Page 4 of Shifters in the Night

She didn’t offer her hand to shake, but that was normal in the Bayou. So many creatures had different biological and social eccentricities involving physical contact, sometimes it was just easier to nod and smile.

“What brings you to town, Lia?”

“I need groceries?” she suggested brightly.

“No, I mean to the Bayou, in general,” Jon said.

She smirked, so he assumed that she wasn’t truly irritated with him. That was how facial expressions worked, right? He was honestly having a hard time remembering at this point. “You ask a lot of questions, Jon Carmody.”

Jon leaned closer and whispered, “That’s how you learn things.”

The smirk turned into a smile and somewhere inside his head, a little voice cheered.

“You also seem to have a lot of answers,” Lia said.

Before he could reply, a windchime sort of noise sounded from her purse.

“Excuse me,” she said, a rosy flush staining her cheeks. “I need to take this. It’s my boss.”

Whatever brought Lia Doe to Mystic Bayou, Jon supposed she was pretty good at it – judging by the expensive-looking handbag she was reaching into.

“Yes?” Her tone of voice was very different now, cooler and professional. She turned away from Jon to speak into her phone, and he wondered if the best thing to do would be to step away – maybe even just move along and finish his shopping. She hadn’t given him any indication she wanted to continue talking. Maybe this was some sort of new-fangled way for women to get out of awkward grocery store conversations?

“Yes, Victor, I’m more than ready for the meeting. I just needed to stop into the grocery for a few items for the office. Well, I let Jeff handle it in Denver and you complained about the coffee he bought for weeks,” she noted, reaching into the cooler and picking an array of creamers. Her cart contained a bulk-sized container of some boutique brand of coffee beans, filters, fresh blueberry muffins and an alarming number of eggs.

“Yes, I got your eggs,” she sighed. “Yes, they’re organic. No, I don’t think they carry your brand of under-eye serum here. It’s a grocery store with fifteen aisles. I was lucky they had a bakery. You’re going to have to have Jeff order it online.”

Jon frowned. What sort of boss asked his employee to pick up under-eye serum? Also, what in the heck was under-eye serum? Whatever it was, it made Lia sound very tired. He had this bizarre impulse to snatch her phone from her hand, to take away the source of what seemed to be hurting her. But she seemed awfully attached to her phone and given that she was talking to her boss, that seemed like a very, very bad idea. So, he put his hands in his pockets to protect them both from that particular urge.

“Yes, I know, but I have to check out before I come back to the office, otherwise, I think I could get arrested for stealing breakfast food. That wouldn’t make a good impression, now would it? Yes, yes, I understand. See you in just a few minutes,” Lia said to her boss.

She ended the call and turned back to Jon, who realized that his window to politely step away from her call had ended a while ago. Also, he’d forgotten to check his reflection, so he had no idea what sort of face he was making. He tried to give her his best smile, which he hoped was a step up from the grimace.

“Bosses,” she said, shrugging.

“I wouldn’t know,” he said. “I work for myself.”

“Are you the Carmody or the Son?” she asked and he tilted his head, staring at her with what he was sure was a stupid expression. She pointed at his chest. “Your t-shirt.”

He glanced down at his navy t-shirt, which read Carmody & Sons, Boat Repair, Est. 1910. He laughed, scratching the back of his neck. “Grandson, technically, but yeah, that’s me.”

Her phone rang again, and he could see it was a struggle for her not to roll her eyes. “It was nice to meet you, Jon. I’ll make every effort not to swim into your backyard again.”

She beamed at him, which left him unable to do much more than wave as she pushed her cart towards the check-out. She’d already reached the register by the time he cobbled together the mental presence to mumble, “Feel free to do it again anytime.”

Jon was glad she wasn’t around to hear that.

* * *

Later that evening, Jon parked his truck outside the house the locals had called maison de fous since long before he was born. The maison was all corners and layers, like a blue-grey gingerbread house, rust streaks dripping from its metal roof. A dock extended from under the elevated “ground floor” to the water, where his friends were sitting in a ring of mismatched deck chairs, all coupled up and enjoying the sunset over the water.

Jon had always thought the house was slightly spooky when he was a kid, on account of Miss Lottie, the local witch-slash-healer living there. She was a nice enough lady, but she had a way of knowing things that was downright unnerving. Now that his brother was living there with Sonja, he’d realized it was just a home, shared by two people who loved each other completely and utterly.

Sonja waved from the dock, springing out of her chair and running towards him while Will argued with their childhood friend, Zed, over the grill. He could hear Zed’s voice booming over the water, “You press those burgers one more time, Will, and I’m gonna commandeer your spatula in the name of the public good!”

Somehow, Sonja managed to jog across uneven boards in high-heeled boots that went perfectly with a coral cashmere sweater. Sonja Fong’s whole wardrobe seemed to be comprised of stuff that you could only dry clean and store in special padded drawers. But Will was a bit of clotheshorse himself after those years on the west coast, so they were evenly matched. Her dark hair bounced around her shoulders in time with Will’s stone bead she wore around her neck – the true mark of a selkie’s commitment.

Rather than the pelts described in most selkie lore, seal-men (and women) wore bracelets made of sea stone from Scotland. The stones helped control a selkie’s magical shifting power, so selkies guarded them jealously, terrified that a thief could take away their access to the sea they loved so much. Will giving Sonja even one of those beads was a gesture that had knocked Jon on his ass.

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