsh, three, who was listening, and four, how do you know about Amy?” He finished in a single breath.
Mrs. Walcott chuckled, “Well, you are quite in the know as well aren’t you? Let’s get out of this heat and get some sweet tea and I’ll tell you all about it.” Theo helped her out of the swing and the trio headed through the front door.
As they settled into the living room, the nurse brought their drinks and Mrs. Walcott began. “I am from the same world as Amy, although I've been here for much longer. I knew of Marsh because he murdered my beloved husband. Once he died, I came here to escape the danger. I’m very thankful that Amy took care of him, and in such an imaginative way too!” She grinned at Amy, who looked down ashamed. “And to answer the last question, the receptionist of course.”
“The receptionist?” Theo pondered for a while then a metaphorical lightbulb exploded above his head. “She was really off-putting. Was she from your world as well?”
“Yes dear, she was sent to find Amy and try to get her back. I like to keep an eye on those who could cause harm in this world, but I’m too old to do anything but warn her anymore.”
Amy squirmed in her chair, getting more uneasy by the second, her leg was shaking at a speed that would break a pedometer. But Theo continued his questions.
“She wanted to bring Amy back to your world?”
“Yes, but back to her old boss specifically. That Brawn Spyder is a real tool.”
Amy snorted and Theo’s mouth dropped open. Neither of the two expected that response.
“I mean, what kind of douchebag changes his name to Brawn Spyder.” She enunciated the name with utter disgust. ‘I’m going to throw a party for the two of you when you finish this job. Just come back here when you’re done” she concluded the sentence with a wink.
“Are you a witch too?” Theo asked, inwardly kicking himself for asking such a ridiculous question.
“No, I was a Valravn in my world, but here I’m just a little old helpless lady.” Theo heard the nurse from the other room let out a disbelieving snort.
“I’ve never heard of a Valravn, what is that?”
“Half wolf, half raven. But I’ve consumed my fill of dead soldiers, so you needn't worry.”
Theo, for once, was at a loss for words. So Amy chimed in, “Do you have any other leads that we can take, other than skinning that receptionist alive?” Amy didn’t have a spec of sarcasm in her voice.
“Oh that won’t do you any good, shapeshifters are everywhere. I don’t have any more leads relating to you, but I would bet you a shiny penny that Mama Luce would know what to do.”
“How do we find Mama Luce?” Theo asked, returning his sideways stare from Amy to Mrs. Walcott.
“You always find her when I need her.”
“Well, that’s not very helpful.” Amy protested.
“Okay, fine, head towards New Orleans and don’t get mad at any detours you might have to make. Is that clear enough for you?”
“I think we can handle that.” Theo smiled and started rubbing the tops of his thighs the way people do when they are trying to end a visit.
“Are you leaving so soon?” Mrs. Walcott asked, her face saddening,
“No ma’am, we would love to stay and talk for as long as you’re willing to have us” Theo responded without hesitation. Her face brightened tremendously at this considerate young man. They stayed for a few hours talking about Marsh and the old world and walked around the garden, Amy and Mrs. Walcott exchanged gardening secrets until the late afternoon, then the pair headed out to the car once again, this time to New Orleans to find Mama Luce.
They drove south for about half an hour talking about their morning with Mrs. Walcott until they came upon standstill traffic. The road was completely washed out due to river flooding. Police were directing traffic to the only available road. Theo and Amy looked at each other both grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
As they drove, the scenery swiftly morphed from highly populated cities to swamps, with thousands of shades of green and brown and textures that shifted from cloudlike to razor-sharp. She hadn’t been out of Evergreen for fear of discovery and capture so she sat in the passenger seat hypnotized by the wetlands and the wonders that only grew in this part of the world.
She saw eyes meticulously moving along the surface of the bright green-skinned water and birds with legs so long she was sure the songs she’d heard on the radio were about them. The trees that shaded the ground were a wonder in themselves. They were monstrous and gnarled and looked as old as time itself. Growing on every available tree branch were vines and moss that appeared to have grown together forming its own impenetrable layer. And to securely round out the creep factor, the fog that laid right on top of the still water seemed to be moving as if it were alive.
