Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Trick or Treat Caravan





Fiona Reinhardt races after the group heading for the van and skid stops in front of her uncle "Uncle Mikey....I'm not signed up but...please let me come trick or treat in Cedar Point. It's my last one..." She says this like she's declaring a terminal illness. she's dressed as Wednesday Addams and has taken out all her facial piercings for the costume, looking eerily innocent.

Michael Reinhardt had two wheels on the ferry and two on the dock when his niece comes racing up. He tries, and fails, to look hard. "Alright, alright. Man ... I hope I never have a kid like you. Can't say no." he shakes his head and opens the passenger side door of the van and motions her inside. Closing it, he gets back behind the wheel and drives completely onto the ferry, parking the vehicle. Immediately the ferry starts moving, but he waits a couple of minutes before he pulls out his phone and, leaning over the inert steering wheel casually, picks a number from his contacts. When answered, he cheerfully begins. "Hey John. How's the shift going?" he pauses and raises his eyebrows, taking a sidelong look at his niece. "What makes you think anything is WRONG?" he demands.

Fi beams and leaps in, finding a seat as fast as she can.

John narrows his eyes, holding his phone to his ear and stepping away from a conveyor belt that's ceased up in the production line. He's the Foreman in the Metalworks factory. Tom O'Leary is shimmying himself under it, trying to find out where it's out of alignment below. Quentin Tyrell looks for hints of the problem on the top side. Michael would hear the two muffled voices of those factory workers in the background as they trouble shoot.

"Since when do you call to ask me about work...at work...what the hell man....kind of in the middle of a thing here...."

Michael shrugs, looking out over the water as the ferry moves right along. "I just called to tell you Fi stopped me on my way off the island. She's coming Trick-Or-Treating in Cedar Point. It's her last chance to do it." he has taken on the same tone as Fi had. "So you know where she is."


John rolls his eyes. Michael can't see it but he might hear it in his tone from knowing him "Oh bloody hell she's so deprived...." There's the clattering of a wrench hitting a concrete floor in the background and Quentin's deep voice yelling "Come on motherfucker, budge!" followed by a more medium pitched male voice shouting back "Yur stunend as me arse Quen...tha was nearly my head! John walks a bit further way from the repair scene and sighs "Ok, thanks for letting me know Mikey."

Michael hears the eyes. Must be a sibling thing. "Kids, right?" he pauses and, even though he knows his brother is busy, takes ONE more jab. Looking at Fiona, he deadpans. "Don't worry, I won't let her open that trench coat, but man, she's gonna break her ankles in them stilettos." and, smiling he quickly adds. "I'm JOKING, I"M JOKING .. she's Wednesday Adams .. fits her personality."

A vein pulses in John's temple until Michael says he's joking and then he laughs "For fuck's sakes.....that sounds about right....look Mikey I gotta...."

The conveyor belt finally un-sticks and the whole system lurches into motion with a screech that could shatter windows and minds. John drops his phone and it disconnects the call. Tom O'Leary rolls on the floor holding his ears and whimpering and Quentin falls back into the wall behind him wailing incoherently. John picks up his phone and shrugs at it, smiling as he recovers. He sends Michael a quick text "Sorry, all good here now. Have fun and tell Fi to bring home a good haul." The cans start moving down the line again ready to be boxed and shipped to Cedar Point.

Michael pulls his head back at a loud noise, followed by dead phone. But the text message comes on the heels of it. He texts back "Will do" and turns to Fi. "Your father says bring in a good haul. For both of us. I don't think Tristan and I are close enough yet for me to get a cut of the bounty."

Like a ninja Fi pulls a king sized pillowcase out of a small black purse she has slung discreetly across her costume and then deapans "I'll give you candy, in exchange for your immortal soul."

Michael looks at her, his own face deadpan. "I have a soul?" he asks, followed by. "I tell you what? You give me candy, and I will tell your father where I put your body?" he counter-offers.

Fi tilts her head looking suitably morose and puts a hand on her heart "Uncle Fester, you warm my heart. I'll have to remove it now."

Michael snorts and places a hand protectively on his head. "Not the hair!" he exclaims, in mock panic. "Bald is your Dad's thing." he smirks.

Fi smiles sweetly "It would grow back eventually." She looks around at the other kids in the van, assessing them and asks a sort of general question to the group "When you die, do you want to be buried or cremated?"

Michael shakes his head. "It had better, or I will get myself a new favorite niece." he listens to the question and turns his head away as his passengers eyes grow wide. The ferry will dock soon ... and by the time they get back to Alexandra, he figures, the children may not be as scarred by his niece as he thinks them may ....

Fiona drums her fingers boredly on the side of the seat, accidentally bumping the boy close to her age beside her dressed in white with a halo. She's seen him at school before and even knows his name is Vincent from teachers and other students in the hall. She looks at him blandly but doesn't say anything, just staring and not being discreet about it at all. It's not a come on, more like a serial killer watching you.

Vincent had been sort of watching Fiona from the moment he saw her talking to the big guy ... who turned out to be her uncle ... earlier. She's a pretty cool girl, but shes older than he is, even though he knows it is well known he pushes the envelop at school. But a male harpist is bound to get into fights, he figures. Now she is sitting beside him and bumping into him ... and looking at him in a kinda creepy way. But Vincent fancies himself a braver man than all that. He reaches down and places his harp in his lap. Ignoring her look, he begins to play the Adam's Family theme on his harp.


Fiona breaks into a genuine grin, despite her desire to be consistently morose and then tilts her head listening to the song. Well played Angel, well played.


1 comment: