Spirit Dealings

As he drove, Micah wondered if Lavender would have hailed a ride somewhere. Would she have tried to contact her parents? It would be another place to check. See if they knew of other places Lavender might go that he did not yet know about. Then there was the nudge from The Spirits. He wished he understood the nudge. What the nudge had to do with the silvery-white wolf and Zamponia. Micah had only driven a few blocks toward the Proctor Business District when his phone rang.

"Macaby," he answered.

"Any luck finding that girlfriend of yours, Micah?" Major Parvus asked.

"…Not yet, Sir. We're checking in the rest of the team now."

"Keep me informed."

"Yes, Sir."

Major Parvus hung up.

Micah parked his truck by Metropolitan Market. They climbed out of his truck as the other half of the team gathered. They had found no sign or scent of her. Micah encouraged them to keep looking, slowly widening the search grid. He took his time walking down N 26th Street. He wanted to be obedient to The Spirits. But he also wanted to do everything he could to keep Lavender alive. To find out the whole truth and maybe be able to give her another, more fair, trial if at all possible. He glanced down each alley to see if she hid down one of them. Though, if she was down one of them the dogs would have picked up her scent despite whatever refuse might be there.

A stronger nudge came from The Spirits when Micah's thoughts wandered back Zamponia. There had been something about her. Something about her eyes, her shape, her features that left him feeling as if he knew her. Why had she been in Lavender's apartment? Had Lavender been helping her while on leave? If so, why didn't she look more grungy, more beat up from living on the streets? Had Lavender given her a key? If she did, why would she leave it in the lock? Did her neighbors know about Zamponia? Micah couldn't recall a time when Lavender had mentioned helping a transient.

Maybe he should check in with her parents. See if they would know somewhere else she would go that he hadn't yet thought to search. See if there was something they might tell him that he might say or do to get her to open up to him without triggering a sparring match. Micah turned back toward Metropolitan Market. He gathered the team and sent them to Point Defiance Park and the neighborhood around The Antique Sandwich Co.. See if they would have any luck there. Then he climbed into his truck.

He drove slowly, keeping an eye out for the silvery-white wolf, Lavender, or Zamponia. Was there a deeper connection between the three of them he had not seen or realized yet? Did Lavender believe in The Spirits? He shook his head. She spoke of voices. The Spirits didn't have voices in his experience of Them. Micah paused at one final corner before he turned down the street of the Brush residence. He parked across the street. Another team of soldiers, and police, surrounded the house. He could hear sirens. Sirens that were getting closer. Micah climbed out and approached the house.

The soldiers outside didn't stop him from entering the house where Sergeant Major Shurb was giving his statement to the police. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Brush were sprawled on the floor of the front room. Blood soaked the carpet beneath them. Micah did his best to keep his face neutral, but he felt like he had been stabbed in the heart. The fireplace was closed off, but putting off an unusual amount of heat. The smell of burnt meat permeated the house.

"What happened here, Sergeant Major Shurb?" he asked when the police were done with him.

"We came to watch Mr. and Mrs. Brush as ordered, Sir," he replied.

"Ordered by whom?"

"Major Parvus, Sir. He was hoping to interview them himself, Sir."

"Go on," he said, trying not to feel frustrated that Major Parvus questioned his integrity because of the friendship that had developed between him and Lavender.

"Well, Sir, when we arrived, Lieutenant Brush was talking with her parents. We entered to detain her, but her parents attacked us. We were forced to defend ourselves."

"And the lieutenant?"

Sergeant Major Shurb pointed to the fireplace. "We're…." He stopped when Micah left the house.

Micah climbed into his truck. The resounding slam of the door did nothing for his mood. Lavender had jumped into the fireplace? He could not believe that. Could not believe that she had made it all the way out here. Had managed to have a moment with her parents before…. Nausea stirred his guts and bile burned the back of his throat as the smell of burnt meat lingered in his nostrils. The smell of Lavender's burning flesh. Micah cringed and shuddered. He did not want to believe it. His heart refused to believe it.

Movement out of the corner of his eye made him turn his head. Sergeant Major Shurb had just stepped out of the house. Micah glared at the man, his eyes filling with tears. He needed to be somewhere else. Anywhere else. He turned on his truck then tore down the street before the ambulance arrived to take the Brushes away. He drove until he reached Jack Hyde Park. He threw his truck into park then stewed while he looked out over the water. Why would Lavender go home? She knew it would have been dangerous. She had to have known Major Parvus would have come or sent someone to her parents' home. But the fireplace? Micah covered his mouth and wept.