After traveling for about an hour, Theo’s stomach started growling loud enough to startle Amy from her fascinations. “Do you need something?” Amy insisted, staring at Theo’s stomach.
“Yeah, I’ve been getting hungry for a while now, but I didn’t want to say anything.” Theo rubbed his stomach unconsciously and frowned.
“Stop at the next restaurant, that noise is concerning” Amy stated, pointing at Theo’s stomach and giving him no room to argue.
They’d just passed the last city for a while, so Theo was concerned that there wouldn’t be a restaurant for hours, and just as he was finishing his thought they came upon a run-down shack with an old sign that read Po a Pou Kwit Manje.
“Is that a restaurant?” Amy asked
“Well I see smoke coming out of that fireplace, and there’s a sign that says The Cooking Pot” Theo responded
“How in the hell could you know that?” Amy asked
“What? You don’t speak Creole?” Theo smirked, knowing full well that very few people in the US, outside of Southern Louisiana, did.
Theo parked the car in a hurry and before the dust had settled Theo was out of the car on his way towards the diner. Amy followed a bit less enthusiastically. As they made their way to the porch of the shanty, Amy saw a sign above the door that read Kreyol Pale, Kreyol Komprann. She wanted to ask Theo what it meant, but he’d already bolted inside and sat at a busted table that looked like it could barely hold his weight, an excited grin already spread on his face.
The question lost, Amy carefully sat at the table Theo had chosen and began to look for a menu. Then a heavyset lady with caramel-colored skin and dreadlocks decorated with metal beads and other various decorations burst through the door shouting something that Amy couldn’t understand at the cook when she noticed the two sitting at a table. She quickly calmed her demeanor and placed a big broken toothed smile across her face.
“Byen Venu, I’m Mama Luce. What can I get you to drink, we have tea and water.” the lady spoke with a thick creole accent. The two snapped their heads back to look at each other in amazement.
“Uhm, what kind of tea do you have?”
“Oh honey, we got the best sweet tea in Louisiana, I’ll getcha both a cup,” she said beaming then left through the same door she’d come in continuing her rant directed at the cook.
Mama Luce returned with two mismatched glasses of sweet tea and twinkled, “I add a little magic to every pitcher, y’all want some food too?”
“Yes please!” Theo responded, straightening up as he reached for his glass, “What’s on the menu?”
“Today we got jambalaya, that okay?”
Theo’s eyebrows jumped “I love jambalaya!”
Amy’s back also straightened. She loved jambalaya, it was her favorite dish from this world.
“Okay, be right back cher” and Mama Luce was gone again.
Amy took a sip of tea and her eyes shot open “Holy shit!” she exclaimed, then took another large swig, “this is better than mine!”
“Well, I haven’t tried yours yet, but yeah, Mama Luce was right. This is the best sweet tea I think I’ve ever had” Theo pronounced.
“She is definitely a witch,” Amy joked. Just before the glasses were emptied, Mama Luce came out of the kitchen carrying two colossal bowls of steaming jambalaya. The scent hit their noses as soon as she entered the room, and both of their mouths immediately started salivating. The scent was savory, but also burned their nostrils, and once she set the bowls in front of them, Amy could see that the entrée looked nothing like the jambalaya that she’d been taught to make by the folks in Crescent. It had rice, shrimp, and sausage along with ample peppers and spices that added a rainbow of colors to the dish.
Theo dove into the bowl like he was in a competitive eating competition, devouring half of the dish before taking a breath, and after her first taste, Amy wasn’t far behind him.
After refilling their glasses, Mama Luce sat down at the table with them. “We don’t get a lot of visitors this far away from town. What brings you to my house?” She asked, clearly trying to make conversation with someone other than the cook.
