I was in my studio in Malta trying to decide what to make next. Early on I switched from horses to dragons since my anatomical mistakes wouldn’t be obvious. I have been gifted with a lot of art, but apart from curves and graphs, it isn’t what I do instinctively so I cheat whenever I can. My art style is mostly avoiding things that I don’t do easily. So my complex flowing curves are my strength and everything else is a weakness to work around.
Bell told me I could save a girl with a kiss. I didn’t particularly like her and she was a Death, but I didn’t want her to die either. She was attractive, old time movie star attractive. She was a friend to Quinn and Avery, but Constance was as cute and clearly interested.
I sent Opal an email and told her I had room she and her crew could stay in at my estate in Malta. I arranged tickets and called around to hire a driver for a few days. I arranged for the chauffeur to pick them up at the airport and let them know that the chauffeur would have a room and meals taken care of.
I started planning my next bit of artwork and started just weaving wire around in curves. I kept coming back to the thought that I could save a girl and I was putting it off and that might make it too late. I didn’t know how to talk to her, what to ask and I didn’t have any excuse to talk to her, let alone kiss her.
I tried to focus on art, I needed to do a bit more before Opal came and I only had two days before she would arrive. I could focus on math. I could focus on statistics or finance. Art was different. I played with some wax and finally gave up. I summoned Dusty.
“Dusty, this is Joshua Bear, are you free to talk?”
Dusty said, “I was expecting this. You left all your art equipment here.”
I had an excuse. She didn’t seem friendly but that was no excuse to let her die. “Can you come to Malta?”
She said, “I would have to check. I don’t know what group watches over Malta. Can you just come and pick it up? I rarely bite and only when I feel particularly close to a man.”
I appeared on the balcony beside her.
She nodded, “I keep forgetting that some folk have the same powers we deaths have. I took your art equipment inside so the weather didn’t ruin it.”
She went in and said, “Just come in, you can take it from here.”
I followed her and she pointed to the tripod. It still had my unfinished painting of the skyline and the paints were still in place.
I started putting it all away and she asked, “Are you really that fast? It wouldn’t be unlike them to exaggerate if someone beat them. You beat a group of them, so you have to have something, but the way they describe it, you, Lithos and Ursula are legendary.”
I said, “Ursula is faster, and Lithos can leap to insane speeds. I am probably a bit between them overall. Is that enough data?”
Dusty said, “I’m not reporting back to the Deaths if that is what you are implying. I am more distrusting them, then distrusting your speed. I have never seen any of you in action, so I can’t really judge.”
I started folding up the tripod and the bag fell to the ground. I squatted and looked. Nothing spilled and nothing looked damaged.
I glanced at Dusty. “Do you want to see how fast I am?”
She looked at me and shifted position. Just a hair but I knew she was ready for a fight. I sprung, caught the top of the sofa as I went over it so I could slide low on the floor under the glass table. She was backing up but too slow. I hooked one of her legs with an arm and pulled her so her head would miss the glass table.
She lost her footing and tried to turn and catch herself. I caught her so her landing was soft and then I pushed her legs so she spun and I kept from spinning and slowed my slide across the floor by breaking with my other hand.
That lifted my upper half off the ground so as she slid past and around I landed on her back and pushed her arms down as I slid my hands around her and rotated so she was facing away from me, on top of me and held with her arms at her sides.
Not the best hold, but I was ready for her next move. She didn’t try to hammer my face with the back of her head like I expected and she didn’t try to push up with her legs.
She lay on me laughing, “Okay, your fast. What’s your next move?”
I kissed her neck and let go of her.
She shifted around half rolling off of me and now my hand was under her and she was looking at the side of my face. She pulled in closer and the difference between her and Ursula became clear.
Ursula was as hard as a rock. She had lean long and fast muscle under her skin. There was barely padding on her delightful figure. Dusty was padded. Her figure was more dramatic and it gave in ways that Ursua’s figure didn’t. There was more figure there and then, Dusty started nibbling on my ear and her breath was right there in my ear.
This was a different sort of infatuation but suddenly I had a wonderful woman in my arms and I was scared I was going to mess up my opportunity.
#
Dusty asked, “Are we a couple?”
