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indriSUMMARY: Giles and Ethan, the electric Kool-Aid funky Satan groove year, in the early seventies. Rated M. Spoilers to Band Candy. Acknowledgements and disclaimers.
30.
"Hey, Ripper!" shouted Stan. "Hey, Randall! You gotta come and look at this."
Ripper wished that Stan wouldn't shout. He was feeling much better than he had this morning, but he was still a little under the weather. He was fetching himself another glass of water from the kitchen tap. He wondered what on earth would get Stan so excited. It seemed to be out the back.
Adrienne was already there, sitting calmly on a kitchen chair, reading a book. Randall and Stan were standing on the back steps, looking into the garden. It took Ripper a moment to realise what they were looking at.
It was Diedre, gardening. She had waded deep into the undergrowth with a pair of secateurs in one hand and a bucket in the other. It was unclear to Ripper what she intended to do with either.
Her bicycle was leaning against the garden wall. It was something she rode about in to go shopping or to visit the library. Today its saddle bags were stuffed full of small gardening implements and some freshly-battered pot plants.
"It's time," Diedre intoned, waving her secateurs. She was wearing an old hat and a denim jumpsuit, which made her look like a mad apiarist. "The weeds must be weeded! The wild must be tamed!"
"Did you know she was doing this?" Stan asked Randall. Randall shook his head.
"Why are you starting there?" asked Randall, but Diedre shook her head, then leant over and vanished into the brush.
"Do you think someone should go in after her?" asked Ripper.
"I'm getting a beer," said Stan. "I'm settling in to watch this."
Ethan turned up then, walking through the back gate and looking rather chipper. Ripper wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he seemed to be wearing the same shirt he had on yesterday. Did he never go to the laundromat?
"What's going on?" asked Ethan.
Diedre stood up again and became suddenly visible. "I'm clearing a clearing," she said.
"Why?"
"I want a garden I can sit out in during the summer."
"I rather like it wild," said Ethan.
Stan came back with a crateful of beer. Ripper forced himself to decline.
Then Stan said, "Don't look, but we're being watched," so of course everyone turned to look. There was a black BMW parked on the other side of the road and someone was sitting in the driver's seat. "That's been there before."
"Could be the neighbours," said Randall.
"Our neighbours across the road have a light green Morris saloon," said Adrienne, finally deigning to look up from her book.
"It's the police," said Stan, "it's got to be. I won't be able to go out. I'm done for."
"It might not be for you," said Ethan.
"It's more likely to be for me, though, isn't it?"
"Not necessarily," said Adrienne.
"Well," said Ethan, "why don't we go and ask him?"
"Yeah," said Randall, "let's do that."
"No," said Ripper, suddenly and firmly. "I'll go." He stood up. "He'll be less likely to drive off if just one of us goes up."
"OK," said Randall, "but we're right behind you."
Ripper walked out of the garden and across the road to the car. It was Jeremy Stockton behind the wheel. Stockton was only a few years older than Ripper. Ripper had very briefly dated his sister.
"Why are you here?" asked Ripper. "I'm not coming back."
"Nice friends you've got," said Stockton.
Ripper looked back over his shoulder. Stan and Randall were standing on the back steps, early afternoon beers in hand. Ethan stood next to Adrienne. Diedre was still in her clearing, holding her secateurs as if they were a defensive weapon.
"They don't have anything to do with this," said Ripper. "You'll leave them alone."
"Oh, don't worry," said Stockton, "I'm here unofficially today. There are some people back home who'd just like to know how you are."
"I'm fine," said Ripper. "In fact, I'm in a much better band now."
Stockton made a sound of abject disbelief. "Do you have any idea how moronic you sound? That's what you've given up your calling for? A band?"
"My life, my choice," said Ripper.
"If you say so," said Stockton. "We'll be waiting for you when you come back."
He drove off, leaving Ripper standing on the roadside, trying to swallow his own anger.
31.
Adrienne and Ethan watched the car drive off. "It's Ripper they're after," she said, quietly enough that only Ethan could hear.
"Yes," he said, "but we don't know why."
Ripper walked back towards them, looking as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. Adrienne sighed and put down her book. "I'm not going to get any work done this afternoon," she said, and got up to console Ripper.
Ripper was saying, "It's nothing to do with this house at all..."
Ethan went inside and ran himself a bath. The bathroom was like the rest of the house, run-down but patched together with some care. He shaved at the chipped sink as the water ran into the tub.
The water was just a little too hot as he lay down in it. He looked up at the small window, high up above the door, that let in fresh air and spiders as it saw fit. The room was an odd shape, almost certainly a retrofit of a dressing room for the bedroom next door. Randall had whitewashed it. Ethan was a little concerned that it might be his next project after the stairwell ceiling.
