Dearest Penguin People.
Lo and behold, the latest chapter of Max and Sebastian has arrived.
Okay, that was a little pretentious…
When we left off last episode, Larry and Sebastian helped Max escape from the dark creatures in the emergency room only to be detained by a no-nonsense Autumn Teaberry in the parking lot.
If you are new to Max and Sebastian please start here…
And a special thank you to my regular readers. It means a lot when the same people come back week after week 💖.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18
And a shout out to P.Q. Rubin for the wobbly penguin up top….
from the previous chapter…
An elderly woman, 70ish, with a gaze so severe it destroyed his will to ever speak again, stood by his elbow, one bony finger raised. Her gray hair, pulled into a tortured bun seemed impervious to the rain. She wore a faded black dress appropriate for a second cousin’s funeral and clutched a large purse in front of her like a shield, or quite possibly, held at the ready to whack him one. She scowled, as if her scrutiny of him had come up lacking.
Larry squinted at her in the rain. “Is there something I can do for you?”
She looked him up and down, her lips forming a harsh line of disapproval. “That remains to be seen. My name is Autumn Teaberry, and you are?” She extended a pale, thin hand.
Larry hid his hands behind his back.
Autumn grabbed Larry by the ear, pulling him close. “Manners,” she said, “are everything.”
Part II - Chapter 19
It started innocently enough. Autumn left the waiting room when the fire alarm went off. No one else bothered. Unfazed, the other patients remained, eyes transfixed on their cell phones.
A light gust of wind and rain greeted her. She found shelter beneath a cement awning and watched as ambulance crews rushed en masse into the ER.
She squinted through her bifocals, able to see through the sliding glass doors into the emergency room beyond. It seemed odd that no one in the building knew the proper decorum for a fire drill. It was disgraceful, all that wailing and flailing of arms. For heaven’s sake, there was even a dumdum strutting around in a sheet. In contrast, the ambulance parking lot remained serene, buzzing with the hum of diesel engines.
The rain let up, becoming a light drizzle. The strange man from earlier, the one who had been led in as a patient, rushed out of the ER. He had acquired nurse’s scrubs and held a young girl wearing a hospital gown in his arms. He paused, collecting himself. From the scowl on the child’s face, Autumn could tell the girl was not amused. This simply would not do. Autumn squared her shoulders and marched toward them. But then she faltered, her purse falling to the ground with an abrupt thump.
Dark, slippery animus followed the twosome from the ER, morphing into a cavernous mouth. The girl, looking even more peeved, released her grip from the man’s neck and arched a delicate hand. She flicked her wrist and the mouth collapsed into a festering puddle. Another flick and it fled back into the ER, coloring the sliding glass in shades of tar and graphite. Oblivious, her strange companion strode toward an ambulance and opened the back. The girl hopped in without hesitation.
Autumn wavered in the light rain. She could return to the waiting room, none the wiser. But then the man’s shadow split and a ghost in a crumpled suit appeared. He floated through the ambulance door and joined the girl.
Two men, one dead no less, and a young girl. Not on her watch. She stormed toward the ambulance, purse at the ready. The mixture of shock and fear on the man’s face when he turned around was all the vindication she needed. After teaching Fourth Grade for thirty years, she recognized every shade of guilt and desperation, and this odd soul seemed to be fluttering through them all. When he refused her hand, she knew she had work to do.
******
The crazy old woman had Larry bent almost double, his ear trapped between her sharp, bony fingers.
“I need a ride, if you don’t mind.” The pressure increased ever so slightly.
Flustered, Larry said, “I’m sorry ma’am. I have a patient. Perhaps you could call a taxi.”
The woman let go. He stumbled backwards clutching his ear.
She glowered over him. “Let’s not pretend that you work for the ambulance service. I saw you walk in au naturel, though I must say that this suits you more than the diaper did.”
Larry blushed.
She was still glaring at him. “What’s your name?” she demanded.
“Larry Payne.”
“Larry.” She rolled his name on her tongue as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. Her eyes narrowed even more. “Other than sheer rudeness, is there a reason you wouldn’t take my hand?”