I said, “I’m going to have to spend time in Malta, but I could visit in the evening. Wait, Malta is six hours ahead. So if I come at midnight in Malta, that would be six in the morning here.”
Dusty said, “I don’t wake up till ten if I can avoid it and then I have to be ready to work. We could hang out, but I might have to disappear.”
I said, “I can get sleep in Fairy.”
Dusty gave me a squeeze. “What do you do in Malta?”
I said, “Sculpture, a woman is coming with a crew to film my workshop, so I need to get my workshop ready and I don’t know how long she is going to take seeing my work.”
Dusty asked, “Are you a player? Is this woman attractive?”
I said, “Not in your league. She is cute though.”
Dusty asked, “How important is this filming?”
I said, “It might help this world to survive.”
Dusty asked, “Can I turn on lie detection and have you say that again?”
I said, “Since our relationship is clearly not base on trust, sure.”
She looked at me intently as I said, “I have been informed by more than one source that the action supported by this film might help this world survive a few more years.”
She leaned against me. “Here I thought my job was important. Still, the Deaths or their equivalent all seem to do better in Europe and with less violence. How did you get so fast?”
I said, “Lots of training. I have been worried that I might not be staying in shape. I need to make an exercise course, but I could start teaching you a bit about speed and that would help me keep fit.”
Dusty said, “So you just show up and throw me to the ground?”
I nodded.
Dusty said, “What if I hurt you?”
I leaned in and kissed her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful, it isn’t like I trust Deaths.”
#
I was waiting out front when the van with Opal and her crew drove up. Opal got out and said, “This is wonderful. Selene once we get some camera’s out can you drive me in again so we can get my arrival on film?”
The driver leaned out where I could see her. She was a definite looker. I looked back at the crew. One of the crew members was a girl and cute. I didn’t expect any females apart from Opal, and now I was going to have three ladies in my house.
As the van drove back out, the camera man said, “Since you want to keep your identity private, we are making a video to put online. Opal does this sort of thing, but usually the clients want their faces exposed. This is going to part of several videos where Opal explores Malta and gets invited into the exclusive home of a mysterious artist. Don’t worry it will be all about you and your art. Your art will be in the background of everything and the subject of a lot of it.
“But we plan to make it as a failed romance. Carol, that’s the crew member in the car was going to play as a romantic foil as Opal tried to get close to the wealthy and exclusive artist, but on the way here, we were talking with, Selene and she likes the idea of getting some exposure, so we are thinking of having you sort of bounce among the three of them and end up with Selene as we go back to the airport. It’s perfect. Selene is also a tour guide and speaks several languages like a native so after we spend a day or so filming here we can have her show us the island and then when we put it together and it will look like she was our guide and gave us the tour first.”
He set up behind me to film me from the back watching the car drive up. Opal and Carol got out and Selene opened the back of the van to get out their luggage.
#
Dusty and I sat on her couch. We were planning on watching something but we ended up talking.
“Joshua, we barely know each other. So lets tell each other the worst part about ourselves so we have learning that out of the way.”
I said, “That sounds horrible.”
Dusty said, “Call it trust building. If we decide we can’t bear the other’s faults then we break up before it goes too far. So here is me. I like to fight. I hate hurting peoples feelings. I love to gossip, I don’t cook, I don’t clean up and I will eat off of anyone's plate if they leave the table and sometimes when they are still there. As a Death, you can never, ever count on me to be on time or to stay with you when you need me. I could at any time return in a horrible mood since I witnessed the result of something sad, gross, unfair or just horrible. My job is to go where people died and the spirits are sticking around. Often that means they died in a horrible situation.
“There, have I scared you off?”
“Not yet. Okay, Dusty, here it is. I am the geek that other geeks stare at and wonder about. I get excited about math formulas. Some of them are achingly beautiful to me. I do statistics on everything and dream about math and programs. I don’t gossip. I keep everyone's secrets the best I can. I am scared to death of sweet looking girls. I have only recently been able to even face them and I still don’t look at them if I can avoid it.
“I get crushes on girls instantly. I can be loyal to a girl, but I could still fall for one in an instant. I don’t want to and all it does is get me hurt, but if you keep me away from other women, I will be grateful. Right now I am in a horrible situation and I don’t think you can help me.
