Natural Allies?

[wolfs_daughter]

The van rattled over the gravel of the trailer park's narrow track as Echo guided it back to her lot, and she parked it before killing the engine. She'd bought a chair and a small coffee table from someone who'd put up a For Sale notice at the community center, and with this purchase her furniture situation was mostly dealt with. And the day was winding down, so it wouldn't be too much hot work to lug them inside.

But maybe later.

Searchlight was small enough that you could walk most of it in a couple of hours, so the hybrid decided to make a fast grocery run to pick up something for supper. They had an okay selection considering that the place was pretty small, and she just needed something simple like pork chops and lettuce for a salad. The Wolf demanded meat, and she was willing to feed that need.

She picked up a plastic basket from the small stack at the front of the store, began to pick her way towards the meat section. Pork chops. Lettuce. Maybe a candy bar if they sold Paydays here. No one said she couldn't have sweets, right?

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[brian_campo]

Brian waited for a Dodge to pass and then jogged across the street to the grocery store. His left his car in the post office lot. He doubted they would tow him if he left it there; it would take a half hour before a truck showed up, anyway. He needed to pick up a few things before he drove back into Vegas. It was his turn to bring food to practice. They played out of a shitty garage space that delivery drivers couldn’t find with a map.

He checked his watch. Ten minutes tops.

He trailed a brunette past the cash registers. The place was an ice box, its air conditioning trying to stave off hot gusts of wind whenever the door opened. He knew he would regret not picking up a basket, but kept going. He stopped in the frozen goods aisle and looked over the selection of boxed pizzas. It would be easy, but it was a long drive.

“You think if I crank the A/C this’ll make it all the way to Vegas?” he asked the person in his peripheral vision. He flicked his hair off his face and looked back.

[wolfs_daughter]

"I think they're trying to cool off the whole world," Echo said with faint humor as she waffled between the chops and the pork loin. She liked pork loin more, but it was more expensive. How much long before she heard from the grant foundation people?

She looked at the speaker out of the corner of her eye, made note of the floppy, unruly hair, turned to face him more fully. A stranger, but a male stranger, and therefore not likely to make her nervous. She finally decided to say to hell with it, and the pork loin ended up in her basket.

He looked like a refugee from a punk rock band, or like he was just about to go on tour with one. Couldn't be that much older than she was, although sometimes it was difficult to tell. "They're doing a two-for-one sale on pizzas this week," she offered, noticing the selection he was likely to make. "I got a whole freezer full, but I decided to get some real food for tonight."

[brian_campo]

“Sold,” he said. He grabbed two boxes and slid the door shut.

“Yeah, real food’s not on the menu. I can’t cook. I wouldn’t cook for them anyway. It’d be kind of… kind of weird.” He browsed the next freezer. What else? Last time it was Brian’s turn, he had been cheap and tossed a bag of Cheetos on the drum kit. Later that night, a wise ass rubbed his nuts on his keyboard and yelled, ‘Fuck your Cheetos!’ He wasn’t going to make that mistake twice.

He looked in the woman’s basket. Pork loin. “Special occasion?”

[wolfs_daughter]

"I'm what you'd call an extreme carnivore," Echo answered, irony heavy in her voice. "I was a teenager before I discovered that gravy is not actually a food group."

She'd learned to cook because she had to, because Mama had to spend certain times taking care of Papa while he was changed and there was no close family to ask to look after her. She was an only child because they hadn't wanted to risk passing on mutated genes to other children, so as far as she knew she was the only one of her kind. It made her feel simultaneously lonely and special. They loved her anyway, so who was she to complain?

"Are you in school at UNLV?" she asked the guy with mild curiosity, watching him peruse the neighboring section of frozen food. Not a frat boy, not with that haircut, but maybe he was in art school. "If my grant ever comes through I might take some night courses. Don't suppose you could recommend anything, could you?"

[brian_campo]

He smiled at the gravy joke.

