A.N.D. - Through the Looking Glass

Mr. Murray snapped to attention, then dropped to his knees. “Shall I kiss your ass as well, Mistress?”

“NO!” Virginia bolted after Wolf. She hoped he wasn’t going to be sick in there. It was the only place they had to spend the night, since his last meeting with Grandmother had been so disastrous.

He was ripping through her drawers instead, muttering to himself as he pawed through her things. “Huff puff, have to have one, where’s she keep them, have to have... ohhhh, Virginia, you must wear this for me!” He interrupted himself to fish out one of her few frilly pieces of underwear.

That did it! She marched in and slammed the drawer shut, almost catching his fingers. He whined in protest, then wrapped his arms around his waist and whined again, this time with sincere feeling.

She wasn’t feeling very sympathetic. “What is going on? What did you just eat? And why are you going though my stuff?”

“No time to explain. I need a hair ribbon.” He was baring his teeth in a grimace, both arms locked across his middle, and she was starting to get seriously scared.

“Wolf, be serious!”

“I am being serious! Quickly, before they come, I need something small that I can tie knots in. You must have had a hair ribbon. You don’t need it now with your hair so short. I do.”

His face was twisted, his eyes tightly closed, he was sweating and talking wildly. Virginia suddenly wished with all her heart that the room had a window so she could check the sky. “Is the moon full? Is this your cycle again?”

He shook his head mutely, obviously battling a cramp. “No,” he finally gasped. “I’ll be okay in a little bit. But, please? I need something I can tie knots in. Before they come, and I lose track of the wishes.”

Wishes? What wishes? What had he done, and why was it hurting so badly? She didn’t plan on giving him anything until she got some answers-but then the pounding started at the door.

The police had arrived! Virginia yanked open a drawer, scooped out a tin box that had once held candy, and tossed it at Wolf before running back into the main room. The Murrays had let the police in and were now lining up passively out of the way.

The cops were huge. Almost as big as trolls... and when one sauntered towards her he looked just as mean. He might not have hot iron shoes, but he had a gun and an attitude, and they were scary enough. But she had faced down trolls with Wolf’s help, and Wolf was not far away.

“May I help you, officer?” she asked as calmly as possible.

“Are you Virginia Lewis?” he asked without preamble. Behind him, his partner was giving the Murrays suspicious looks. They stared back at him vacantly.

“Yes.”

“You are wanted for questioning regarding an armed robbery committed a month ago. Please come with us.”

“Wait!” Virginia pleaded, stepping back. “It’s all a mistake!”

“That’s what they all say,” the partner muttered.

The first cop simply stepped forward. “This isn’t a social invitation, Ms. Lewis. Now will you come quietly, or...?” He reached back to the handcuffs on his belt with menacing meaning.

“But I didn’t do anything! And neither did Dad!” Virginia protested. This was terrible. Her mind was whirling. What to do? It wasn’t as if she could tell them the truth. The Murrays wouldn’t help, and Wolf was sick. It was up to her again-but all the confidence she’d learned in the Nine Kingdoms had vanished, and she felt like a powerless, hopeless, helpless waitress again. And this time she couldn’t even turn invisible.

Wolf didn’t like those guardsmen. They were enjoying intimidating her, he could see it. He could practically smell it. Wolf packs were run by dominance, dominance was shown in body language, and they had alpha written in every move. And his strong Virginia was crumbling before them. She still didn’t know how to win fights like that.

He’d teach her. Right after he saved her. Again. The one looming over Virginia hadn’t noticed him, but the other one had, and put a hand on what looked like a weapon. Wolf stopped peering around the door and stepped out, making sure his hands were in view. Since he was holding a pink hair ribbon, he didn’t think he’d look too threatening. He had to fight the urge to stare down his nose and curl his lip, but he wasn’t trying to establish dominance either; he just wanted them to leave Virginia alone. His mind was racing. He couldn’t wish that they’d leave, or they’d come back. He couldn’t wish that they would just take someone else; what if the someone were him? Ooooohhh, cripes! Logic problems were his worst subject at school. He needed to make sure that these officials had what they wanted so that they never came back. It’s not like Tony really did steal that money. He couldn’t have. Of course! That was it!

“I wish that the real thief would confess that Tony had nothing to do with it so you’d let Tony and Virginia go free,” he said very carefully. He felt the bean twist, and the tell-tale green vapor wisped up from his mouth. Good. You knew the wish was going to work when the green mist appeared.

They all saw it, and the one by Virginia turned his way. “What are you on?”

Wolf blinked. He was on the carpet, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t what the guard meant. What, did they think he was smoking dwarf moss or drinking swamp water or something? The other guard was coming closer, equally displeased. “Yeah, I bet you wish we’d go away. But we aren’t, not until we find out who took that million dollars. A cop was shot in the robbery, you know, and two more were hurt when their car crashed bringing Tony Lewis in.”

Wolf cocked his head, turning on the persuasive charm. “Now how could Tony make them crash a car? He was in handcuffs.” He remembered that, it happened right by the bookstall, close enough to clip his tail if it had been out. Tony must have wished it. He probably hadn’t realized what he was wishing for.

They both stared at him warily. Wolf smiled back, trying to look innocent, silently willing them to bend to him. There was a tense three-way stare down, which Wolf abruptly lost when a disembodied voice squawked and spoke to them.