The Spirits touched his heart with peace. Why would they give him peace? She had jumped into the fireplace! Had they known she was going to do that? Had it been The Spirits that had helped her get off base so she could tell her parents goodbye? Micah wiped his tears away, but more took their place. Peace came from The Spirits again. He pushed the feeling away. He did not want Their peace. He wanted to understand how Lavender had gone from being fine to dead.

Micah wracked his tired brain for something that made sense. For something to tie this disjointed and messed up timeline together in his head. To try and figure out if Zamponia and the white wolf The Spirits had given him a nudge toward were related. And what they had to do with Lavender, if there was a connection. He spun his mental wheels for some time.

Several rolling tones filled the silence of his car. The tone played several times before Micah realized that his phone was ringing.

"Macaby," he answered.

"You can come back to base, Captain," Major Parvus said. "Lieutenant…."

"No, Major," Micah interrupted. "I can't yet…. Not after…." His voice broke.

"…So you heard."

"Heard?! I saw the bodies. I could smell…. You should have given her a fair trial!"

"She was a threat, Captain. You of all people should know that the timing of judgment is critical."

"She wasn't a threat, Sir. She…." Micah bit his tongue.

"How sure are you that the Lieutenant was innocent, Captain?"

"I would stake my career on it, Sir."

"You would become an enemy yourself to prove that Lieutenant Brush was clean."

"If it came to that, yes, Sir."

"Is there something you know that we don't, Captain?"

Micah scrubbed at his moist and tired eyes. "If the voice that warned Lieutenant Brush of the mines had done so sooner, she would have done everything she could have to stop her squad from chasing after the enemy."

"…You may take your leave, Captain. Just don't skip town."

"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."

Major Parvus hung up.

Micah slowly hung up his phone. Movement behind his truck caught his attention. He turned but saw no one. He climbed out and walked around the truck. Had someone been trying to climb into his truck? He checked the bed. The satchel Zamponia took from Lavender's apartment was tucked into a corner. Did she know this was his truck? Didn't she know that whoever drove the truck could take off before she retrieved her bag? Then what would she do? Where was she? Micah glanced around. There weren't many places she could hide. The park was fairly open.

Micah meandered slowly through the stone pillars. His thoughts returned to Lavender. They had gone through boot camp together. The single tear that had fallen down her face while she was in confinement was the only time he had ever seen her cry. Occasionally he had seen her face red and splotchy from crying, but even that was rare. Once, after a hard training, she had fallen to her knees as if her spirit had finally been broken, her head hung down. He had moved to her side to see if she was okay. She was staring away, but when he touched her arm, she turned to him with a smile before getting up and walking away.

A scream brought him from his thoughts. He saw a few people looking over the bridge railing to the water below. He ran to the bridge. A young child had fallen in. He had slipped beneath the surface and had not yet resurfaced. Micah ran to the edge to go in after the child when he heard someone yell.

"Micauh, sdop!"

He turned and saw the young child in his mother's arms before the crowd hid him from view. How did he get out of the water so quickly? Scanning the crowd he wondered who had called to him. Then he saw a wet Zamponia turn and walk away. He caught up to her as she headed for the sundial.

"We should get you into dry clothes," he said.

Zamponia didn't respond and picked up her pace. He increased his just to keep up.

"Zamponia, please, it's…."

She took off running and he ran to catch up. He had almost caught up to her when she suddenly stopped and back tracked. Micah called for her to wait, but her speed increased. She ran to the edge of Commencement Bay and dove into the water. He watched her swim towards one of the boats. Then he lost sight of her.

There was a flurry of activity on the boat before the crew hauled something out of the water. Then the boat turned towards the dock. Micah watched the boat until he heard sirens then he ran for the dock. He got there as the crew carried someone off the boat in a blanket.

"What happened?" he asked, seeing Zamponia in the blanket, her leg wrapped, but still bleeding.

"One of our crew fell overboard close to the propeller. We stopped it as quickly as we could to prevent injury, but it wasn't stopped fast enough. If not for her, he would be dead."

The EMTs arrived and loaded her in the ambulance. The Spirits gave Micah a nudge and he climbed into the ambulance. He still didn't understand, but if The Spirits wanted him near Zamponia then he would remain near Zamponia. He watched her wince each time the ambulance passed over a bump or rocked. But no tears slipped from her eyes. Very much like Lavender.

When they arrived at Tacoma General, Micah was prevented from accompanying her into surgery. He paced the floor. He thought through everything that had happened since Lavender's trial. The seizure. The white wolf running away from the medical building where Lavender just happened to vanish from. Micah paused. Had one of The Spirits Overshadowed her? If what he recalled of the stories, it would explain how no one saw anything. Why nothing was caught on any of the security feeds. But then how did Zamponia fit into all of this?

