« Reply #30 on: May 15, 2008, 10:49:44 pm »
Mystery awakens. It’s a slow, languorous process involving a stretch. She’s cold, but she can feel sunlight on her skin. She becomes aware of discomfort, pain. She’s not in a comfortable position, and whatever she’s laying on is scratchy.
Oh Goddamnit, Colonel! She thinks. It’s an irritated thought, rather than a malicious one. She laughs a little. Her eyes open.
She’s in the back of the Prius. The cargo area, specifically, with the rear seats folded for more room. There’s a blanket over her, and sunlight streaming through the rear window gives her surroundings a hazy quality.
She’s also naked. She makes a noise that’s halfway a sigh, halfway a growl. Clutching the blanket to her chest, she sits up, looks around. Outside the car the world is still snowy. The tide has come in, and the shoreline is closer, calm morning waves sloshing against rock. There’s no one around, thank God.
With some effort, she crawls into the driver’s seat. She looks for the wet clothes she’d changed out of the night before. They’re gone. She curses the Colonel yet again, arranges the blanket around herself like a primitive dress. The keys, thankfully, are in the ignition.
She starts the engine. The heater will take a few minutes to warm up, but it’s still relatively warm in the car; Einhorn must have run it for a while, after she’d rendered Mystery unconscious.
Think of everything, don’t you, Colonel? There’s no response. There’s no noise at all, really, being so far out of the city. It’s a rare, quiet morning for the Dee Jay.
Something on the passenger seat catches her eyes. Scrap of cardboard. Colored white -- or was it ‘bone’? It’s someone’s business card. Not the Colonel’s, but there’s a phone number on the back, scribbled with precision and with periods instead of dashes in the European style.
“You are so crazy.” Mystery says to no one. And, God help her, there’s a little twinge of excitement in her belly. She doesn’t deny it, now.
She puts the car into gear and heads for home.
* * *
“That was Carol from Founder’s Falls, and it sounds like she’ll be single soon, fellas.” Mystery chuckles into the microphone. “Line forms to the right and no shoving.”
“Oh Lord…” The caller giggles. There’s a little excited surge from Carol. Mystery enjoys it as she hangs up.
“Who do we have next, Marty?” The Dee Jay asks. The data comes up on her little screen. “Was expecting this one. How’re you doing Razor? Really loved the show!”
“Saw you in the front row!” Razor howls. “Was worried you wouldn’t make it!”
“So was I.” Mystery laughs lightly. “And ya’ know what? I’m wearing one of your T-shirts.”
“Awwww….you rock!” Razor remarks. Surge of something honest there. Happiness that someone he likes is willing to wear his colors.
“Yes, yes I do.” She looks down at the shirt. She’d bought it out of fondness for Razor and the sudden need to replace a couple of tops. “Nice…screaming skull?”
“Yeah! Lulu came up with the design…she’s artistic like that!”
“I can certainly see that. So how’d the show go over with, you know, the club people.”
“Invited us back in a month, babe!”
“Things are definitely looking up, then.”
“Yeah, babe, they are! And in case I forgot to mention it, you f*ckin’ rock!”
The Dee Jay shakes her head, smiling.
“Thanks…babe.” She replies.
“Awwwwwww yeah!” Razor hollers before he hangs up. Mystery laughs hard.
“That was Razor, and just for the record, he and his band Bonesplatter really do put on a great show. That’s my pro bono advertising for the night.” She looks up at her producer, he nods. “Next caller is…”
She was expecting this one, too. Her stomach twists, and she takes a moment to examine the sensation. She wasn’t scared any more. Nervous? Maybe nervous.
“Mina from Atlas Park, you’re on the air.”
“Hello, Mystery. I called in to the show the other night, do you remember?”
“Yes, yes I remember.” The Dee Jay answers. Her face is hot.
“I just wanted you to know you were right. That woman did find me.”
“I told you.” Mystery chides. She had. “How did things…turn out?”
“A little different than I expected, I’ll admit.” The Colonel is doing her Southern accent again. “She was…as aggressive as I’d feared. We even had a bit of a disagreement.”
The Dee Jay stops herself from snorting.
“It was her fault, though. She just assumed from the way I greeted her I was mad at her, or something.”
Mystery clenches a fist, twists her mouth into a little knot. It wasn’t so much an angry expression as a perturbed one.
“In most relationships, assigning blame is a mistake. Not everyone reads signals the same way.” She opens her hands, relaxes. “How did things go after your argument?”
“About like I’d expected.” Her phrasing was innocuous. Her tone was not. Anyone listening knew ‘Mina’ had got some tail. They didn’t know who’s, thank God.
Mystery kicks the floor a little, smiling despite the little bit of violence.
“About like she expected too, I think.”
“Always dangerous to assume what someone else expects or wants.” Mystery chides, quieter for a moment.
“But wonderful when you’re right.”
“Maybe.” The Dee Jay’s smile returns. She had questions. She was supposed to be the answer woman, though. How to do this…
She says, finally, in her therapeutic tone. “Was this just a one night thing?”
“Oh…I don’t think so.” The Colonel answers. Her tone is…deliberately sexual. “She is….once is never enough.”
Nor, apparently, was twice.
“How does she feel about that?”
“Oh, she knows.” ‘Mina answers smugly. Mystery kicks the floor again. “It may be difficult. Our jobs cause…schedule conflict.”
“Well sometimes if circumstances won’t let something happen…”
“…then you make them happen.” Einhorn interuppts. “I’m certainly not going to give up.”
“What are you looking for, from this woman?” Mystery asks.
“Anything I can get. Like chocolate, as long as the taste is in my mouth I suspect I’ll be satisfied.”
The Dee Jay’s face burns.
“I guess that does leave your options open.”
“The worst part is that I have to leave town for a while.” The Colonel confesses, a wry tone in her voice. Mystery chuckles to herself. Despite other events, she had foiled the villainess’ scheme. One of them, anyway. “I may not see her for a while.”
“You know what they say about absence.”
“’They’ are full of sh*t.”
Mystery laughs. She was laughing a lot tonight.
“Sometimes.” She grants.
“But I’ll be back sooner or later and then we’ll see what happens.”
“No giving up, huh?”
“Never. And like I said the other night, whatever happens is bound to be enjoyable.”
Mystery smiles a very personal smile.
“I guess it might be.”
“I must go now, Mystery. Thank you for taking my call.”
“Thanks you for calling in.“ She answers. “Goodbye, ‘Mina.”
“For now.” The Colonel says. The line closes. A dial tone.
For now. Mystery thinks.
She spends a few moments in reflection, followed by a few in anticipation. Nothing logical about what’d happened with the Colonel. Was that why she wanted more?
Who knew? She shakes her head, chuckles, and looks at the clock.
“Looks like that’s all the time we have for tonight, Paragon City.” Mystery announces into the microphone. “Until next time, this is Mystery Lynn, for Paragon City’s hoooot ninety-five nine.”
END