“The woman running the filming is named Opal. She has an assistant named Carol and she has talked the driver I hired into being part of the film. The driver is named Selene and Opal plans for all three of them to flirt with me and end up fighting over me. It’s all acting for them. I can probably avoid falling for Opal, but I can’t be sure. I am a goner if I get too close to Selene or Carol.”
Dusty said, “Your young and you haven’t gotten to see the end of as many lives as I have. You haven’t heard the confessions and stupid wishes to reveal the obvious that everyone left behind already knew and ignored. Men and women fall in love or lust with another even while considering popping the question to the lover they are devoted to.
“If you knew how many women have had to say, ‘Either she or me, you can’t have both, before getting the marriage they desperately wanted, even while knowing their man was fickle, you would think the entire gender was insane. Men and women cheat. Men and women fall in love or lust and think they are the exception to who should get away with it. Women think they can trust a man to leave their wife for them and then be loyal to them.
“A lot of men are proud of the sin you fear. Preachers will tell you it is wrong and they still get in trouble and beg for forgiveness only after they are caught dead to rights. They still want to keep preaching as if they have a right to lead a flock after they betrayed everything they stood for.
“No one is more jealous of his wife than the man who constantly cheats on her. I know, I am going on and on about this, but it’s the heart of what tears at love.
“VD would go away in short order if men and women didn’t cheat, or swing from romance to romance. The man that owned this apartment kept it and a few others for his mistresses. I am living here because a ghost who paid for this while living said I could.
“I am taking advantage of the estate of a man who cheated in life. Okay, I am stopping this. It makes me mad and crazy and there is nothing I can do about it. Tell you what. Afterwards, if you don’t show up. I’ll know why. It’ll be water under the bridge and I can thank you for a few good times. If you come back and are willing to talk to me while I have a truth spell running, then we can take it from there.”
#
Having two to three camera’s behind me but on me from morning till late made it feel like I was cast in a fake reality TV show with horrible but beautiful women. I had considered Opal pretty enough but not a blazing beauty. After her makeup was done for camera, it made me nearly dizzy to look at her. She was the scary one. Able to walk around mildly attractive because it suited her and then able to turn it on and be devastating at will, was like my ability to be human or daemon, but without magic.
Maybe the potions and powders women use are magic. Looking at Opal after she prepared to be on camera, I wouldn’t argue if you took that side of the argument.
Having an acting role where my job was to be friendly, and really just a prop for attractive girls to behave badly around was awkward, embarrassing, and frightening. Having three girls flirt and cuddle up next to me was making me wonder if I really cared if the relationship was fake.
In then end though, I wasn’t going to pursue any of them. I was still going to try and stay with Dusty till I thought she would live and then I would still probably stay till she kicked me to the curb. I didn’t get the feeling that she had the sort of latched on commitment that I gravitated towards.
The thought of Carol or Selene calling me after Dusty decided to move on crossed my mind quite a few times. Opal scared me. She could probably latch onto me and I wouldn’t have an escape, but I would always wonder if she was playing with me. She was able to change her demeanor faster than she could change faces, so I wasn’t sure if I had any clue as to who she was.
#
In the morning, as I watched them drive off, I wondered if I had been delightfully scammed. I had paid for them to come to Malta, paid them to film, and I was still paying for them to be driven around Malta to see the sights. I could afford it and I enjoyed it enough to imagine trying to set up the same sort of thing weekend after weekend. The part of me that didn’t want to live a tacky existence was at war with the part of me that wondered how many years could I keep this sort of thing going and how far was I willing to go.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Fairy maids came out and bowed in skimpy maid suits with real animal tails and ears.
I summoned King Surmium, “Can you remind me why skimpy maid suits is a bad idea.”
King Surmium came to me though the summons. He looked over the outfits and Fairies. “Give me a moment. I am pretty sure I had a real good reason but right now it isn’t coming to me. Oh, wait there it is. Eternity with only the only Fairy kings and Queens who are willing to hang out with you, are the same ones who gave in to the same temptations. At the moment, it doesn’t seem that terrible, but think of the company you will be keeping.”
#
Bell was quietly examining my artwork. I knew how he worked, so I expected he was having a raging crowd arguing, making fun of and voting down my sad efforts. He came to my jewelry and paused. “If you made a clockwork mechanical version of your dragon flying over waves, with a wake that continually curled behind him and used maybe sixty pounds of gold, it would fetch a good price at auction even without our promotion.
