“Actually, there is,” Parker said, surprising me.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see,” he said with a smile I took as a warning for what was to come.
9
Downtown Beech Grove, Georgia, was but a stone’s throw from my cottage… At least it would have been if we had skipped the large detour to the Paranormal Temp Agency HQ first. The quaint commercial district was a big part of why I’d chosen to move here in the first place. The old-fashioned storefronts were both odd and charming. Despite its status as an incredibly small town, Beech Grove attracted a fair number of retirees due to the fact it had perfect weather almost the entire year round.
Now that I knew more about the hidden paranormal operatives, I suspected magic had more than a little bit to do with that. I’d have to remember to ask about that later, provided Fluffikins didn’t try to wipe my memory again after today’s spy mission.
Parker grabbed a duffel bag from the truck bed and handed it to me, then pulled out a folding card table and a pair of chairs and slammed the access door shut.
Fluffikins trotted at our heels, carrying nothing.
After about a block and a half, we stopped outside a fishmonger called OH MY COD, and Parker began setting up the table.
“Can we pick another spot maybe? This place…” I waved a hand in front of my face, but the damp fishy smell remained as strong as ever. “…Smells a bit fishy.”
“The field agents love to come to this alleyway on break and feast on the leftovers the fishmonger puts in the dumpster for us. It’s a good central location for you to scope things out and get familiar with the team,” the cat explained after checking no one else was within earshot.
Parker motioned for me to hand him the bag, and I did. Then he set it on the table and began pulling things out.
“What’s all this?” I asked, studying the colorful assortment of cards, crystals, and what have you. I jumped back in fright when he pulled a human skull from inside.
Parker pushed it toward me and chuckled.“This is just Fred Head. Don’t fear Fred Head.”
“Is it alive?” A shudder racked through me. Of course, I knew a disembodied skull couldn’t hurt me, but it still freaked me out.
“He was once a long time ago. Now we just use him as a communication device. Go on,” Parker said, pushing that creepy Fred Head even closer. “Say hello.”
“Um, hi,” I squeaked, wiggling my fingers in a wave.
The skull’s jaw open and closed in speech, but it was Mr. Fluffikins’s voice that came forth. “Stop playing around, and get to work!”
“Whoa,” I said stupidly. Even with all the magic I’d seen the past several days, Fred Head still stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Now you and I will be able to converse freely. The normies will just assume it’s a gag,” Fluffikins explained via Fred.
Parker set the skull back down on the edge of the table.“If you need to call the boss cat, pat Fred twice on the head and then say what you need to say.”
I wrapped my arms around myself in a hug.“I suppose a cell phone would have been too obvious?”
“Bah, boring,” Fluffikins growled as he jumped up onto the table beside the macabre comm device. “Besides, we developed Fred technology centuries before that Bell guy came a long and brought a taste of our awesomeness to the general population.”
“Uh-huh. And what does that do?” I asked, pointing toward the glass ball Parker had extracted and was now carefully arranging on a gold stand right before one of the two chairs.
“This is your beacon,” Parker explained. “If there’s a problem, it will flash a color that corresponds to the warning we want to give.”
This time I actually rolled my eyes. It seemed they made things needlessly difficult just so they could add a bit of stylistic flair.“Again… You guys do realize cell phones are a thing, right?”
“Stop questioning everything and just listen,” Fluffikins spat.
“Right.” Parker nodded. “It flashes three colors: red, yellow, and green.”
Mr. Fluffikins picks up the explanation from there.“Yellow means a potential danger is coming and green—”
“Means everything is good to go?” I guessed.
Fluffikins reared up and hissed.“Heavens, no. Green means be on high alert. Danger is imminent. And don’t interrupt.”
“Um, shouldn’t that be red? You know, red alert?” This system made no sense, and if its senselessness got me killed, I’d be so angry.
“Red means the problem has been dispersed and you can go back to normal,” Parker said placing his hand over the orb and tapping his fingers.
“Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense,” I conceded, even though it would require completely recoding what those colors meant in my brain from years of (mostly) observing traffic laws.
Parker grinned.“Yup.”
“It’s also kind of confusing, though,” I added.
His grin widened.“Yup.”
Great. Well, as long as we were all on the same page here.
“If you took things at face value, this would be much easier for all of us,” the creepy skull told me. And even though I knew Mr. Fluffikins was the one speaking through him, I couldn’t help but address Fred Head directly with my response.
“That pretty much goes against the whole hidden paranormal world thing you have going here. Doesn’t it?”
Fluffikins hissed.
Parker hung his head and laughed.
I just stood there confused. Maybe this new assignment wouldn’t be easier than the last one, after all.
10
“What’s the second chair for?” I asked, after I finally took a deep breath and settled into mine.
Parker and Fluffikins exchanged funny glances.
“Go on. Tell her,” Parker urged from where he stood at my side. “You’ve kept this from her long enough. She’ll find out any minute anyway.”
The cat groaned, then sat down in front of me on the table. He jerked his head to the side, widened his eyes, and then looked over to Parker.
I twisted to glance in the direction he’d been looking and noticed an elderly couple walking hand in hand, approaching us quite slowly.
“Right, I guess it falls to me then.” Parker cleared his throat. “Long story short, the PTA has a new intern, and she’ll be assisting on this assignment.”
“Oh, good. It won’t be quite as boring sitting out here all day then.” I leaned back in my chair, stretching my legs out far in front of me, then snapped back to my previous erect posture as I realized something. “Wait… I thought you didn’t hire permanent staff outside of the board? What’s the deal with this intern?”
Parker jabbed a hand into his pocket and cleared his throat.“Normally, uh… No. But she’d like to fill the open position for force liaison, and we’d prefer to trial her first before making such an important decision.”
His words would have comforted me if not for the strange mannerisms that accompanied them. They were intentionally not telling me something, and I didn’t like that one bit.
I nodded slowly.“That makes sense, but then why do you need me at all? It seems someone qualified enough to be considered should be fine on her own. Am I wrong?”
Parker glanced toward the elderly couple and smiled. They were still several paces away. He kept his eyes focused just above my head as he spoke.“We need someone to keep a close eye on her, and seeing as you’re already acquainted…”
“What? I hardly know anyone here!” I argued. At the same time a heavy weight of dread dropped into my stomach.
Parker suddenly became very interested in the sidewalk. His lips moved and he mumbled something, but I couldn’t make it out.
So I got out of my chair and came to stand right beside him.“What did you say?”
He briefly met my eyes.“Um, it’s… Uh… Melony Haberdash.”
“What?” I exploded. “But she tried to kill me!”