A.N.D. - Through the Looking Glass

“Ginny? Is that you? Oh, my God, it is-hey, Ginny, are you okay?”

“Chrissy? Wow, Chrissy, it’s been forever! I...” Virginia tried to stand on her own and stumbled. Wolf caught her before she fell and guided her to another bench, with the mystery Chrissy following closely, still talking. Wolf was uncharitably reminded of Granny’s little yappy dog-until he noticed a dusting of green out of the corner of his eye.

I smell magic!

Virginia looked better than she had all day. The sparkle was back in her eyes, and a little bit of color came back to her cheeks as she excitedly chattered with the new woman. From what he could tell, they had been waitresses together, and as close a friend as the formerly-withdrawn Virginia could have, until Chrissy got another job.

“So how do you like working for yourself?” Virginia’s face fell as her friend looked down and started gnawing on her lip. “Oh, the catering thing didn’t work out, huh?”

“No, it did. At least it did until a few days ago.” Chrissy flopped onto the bench next to Virginia. “We were doing pretty good for ourselves. Have a couple big contracts coming up, too, contracts that would keep us going until the holiday rush. Then Julio lost his green card and Delilah found true love and moved to California to be with him, and Amelia broke her leg and... hey, Ginny? What are my chances of luring you away from Grill on the Green and getting you to work for me?”

Wolf snapped to attention, but before he could say anything, Virginia patted his hand warningly. “I’m willing to talk about it,” she said. “But I’m not sure I can work with food right now.”

“Not work with food? Ginny, you’re a genius with a menu! You’re not on some weird diet or anything, are you?”

“No.” Virginia leaned forward and took her friend’s hands in hers. “I’m... I’m pregnant. And I’m having really bad morning sickness. It’s more like all-day-sickness!”

“Pregnant!” Chrissy sat back, looking dubiously back and forth between Virginia and the protectively hovering Wolf. “Um... congratulations?”

“It is congratulations.” Wolf felt the knots in his shoulders loosening at the sight of Virginia’s smile. Good. Her sickness hadn’t made her change her mind about the baby. Her weakness, that crack about tails... he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it even to himself, but he’d been worried that Virginia would take her Grandmother’s advice after all and just get rid of the baby. And then what would he do? How could anyone choose between their child and their mate?

Oblivious to his worries, Virginia lifted her left hand to show off the ring. Fortunately, they didn’t have to worry about the pearl singing. It had been splattered during some of Virginia’s worst throes and was now hiding, its little face firmly turned inwards.

“Delilah’s not the only one who found true love. Wolf,” she reached for him with her other hand, “is my one and only, and we’re going to get married.”

“Just as soon as we find work,” Wolf chipped in. The bean had to have brought this Chrissy to them, why weren’t they getting down to business?

Chrissy looked him over speculatively. “Do you have experience as a waiter? Is that how you met Virginia?”

“Not quite. It’s... complicated,” Virginia said.

“I haven’t been a waiter.” Not unless you count ladling out bowls of nauseating beanstalk soup to miserable convicts. “But I’ve been a cook. A very good cook.” Wolf warmed to his theme. “Let me show you! I can whip you up something that will make your lips smile and your tongue sing. Your taste buds will be ravished! Your... what, my succulent sweetie?”

Virginia stopped digging her nails into his hand.

“Does he always get like that?” Chrissy asked dubiously.

“Wait until you taste his cooking, you’ll think he’s being shy and modest.”

Chrissy looked him over speculatively. “Hey, right now I’ll take anyone who can follow a recipe.” She frowned at Virginia. “He’s a citizen, right? I’m not going to have yet another round of trouble with the INS?”

“I’m not from around here, no,” Wolf confessed.

“But he’s got a social security number and everything, so no INS,” Virginia jumped in with a too-bright smile.

“That’s okay then.” Chrissy cocked her head, thinking about it, but Wolf could see the reflection of green vapor in her eyes. Just to be sure, he added just a little bit of Persuasion. Chrissy went from looking dubious to looking stunned. “Tell you what. If your Wolf is half as good as he says he is, we’ll put him in the kitchen. You can do the billing and customer contacts and stuff, that’ll keep you away from the food, and free me up to do delivery and serving with Wolf. Same salary as the Grill, with benefits. How about that?”

“Sounds perfect. When do we start?”