“Then we will lament that you are wasting all your time making an even larger version that no one is going to be able to afford if you even manage to make it. We will let it out that you are probably ruining yourself with this insane project. You can still keep making variations on the theme. Work on your skills, make a raptor or two, make some horses. Don’t worry about them being accurate, just make them look strong, proud and fast. You will be able to sell them as fast as you make them and cover the financial needs of your clients. Give them value for gold, but pay for the Deaths with the gold Quinn gave you.
“Then after a reasonable delay, we will let it be known that you were robbed before you were finished with your masterpiece. That way there is a perfect excuse for it to disappear when the Djinn buys it. When it sells on the secret market, you still get the cash, but there will be not connection to you. One of the Djinn will have spent more than any other Djinn could manage to. You will have destroyed the majority of the richest Djinn’s wealth and not only will he be unable to blame you since it was stolen, but you won’t have to risk meeting a Djinn and you will secretly control one of the truly huge fortunes and still have it all legal, tidy and clean.”
Bell offered me a large balloon.
“Do you want me to inflate this?”
He said, “Chew it.”
I winced. “Really?”
Bell held it out forcefully. “Take it, keep it in a form ready to chew. If you are ever possessed, start chewing like your life depends on it. It probably will.”
#
Avery, Quinn, Dusty and I were doing watercolors in the Palo Duro canyon near Amarillo, Texas. The sun had just come up and the shadows made stark and dramatic lines against the already dramatic pillars and cliffs.
We had to paint fast, the angle of the shadows was visibly changing as we worked. Avery and Quinn were competing with a speed that reminded me of Ursula in combat. Quinn used two brushes at once. One with water and one with paint.
Avery kept shifting and would switch between forms holding a different brush in one hand and a pallet to match the color blend in the other.
I was reducing it all to layers, fractals and curves so after I visualized it and looked at the paper, I would just make a few marks in pencil to reference it and then fill in the areas like I was coloring by number. I made it easy by adding the swirls of wind in since that would give me large curves of bright contrasting forms.
Dusty was using layers of washes and putting layer on layer and ignoring the mess of color that was forming in all the wells of what were previously pristine paints.
We all shared gifts with similar origins, but Avery and Quinn had been doing this and the muscle memory was their own. Despite the messy way Dusty was working, and the muddy layers she was putting on her painting, hers was showing the effect of the bright Texas sun rising on the canyon walls better than mine and she was going to beat me to the final touches.
Avery and Quinn started new paintings before I was half way done. Dusty finished hers and started a new one.
I kept working on mine, color at a time till each area was as I envisioned it. I made a few small final touches and put the pad aside so I could put another on my tripod.
Avery asked, “Who wants to scrap this for a bit and fly over the canyon?”
Quinn asked, “As what bird?”
Avery said, “You pick the bird. I’ll make one that looks like it after I touch it. You know me, I am still having trouble keeping them straight.”
Quinn asked, “Dusty, Joshua, are you maxed out or can you take another form?”
Dusty said, “Past maxed out. I will have to fly as a falcon. I am trying to forget two forms right now so I can replace them. Really I am trying to forget three, but I don’t even know if you can forget your original form.”
I asked, “Is that not the real you?”
She shook her head. “I upgraded as soon as I was able. Does that bother you?”
I said, “Not really, I still see myself as being Lithos and me.”
Quinn turned into a huge eagle with golden brown, black and white markings. “Sorry Dusty, I can’t resist this. Avery, touch me and make an Avery special that looks like a golden eagle.”
Avery asked, “How special?”
Quinn said, “Full smell, full taste, full eyesight and hearing. I want to see if I can handle it.”
Avery looked at me. “Quinn said I should gift you with one of my wild bird forms. I’m not sure it’s a good idea. Just the sense of smell that a rat has is enough to make a person trip out.”
I nodded and turned into a rat. I held my nose to the air and felt the confusion of a thousand scents that I didn’t know. I started nibbling the bit of cheese I held in the rat’s hands so I didn’t get too hungry when I transformed.
Avery said, “Fine, don’t blame me if you get confused and run into a cliff.”
Quinn said, “After he turns into the form you make up, gift him with using it. Me too. I don’t want to be left out.”
