Maggie on the Bounty (15 page)

T
he corridors were still pretty quiet as all the lazy bones on the boat slept
in.  I envied them.  I could really have used a bed right about now.

"Well, what now?" Killian
asked.

"Learn how to jitterbug?"
I suggested, dragging my beat ass down the hall.

"I should have left you in the
hull of the ship, sunshine," he replied.

"If I had a nickel..."

Killian groaned as he stretched his
arms overhead.  "I would enjoy a long soak in a hot spring."

"Yes!" I moaned. 
"Oh, and for a cup of coffee... I sure could use my mom right about
now..."

Killian stopped dead.  He looked at
me first like I was crazy and then like I had gone and reinvented the
microchip.

"Your mother!" he
shouted.  He grabbed me and squeezed me.

"Ooo, careful there,
cowboy," I grunted.  "I feel like I've been run over by a herd of
stampeding buffalos."

"Do
you not see?" he asked.

"No."

"The
women in your family...  You were able to see through the overlapping
dimensions.  Your grandmother was able to see through the overlapping
dimensions.  It runs in your maternal genetics, Maggie!"

"But
my mom has never been able to see anyone on this boat..."

"That
is because the vampires layered false realities over the real one.  For the
first time in our lives, there is only one timeline upon this location."

I took a
second to take that in.  The 1930's to present day had all been living on this
boat since the 1930's because the vampires had created the bubble.  That was
not the case anymore.  If that was true, then...

I looked
around the hallway.  We were in the ghost of those vampire time bubbles.  We
were living in the residual energy left over from them.  We were in a ghost
bubble.  My mom got along GREAT with ghosts.

"Killian,
you are BRILLIANT!"

"Deserving
of a raise?"

"I will
buy you a whole breakfast when we get back to our time, you genius, silly
elf!"

He looked around, rubbing his
hands. "So, how do we let your mother know?"

"I have no idea."

This was a bit of a pickle.  I
didn't know that much about ghost bubbles, this being the first time I'd ever
heard of or been caught in one, but I knew when ghosts haunted somewhere, they
were usually stuck in a location.  If we stepped off this ship, we might be
stepping into outer space.  I had a better chance getting caught in between the
boundary and having my dad figure out how to pull us out with that lion statue
than mom find us.  Somehow we needed to get Mom and Dad over here to the boat.

"Well, the good news is that
my mom is neurotic and if I don't check in all week, they'll figure out
something is wrong."

"So, we wait for her to track
us down?"

I shrugged.  "If you have a
better idea..."

Killian sat there thinking for a
bit, because that dumb elf didn't realize the difference between a rhetorical
question and a real one, and then he said, "If only George was still
alive..."

I looked at Killian and looked at
the direction of the engine room.  I let out a huge whoop and flung my arms
around that dumb elf's neck.  "That's it!  Killian, I could kiss
you!"

"You could," he
confirmed.

"Shut up."  I pointed at
the engine room.  "George!  We can save him!  He knew us!  He knew us in
the 1940's.  It is because he met us here, in the past, and knew us in the
future.  He's SUPPOSED to help us.  And we are supposed to save him!  Come on. 
We have to reach him before the sun rises.  Let's go figure out if we're
trapped for all eternity or if the heavens are smiling down on us!"

We took off.

G
eorge was sitting right there in
the engine room, pretty as you please.

"George!  George the Gargoyle!"
I called. 

He looked downright flabbergasted
that a human would be calling out to him by name.  He flashed me his great big
fangs and it was all I could do not to turn tail and run.  And this is me we're
talking about.

"George!  Cut it out!  You
know us!" I said.

He gave me the old stink eye.
"I do not believe so, human."

He looked like he was getting ready
to take off, so I crossed myself to let him know I wasn't trying to pull
anything sneaky on him.  "Not now, but we meet you in the future..."

"What sort of cock and
bull..." he sputtered.

"Just know that it happens. 
You don't have to be our buddy now, just know that in the future, we know each
other and one day, we are going to show up with a little kid named Jackie and
ask you to babysit her for us."