Virginia was so energized after Chrissy left them that she could stand straight on her own. The hand that clasped his was strong again, and there was a sparkle in the eyes that laughed up at his.

“Wolf, what a wonderful wish! It’s the perfect job, it really is.” A smell of french fries and onions wafted by from a nearby stand, and her smile and grip wavered, but she didn’t have to run. That was a good sign! Maybe if...

A butterfly, fluttered past his nose, cutting off his thoughts. Butterflies were rare along the streets, he’d discovered. Especially bright green butterflies that left sparkling green trails.

Virginia saw it too, and stared at him, open mouthed. “Was that...?”

“Yes! Don’t let it get away!”

Don’t go into traffic, don’t go into traffic, don’t go into traffic, don’t... Wolf mentally ordered as they followed the fluttering thing. It wafted down a block then did turn toward the street, flittering at the corner until the light changed.

Still hand in hand, Wolf and Virginia charged after it.

It floated up to an unremarkable pushcart full of junk, circled twice, then landed on something and disappeared in a puff of green vapor.

Virginia surged forward, but Wolf held her back, clinging tightly to her hand. “Be careful! You have to be careful around magic!” he whispered urgently.

She was too excited to pay attention, pulling as hard as she could towards the cart, her hands suddenly sweaty with... what? Wolf clung all the tighter, not easing up no matter how she tugged, not even when the trapped ring sang an unhappy “Ow!”

“Don’t you see it?” Virginia asked him, bouncing at the end of her extended arm. “It’s the mirror! Wolf, it’s the mirror!”

Mirrors? CRIPES!

She felt his fingers grow cold against her palm, but was too carried away to explain it to him. With a final wrench she broke free, and then it was in her hands.

Snow White’s hand mirror. How had it gotten here? Did the river flow from Dwarf Mountain across some barrier into New York? Had another traveler brought it? Was she here? Virginia looked wildly around for the cart’s proprietor, attracting the attention of a blowsy woman huddled in a doorway.

The old lady came forward, smiling without most of her teeth. “Is pretty, yes? Is valuable too. Worth much money.”

Too late Virginia realized that she’d tipped her hand. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, trying to recover. “It’s not what I thought it was. This is just nickelplated, isn’t it? Honey, doesn’t this look like nickel plate to you, not silver?” But Wolf would be no help; he was staring open-mouthed into a jumble of junk and didn’t even look over when she shook his arm.

The pushcart lady snorted. “That is fine silver my lady, like none they make around here. I sell only family treasures!”

“Family treasures,” Wolf echoed, still staring into the recesses of the cart. He reached in and fished something out. “This. The mirror and this. How much?”

Cradled in his large hand was a plastic model of a standing wolf. It was a little thing, probably made as a child’s toy, with vague black and grey markings and bright yellow eyes. It even had the sharp edges left from the mold and looked completely tacky.

“Oh, Wolf, you don’t want that,” Virginia told him, making a mental note to teach him about plastics. He must think it was some sort of miracle material or something, and want it for its novelty. “It’s just a cheap toy. There are much nicer wolf statues.”

“This one,” Wolf said stubbornly, like a child dangerously warning of a tantrum. “I want this one.”

“Of course he wants that one!” the old lady cried. “Is nice wolf. Only sell nice things on my cart! Eh, first you say solid silver is nickel plate, now you call nice wolf toy? No wolf is a toy, my lady” she added in an odd warning note. “No wolf is ever a toy.”

“She’s sorry, she doesn’t mean it, she’s not feeling herself today,” Wolf said, not taking his eyes off the thing in his hands. “How much for the both?”

“Wolf, I don’t know if...” Virginia snapped. There were ways of doing this, and just blurting out how much you want something was never the right way of haggling. Honestly, he should know better! She thought he did know better-he’d done a lot of haggling on their journey. But suddenly Wolf was standing between her and the old woman and-what?! Her wallet was in his hands! How dare he? How dare he! And how did he-she’d never seen his hand even move towards her pocket.

The old lady chuckled and patted him on the cheek. “You are still the same, eh?” she said. “Impulsive and quick. But you’re a good boy at heart.”

Wait... ‘still the same’? Had they met before? With renewed suspicion Virginia squinted around Wolf at the pushcart woman, who gave her another toothless grin.

And a wink.