“One-Adam-ten, One-Adam-ten, do you have Lewis in custody?”

Wolf looked around, but he couldn’t see the speaker. The guard by Virginia pulled a box off his belt and spoke into it. “We’re at the apartment now, about to take the daughter in for questioning.”

“Let her go. Repeat, let her go. Damnedest thing; the guy who did it just walked in off the street and confessed! Said he dumped the money and ran, swears he was working alone. His story is checking out. The Lewis family is clear.”

The big guard stared at the box, then at Virginia, then Wolf, and finally took a lingering look at the people lined up along the wall.

“Something’s fishy here. Lewis still had the money,” he protested into the box.

“Correction, you busted Lewis as soon as the money was dropped,” the box pointed out. “We don’t know if he was going to return it or not. He didn’t steal it and he didn’t spend it. Lewis is clear, repeat, Lewis is clear. Return to patrol.”

The big man looked angry and unconvinced, but he gestured at the other guard and turned to go. “Stay out of trouble, okay?” he snapped at Virginia.

And then they were gone. Virginia had to fight the urge to slide down the wall. Instead, she took her fear and relief out on Wolf. “What have you done? What was that green stuff? What did you eat? Are you okay? What are you doing with that ribbon?”

He went for the easy answer first. “Tying knots.” He held the ribbon up to show her, stretched between his hands like a magician about to do a trick, then tied an overhand knot for each sentence. “I ate a magic bean. They make you sick. But you also get six wishes. I used one wish to clear you and Tone. Now we have five wishes left.” He showed her the five evenly-spaced knots, smiling, then tucked the ribbon into the inside pocket of his jacket. His smile wavered for a moment and he put his hand on his stomach, but he covered by bounding forward and kissing her.

His breath was terrible! Still, she clung to his shoulders, leaning into his reassuring presence. He hugged back, and it felt so good to relax and think just for a moment that he could take care of everything. And while she was thinking of taking care... a thought struck her and she ended the hug. “Can you fix them?” The Murrays responded to her gesture with the usual bow. It was making her dizzy.

Wolf looked them over carefully. “Why? Who are they?”

“Well, he’s the one who owns this building,” she told him, pointing. “And that’s his wife and his kid. They gave Dad his job and us this apartment. I don’t know who the others are.”

“My whole family, Mistress,” Murray’s voice was muffled as he stayed down.

Wolf didn’t seem impressed. “Were they kind to you?”

As if! She snorted. “They weren’t kind to anybody.”

“We regret our past actions. We will serve the Master forever. Tell me what the Master desires.” Murray was starting to gasp; it wasn’t easy for such a fat man to talk while doubled over.

“If Tone said forever, you’ve got ‘em for forever. Can’t go back on a wish.” His hand was still clamped across his stomach, but he was smirking all the same. He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Why not tell them Tony wants a bigger place to stay?”

“A bigger place to stay?” she repeated out loud. That wouldn’t be fair!

“As you wish, Mistress. I shall move out of my penthouse and give it to you and the Master. It shall be ready tomorrow night.” Murray was on his knees now, wading across the carpet to her. “Unless the Master wishes us to redecorate?” He was stumping around behind her, puckering up and leaning towards her butt. Virginia had her hands full trying to protest, stop Mr. Murray from kissing her, and scold Wolf at the same time.

“Wait-I didn’t-what-Wolf!” Oh, that wolf had such a charming smile. Particularly when he got his way, the stinker!

“Tomorrow will be fine,” Wolf told the Murrays. “We can stay at her grandmother’s until then. Can’t we, my dear?”

“After what you did to her last time?”

Wolf patted his jacket pocket. “I don’t believe she’ll remember a thing about it.”

“You are not going to put the whammy on my grandmother! It’s bad enough you tried to eat her, now you’re going to turn her into something like this? Eeep!” Mr. Murray was feinting for her hips again, so she slapped him as hard as possible.

Oh, that felt good! She’d had no idea how often she’d wanted to do that until the wish was granted. All those years the Murrays had worked Dad like a dog and treated them like dirt, all the while looking down their stubby, fat, pug little noses at them. It was like father and son had been in some contest to see who could be worse to Dad. They didn’t do anything to her, only because they made it so clear that she was beneath notice.

This slave thing could be lots of fun.

Virginia backed off, shaking her head. Oh, this was worse than the Troll King’s shoes! She couldn’t let it seduce her... but, at the same time, it sure would be nice to have a new place, where the shower fan worked, and there was more than one window, and the linoleum wasn’t peeling up to meet the wallpaper peeling down.

Mr. Murray still knelt at her feet, but he wasn’t trying to go for her butt anymore. Virginia took a deep breath. “I want you to pack all your things tonight and clean the penthouse. We will pack our things tomorrow, and will move up tomorrow night.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Mr. Murray leaned forward and Virginia jumped back.

“And no kissing!” she shouted.

“Yeah, no kissing!” Wolf echoed. “That’s my job.”

Virginia just glared at him. “C’mon. We have to go a few places. If we’re going back to Grandmother’s, you’re going to be fed first!”

Wolf blinked. “Virginia, it’s very late at night. What restaurant would be open at this hour?”