Larry looked at his feet. “I don’t touch people and they don’t touch me.”
“Then why were you carrying that little girl?”
“I can’t say.”
“Then you won’t mind if I ask her myself.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
She brushed him aside and looked through the rear ambulance window. Max peered back through the glass while Sebastian sat in the background adjusting his tie.
The woman opened the ambulance door and smiled. “Are you okay, Dearie?”
Max gulped. The woman’s smile could freeze lava or at the very least scare it back up the volcano. “Just fine,” she whispered.
“My name is Autumn Teaberry, and you are?”
“Max,” she said, clutching her seat belt with twitchy fingers.
“Where are your parents?”
“He’s all the family I have.” Max gestured to Sebastian.
Autumn turned to the gray man and froze. From a distance he had looked like the ghost of an ordinary middle-aged man. But now in the unforgiving light of the ambulance she saw the scales and long lizard claws that fidgeted in his lap. Yellow, reptilian eyes caught her gaze for the briefest moment and then fell. Basically, he was an iguana in a cheap suit.
She stroked her chin. Perhaps her departure from the waiting room had been premature. “And you are?”
The lizard man didn’t answer.
She cleared her throat. “I asked you a question.”
Sebastian looked at her with a mixture of dismay and exasperation. “What’s the point of being a ghost if everyone can see me?” he asked. Autumn’s smile deepened. He had a feeling she could take that smile to the grave, or worse, take him with her.
Meanwhile Larry stood by her side, looking like he was quietly muffling a stroke.
He sighed. “My name is Sebastian.”
“That’s better.” She squinted fiercely at him through silver-rimmed bifocals.
Sebastian squirmed, suddenly longing for the relative pleasantness of the Emergency Room.
“So, you’re a ghost,” she said, letting the words hang in the air.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Really.” It wasn’t so much a question as a rebuttal. She peered even more intently at him. “Were you in some sort of accident, or perhaps involved in a medical experiment?” she asked.
Larry stifled a giggle.
“No, I was not.” Sebastian glared at her, eyes flashing.
“Oh, lordy lord lord.” Autumn placed a hand across her chest then turned to Max. “Are you with this,” and here she paused, “gentleman?” She nodded at Larry who was now looking uneasily toward the Emergency Room doors.
“Yes ma’am, I am.”
“May I ask why?”
Max shook her head in frustration. This old lady would never understand.
“I’m waiting.”
Max gave up. “Fine. There were creepy, dark things in there. They wanted me. I didn’t want them.”
The scary Teaberry woman stared at her for a moment. Then she asked, “Were they beasts with red eyes?”
Surprised, Max leaned toward her. “Some of them were.”
“I see, but was this,” and here she pointed at Larry, “really your best option?”
“Excuse me,” Larry said.
Max lifted her chin. “He knows I’m not crazy, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Then that’s good enough for me, too.” Autumn looked back at the Emergency Room doors. She could no longer see inside. Shadowy creatures were packed against the glass, becoming darker with each new wave.
But there was something else, a faint light, keeping them at bay. Woven from starlit cloth, it flexed and grew until a familiar shape stood shimmering in the entrance. It turned to look at Autumn. It was Hank. He ignored the slobbering horde behind him and waved, a spray of silver sparks flying from his fingertips.
“More cheap theatrics,” she whispered.
Laughter, like the flutter of butterfly wings filled her head. She leaned against the ambulance, suddenly dizzy. “Henry?”
“Are you okay?” Larry asked.
She waved him off. The fluttering gave her a nudge, akin to a parent patting a stubborn child on the head. Hank’s voice, close and personal, murmured in her head, “I’m glad you decided to help our friend. Diaper or not, he’s good people.”
Autumn closed her eyes. “I can’t do this.”
“A fierce woman like you? Of course, you can.”
“But.”
“No buts. You take care of the living, and I’ll take care of the dead.”
“You expect me to take in a stranger?”
“My dear, Mrs. Teaberry, he’s a stranger to no one.”
Autumn glanced at Larry. He was rubbing his ear, still purple from her grip. “I’ve certainly never met him before.”