#
We sailed high over the canyon calling to each other and catching thermals. Dusty did a wing over and dove down back to where we left our tripods. I followed and saw people hiking far below.
#
As we packed up, Quinn and Avery were both glancing at each other and then at me.
Quinn asked, “Okay, Joshua fess up, this isn’t your first bird form.”
Avery asked, “Do you live in a bird form?”
I shook my head. As I saw a breezed coming I realized why they thought I lived as a bird. “No, but here tell me what you see?” I showed them the painting I had made.
Quinn said, “Like a stained glass window, but then you put a Van Gogh over it. It’s a beautiful expression of what you imagined the wind would do as it passed over and through the canyon.”
I said, “Thank you, but sadly I was not using as much imagination as you might think. If you want, I can gift you with being able to see the wind.”
All three of them bowed so I could gift them.
#
We were all laying back and looking up at the sky.
Avery said, “It’s no wonder he wasn’t disoriented.”
I asked, “Why me and why would I be disoriented?”
Dusty said, “I’m tripping out. I may have to stop for a while. Joshua, how often do you turn this ability on?”
I said, “I usually turn it off when I am programming. The rest of the time it’s kind of fun.”
Quinn said, “Josh, Separately I have been most of the creatures Avery combined into the bird form she gave you. It has the senses of at least a dozen birds combined. When you add in the various colors visible, the smells, the ability to focus and zoom in vision, and the hearing, normally a person would be swamped with information. Avery gifted you with managing the form, but that only goes part way.
“But this sense allowing you to see the wind, means your collecting heat signatures from all directions and resolving them by triangulation to put together a map of the wind in three dimensions. This is a daft Fairy power if I have ever seen one.”
Avery moved a hand in front of her face. “Quinn, your right. It’s like living in a Van Gogh painting. Beautiful, complex, a touch disturbed and more than a little bit disorienting. I think I can fly with it on now. I should probably adapt a bit more first though.”
#
Dusty and I were watching the first video Opal had put online. It had her crew visiting ancient sights with Selene telling about the history and legends while Carol and Opal asked questions. The video made it look like it was just Carol and Opal on the tour with Selene as their driver and guide. The camera men spent more time panning across the girls figures in the fifteen minute video than I had spent looking at them during the first evening and the day I spent with them.
Dusty stayed right next to me and the effect of watching a video with three very attractive girls while an insanely attractive girl was cuddling next to me and breathing on my neck most of the time was devastating.
#
Harvey said, “We are so going to die.”
I said, “I’m ready to take us to Fairy if it gets really bad. I’m getting better.”
Harvey asked, “Can we stop for a bit?”
I said, “The fish market isn’t much further.”
Harvey put a foot against the back of my neck. “If we die, it won’t matter.”
I got off my bicycle and tried to look back at Harvey. He was standing in the open top compartment of my back pack so I didn’t have a good way to look at him without taking off the backpack.
I crouched holding my bike so Harvey could leap out. I held his water bottle for him and then he went off to some bushes while I looked out at the colorful boats on the sparkling water. As a total computer geek, I was not in the habit of exploring the outdoors. Since Jack started getting me in shape for camping, I had developed a touch of appreciation for scenery.
After watching the video of Opal and Carol traveling I decided I needed to visit the amazing country I was living in and had so far managed to barely visit.
Harvey came back and gestured to the water bottle. I gave him another drink and crouched so he could climb into my backpack.
Harvey and I were sitting at a bench. I was eating a fish salad called, ‘insalata tal-bakkaljaw,’ and taking out bits of fish and egg for Harvey to eat when Avery sat down at the other end of the bench.
“Joshua, you can keep a secret, can you avoid telling people I am in Malta?”
I said, “I don’t get out much, so I probably wouldn’t have seen you.”
Avery said, “When things get a bit intense, I tend to run away. Right now I have a lot of responsibilities, but I need to have some time away.”
I asked, “Do you want a place to stay? I have extra rooms. You don’t even need to stay in the same building.”
Avery said, “I don’t want to be a burden. The thing is, I want you to tell me if they need me, but I want to keep my staying here secret. Can your cat keep a secret?”
I said, “I trust his silence on issues and honestly you can stay as long as you want. Free food and board, Fairies doing the cooking and cleaning. From what I have seen they will be delighted to have you here.”