“I see you have found your strength at last, my lady,” was all she said. “And that you have learned to look beyond illusion. Most mirrors just show illusion, do you know that? They show what you want to see. But not that one. Look into it and see. See the truth.”

Involuntarily, Virginia glanced into the little hand mirror, which flashed as the sun bounced off the side view mirror of a car passing by. When she looked up again, blinking yellow and green spots, the cart and woman were gone and Wolf was shaking.

“That was... that was...”

“Shhhh, I know.”

“She touched me! She said I was a good boy!” He cradled the toy against his chest. “She gave me this.”

“She gave me back this mirror too,” Virginia pointed out, holding it up to him. “She gave it to me before, and now it’s back.”

“That’s nice,” Wolf said, looking down at the tiny statue protectively pressed against his shirt.

Virginia was still shaking her head over his sudden obsession when they got back to the apartment. First item on the agenda was to wash up and wash out her mouth. When she got out of the bathroom she saw Wolf gently filing off the flash lines on his wolf. Whatever. Her blouse had a spot or two of splatter, so next she changed her clothes. She didn’t know she was so flustered; Dad had certainly seen her in all sorts of states before. No, she did know why she wanted to look nice. She didn’t want him to worry. She didn’t want him to think that anything was wrong.

The sudden stench of an indelible marker almost undid all her cleaning up. “Wolf, what are you doing? I’m going to get sick again!”

“I’m sorry,” he called back, never looking up. “Just one more thing, and the smell will go away. I don’t like it either,” he offered apologetically.

One hand clamped protectively over her nose, Virginia went to see what was so important. It was that silly little toy, of course. He’d filed off the rough edges and used a pencil to add highlights and depth to the molded fur. Now he was giving it another once-over with the indelible marker, and she had to admit, it was looking pretty good. Less plastic, more lifelike. But she still didn’t understand his obsession with it.

Until he finished his work by painting a big black spot on the tip of its nose.

Virginia waited reverently until he put the statuette of his mother up next to the photo of her father, then kissed him and sat down with the mirror.

“Mirror, mirror, in my hand... um... show my father in distant lands.”

“That’s a crappy rhyme,” Wolf snickered and even the ring made a derisive noise. He was out of range, but Virginia threatened to whack her hand against the arm of her chair.

“Do not hit me, not this time,
I shall teach you better rhymes!” the ring blurted.

She would have said more to it, but in the mirror green mist swirled, showing her father blinking confusedly back at her.

“Honey? Is that you? Oh, sweetie, how are you?”

“Oh, Daddy, I’ve missed you too!”

It hadn’t taken long to catch up. Had Wolf and she really done so little? Dad had been very busy, setting up housekeeping in a new castle, figuring out the state of Kingdom technology, and fitting into place in Wendell’s new council of advisors. “Lord Rupert nearly had a cow when I started talking about the peasant’s point of view, but Wendell insisted that he should know what life was like for the poor and oppressed. I have to admit, sweetie, it’s better to talk about it than to live it.”

“So everything’s going well in his reign?”

“Yeah.” Was that a touch of hesitation? He glanced down and to the left, like he always did when there was something he was afraid to tell her. But the moment passed and he smiled reassuringly at her. “Why wouldn’t everyone here be living happily ever after? That’s what this place is for, right?”

“So’s New York, now that Wolf is here,” she replied, and Wolf stopped staring at the toy long enough to smile warmly back.

“Honey, did he... are you...?”

“What?”

“Well, just before he went through the mirror, right after you stepped through, he called me Grandpa.”

In the background she could faintly hear Wendell say “I told you not to let her go with him that night in Kissingtown!” and it made her giggle.

Dad looked shocked, then resigned. “Tell that mangy ex-con that if he doesn’t do right by you, I’m going to come right back through the mirror, cops or no cops, and throw him in front of a crosstown bus!”

“Hey!” Wolf stalked angrily over to loom protectively behind Virginia, but she stopped him from saying anything else with a gentle pat.

“He’s being wonderful, Dad.” The devil made her elaborate. “He’s giving me the kind of life we can only wish for.”

“That means something around here,” Tony grumped. “You be careful of those wishes, they’re dangerous. Be careful with that mirror too. You’re sure it’s Snow Whites’s and not one of...” She saw the sudden sorrow in his eyes, and jumped in before he had to say the name.

“It’s safe. And you’re safe too, from the police, I mean. Wolf fixed it up, proved you didn’t do it.”