“A part of you knows that’s not true.”
“Being dead has addled your brain. And there’s a child; you expect me to take care of her as well?”
A corner of Larry’s mouth curled up. “Who are you talking to?”
“Not you.”
“That only leaves him.” He pointed at Hank who was growing brighter by the moment, a star about to supernova.
Hank stirred in her head, his thoughts gaining heft, the butterfly wings now steel. “You and your friends need to leave.”
The shadows continued to gather, crowding against the glass. The doors burst open and they descended on Hank in a crush of loathing, red eyes flashing.
Autumn watched, her fingers over her mouth.
Hank reappeared on the outside of the fray. “Morons.” He looked back one last time. “You want cheap theatrics? You got it.” He held gleaming knitting needles in the air like a conductor and bound the shadows with silver threads, then threw the yowling beasts over his shoulder in a glowing knapsack.
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Autumn said.
“I knew you would like it,” he whispered in her head. “See you on the flip side.”
“Wait.”
“Keep an eye on the girl.”
Then he was gone.
The tiniest of smiles creased Autumn’s lips.
Larry stood next to her. “A friend of yours?”
“No, he’s yours.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Please take me home.”
“But, Mrs. Teaberry.”
Autumn jabbed him with her purse. “Where were you going to take the girl? Were you going to just drop her off on the street somewhere?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead, yet.”
“Of course, you haven’t. She’ll stay with me until we find another hospital.”
“But…”
“Chop, chop.” Autumn clapped her hands. She walked to the front passenger side and glared at him. “Are you going to open the door for me?”
Larry trudged after her. He opened the door and after a moment’s thought, offered her a gloved hand. A pair of backpacks were wedged between the seats. He grabbed them and set them conspicuously against the retaining wall.
A police cruiser pulled into the lot and parked next to him. It was the gray-haired policeman from the park. He got out of the car.
Larry kept his head down and walked to the other side.
“Hey, you.”
Larry froze, his hand on the door latch. “Yes?”
“Are you forgetting something?”
“Am I?” Larry turned around.
The policeman was watching him, a small grin on his face. His name tag read, Officer M. Bidwell. “Aren’t you supposed to use a backer? I thought you guys were strict about that.”
Larry’s shoulders relaxed. “I can do it on my own.”
“I’m sure you can. But I’m here.”
There was a twinkle in the policeman’s pale gray eyes that matched the silver in his hair. He walked behind the ambulance. “Well, you better get a move on, don’t you think? I’m not sure how long this lot will remain conveniently empty.” Bidwell’s eyes had a definite shine now, like twin head beams.
“Okay, then.” Larry climbed into the driver’s seat.
“And, Larry.”
Larry peered slowly out the window. “I didn’t tell you my name. Do I know you?”
“I ask myself that all the time.”
Their eyes locked, neither willing to look away.
“Did you need something, Officer?”
“I do. I need you to remember who, or at least, what you are.”
Larry’s fingers trembled on the steering wheel. “I know as much as I want to know.”
Bidwell’s eyes glinted a little brighter. “Then want more.” He went to the back and thumped the rear door, motioning for him to back out.
Sebastian poked his head up front. “What did he mean by that?”
“He’s just messing with me.”
“Right.” He scrutinized Larry as he sat in the driver’s seat. “Do me a favor and don’t crash this monster.”
“No worries.” Larry wheeled the ambulance out of the space. “I used to drive a school bus, so this is nothing.”
Max’s incredulous voice broke in. “You drove a school bus?”
Bidwell waved pleasantly as they drove away. Larry kept on eye on him in the rear-view mirror.
“Larry?” Max was waiting.
He pulled his gaze from Bidwell’s shrinking image. “Incredible as it may seem, I used to be halfway normal.”
Autumn settled into her seat. “Normal is over-rated if you ask me.”
Larry smiled. “I couldn’t agree more.”
As a side note…none of this was written with AI and I kindly ask that no one use it for training purposes. Thank you :)
Iguana in a cheap suit...😁
Loved the character of Autumn Teabury...reminds me of Ms. Castin in my ninth grade!