“Eh, school’s not really my bag,” he said. He pulled out a box of Hot Pockets and tried to decide how they’d taste by the picture of melted cheese and little cubes of ham. “I tried to be a music major for approximately one semester. I gave up when they made me take statistics. I was convinced I’d never need to predict the size of a fruit crop.”

He put the microwave meal back.

“What do you want to study?”

[wolfs_daughter]

"Art history," Echo answered. She knew how to make stuff already and didn't need courses about empty theory, but it might be interesting to learn about the ones who had come before her. Besides, if she was in school learning about art, that might make someone who organized showings or whatever take notice of her.

"I draw and sculpt," she added, lifting one work-battered hand for the stranger's inspection. "I haven't shown anywhere or anything, but I'm really just getting good enough to subject other people to my work. My parents have seen everything I've ever done, but they're the only ones."

Did she sound too young? The shrink she'd been told to see at the beginning of senior year had said that she was underdeveloped emotionally for her age. Echo didn't know what that meant, but it didn't sound like a compliment. Mama said not to worry about what the doctor said, though. It wasn't like she didn't have enough to worry about.

"I'm guessing you're not a local, but I'm not either so we're even. Do you live up the road in Vegas?"

[brian_campo]

“Yeah,” he said. “I was just looking around.”

Meeting interesting girls, accidentally throwing furniture, trying to pretend it didn’t happen.

“That took up about forty seconds. Place is small.” He shifted the pizzas into his other hand. “I’m Brian. I actually know a couple of places that show amateur art, if you’ve got any pieces you’re trying offload. This area’s not exactly famous for art, so a lot of us run in the same circles.”

[wolfs_daughter]

"My name's Echo," she said, and she was already thinking about forgoing the lettuce. Vegetables weren't food, they were what food ate.

"And I'm about to start a new series, so I may be looking around for somewhere to display a few things when it's done, as long as they don't charge an arm and a leg for the privilege. I came down from Seattle, where they have a fairly thriving art community, but I wanted sun instead of rain for a while."

She flashed briefly on Emmeline's face, and she was going to have to thank her for that tea because it had done wonders to help her sleep. Hopefully this time she wouldn't stammer. Maybe she could make her something, at least if she wouldn't come off as too weird because of it. She'd have to think on it.

"There's not much to see around here," the brunette offered as she headed towards the checkout lane. "I've only been here a little while, and it's not exactly a happening spot. What did you come down to check out?"

[brian_campo]

“A store,” he said. “Not this one. I guess that’s probably obvious.” On his way to the register, he stopped by a rack of chips and grabbed a couple bags of Doritos. Pizza and chips, he was hoping they couldn’t bitch too hard about that. He weighed the likelihood that she would tell anybody about his investigation and decided it was unlikely. “Peddler’s Roof.” He screwed up his face. “Wait, that’s not right. Fiddler on the roof, Peddler’s Rest.”

He dumped his haul on the conveyor belt behind Echo. Kind of a hippy name. Her parents probably drove a VW bus.

“I didn’t go in. I got distracted. You been there?”

[wolfs_daughter]

The hybrid self-consciously ducked her head as if Brian's selection of junk food was fascinating, and he voice was just above a mumble when she said, "Yeah, I went in." And then got distracted. "It's pretty nice for a small town like this. The shopkeeper says she's going to get me a dreamcatcher."

She would make her something, definitely. Something small. Just as a token. Jesus, she was pathetic.

"What's the food for?" she asked, trying to distract herself. "Having a party and have to bring a contribution?"

[brian_campo]

“My band’s practicing. If I don’t bring food, they’ll kick me out and replace me with a kid who listens to the Thompson Twins.” He reached into a pocket and dug out his wallet. “Again.” He found a rumpled twenty and noticed someone had doodled a cat on it. He set it on the pizza.

“Did she seem,” what was the right word? “Authentic?”

I don’t even know what that means.

“Or just--- Sometimes those places are full of junk.” Daniel had never stepped foot in a magic shop, so he had no idea what they were full of. It was hard not to picture a fortune teller with a kerchief wrapped around her head.

