Where to From Here?

Lucie’s cell phone sprang to life, the ringtone sounding like the evil empire from those space movies. The sound caused Michael to start.

“It’s okay,” chuckled Lucie, shifting him into her left hand and fishing in her bag with her right. Tapping the little green phone shaped icon, she brought the device to the side of her head.

“Luciana, where have you gone child?” asked Adelina, voice now sounding like the younger version of herself rather than Michael’s mother.

“I told you I wanted no part in your little manhunt and needed some air,” replied Lucie, frowning and shaking her head.

“Well if you’re going to sulk, you’re not of much use to me at the moment. You might as well return to the city,” she suggested.

Lucie looked at Michael, “Um, what about the boy?” she inquired.

Adelina chuckled, “What indeed?” she asked. “I am sure he is quite safe wherever he may be.”

“No, I’m just wondering,” she tried to clarify.

“Just go home, I’ll call you if I need you,” she instructed.

“Mirielle?”

“Now that there is an understanding between us, we are taking the time to become better acquainted,” Adelina said.

“Is she herself again?”

That was Madison’s decision and thus has she made it so, enough of this banter child, go, enjoy the balance of this beautiful day before it slips away,” she urged, disconnecting the call.

Lucie stared at her phone, mouth pursed, brows furrowed. “She knows,” she said, a single shake of her head as she put the phone bag in her bag.

“What? What do you mean?” he asked, looking up at her.

“My dedanya knows I have you,” she said.

Panic prickled over his skin, “Oh no,” he murmured.

Suddenly Lucie chuckled, “This is one of her tests,” she said aloud, more to herself than to him, “Like Madison, like Mirielle. She is crafting some type of tapestry using people like interwoven threads to create a picture only she can see at present,” she surmised.

“But why?” he asked, trying to follow her verbal musings.

Lucie looked down at him, feeling the pull of his presence, the embers of a fire igniting deep inside her. “Dedanya has lived for a very long time, she is very wise, but she adheres to the old ways. She moves people about like pieces on a chess board. Am I pawn, or am I a queen? I don’t know what she is doing, but I do know you being here now is not providence, it is by design,” she explained.

“I’m pretty sure she didn’t see me,” he offered.

“She sees more than you or I can know. She knows you are with me, I am sure of it,” she said, nodding affirmatively.

“She called you Luciana, is that your full name?” he queried.

She smiled, “Lucie, for short. You are Michael, not Mike, or Mikey, or Mick?” she asked back.

“My parents have called me Michael for as long as I can remember,” he replied.

“You did very well to resist her charm when she took on the form of your mother,” Lucie commended.

“Instinctively I wanted to respond, and almost did, except I was sort of trapped in your bag,” he revealed. “What happened with your mother? I overheard you and your dedanya talking, I’m sorry if it’s too personal,” he said.

Lucie nodded. “My mother was a beautiful woman, but born with fire in her blood and it took her,” she said softly, “consumed her.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up,” he apologized.

“I don’t know if you understand how this curse upon you works,” she said, fixing her eyes on him. “While you are small, you possess a gravity, a magnetism far beyond your size, it teases all who come near, like your sister’s friends, it fans the flames of their desire, their hunger, chases reason from their minds,” she extrapolated.

“And your mother?”

“Developed a passion for making people small and using them as she would, for her pleasure, with no regard for the lives she was disrupting, taking,” she shared, eyes moving away from him.

He didn’t know what to say, what words might offer her solace. Crouching down, he sat in her palm, reaching down with his hand he caressed her.

She looked back at him and smiled. “I am finding greater depths to you than I had previously thought,” she said.

He smiled half off the side of his face, “That makes two of us. I feel like I am only beginning to get to know myself,” he stated.

“And I think that is the lesson dedanya designed for you,” Lucie offered.

“A great big part of me, well, there’s nothing great big about me now, but, boy do I wish I had listened to you on Friday,” he said with a chuckle.

“Not all of you?” she asked, angling her head to the side.

He shook his head slightly, “This, right here, right now, I don’t regret this,” he said with a warm smile.

She smiled back, reaching down with her right hand touching him lightly on top of his head.

“You are much kinder than the others,” he said.

“Do not think too badly of them, remember they were influenced by the curse,” she said.

He nodded and asked, “And you? Are you immune to it?”

She shook her head slowly, “No,” she replied, left eyebrow rising as she half smiled.

Standing back to his feet, he nodded slowly, “You know, the first time I saw you, I thought you were beautiful,” he said, smile on his face.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“Would it be impolite to ask for a kiss?” he queried, shuffling from foot to foot, looking a little sheepish.

Raising her hand up near her face, she smiled.

Leaning forward, he placed his hands on her plump lower lips and brought his face in close, pressing his lips against her. Disengaging, he looked up at her, “Thank you,” he said again, expressing his gratitude genuinely.

Clearing her throat, “I think it is time for us to go,” she said, voice sounding a little raspy, as she lowered him back down toward the bag sitting on the passenger seat. Putting him inside, she paused and rested her forehead against the steering wheel, letting out her breath slowly as she composed herself. This sensation, this electric feeling crawling through her body is what dedanya had meant she didn’t understand. Chuckling softly, she leaned back and started the car.