“The road was washed out on our way to New Orleans, we’re on our way to solve a murder,” Amy said without realizing that she was giving away much more information than she normally would to a stranger, but she was largely absorbed with the meal she was demolishing. Then she dropped her fork and sat up realizing what she’d just admitted, her face was a mixture of rice, spice, and confusion.
“It’s the tea” Mama Luce confirmed, acknowledging the inferred question, “it won’t let you lie, but don’t worry, I ain’t mean ya no harm. Just gotta make sure the people I feed’r pure” and gave her a warm smile. “So tell me about this touye” she continued.
“Does that mean murder or crime or something?” Amy whispered through the corner of her mouth to Theo.
“Yeah” Theo responded mimicking her facial movements, then redirected the conversation back to Mama Luce, he continued, “A body was found in a mental facility in Crescent Louisiana.”
“Oh I know the place, Shady Acres right?” Mama Luce interrupted.
“That’s the one” replied Theo, “Well the patient showed up in a locked room at Shady Acres with all of his organs in pieces all over his body, but no puncture wounds that could have caused it. Amy did it, but only for a job. We’re trying to figure out who sent the body and why.” Theo continued nodding at Amy, but not slowing his jambalaya ravaging.
“Well, it seems to me that the only way someone could have come and gone without using the door is if they were from our world.” She said looking directly at Amy
Amy and Theo’s mouths simultaneously dropped, spilling their mouthfuls back into their bowls.
“How could you know that?!” Amy said bewildered and slightly embarrassed.
“The same way you knew about me” Mama Luce replied and winked, “we gotta recognize and care for our own kind in this world bebe. It seems to me that someone you killed in Noxaros in the past showing up in your bedroom is a pretty big sign.” She continued, giving no notice to Theo who was still unsuccessfully trying to hide his surprise.
Amy grew noticeably uncomfortable and whispered, “I came here to get away from Noxaros because it turned me into someone that I’d rather not be” her eyes shifted as she recalled her shame.
“Oh yeah, that place can do that to ya” Mama Luce knowingly replied, “But as long as you got yourself an anj, you should be fine” her eyes darting to Theo just long enough for Amy to notice. Amy looked at Theo in a new regard, he was still shoveling the jambalaya in his face-hole like he was never going to eat again, his hunger conquering the surprise of meeting yet another magical person. He’s adorable Amy thought, then quickly responded to the internal dialogue with where the fuck did that come from?
Finishing his last bite, Theo finally chimed into the conversation. “So, are you a witch too?”
“In a way, I was once from Noxaros, but I’ve lived here long enough to have forgotten a lot of it. I prefer the Vodou I’ve learned since I been here”
“Interesting, how long have you been here?” Theo inquired,
“Oh ‘bout 250 years, give or take” she responded
Theo was thankful that his mouth was empty because it allowed him to choke on his response instead of rice, “how is that possible?”
“Don’t ask me, ask the girl sittin’ next to ya. How old are you, I’d guess about 130?”
“134” Amy responded smiling at Theo’s bewilderment, then moved a hand over to close his jaw for him. “That’s pretty young for my world, I’d say it’s equivalent to a humans’ early twenties”
Seeing that both of the bowls had been licked clean Mama Luce asked, “Y’all got somewhere to sleep for the night? The swamp can get dangerous as the light goes down”
“Well, we slept in that POS in the drive last night” Amy replied, remembering how much her muscles ached.
“Hey, It wasn’t that bad! Susan has been there for me for years!” Theo disputed with mock offense.
“Oh no doll, you can’t do that two nights in a row, y’all got a murderer to catch. How about ya sleep in my extra room for the night?”
Amy looked at Theo and clasped her hands pleading with him to escape the passenger seat for just one night.
“Fine” he surrendered, crossing his arms.
Mama Luce told them to follow her through the doors that lead to the kitchen. Amy and Theo expected to see the cook that she’d been berating when they first entered the establishment, but saw no one. They followed her through the kitchen, out the back door, and into another house behind the restaurant.
"Now, I stay in my room in the restaurant, but I keep this place up for guests. It’s comfortable and it’ll protect ya from the creatures in the swamp. Make yourselves comfortable” and she left.