Much earlier that day, Ethan had showered in the very modern bathroom of the man he'd gone to bed with last night, just before the man had decided that he might ring in sick after all. It had been all smoked glass and avocado formica. The whole flat had been like that, routinely flash. He thought the man was perhaps someone with a minor job in the City, but he hadn't asked. He'd been thirtyish, keen and competent enough.
Ethan lay in the bath until Diedre starting banging on the door, saying she was very grubby from gardening and she desperately needed a wash. Ethan wondered exactly how much she'd achieved out there.
He walked upstairs in his towel to look for clean clothes, then went back down to the drawing room. Ripper and Randall were sitting on the floor. Adrienne was lying on her back, with her head resting on Ripper's leg, still reading her book.
"A magic painting?" Ripper was saying. "I suppose that could be done. I have heard of such things, although they tend to be malevolent in nature."
"I want it to be a good thing," said Randall, "I want people to be able to bask in it, I guess."
"Ah well," said Ripper, "I could try and think of some suitable glyphs. Glyphs of good fortune."
"And friendship," said Randall.
"And friendship," echoed Ripper.
"What kind of paintings have you heard of?" Ethan asked, joining them.
"Um, well the Egyptians, of course, curses at tombs and so on. And China where it's more equivocal, for good and ill, but spells may be instantiated through fine calligraphy alone. It's less common in European contexts, I think."
Ethan rather enjoyed these mini discourses from Ripper.
"So maybe I could incorporate Chinese elements into my work?" Randall asked.
"Or I could try and think of something more universal."
"Thank you," said Randall. "Thank you, that would be great."
Ripper smiled. Ethan extended his foot to tap Ripper on the knee and get his attention.
"So, are you still wanting to learn how to mix spells?"
"Oh definitely!" said Ripper. "And I think my head's clear enough now."
"So what are you going to trade?"
"Trade?" asked Ripper.
"Well, magic isn't free," said Ethan."
"Ah, but, I just promised to help Randall."
"That's between you and Randall," said Ethan. "Although, now you come to mention it, we are letting you live in our house."
"Yes," said Ripper, "all right. Trade, then. What sort of trade?"
"An interesting spell. Or many interesting spells, since I'm about to teach you something very useful."
Ripper said, "I know a lot of spells for warding off demons."
Adrienne put her book down on her chest and looked up at Ripper. "Is that something you have to do often?"
"It's just what my grandmother taught me," Ripper said. "Ah, spells for minor telekenesis?"
"Now, that sounds like something we can trade," said Ethan.
32.
Ripper couldn't work out how Ethan sat. Ethan always looked entirely comfortable sitting on the floor, whereas Ripper found it drove him to distraction after just a few minutes. He would have blamed it on his long legs, but Ethan was only a fraction shorter than he was. He studied how Ethan was sitting, one leg stretched out, one leg underneath him. Ripper tried surreptitiously to copy him, and ended up folding onto the floor.
"Hey," said Adrienne, who had been briefly disturbed from her book.
Ripper had decided that he'd over-reacted the day before. Adrienne's avowal that she did not want him to meet her parents next weekend meant nothing more and nothing less than that. He had been reading far too much into it. After all, here she was, just the next day, companionable and comfortable next to him. He really had nothing to worry about there at all.
Ethan was leaning forwards now, drawing out figures in chalk on the wooden floor. "Now, the owl spell on Saturday was three spells in conjunction with each other, which is a little hard for a beginner. We should really start you with just combining two. And it's easiest to start with two spells you're already very comfortable with. Can you think of a couple?"
Adrienne sniggered, which was not a sound Ripper had heard from her before. "Just something in my book," she said, which was odd for a work of political economy.
"A door-locking spell," said Ripper, considering. "And one for conjuring fire."
"The door is set on fire when you lock it," said Adrienne.
"Aren't you reading?" Ripper asked her.
"Can you think of something else?" Ethan asked.
"A spell for remembering where you put something," said Ripper.
"It's behind the burning door," said Adrienne.
"You said you knew some spells for telekenesis," Ethan prompted.
"Yes," said Ripper.
"How about a spell for moving small objects that you've lost?"
"Isn't that going to be hard to test?" asked Adrienne. "You'll have to deliberately forget where you've put things."
"Repelling small insects?" Ripper said. He heard a note of desperation creeping into his voice.
"Right!" said Ethan. "We can create a spell for repelling small fires."
Adrienne looked up at Ripper. "Are you often menaced by candles?" she asked him.
Ethan said, "Could you possibly go for a walk?"
Adrienne closed her book. "Actually, I have a meeting I might go to tonight. It's a bit of a trek so I'll probably be back late." She sat up and kissed Ripper quite fully. He found himself blinking at her in pleasant surprise. "Have fun," she said.
Ripper watched her backside as she walked out the door.
"So," said Ethan, "we need to start with detailed descriptions of both those spells..."
