Page 18 of The Claiming of the Shrew
Leah felt around in her purse and took out what Fawkes recognized as the kind of visibility flag commonly in landscaping, an orange plastic triangle on a wire, though the wire had been clipped to about eight inches long so it fit in her bag. She retrieved the shrewmobile from Fawkes and wedged the flag’s wire into a small hole drilled through the back of the vehicle. Then she set it on the table, the flag waving proudly above it.
“This is so nobody at the Menagerie steps on me. Since we all know about shifters, it’s no problem to run around in shift form if we want to.”
Fawkes tapped a plastic clip on the back, painted metallic gold. “What’s this for?”
“It’s a tow hitch. There’s a wagon with extra stuff.” Leah rummaged and plopped another small object on the table.
This was simply a toy car trailer, with the sides raised with reinforcing metal mesh. It had several items on it, secured with a few loops of twine. Fawkes unhooked the makeshift cargo net with his fingertips and took out a small object that he recognized as a plastic wind-up motor from some other dismantled toy. There was also a spring-loaded plastic crossbow, with fishing line wound on a reel and a suction dart on the end of the line. The images it brought to mind were beyond ludicrous.
“Does this actually work?” Fawkes asked, holding the miniature crossbow in his palm. It was bigger than shrew scale; it looked like she’d repurposed yet another toy to make it.
“Still a work in progress,” Leah admitted. “Actually, gimme that.”
She took it back from him and retrieved another item from her purse, a small plastic case that turned out to be full of tools and bits of deconstructed toys. Using her fingernails, Leah picked apart the knot holding the suction dart to the line.
“I think the concept is sound,” she said as she worked. “But the dart doesn’t stick to anything. A grappling hook ought to work better. Let’s find out.”
She fiddled with two small pieces of wire, bending them around each other. Fawkes watched, fascinated by the deft working of her small, strong fingers. The feeling of her fingertips running across his hand as she had taken the toy back was a vivid sense-memory he couldn’t shake.
“There, it’s done,” Leah said. Her bottomless purse yielded a cheap plastic lighter, which she used to melt the ends of the fishing line where she had secured it to the grappling hook. “I’ll test it later.” She turned the full force of her gaze on Fawkes, who by now was smitten beyond words. “So what do you say, detective? Is the team of Raccoon and Shrew on the job?”
Fawkes found himself briefly lost for words. Before he could get himself together, a woman’s voice called, “Leah!”
Maggie breezed over to their table at high velocity.
“Where have you been? We’re starting full dress rehearsal in ten minutes. I need to find out if the new ropes work. Have you been practicing your lines?”
“Yes, I’m on my way,” Leah said—to her back, as Maggie whipped off to round up several other cast members who were lingering over coffee and sandwiches at other tables.
“Lines?” Fawkes asked, while Leah gathered her shrew-scale Batman gadgets back into her purse. “I thought you weren’t in the play.”
“I’m Gloria’s understudy,” Leah explained. “If anything happens to her, I go on as Peter Pan. I’m also Wendy’s understudy, although I don’t know that part nearly as well.”She reached for her crutches. “If you want to hang around and help out, I’m sure Maggie wouldn’t mind having an extra pair of hands to fetch and carry. And Ihavebeen neglecting the play a little. But they don’t need me much during rehearsals. I’ll just need to monitor the special effects—do you want to come?”
“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” Fawkes said.
Getting to hang out with Leah for the afternoon was obviously the top of his priority list, but he hadn’t forgotten his strong suspicion that one of the crew members was the thief.
And perhaps not just a thief, Fawkes mused, gathering their trash. Those shears in Leah’s purse were sharp and potentially lethal. Whoever had trashed their sets was angry. There was something going on in the Menagerie—and he wanted to find out what it was, before Leah wound up on the dangerous end of another pointy object.
LEAH
For the firstcouple of hours, the rehearsal kept Leah too busy to think about anything else—including Fawkes, who amiably wandered about, obeying the barked orders of various people telling him to fetch that, bring this, carry the other thing. Leah checked all the flying rigs carefully, especially Gloria’s, since most of the flight sequences were Peter Pan’s. The other actors had to fly occasionally, but Gloria was in the harness a lot, and if anyone had it in for the production or its star, she was likely to be a target.
“For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think it’s personally aimed at you,” Leah said, checking the straps around Gloria’s waist and shoulders for the twentieth time.
“I wish I had a flying shift form,” Gloria said anxiously. She shifted into a rhinoceros, which she found mildly embarrassing. In this particular case, Leah had to admit it was dangerous not just for her but for everyone around her. “Something swift and graceful and winged. If I go sailing into a tree face-first?—”
“You’ll be fine,” Leah said, thinking, but not adding,Shifter healing will repair the damage in no time, at least if you manage not to turn into a rhino mid-fall.
But the test run of the effects went off without problems, including the flight harnesses and fireworks around the pirate ship battle. After that there wasn’t much for Leah to do.
“I’m gonna go run lines, Maggie,” Leah called. “In the lodge.”
Maggie grunted a response. She was busy helping Alana with the blocking on the pirate ship fight.
Leah found and rescued Fawkes in the costume trailer, where evidently he had been put to work sorting out pirate hats.
“There is an absolutely insane amount of work that goes into these things,” Fawkes remarked as they headed over to the lodge. “I had no idea.”