“I’ll go get my bag, you have yours?” Theo said looking at the small handbag Amy had hanging over her shoulder and smirked again.
“Yep,” she replied, patting the impossible pouch. After Theo had left the room, Amy looked around. She saw a single queen-size bed with battered but clean looking bedding, a rocking chair in the corner that abruptly stopped its slight rocking when she looked in its direction and many figurines decorating the shelves. Next to the statues, she saw a variety of jars holding different kinds of powders and liquids. She was on her way to investigate the ingredients when Theo burst into the room carrying a large suitcase and laughing to himself.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Well, when I went to get my bag I saw a sign about the door that made me laugh”,
“I was going to ask about that!” she suddenly remembered, “What does it mean?”
“It means ‘Speak plainly, don’t try to deceive’”.
The two unpacked the few things they needed for the night and looked at the bed then at each other.
“How are we going to do this?” Amy asked,
“I’ll take the chair, it’s not a problem” Theo did his very best to hide how uncomfortable he knew a rickety old rocking chair would be to sleep in.
“In that?” Amy pointed to the chair to make sure she understood him correctly “You want to sleep in that?”
“Yeah, sure, I’ve slept in worse”
“That’s not the point, the point was to get a better nights sleep than we would in your car”
“Oh, I’ll be fine”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. How about this? We can both fit on the bed. How about I sleep under the covers and you sleep over them?”
“Oh yeah, ok. I can do that,” the relief in his voice was evident.
The two laid on the bed in their assigned positions with their eyes open. Neither had slept in the same room with anyone, much less the same bed, in recent memory and both found it interfered with their sleep.
After what seemed like hours, Amy finally spoke up. “Ok, I can’t sleep”
“Me either” Theo let out a relieved breath
‘Tell me your story”
“What story?”
“I don’t know, how about the story of how you became a P.I.?”
“Oh, I don’t think you want that, it’s not the most interesting story. How about one of my more interesting cases?”
“Well, now I have to know”
“Maybe another time” Theo was unyielding,
Amy finally got the hint. It must have been something bad she reasoned. I’ll wait until he’s comfortable, she thought. Ok, then tell me another story.
“I’ll tell you one of my stories if you tell me more about where you come from, my imagination has been going crazy with all the possibilities.”
“Ok, deal.” Theo told the story her one of the odd cases that he’d solved while she asked questions with a fevered interest. Then once his story was complete, Amy began.
“Well, Noxaros is very different from this world. For one, it’s always the perfect temperature, nothing like this boiling hot mess you have in Louisiana. Oh, another difference is all of the colors.” Her eyes started to cloud over in reverence, then she quickly brought herself back to reality. “The main colors I’ve seen here are green and brown for the most part unless there is electricity involved. In Noxaros the colors are more varied and brighter”
“Like the flowers in your garden?”
“Yes, I brought a few of the more ordinary ones here. I needed them for some of my recipes. There is a reason all of my patients found relief” Amy finished with a knowing smile. Then a few seconds later told the rocking chair in the corner to “shut up.”
Theo looked to the corner to see the actively rocking, yet empty rocking chair, then back at Amy, then back again. “Uhm, what?” Amy’s eyes widened again, then darted from side to side trying to find the best lie and failing.
“Ok, I was going keep this one for later, but” her eyes darting piercingly to the rocking chair “since this one is so funny, I guess we can just do it now. Ok Rox, show him… Yes… Well you want to make all these comments, so do it.”
Then a bright pink and purple Cheshire cat, just like the one from Wonderland, appeared in the chair grinning at Theo from ear to ear said in a chilling voice, "Hello Theo."
“Oh stop it.” Amy said “Show him who you really are, stop wasting time.”
The Cheshire cat then faded into a normal looking orange house cat, albeit a very very large house cat Theo thought, and said in a normal gruff Scottish accent “Hello Theo, I’m Rox.”
Amy looked at Theo and said "I brought my cat, and he's an ass."
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