Main Narrator / Storyteller (14:54)
And we're back. We're not cops or nothing, brynn added. Yeah, I didn't think the two crust punks at the door were cops, but I'm not trying to talk to anyone. Why not? I asked. That's a shitty question to ask, and I knew it. Sola wanted to be left alone. She'd made that clear in a thousand ways. Yet here we were, prying. I'm going to open the door, but only because I'm too tired to yell through it, asola said. You can't come in. All right, bryn agreed. The door swung open. I don't know why I expected her to look like a zombie or something. I mean, I'd met Gertrude already and she looked normal enough, but I legit assumed Asola was going to look like a zombie. Asola didn't look like a zombie. She looked instead like. Well, one of us. She wore a slip dress that showed off her full figure, and her hair was tied up in a loose bun, revealing tattoos across her neck, even though she probably wasn't a day over 22. She had a claw hammer in her hand. No, wait, both hands. She had a claw hammer in each hand. It's just that only one of the two was raised. Instant Friend Crush what are you doing here? She asked. You're going to get yourself killed on a long enough timeline, brynn agreed. She had her hand hovering near the folding baton on her belt. No, I mean if anyone sees me talking to you, I don't know what's going to happen. You might wind up dead. That's an argument for letting us inside, then, I offered. That's an argument for y' all leaving, she countered. True, I agreed. But we didn't go. Who would kill us? Barrow? I don't know. She thought about it. No, not Barrow. What happened to you and everyone up at Glacier? I asked. She put the hammer down and met my gaze, unflinching. Somehow this was even more intimidating than when she had the weapon raised. We all died, okay? That's all I'm going to say about it. Okay? I waited for her to tell me more anyway. Look, you're wasting your time talking to me. Who should we talk to, then? I asked. Gertrude. What's she got to do with it? No, no, Gertrude's innocent. I don't think she knows anything. Isola sighed, then set the hammers down on a table near the door. Look, if I tell you where to look next, I am guessing you'll die. Magic is too fucked up to be safe at all for anyone hunting down madmen with access to it. That's worse. You really, really should just skip town and never look back. Forget the name Barrow. Forget the name Pendleton. Forget me. Forget Gertrude. Ain't gonna happen, though, bren said. You want to know what's going on? You want a man named Sebastian Miller, Gertrude's husband? Ex husband, asola said. He runs the gift shop on the east edge of town. With the dinosaurs? I asked. With the dinosaurs. Don't confront him. Don't let him know you're investigating him. Don't let him know you exist. Don't tell him I talk to you. Thank you, I said. She started to close the door. Wait, I said. I still have so many questions to ask. Yeah, well, I've got about three more seasons of Xena I plan to watch while I pretend like I don't exist. So I'm afraid I'm too busy for questions. I'm sorry, brynn said as the door was closing. I'm sorry about whatever happened to you. The door hesitated. Thank you. The door closed. We reconvened with Heather out by the street and told her what we'd learned. Hey, that's more than I've gotten out of her, heather said. And we used to live together, so. Sebastian Miller, I said. I bet he's at Dawson's right now. The diner or grocery store or whatever. He's there most weekdays only, opens the gift shop on the weekends. Do we go to Dawson's or the gift shop? I asked. Are you kidding? Bryn asked. Isola is pretty clear about that. We'll go to his place now while he's not home. And just break in? Heather asked. Yeah, bryn said. Heather seemed to think that over for a minute. All right. We had to bike down side streets to avoid Dawson's, but it still didn't take us longer than maybe 10 minutes. Everyone we passed looked friendly, but riding through town during the day you could tell that the town was poor, destitute. Maybe about a third of the houses were abandoned and most of the rest were poorly maintained. Every road but the main one was full of potholes. They were probably maintaining the main road for the sake of tourists. If one day the tourists came back. Or maybe they were maintaining the main road for their own sake, for their own dignity. It was hard to tell. We cut through an alley, the small town kind that goes between backyards instead of brick buildings to approach the gift shop from the back, it was easy to pick out the right place. A 20 foot tall brontosaurus with purple paint chipping off its concrete kept watch over the backyard. How will we get in? Heather asked. What are we looking for? I asked. Don't know and don't know, bryn said. We'll know it when we see it. They're both questions. The building was a plain cube, two stories tall, and peppered with windows. I went to the closest one, popped the screen out and tried to lift the glass. Locked. I put the screen back in and went to the next one. You get much crime in Pendleton? Bryn asked. No, not really, heather answered. No cops in town either. Sometimes the county sheriff comes in to handle something, but we're pretty much on our own. People usually lock their windows? I asked. The next window was locked, too. No, heather said. Astle has something to hide, bren said. I mean, we are trying to break in, I said. Kind of justifies his paranoia. Help me up this Apatosaurus, bryn said. It was deceptively hard to get a hold of since the ridge of its back was just out of reach from the ground and the whole belly of the thing was round. I think it's a brontosaurus, I said. I gave her a boost with my good arm and she straddled the beast like she was riding it. Vulture would have wanted a photo for his Instagram. Hell, I wanted a photo because Bryn looked awesome as a crosspunk dino riding cowboy. But you know you're not supposed to take pictures of yourself at the scene of any given crime in progress. I thought Brontos weren't real, Bren said. I thought they were all Apatosauruses now. Nope. My youngest niece had been obsessed with dinosaurs. Last time I'd gone to see her in Illinois, she'd schooled me good when I tried to say that Brontos weren't real. They count as real dinosaurs again. This, by the way, unrelated is how I feel about Pluto.