Reuben Cabot: 12/16/96 (11/1/96)
(by Tom Brady)
"You're kidding." I said.
"No," said John, "That's the Weather Machine. Look
for yourself."
I pulled out an amethyst crystal and made a square in the air
before me, between me and the box. I concentrated on looking at
the pattern of the box and its contents, expecting to see the
usual uninteresting patterns of everyday items. Instead, I was
dazzled by the shifting, coruscating patterns of old binding spells
and things more sinister.
"Shit. That's it, all right."
Daedelus nervously cleared his throat. "I guess now we have
to figure out what to do with it…"
Before I could say something to cover up the fact that Forteau
was currently fighting himself in the Umbra and thus sort of out
of consideration, Kasee piped up and said, "Well, how can
we give it to Mr. Forteau if he's in a coma?"
Eric turned slowly and looked at us appraisingly. "What do
you mean?"
Kasee launched into the whole tale of Forteau's current
"condition."
The only thing that made it worse was when I realized that Eric
had dialed up Master Porthos, and the Hermetic master was now
listening in on the conversation. Gods, I hope he doesn't try
to act against Forteau based on this information.
Eric, Daedelus, and Porthos huddled together briefly, negotiating
a place where they could meet. They decided that Daedelus would
take the Weather Machine and the members of our merry band to
the main library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Eric turned a questioning look my way and I raised my hands. "Hey,
we decided this a while ago. Y'all have a good time without me."
Just then, a voice came from one of the adjacent aisles: "Hey,
what are you people doing back here?"
Great. With all of the hemming and hawing and rather noisy discussions,
we had attracted the attention of one of the guards. John shifted
to one of his man-wolf forms (Crinos, I think) and began stalking
towards the guard. I guessed that things were going to get ugly
and decided to get Mary out of there. I grabbed Mary's hand and
we ran for the door, Dog and Cab following.
Once we got to the van, we stood by the doors, waiting nervously
for the rest of our group to come running from the building, but
after ten minutes, no one showed. I was beginning to wonder if
we would have to go back inside when Renee ran out of the building,
breathlessly.
"Daedelus has opened a portal to MIT," she gasped. "If
you're going, we have to go NOW."
I shook my head and stayed where I was. Cab hesitated a moment,
then sprinted back towards the flea market. Mary looked at me,
questioning. I shrugged. I wasn't her mother - I couldn't tell
her what to do. She touched my hand briefly and took off after
Cab.
Renee looked from me to Dog. "Will you be OK?"
"Sure," I said with a confidence I didn't feel. "I've
got Dog, and if you'll leave me the keys, I'll get the van back
to the chantry."
Renee shrugged and tossed me the keys. "Wish us luck."
And with that, she dashed back to the flea market.
I looked at the keys in my hand and sighed. Great.
*Um, Reuben?*
"Yes, Dog?"
*You don't know how to drive.*
"I've driven before - two or three times, in fact."
*Wonderful. Indianapolis 500, here we come.*
I muttered something about familiars and sarcasm and how that
wasn't part of the deal. I walked around the van, unlocked the
doors, and opened the passenger's side door. Dog jumped up onto
the passenger's seat and complained that the seat belt wouldn't
fit him. I started to say he could damn well change to a suitable
form if he wanted, when I was startled by a banging on the side
of the van. It was Kasee. I opened the sliding passenger's door.
"Why didn't you go with the others?"
She shifted in her seat, "I didn't think it was a good idea.
I haven't been feeling well, and I don't think Reality likes me
very much right now."
Common sense from Kasee? Mirable dictu! I just shrugged
and said, "OK. Put on your seat belt, then. This may be a
bumpy ride."
She started to ask why, but shut up when she was thrown against
the seat by the sudden acceleration. "Oh, yeah. Don't press
the accelerator when shifting gears. I remember that now"
I mumbled. At least it was an automatic.
We moved slowly from the parking lot and waited a solid five minutes
to turn north onto Capital Boulevard. I changed lanes slowly and
bumped the curb twice as I turned into the median to turn around.
We headed slowly southbound on Capital, going no faster than 35
mph. A semi pulled up behind us and blasted its horn. I quickly
pulled into an abandoned Hardees, put the van in park for a moment,
and leaned my head against the steering wheel.
