Triple Toil and Trouble by Constance Barker

Author:Constance Barker [Barker, Constance]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constance Barker
Published: 2019-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“SO YOU WERE MARRIED, had a child, and then abandoned your family.” Harvest sat on the log at the teenage party spot. Out on the water, she saw a bunch of divers on a boat that looked too small. A tinge of anxiety without source flared, and vanished before she could mentally pursue it.

Leshy sat across the firepit from her, hooved feet crossed. Digging into the bag of Mrs. Field’s cookies she brought, he shrugged mammoth shoulders. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

He crunched loudly, swallowed. “Look, Alan McGooby was not the smooth player you see before you. And may I say, the constable uniform with the shorts? Quite fetching.”

Harvest decided to let the comment slide.

“I really only got lucky a few times. Unfortunately, one of the times was with Marge Spratt, and she got pregnant. This was the early ’60s, so, we got married, of course. Back then, it was the right thing to do. Sort of.”

She waited.

McGooby craned his neck to look out at the reservoir. “Marge was not what you would call a looker. I was not what you would call responsible. If I was faithful, well, it was just because I couldn’t get laid anyway.” He held his palms up. “We had a girl, Lisa. I look in on her from time to time. She’s fine, followed her old man into the psych biz. Married a nice guy named Mudge, and had a son, my grandson, who is kind of an a-hole. I keep hoping he’ll run for the bench.”

Harvest had to puzzle it out for a moment. “Ah. Judge Mudge. Funny. So you don’t remember abandoning your family.”

He shook his horned head. “Everything gets blurry around the time I became a Leshy. I mean, the Twih, it’s freakin bizarre. Like, drive you bonkers bizarre. The portal I opened must have been deep in the Twih, where everything is more intense and insane-o. Luckily, I made it to the Arcadian Calm, that woodsy space right on the border of this world. Maybe it’s because it’s my job to guard the Arcadian Portal. Anyway, I think the journey might’ve messed up my mind. I just don’t remember how any of it happened.”

She kicked a crushed beer can in frustration. “Awesome sauce.”

“What’s the big deal, anyway? Alan McGooby became Leshy. End of story.”

It wasn’t a story she could tell anyone, however. She stared at the tumbled shack behind Leshy. Harvest still had nothing to bring to the DA. Would she have to kiss that job goodbye?

“Here’s the big deal. Your grandson has been looking into your disappearance for a long time. I’ve read the files. FBI, state and local cops, private investigators. He isn’t going to stop. What happens if he finds out the truth? Even just a part of the truth?”

“Like the patients in my former career, he’ll go nutso. Humans don’t do well with Twih stuff. The brain translates experiences with magic or magical beings into paranoid delusions. I was able to tap into that translation, allow the patient to rationalize his experience, though there was nothing rational about it to begin with.

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