Micah resumed his pacing. Zamponia was her own kind of puzzle. The sharpness of her features. The brilliance of her eyes. The lack of reaction to them exposing her in the shower. Then there was Kita's reaction to her. Was there more to what she had done then tell Kita to shut up that caused such a submissive, avoiding, reaction? Kita was a well trained Army dog. One of the best as far as he remembered. And that type of reaction was atypical for any Army dog, let alone one of their best. Then there was the absence of her fingerprints in the databases. Lavender's would have shown up for sure.

His pondering stopped when the doctor stepped out of the back.

"How is she, Doctor?" Micah asked.

"With a few weeks bed rest while her leg heals, she'll be fine," he replied. "She's lucky the blade missed the arteries. Had they been nicked, she could have bled out before the ambulance arrived. Or, if she survived, would have definitely lost her leg."

Micah nodded. "Thank you."

"Sure. You'll find her in recovery room 609."

"Thank you again."

The doctor nodded then walked away.

Micah walked down several halls to Zamponia's room. She looked around, slightly disoriented from the anesthesia.

"How do you feel, Zamponia?" he asked softly.

Zamponia turned her brilliant blue eyes toward him. "Where aum I?" she asked.

"The hospital."

She nodded then closed her eyes.

"Zamponia?"

"Is dere auh nurse siddin' at dhe desk oud dhere?"

Micah stepped back so he could look through the door. "Yes."

"Will you 'o dell her she's wonderful?"

"Why?"

"She needs do heaur id. …Now, pleause."

"Okay." He left to talk to the nurse.

When he got back, Zamponia was sitting up, the blanket pulled back, her legs hanging off the side of the bed, and her head bowed.

"Zamponia?"

"I need do 'o." Her voice sounded different. Micah lifted her chin. Tears ran down both cheeks.

He wiped them away. "Would you be willing to stay in my apartment while you recover?"

She grimaced, but nodded.

"Okay."

Once the release forms were signed, Micah called a taxi to take them to Jack Hyde Park for his truck. When they got there Micah was concerned about Zamponia. Her face was more pale than it had been at the hospital.

"Doing alright?" he asked.

"Peachy," she replied.

Micah helped her into his truck then he checked the bed of his truck for her satchel. It was still there. He just hoped that everything she had in there still was. He handed her the bag, not liking how pale she was looking. "We should fill the prescription the doctor gave you."

"No."

"You should do something for your pain, …Zamponia," he said, biting back the urge to call her Lavender.

"Comfrey."

"What's that?"

"Auh medicinaul plaund. Dhey sell id aud Maurlene's."

"Alright. How do I get there?"

"Union. Over dhe brid'e. Lefd jusd aufder de second li'hd."

"Alright."

Zamponia rested her head against the headrest and closed her eyes while he drove. Her breathing was slow and deep at first, but as he started over the bridge, she brought her hand up to her mouth. She fisted it and opened her eyes, but didn't cease to try and breathe deeply.

"What do you need, Zamponia?" Micah asked.

She didn't respond.

"Zamponia?" He touched her arm.

She looked at him. "Did you sauy somedhin'?"

"Are you all right?"

"No."

"Where is your pain on a ten scale?"

"Nine."

"And you're sure you don't want the prescription filled."

She nodded. "Maurlene's is dhere," she said, pointing to the shop as he approached the second light.

He slowed and pulled into the parking lot. Zamponia got into her bag and handed him a wad of bills.

"I got it," Micah said, refusing to take it.

"My injury," she said seriously. "My cosd."

"Okay." Micah took the bills. "Anything you want to eat?"

"Meaud."

"Any particular kind?"

She shook her head then closed her eyes again. "Aund 'ed me auh purple dube of Hypericum Perf if dhey hauve id, pleause."

"Hypericum Perf?"

She nodded without further explanation.

"Alright."

Micah went inside. He found Comfrey in several forms. He picked up the oil and a tincture. He wasn't sure about the ointment since it said not to apply it to open wounds. And if she was wanting it to put on her leg, he'd best not get it. He had to ask an employee for help in finding the Hypericum Perf in a purple tube. They only had one in stock. Then he went to the deli and ordered a couple sandwiches. He paid for the food then used the cash Zamponia gave him to pay for the rest.

When he returned, Zamponia had tears running down her face and her lips were pressed together. He handed her the meat sandwich. She ate ravenously. Micah didn't eat his, yet. He needed to get Zamponia to his apartment so she could treat her leg. Zamponia finished inhaling the sandwich before he reached the bridge. Her body relaxed and she slept.