Avery said, “They are going to want me back, but I just need a breather. Could you let me know and not give away my visiting here? I have given up too many wonderful places already.”
Harvey got up. “Show Avery where she can stay. Avery you may have saved my life. I saw a video where a cat was riding on the back of a fellow and thought it looked fun. Yeah, right, that cat must have had brain worms.”
#
I showed Avery the room choices and she picked the small cottage furthest from the mansion.
Avery sighed cutely. Everything she did was cute. Insanely cute. She pointed at the groves. “I don’t dare paint any of this estate. It will give my location away if anyone sees it. Dusty told me about the video and after I watched it, I decided I had to come here and paint.
“Then when we were negotiating details on the governing board we are setting up for the North American Deaths, they brought up a short affair I had with one of them as a conflict of interests. It happened well before we were a thing and he already knew but Quinn was right there. Quinn’s aunt was there too.”
I closed my eyes. “I’d run too. How do you ever go back after that? I guess you have to but I think I would change my name, find a recently dead young person to take the form of and give up my old life.”
Avery transformed into a skinny old lady wearing a large straw hat. “Call me Lisbet while I am here. I will just bike around and paint things. I need to go to a local art store to get paints and stuff so my gear doesn’t give me away.”
#
Dusty and I sat in a small room in her apartment complex that had a huge soft couch. The image on the video had Carol and Opal in lingerie sitting down on a bed looking down. The cameraman must have been lying on the floor to take the shot.
The video started with Carol and Opal laughing about getting invited in by, “The mysterious Maltese artist we cannot name.” They giggled over how handsome I was. So far they hadn’t shown any of my art, but the had made me sound like an aloof, hard to get playboy. In my mind, playboys were the farthest thing from hard to get, but my mind was clouding as Dusty started kissing my neck.
I missed some of the rest of the video and we paused it at the point where they went back to the scene where they drove up to the mansion.
When we started watching again, the video kept going from views of the mansion to the back of my head and then my butt. I think Carol was filming this as a point of view and making fun of me since she kept returning to images of my back end. We had to pause again since Dusty was kissing my neck.
The video ended with a scene panning around my studio. Fortunately someone else was managing the camera and it didn’t end with a still of my backside.
#
Quinn introduced me to his aunt, Lidia. It was a terrible moment and I thought I would just leave and change my name. With Dusty holding my arm and Quinn, a Daemon friend right there and Lidia, I took one look and fell in love. I couldn’t escape, with Dusty gripping my arm she would go with me and being beside Dusty at this moment was what embarrassed me most.
Lidia said, “I’m taken.”
Quinn laughed.
Dusty said, “Note to self, keep Josh away from small, trim, large eyed girls.”
Lidia said, “You left out the serious fashion sense. Never ignore my impeccable taste in clothing.”
#
We sat at a table with nine Deaths. It was like Dusty was on trial. It was assumed that I was going to be on the management team that examined and disciplined Deaths. I wasn’t allowed by either side to have a say in this since Dusty was my girlfriend and they were arguing conflict of interest. Finally they decided that even if we broke up there would be issues so the only resolution would be to expel Dusty from the Deaths.
Dusty held my arm tight as we quietly walked out. I understood why Avery ran off. They kept bringing her up and her “fling,” with Cliff another Daemon. He wasn’t there but it was clear that he had already been kicked out. If I were Avery I doubt I would ever have the courage to return.
After stepping out into the sun, Dusty took us to her apartment and kissed me. I ignored the fact that there were other people at the apartment cheering.
Dusty backed up. “I’m free. You wonderful man. I thought the world would end before I got to retire. You don’t mind if I get drunk do you? I haven’t been able to properly throw back alcohol since I made my pledges.”
#
I was with Avery painting a waterfall that came down from a cliff and splashed in a hollow the water had carved into an inlet beside the sea. From the prominence of cliff we were standing on we could see tourists walking and posing for selfies so we were painting scenes and then adding the people we saw on one side to the dramatic scenery that we had just painted.
Avery asked, “How come your figures are more graceful?”
I said, “I know. It doesn’t seem fair since I only recently started and you are in every way a better painter despite my gifting. What you do is strong and muscular, but posed. Still wonderful. I start with curves. For me everything is a curve. I could gift you but Dorian Gray.”