He was still listening. It was
pretty clear he wasn't too happy about the fact he was still listening, but he
was doing it.

"Just... when that happens,
you're going to be asked to help save the world and it is really, really
important that you don't do it."

"Why?" he said
suspiciously.

"Because you'll die.  Tell the
bad guys what you're up to, act like you're a double-crossing evil snitch
henchman, we'll take it from there, but when we ask you to sabotage steam, it
is really important that you let them catch you, and that you don't let them
kill you."

"How do I know you're not the
bad guys?"

"Wait ten years.  You'll see. 
But we need you to live."

He regarded us, seeming to weigh
the weight of our souls.  Finally, he nodded.  "If what you're saying is
true, and I'm not sure I believe you, I appreciate you coming here to save my
life."

I didn't want to leave him with the
false impression that this was all altruistic.  "There's more.  After all
of this goes down, we, this elf and I, get stuck here in this time.  So seventy
years from now, we need you to call a man named Father Killarney and tell him
to send my mom and dad to the boat.  That would be awesome."

I saw George's haunches slowly
start to go down.  "Did you say a Father Killarney?  A priest?"

"Yes, a priest.  A man of
God.  You two get along.  He has his own church and everything.  In fact, it's
your old church.  He's the caretaker of your childhood home!  On La Brea!"

George sat there a little while
longer and said, "Why should I?"

"Because in the future I save
your gawddammned—"

Killian put his hand on my arm and
reined me back in.

"Because in the future this
elf and I save the world, and the only reason we are able to do that is because
of that little girl Jackie and you!  So it's a full circle kind of thing.  And
now we need your help so that we can get back home."

George gave me one more suspicious
look.  "I'll think about it.  And if I remember it, maybe I'll do
it."

And then he took off up on top of
one of the big pipes on the ceiling.  And I guess that it must have been morning,
because with a great sigh, he turned to rock.  And like they say, you can't
argue with a stone.  I mean, you can, but it isn't like it'll do you much good.

"Okay, Killian.  God, I hope
George is still alive."

"Do you think he believed
us?" Killian asked.

"I'm not taking it for...
granite..."

"Maggie?  I should have left
you in the hull."

K
illian and I sat on the deck of
the boat, staring at the dock.  It was well into mid-morning and still no sign
of Mom or Dad.  In the distance, the California skyline was getting a hazy
cloud of blue to it.  This dimensional bubble was collapsing.

"That gargoyle had better not
have died..." I said.  "God, I hope he listened to us."

"Well, if need be, we shall
just go remind him tonight.  And tomorrow night.  And every single night until
he decides to heed our warning and not expire."

"Time
is going to catch up with us, Killian," I said, watching the blue
nothingness creep.  "It started decaying that fake bubble
in the 1940's while we were there.  You saw what it did.  It erased all those
vampire soldiers and made things the way they are supposed to be.  What if in
this thread of time, George doesn't remember what we told him?"

"Except
you caught him before the vampire time bubble began. You brought us back far
enough that whatever happens before this moment remains real and true."

"This
is making my head hurt."

"Quantum
physics can do that to a person."

"What if this doesn't even
work and Mom can't even cross us over?"

"It is a ghost ship, Maggie.  Your
mother, I believe, has connections."

"I hope we can see them,"
I said, looking out at the barely developed port of Long Beach.  Gone were the
tourist traps and aquariums and regattas and crazy lighthouses.

"You shall know her, Maggie. 
She is able to pierce this veil.  It is her gift."

And that's when I saw the car.  It
was like looking at a double exposure film.  The parking lot was invisible, so
it looked like the car was floating through the hills.  I pointed.
"There!  There she is!"

Killian shook his head, peering at
the land. "I don't see it."

"Don't you worry.  I'll let
you know where to go."  I grabbed his hand and pulled him down.  "Off
to the first class ballroom!"

We dashed down the stairs, pushing
our way through slowly moving guests.  I didn't even care that we knocked a
couple of them down.  We were getting out.  Down four stories and then we ran
the length of the boat.  My heart was singing.  We were going to go home! 
Home!