30.
"Hey, Ripper!" shouted Stan. "Hey, Randall! You gotta come and look at this."
Ripper wished that Stan wouldn't shout. He was feeling much better than he had this morning, but he was still a little under the weather. He was fetching himself another glass of water from the kitchen tap. He wondered what on earth would get Stan so excited. It seemed to be out the back.
Adrienne was already there, sitting calmly on a kitchen chair, reading a book. Randall and Stan were standing on the back steps, looking into the garden. It took Ripper a moment to realise what they were looking at.
It was Diedre, gardening. She had waded deep into the undergrowth with a pair of secateurs in one hand and a bucket in the other. It was unclear to Ripper what she intended to do with either.
Her bicycle was leaning against the garden wall. It was something she rode about in to go shopping or to visit the library. Today its saddle bags were stuffed full of small gardening implements and some freshly-battered pot plants.
"It's time," Diedre intoned, waving her secateurs. She was wearing an old hat and a denim jumpsuit, which made her look like a mad apiarist. "The weeds must be weeded! The wild must be tamed!"
"Did you know she was doing this?" Stan asked Randall. Randall shook his head.
"Why are you starting there?" asked Randall, but Diedre shook her head, then leant over and vanished into the brush.
"Do you think someone should go in after her?" asked Ripper.
"I'm getting a beer," said Stan. "I'm settling in to watch this."
Ethan turned up then, walking through the back gate and looking rather chipper. Ripper wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he seemed to be wearing the same shirt he had on yesterday. Did he never go to the laundromat?
"What's going on?" asked Ethan.
Diedre stood up again and became suddenly visible. "I'm clearing a clearing," she said.
"Why?"
"I want a garden I can sit out in during the summer."
"I rather like it wild," said Ethan.
Stan came back with a crateful of beer. Ripper forced himself to decline.
Then Stan said, "Don't look, but we're being watched," so of course everyone turned to look. There was a black BMW parked on the other side of the road and someone was sitting in the driver's seat. "That's been there before."
"Could be the neighbours," said Randall.
"Our neighbours across the road have a light green Morris saloon," said Adrienne, finally deigning to look up from her book.
"It's the police," said Stan, "it's got to be. I won't be able to go out. I'm done for."
"It might not be for you," said Ethan.
"It's more likely to be for me, though, isn't it?"
"Not necessarily," said Adrienne.
"Well," said Ethan, "why don't we go and ask him?"
"Yeah," said Randall, "let's do that."
"No," said Ripper, suddenly and firmly. "I'll go." He stood up. "He'll be less likely to drive off if just one of us goes up."
"OK," said Randall, "but we're right behind you."
Ripper walked out of the garden and across the road to the car. It was Jeremy Stockton behind the wheel. Stockton was only a few years older than Ripper. Ripper had very briefly dated his sister.
"Why are you here?" asked Ripper. "I'm not coming back."
"Nice friends you've got," said Stockton.
Ripper looked back over his shoulder. Stan and Randall were standing on the back steps, early afternoon beers in hand. Ethan stood next to Adrienne. Diedre was still in her clearing, holding her secateurs as if they were a defensive weapon.
"They don't have anything to do with this," said Ripper. "You'll leave them alone."
"Oh, don't worry," said Stockton, "I'm here unofficially today. There are some people back home who'd just like to know how you are."
"I'm fine," said Ripper. "In fact, I'm in a much better band now."
Stockton made a sound of abject disbelief. "Do you have any idea how moronic you sound? That's what you've given up your calling for? A band?"
"My life, my choice," said Ripper.
"If you say so," said Stockton. "We'll be waiting for you when you come back."
He drove off, leaving Ripper standing on the roadside, trying to swallow his own anger.
31.
Adrienne and Ethan watched the car drive off. "It's Ripper they're after," she said, quietly enough that only Ethan could hear.
"Yes," he said, "but we don't know why."
Ripper walked back towards them, looking as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. Adrienne sighed and put down her book. "I'm not going to get any work done this afternoon," she said, and got up to console Ripper.
Ripper was saying, "It's nothing to do with this house at all..."
Ethan went inside and ran himself a bath. The bathroom was like the rest of the house, run-down but patched together with some care. He shaved at the chipped sink as the water ran into the tub.
The water was just a little too hot as he lay down in it. He looked up at the small window, high up above the door, that let in fresh air and spiders as it saw fit. The room was an odd shape, almost certainly a retrofit of a dressing room for the bedroom next door. Randall had whitewashed it. Ethan was a little concerned that it might be his next project after the stairwell ceiling.
Much earlier that day, Ethan had showered in the very modern bathroom of the man he'd gone to bed with last night, just before the man had decided that he might ring in sick after all. It had been all smoked glass and avocado formica. The whole flat had been like that, routinely flash. He thought the man was perhaps someone with a minor job in the City, but he hadn't asked. He'd been thirtyish, keen and competent enough.