“Dorian Gray,” was our code word for her form shifting. She started out as a friendly enough looking raw boned old lady with a straw hat but somehow over time any form she was in slowly became more attractive.
She said, “Sadly, I’m mostly gift proof. In a year or two I will try and take you up on that.”
I said, “I know some really good books on math that you could learn from.”
She asked, “Will it really help with art?”
I paused to wait for the washes on my watercolor to dry a bit. “You have mechanics and structure down. trigonometry is physics and statistics is how you start to understand complex things. It is all language with words for concepts that need a bit of cross over to let you understand them. Art, if it is effective, is another language, more instinctive but you need the rest to help you understand the instincts. At least I do.”
Avery stood back and looked at my painting. “So everything is math to you? You seem to be a compete geek but you seem to understand what I am missing. How come you know so much?”
I said, “Everything is lines and curves. But as a programmer, I have to understand what others want and create a tool that translates the information to something usable by my client.
“A good programmer is always learning. Otherwise he can’t understand what a client really needs. If you just hand a client what they think they want, you will be endlessly fixing what they thought they needed but wasn’t right. You have to understand what they understand and be able to figure out what they need or you and your client will just start hating each other.”
Avery asked, “How are you and Dusty getting along?”
I said, “It’s odd. I am going to keep my secrets and hers so I’m not going to say much. She was upset that she couldn’t summon or find you. She got kicked out of the Deaths and wanted you to come drink with her.”
Avery went back to painting. “I always figured she would be happy to escape being a Death.”
“She was, she wanted to celebrate with you.”
“Josh, you don’t ask a lot of questions. It seems like I am always grilling you.”
I squinted at the dazzling bright sea below and thought about painting that next. “Any questions I can think to ask, might reveal bits of secrets I should keep safe. Things are getting more and more complex as I make friends, it is getting harder to be careful. If I ask too many questions about you to Quinn or Dusty, they might suspect I am in contact with you.
I can’t tell you how many clients have come to me wanting changes to software and revealed everything they were thinking about by the questions they asked me.
“I am considering starting to become an outrageous liar. That or shut up entirely. That may be the only way to continue.”
#
As Dusty and I settled in to watch the third video, she asked, “Can you contact the Deaths in Malta?”
I shifted position so my arm wouldn’t go to sleep while we watched the video. “I can try, why do you ask?”
Dusty said, “I want to visit. I want to see your place. I still have the powers of a Death but no responsibilities. I don’t know if that means I can tour Europe or not.”
I thought about Avery hiding out at my place and now I was in a bind. I didn’t want to lie and say the Deaths of Malta said no, and I didn’t want to reveal Avery’s secret. I wanted to show my place to Dusty and explore Malta with her.
Instead of a web of lies I was trapped in a web of secrets. “Dusty, this make take a bit, can you wait?”
Dusty cuddled in close and started the video.
Most of it was in my studio. My artwork was in the background of all the scenes and the subject of a lot of it. The back of my head was captured in a lot of scenes but the video was more about the three girls imagining living in a place like this with a handsome and mysterious artist. The three of them independently showed off the jewelry and the watches I gave them and each of them appeared convinced I was in love with them since it was the most fabulous thing they had ever owned and I had made it. Then, still with my dragons and water splashing sculptures in the background, they compared their jewelry and decided to throw it back at me since I was such a horrible playboy. The video ended there. Since there was never such a scene I was curious how this was going to resolve.
Dusty said, “Now I have to see the next video. It’s obvious what is going to happen next, but I have to see it.”
I asked, “What happens next?”
Dusty patted my knee and then poked me in the ribs hard. “You gave them all hand made jewelry. Of course they were never, ever going to give it up. All three of them are plotting for the other two to reject you so they can have you to themselves. It’s obvious.”
I asked, “Why did you poke me so hard?”
Dusty said, “No reason. Why would a girl be upset that a boyfriend gave jewelry to other girls and never gave her any. I can’t think of any girl that would be so unreasonable.”
I rubbed the spot she had poked me. “None of them poked me in the ribs. I tend to give nice things to girls who don’t go out of their way to hurt me.”
To change the subject, I asked, “If you want to travel, how about doing some exploration with me?”