Kasee broke the silence. "Uh, Reuben?"
"What?" I said irritably.
"You know, it's not too far to walk back to the chantry from
here."
"Hmm. You know, you might be right, at that," I said,
relieved. Actually, it was about two miles, but the weather was
nice anyway - not a cloud in the sky.
*Good idea.* I shot Dog a look, but he ignored me.
I locked the van and we walked back to the chantry, arriving around
6 o'clock in the evening. I tried to take a nap but was too restless.
I was making dinner for Kasee and I around 8:30 PM - beef stroganoff
- when I heard a loud crack of thunder. That was odd - there was
no rain forecast.
I walked over to the front door and opened it, and was amazed
to see it raining torrentially, harder than it had during Hurricane
Fran. "Oh, crap."
I poked my head into my bedroom. "Hey, Dog?"
Dog looked up from the rerun of "Love, American Style"
he was watching. *What?*
"I think they disassembled the Weather Machine."
Dog got up and padded over to the window, looking out for a few
moments. *I think you may be right. Oh dear.*
A short time later, the rest of the group, Betsy included, arrived
back at the chantry, drenched. Daedelus said they had gone to
Porthos' forces realm and disassembled the Weather Machine, and
it all worked great except for the paradox they all got whacked
with. All I could do was shake my head and wonder what kind of
a nasty mess we had made for ourselves.
At about 9:30 PM, I went into my room and tried to call Forteau.
No answer. No great surprise, there. There was a quiet knock at
the door. Daedelus poked his head in. "Hey Reuben? I've got
a question."
"What?" I was still a little irked at the whole passing
of events, and the fact that they seemed unconcerned that their
handing the Weather Machine over to Porthos might have a damaging
effect on all of Raleigh, if not elsewhere.
Daedelus stood in the doorway, uncertain. He glanced at Dog, entranced
as usual by the TV ("Married…with Children" this
time) then said, "When I was talking to you out at Forteau's
you said something I just have to ask you about."
"What was that?"
"Well, when you realized that Forteau was fighting himself
in the Umbra, you said, 'Fuck me.' And Dog looked at you with
this weird expression, and you said, 'Not now.' Does that mean
that you and Dog…"
Oh, that did it. Now I was pissed. Everyone had been pretty cool
about my sexual orientation up until now (it hadn't even come
up, that I could remember), but to be accused of bestiality…
I stood up from the bed and looked Daedelus in the eye. "Look.
I don't know what the hell you've been thinking, but you need
to free yourself from your parochial notions right now.
Dog is my familiar, you moron. And whatever goes on between us
is just that - between us. You got that?"
Daedelus looked sort of sheepish and mumbled an apology, backing
out of the room. I shut the door behind him and stood there seething
for a moment, and then felt a wet nose on my hand. I looked down,
and Dog licked my hand. *Don't let it bother you. It's no big
deal.*
"Shit, Dog. I thought I was finally with a group of people
who were open-minded and tolerant enough to let me be myself…"
*Look at it from the outside. If you didn't know better, wouldn't
you think our relationship looks a little…strange?*
I paused, then laughed quietly to myself. "I guess you're
right. Well, that's me - Reuben Cabot, speaker-of-dreams and
dogfucker."
Two arms grabbed me and wrestled me onto the bed. I looked into
Dog's now-human face and smiled. "You know, some of this
is your fault. All of those sultry looks and sexy comments."
He laughed, that deep rumbling of his. "Sultry looks from
a dog? Why Mr. Cabot, that is most perverted. Besides, everyone
knows dogs can't talk."
I silenced him with a kiss.
I ducked my head out of my room a bit later and saw that everyone
was putting on their coats. "Where are y'all off to?"
I asked.
Renee said, "We're almost certain that Ogre is in the steam
tunnels under NC State, and we're going to find him. Do you want
to come?"
I noted that Mary was sitting on the sofa with a magazine, obviously
not intending to leave. "Nah, that's OK. I'll keep an eye
on Mary. Have fun storming the castle."
Renee smiled and headed out the door with the rest of the group.