Ethan lay in the bath until Diedre starting banging on the door, saying she was very grubby from gardening and she desperately needed a wash. Ethan wondered exactly how much she'd achieved out there.
He walked upstairs in his towel to look for clean clothes, then went back down to the drawing room. Ripper and Randall were sitting on the floor. Adrienne was lying on her back, with her head resting on Ripper's leg, still reading her book.
"A magic painting?" Ripper was saying. "I suppose that could be done. I have heard of such things, although they tend to be malevolent in nature."
"I want it to be a good thing," said Randall, "I want people to be able to bask in it, I guess."
"Ah well," said Ripper, "I could try and think of some suitable glyphs. Glyphs of good fortune."
"And friendship," said Randall.
"And friendship," echoed Ripper.
"What kind of paintings have you heard of?" Ethan asked, joining them.
"Um, well the Egyptians, of course, curses at tombs and so on. And China where it's more equivocal, for good and ill, but spells may be instantiated through fine calligraphy alone. It's less common in European contexts, I think."
Ethan rather enjoyed these mini discourses from Ripper.
"So maybe I could incorporate Chinese elements into my work?" Randall asked.
"Or I could try and think of something more universal."
"Thank you," said Randall. "Thank you, that would be great."
Ripper smiled. Ethan extended his foot to tap Ripper on the knee and get his attention.
"So, are you still wanting to learn how to mix spells?"
"Oh definitely!" said Ripper. "And I think my head's clear enough now."
"So what are you going to trade?"
"Trade?" asked Ripper.
"Well, magic isn't free," said Ethan."
"Ah, but, I just promised to help Randall."
"That's between you and Randall," said Ethan. "Although, now you come to mention it, we are letting you live in our house."
"Yes," said Ripper, "all right. Trade, then. What sort of trade?"
"An interesting spell. Or many interesting spells, since I'm about to teach you something very useful."
Ripper said, "I know a lot of spells for warding off demons."
Adrienne put her book down on her chest and looked up at Ripper. "Is that something you have to do often?"
"It's just what my grandmother taught me," Ripper said. "Ah, spells for minor telekenesis?"
"Now, that sounds like something we can trade," said Ethan.
32.
Ripper couldn't work out how Ethan sat. Ethan always looked entirely comfortable sitting on the floor, whereas Ripper found it drove him to distraction after just a few minutes. He would have blamed it on his long legs, but Ethan was only a fraction shorter than he was. He studied how Ethan was sitting, one leg stretched out, one leg underneath him. Ripper tried surreptitiously to copy him, and ended up folding onto the floor.
"Hey," said Adrienne, who had been briefly disturbed from her book.
Ripper had decided that he'd over-reacted the day before. Adrienne's avowal that she did not want him to meet her parents next weekend meant nothing more and nothing less than that. He had been reading far too much into it. After all, here she was, just the next day, companionable and comfortable next to him. He really had nothing to worry about there at all.
Ethan was leaning forwards now, drawing out figures in chalk on the wooden floor. "Now, the owl spell on Saturday was three spells in conjunction with each other, which is a little hard for a beginner. We should really start you with just combining two. And it's easiest to start with two spells you're already very comfortable with. Can you think of a couple?"
Adrienne sniggered, which was not a sound Ripper had heard from her before. "Just something in my book," she said, which was odd for a work of political economy.
"A door-locking spell," said Ripper, considering. "And one for conjuring fire."
"The door is set on fire when you lock it," said Adrienne.
"Aren't you reading?" Ripper asked her.
"Can you think of something else?" Ethan asked.
"A spell for remembering where you put something," said Ripper.
"It's behind the burning door," said Adrienne.
"You said you knew some spells for telekenesis," Ethan prompted.
"Yes," said Ripper.
"How about a spell for moving small objects that you've lost?"
"Isn't that going to be hard to test?" asked Adrienne. "You'll have to deliberately forget where you've put things."
"Repelling small insects?" Ripper said. He heard a note of desperation creeping into his voice.
"Right!" said Ethan. "We can create a spell for repelling small fires."
Adrienne looked up at Ripper. "Are you often menaced by candles?" she asked him.
Ethan said, "Could you possibly go for a walk?"
Adrienne closed her book. "Actually, I have a meeting I might go to tonight. It's a bit of a trek so I'll probably be back late." She sat up and kissed Ripper quite fully. He found himself blinking at her in pleasant surprise. "Have fun," she said.
Ripper watched her backside as she walked out the door.
"So," said Ethan, "we need to start with detailed descriptions of both those spells..."
no subject
Date: 2011-04-01 07:25 pm (UTC)One small correction - I don't think they were ever called 'laundromats' in the UK. It's 'laundrettes.'
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 02:14 am (UTC)