And after everything we'd been
through, I had not anticipated the maître d’ guarding the ballroom.  He closed
his reservation book and stepped in front of the door.

"We have to get through,"
I panted.

He sniffed and looked at my ratty,
torn maid costume.  "From your attire, I am quite certain you are not
guests."  He pointed back the way we came.  "The entrance for the
help is on the other side of the ballroom."

"You don't understand," I
said to him.  "It is a matter of life and death!"

"I am sorry," he informed
me, "but if you do not remove yourself immediately, I shall be forced to
fire you without pay and have you forcibly ejected from this boat at the next
port of call."

"Sounds perfect."  I
tried to muscle my way through without actually hurting him, but he wasn't
having any of that.

"Stop!  Stop!  You're making a
scene!" he shouted, pushing back.

All of the fancy people in their
fancy outfits were giving us a good hard look and whispering not nice things
about us.

"This," Killian said,
"is bullshit."  And with that, he knocked the guy out with a square
punch to his jaw.  The maître d's eyes rolled back and he keeled over without a
fight.

And that was that.  We stood
looking over him, the entire room hushed in shock.

"My hero," I said,
impressed.

Killian placed his hand in the
small of my back. "Shall we dance?"

"This time, I'll let you lead,"
I replied.

We walked into the ballroom.  It
existed in the double dimension.  Tables overlapped.  Waiters walked through
waiters.  But the one thing that cut through and was crystal clear in both
worlds was my mom was sitting in the brunch area with Mindy and Dad.  Her face
turned pale as a sheet as she saw me and Killian.

"What are you doing on that
side of the veil?  Did you die in a car accident?" she said, jumping to
her feet and coming towards us.

Mindy looked at her curiously.  She
couldn't see us.  We were still stuck behind the veil for her eyes.

"Maggie?  Killian?  Can you
talk to me?" Mom asked.

That got Dad's attention.  He
looked around frantically.  "Where are they?  Who did this?  Who would
have gotten Father Killarney to make a call like that?"

"We're fine!" I yelled.

"No need to yell," Mom
replied.  "I can hear you."

"What did she say?" asked
Mindy.  "I would know, right?  I would know if my twin died, right
Mom?"

"She's not dead," Mom
answered, then asked us just to make sure, "You're not dead, correct?"

I shook my head.  "No, we're
just trapped in a time bubble.  We were helping out some ghosts."

"Maggie, if you wanted help
with ghosts, you should have called.  You don't go walking into their world,"
she chided.

I rolled my eyes.  "I know,
Mom.  I wasn't exactly planning on being here."

She walked around the bubble,
feeling it with her hands.

"They're okay, right
Mom?" Mindy asked.

Mom nodded, but didn't say
anything, I think trying hard not to lose her concentration.  She turned to
Dad.  "They seem to be trapped in some sort of dimension."

Dad looked, but then shook his
head.  "I can't see them."

"It must be a spirit
world," she replied.  "I think I should try to cross them over."

Dad looked at her like she was
nuts.  "Are you sure you won't cross them over to that other place where
crossed over ghosts tend to go?"

Mom sighed.  "This is worse
than that time Maggie got her knee caught in that tree house wall."

Killian looked at me.  "Why
was your knee caught in a tree house wall?"

"All world walkers go through
an awkward stage..." I said.

"Do you have
photographs?" he asked.

Mom chuckled. "Oh, I have
plenty, Killian.  Come over for dinner on Sunday.  I'll show you the whole
album!  You should have seen that terrible perm Maggie thought would look so
great."

"If you two don't stop right
now, I'm staying on this side of the veil," I threatened.

Mom turned to Dad.  "Dear, I
just don't know how to get them unstuck."

Dad looked again. "What if I
opened up a portal and you called them through?"

Mom thought it over. "I
suppose that could work.  Maggie?  Killian?  We're going to try and cross you
over."  She muttered to herself, "I can't believe they went wandering
into a ghost dimension."