[wolfs_daughter]

"She was really helpful," Echo said immediately, some of her discomfiture fading because she was just shy, she didn't want to badmouth Emmeline or her shop. "She made me this tea mixture because I told her I was having trouble getting to sleep, and it really did the trick. She said to come back in a few days and let her know if it worked, and that she'd talk to her friend about making that dreamcatcher because she didn't have any in stock."

She knew a little more than Brian seemed to about certain types of shops, if only because Seattle had its share of pagans and hippies and everything in between. Hell, her parents had met because they'd been part of the same commune. So she might not be an expert, but she wasn't a newbie either.

"Her name's Emmeline, you'd really like her," the brunette said, and if there was a slight glow to her words she couldn't help it. She was just...smitten.

[brian_campo]

“Bad dreams?” he guessed. If he dreamed, he never remembered it afterwards. Brian couldn’t decide if that was a curse or a blessing. He just woke up in a fog. But it sounded like Emmeline was nice, hopefully too polite to laugh in a customer’s face if they asked about weird stuff. He wasn’t sure he believed in special tea or dream catchers. The cynic in him thought Echo might felt better because of the placebo effect. He wasn’t going to say that.

Don’t be a hypocrite. Some things are a lot stranger. Like you.

Brian reached into a cold case for a can of soda.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Not bad, just weird," the brunette clarified. There was a small selection of candy bars next to the drink cooler, and Echo picked up two Paydays instead of one because they didn't sell the king size version there. "If I can't sleep, I can't create, and that screws up my day."

Her money was wadded up when she pulled it out of her pocket, and she smoothed it out on the conveyor belt while inspecting the few tabloids that had been put in the rack near the register. Pork and candy bars might not have seemed very nutritious to someone else, but they suited her. She could save the part she didn't eat and reheat it later.

"Is your band any good?" she asked Brian. "I haven't made the trip up to Vegas yet, but I might if I get stir-crazy enough. Do you guys practice a lot?"

[brian_campo]

He shrugged. "I think we're pretty good. Depends on what you're into. We play a lot of post-punk." He needed to be a better salesman, but he had a hard time bragging. "We play about four gigs a month in town at a bar called The Dive. Sometimes we go out to Reno. You should come out." He tapped on the tab of his diet pepsi.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo's musical taste normally ran to Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry, with a little Aerosmith and Springsteen thrown in for variety, but maybe a night out with something different wouldn't be so bad. And Brian seemed like a nice enough guy, not the sort to tease or make fun. The left corner of her mouth twitched upwards into the semblance of a smile.

"You'll probably see me if it's not a full moon," she told him, and that was probably too much to tell a stranger, but she doubted he'd make the connection. The cashier had bagged up her few purchases, and the hybrid collected her change and stuffed it into her pocket before grabbing the plastic bag with the other hand. Home, then a full supper. And she'd actually made conversation with someone. Maybe this weird little town would help her after all.

[brian_campo]

A full moon? Brian looked at Echo out of the corner of his eye. Well, she did go into that occult shop. Maybe she was a part of an Earth religion, the kind that danced naked under the stars or chanted around a bonfire or whatever. His own mother called herself a recovering Catholic, so Brian didn't see much religion growing up.

"Cool. If you want, you can head backstage and ask for me. I can introduce you to some people." Brian shelled out the twenty for his pizzas and chips. He pocketed the change. Once the bag was in his hand, he started for the door, aware that he would probably be the last to arrive. "Nice meeting you."

[wolfs_daughter]

If Echo had known what Brian was thinking, she'd at least have snickered. She had been naked at a bonfire before, but somehow she knew that folks in Searchlight would be less accepting of public nudity, so she'd have to be clothed if she wanted to celebrate the moon's presence. Maybe she could sneak beyond town limits one night before summer was over and let the silver rays wash over her bare back and shoulders.

So strange that she could be nude in front of others but could barely talk to someone whose looks she appreciated.

"Nice to meet you too, Brian," she said, shaking herself out of the momentary reverie to leave the icy confines of the grocery store and step back into the remaining heat of the day. "Enjoy your practice session."