“Oh.” Whatever Dad had expected to hear, that wasn’t it. “Well... I suppose he... That was...” Finally, rustily, “Thank you, Wolf.”

Wolf leaned down, cheek to cheek so he could look in the little mirror. “You’re welcome, Tony. And don’t worry, I’m takin’ care of your little girl and my little boy.” His hands settled protectively around Virginia’s middle.

Dad’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “If I didn’t know you’d already offered her a ring...”

Virginia rushed in to cut him off. “We got jobs today, Dad. Both of us, better jobs than the restaurant. You don’t have to worry about me biking through the park every night anymore.”

“He’s found work?” Wendell sounded stunned. “A wolf holding a job? But wolves don’t...”

“Wolves don’t get the chance, you mean,” Wolf growled. “Not there. People aren’t prejudiced here.”

Virginia bit her tongue hard at that, but Wolf didn’t notice. He was too busy glaring as Wendell came to the mirror, his face filling it as Dad stepped aside.

Wendell was regally calm. “My apologies, Wolf. I realize things are different there. I am trying to make them different here as well. Might I ask what sort of work a wolf can do? Do they need hunters and trackers there?”

“Can do?” Wolf muttered rebelliously to himself, so softly that only Virginia could hear him. He added volume and dignity to his reply. “I was a cook before... before we met, your majesty.”

Virginia smiled to herself. Wolf could be quite regal when he wanted to be and right now he was out-nobling Wendell himself. Which wasn’t hard, because Wendell had a very silly-looking expression of surprise. “A cook! Who in their right mind would let a wolf into a kitchen?”

“I was in your kitchens,” Wolf reminded him, angrily. “And made a small but vital change to a certain recipe.”

“So you did,” Wendell said thoughtfully. “So you did.” Virginia watched the young king collect his bearing. “My apologies, Wolf. I’m still learning about your people.” As Wolf’s jaw dropped, he continued, “Is that the work you found there? Working in Virginia’s restaurant?”

“She said she had something better,” Tony said anxiously, his face appearing for a second over Wendell’s shoulder.

“Do you remember my friend Chrissy? She’s given us both jobs with her catering company.”

“What’s a caterer?” Wendell wanted to know.

“We’re sort of like chefs for hire for parties and stuff. Wolf will cook and I’ll do the paperwork-meet the people, keep the accounts, that sort of stuff.”

“It’s like being the royal chef, only for anyone who can afford it,” Wolf elaborated.

“A wolf, cooking....” Wendell mused. “You did cook while we traveled, I guess.”

“I was apprenticed and everything!” Wolf defended himself.

“Apprenticed?” From his expression, this was a new surprise for Wendell, but he didn’t say anything else for a moment. Then, finally, in a tone that obviously aimed for neutral but instead sounded wondering and strained, “Are all wolves apprenticed?”

She felt the motion as Wolf shrugged. “Not many. Not a lot of people will take us. But the half and quarter wolves-sometimes they can get apprenticed to human aunts and uncles who know a trade and aren’t afraid of a furry tail.”

“That’s...” Wendell’s thoughtful expression was suddenly wiped away by too-casual friendliness. “That’s very good to know. Thank you, friend Wolf.” He nodded to Wolf, then shifted to look straight at her. “Lady Virginia, it is a relief to know you are doing so well. Do call again at any time. But now we must go back to our Council meeting, Anthony.”

Tony just had time to say “Bye, sweetie, I love you!” before the mirror went blank and just showed their own faces.

“He’s up to something,” Wolf muttered. “I just wish I knew what it was.”

Virginia shrugged. “Not your problem anymore.”

“Wolves are still my people, my pack. Even if I’m in another dimension, I have family back there, and all wolves are tail-kin.”

After their conversation Virginia curled up for a nap, still smiling at the relief of contact with her father. Wolf was left to pace the apartment and wonder what his ex-king was up to. As soon as news of the pardon spread, wolves would start flooding into the Fourth Kingdom; it was the only one that would be safe for their kind.

Or was it? Would a pardon make the people of Little Lamb Village suddenly welcome his pack with open arms? He rather doubted it. It would take more than a royal decree to keep wolves safe from farmers. Farmers with their torches and pitchforks, shepherdesses with their staffs and... sheep... and lambs, little frolicking lambs all tender and juicy and... wasn’t it time to consider dinner?