"We are standing right
here."

"How
many times have I told you not to play with ghosts?"

"No
times!  You always told me to befriend them and have tolerance for the
unliving!"

"Being
friendly and following them into another dimension are
two entirely different stories,
young lady."

"Just
get me out of this and you can yell at me all you want later, okay?" I
asked.

Mom threw the sleeves of her muumuu
over her shoulders and reached out with two hands.  Dad stood beside her and
reached into the dimension.  I tried to reach back.  He shook his head. 
"Just stand there, Maggie-girl.  I'm getting too much resistance."

I backed off, which fucking sucked,
and let the parents handle the situation.

The portal opened like a surgeon's
incision and through the tiny sliver, the world looked rich and full, dreamy like
something you might view through a gauzy cheesecloth.

And then I felt this warm draw.  It
was really lovely.  Killian got this blissed-out look on his face, too.  I
looked up and realized it was my mom, just shining her light out for us to
follow.  No wonder ghosts were always hanging around our house.  If this is the
way that things felt getting crossed over, I'd do it every day.

I stepped through as Dad held open
the door.  I reached behind me and grabbed Killian's hand and pulled him
through, too.

We stepped out into the ballroom
and Mom caught us both up in a hug, kissing our cheeks.  She looked at me
sternly. "Listen to me, young lady, I don't ever want to hear of you
playing around in those realms again.  Do you understand?  My heart couldn't
take having to cross you over again."

"I was standing just over
there," I said, pointing at where the portal was.  "We were
fine."

Dad came over and smacked the back
of my head. "What have I told you about the dimensions other than The
Other Side?"

I rubbed my scalp.  "Hey, I
didn't have any choice in the matter.  Don't go yelling at me."

Mindy pushed her way through and
wrapped her arms around my neck.  "You're an idiot," she whispered.

Well, at least one person out of
three was right.

I looked over at the door, and
there was a little figure dressed in white who faded from solid into
nothingness as the time bubble closed.  I gave her a smile as she went. 
"Bye, Grandma," I said.

Mom looked at me. "What did
you say?"

"Just... met someone over
there I'd love to talk to you about," I smiled.

Suddenly, I got the weirdest
prickling on the back of my neck.  Like when you know someone is looking at
you.  I turned around and in the center of the ballroom was the bandstand,
surrounded like an island in a seafood buffet.  I looked up.  There was
Mortimer, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt beneath his tux tails, playing some
absolutely terrible cover of Midnight
at the Oasis.  He gave me finger guns.

"Right back at you, guy," 
I smiled.

Killian whispered, "Should we
report him to The Other Side authorities?"

I gave a shrug, my eyes never
leaving America's newest star of the velvet night. "Eh.  If someday they
even figure out he's here, I figure we can let Lacy officially assign us and
charge The Other Side a bucketload of money.  Unofficially, I have never seen
this man before in my life."

"Would we get to collect the
directive in person?"

"Naturally!" I said as I wrapped
my arm around Killian's waist and gave him a good side squeeze. "I'm your
partner, partner.  You think I don't got your back?"

Killian smiled, "Never."

"Nice first case," I
said.  "I think I will keep you on."

"I think I will not
quit."

"Good.  Maybe we'll even get
you a desk."

Killian nodded. "Perhaps
something in an understated mahogany."

"Or maybe one that you've already
got," said my dad, reaching over to shake Killian's hand.

"I think that, too, would be
acceptable," he replied.

"Now, let's let this
happy-go-lucky madman do what he has been looking forward to doing for
decades," I said, nodding Mortimer's way.  "And you and me go collect
our moolah from Julio."

"I have been
looking forward to that moment through the decades, too."

"I don't think he is going to
be too happy we accomplished everything in time," I laughed.  "Ain't
life grand?"

Killian smiled back, "Absolutely
divine."

"You
two make the cutest couple!" piped up my mom.  "Don't they,
Mindy?"

Killian
gave me a kiss on the top of my head.  "Yes, we make excellent
partners."

Fucking elves.