Wondrous Strange

“You did have a busy day yesterday,” he said.

“Not bad for the new kid on the job, right? Listen, we’ve got plenty of time before sundown-d’you want to come do a bit of nosing around with me? See if we can’t track down my little stray.”

“What, the kelpie? Or the girl?”

“The way I see it is this: Find the one…and we just might find the other.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

Sonny pointed to a note scrawled on the script: Rehearsals @ Avalon Grande on 52^nd. “We start by paying this place a visit”-Sonny pointed again, at the letters indicating it was Kelley’s Script-“and asking this girl some questions.”

VII

“Don’t go in there!” Tyff screeched at Kelley as she shuffled groggily in the direction of the bathroom.

Hand on the doorknob, Kelley turned to peer blearily at her roommate standing in the far corner of the living room-as far away from the bathroom as one could get in their apartment.

“Step away from the door, Kelley!” Tyff was just this side of wild-eyed.

Kelley did as she was told, trying as she did so to kick-start her brain into gear.

Tyff must have gotten in really late-or really early-and Kelley hadn’t heard her, having fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep on the couch. The remnants of tumbled dreams swam through her brain-weird music that she couldn’t quite remember and dancing lights, the pale perfect face of a woman with golden eyes and hair spread out behind her like seaweed floating in a watery current. And something else. Something about a…

“Horse! There’s a horse in the bathtub!”

Oh, right. A horse.

Kelley squeezed her eyes shut. It hadn’t been a bad dream after all. “Uh…Tyff-”

“In the bathtub!” Tyff pointed sharply with one manicured finger, her model’s features drawn tight with anxiety.

“About that…” Kelley rubbed at the back of her neck. “I was going to tell you. I guess I fell asleep…” She stared warily at her roommate who, in turn, glared at the bathroom door.

“Tyff-believe me-if I’d known he was going to follow me home from the park, I never would have rescued him. I mean-no, I probably would have, but I mean-”

“Wait a minute.” Tyff’s head swung toward her. “You mean to tell me this is your fault?”

“I guess so. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but…” Kelley stopped, confused. “Who else’s fault could it have possibly been?”

“Never mind. Go on.” Tyff gestured Kelley to continue, her eyes still on the bathroom door.

Kelley sank down onto the couch and told Tyff the whole story.

By the time she finished, Tyff seemed to have calmed down-slightly. “Can you at least get it out of the bathtub?” she asked.

“That’s the thing-he won’t move. I tried last night. Maybe…” Kelley hesitated at the suggestion, then said, “maybe we should call the police.”

“No! What, are you crazy? If our landlord finds out about this, we are both out on the street!”

“I know, I know…that’s what I thought.”

Uncharacteristically, Tyff tore at the corner of one polished fingernail with her teeth. She was a “parts” model and got paid huge amounts of money to have her hands and feet and legs photographed for advertisements in glossy magazines. Chewing on a fingernail, therefore, was-for Tyff-a sign of major stress. “What the hell are we-no, wait. What the hell are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know!” Kelley groaned. She got up stiffly and limped to her bedroom to find something to wear. She had no idea what time it was, but judging from the light streaming through the window, it was a lot later than it should have been. Pulling on jeans and a hoodie, she continued, “Look, I called the city’s Animal Control, but they wouldn’t believe me.” Kelley went to the bathroom door and opened it. The horse stood there, fetlock-deep in scented water, chewing placidly on the corner of a bath towel. “I think the lady who took my call thought I might be smoking something.”

“If you are”-Tyff glowered-“considering the circumstances, you’d better share.” She moved to peer nervously over Kelley’s shoulder. “Why does it have beads in its hair?”

“What?” Kelley hadn’t noticed that. “Where?”

“There.” Tyff pointed. “And there. Shiny little black gems-they’re knotted all through its hair. Its mane.”

Kelley edged farther into the tiny room to get a better look. The light of the bathroom bulbs reflected the glitter of dozens of onyx gems.

“I have no idea.” Kelley was mystified. “They’re tied all through its tail, too. Hey-maybe it’s a circus horse! That might explain how it got up the fire escape.” Kelley reached out a tentative hand to pat the horse’s gleaming red flank, and he whickered with pleasure. “You know, if we both push, we might be able to move him into the living room at least.”

Tyff raised an eyebrow in silent censure at that idea.

The alarm on Kelley’s cell phone chirped, and she went into the kitchen and picked it up off the counter, glancing down at the time display. She wasn’t called for rehearsal until the afternoon that day, so she should be all right…except her phone said 12:35 p.m. “Oh no!” Kelly couldn’t believe how long she’d slept. “I’m gonna be late for rehearsal-I gotta run!”

“Kelley…” Tyff’s voice took on a threatening tone as Kelley edged toward the door.

“Listen, Tyff. There’s a bag of rolled oats with your baking stuff in the back of the cupboard-”

“Winslow…”

Kelley winced. Tyff only called her by her last name when she was genuinely pissed. “Could you maybe feed him some? Maybe you could entice him out of the tub!”

“You are a craptastic roommate.”

“I’ll be back as soon as rehearsal is over.”

“Craptastic.”

“I’ll owe you forever, Tyff-I promise!”

“Do not say that. I didn’t hear that. La-la-la…” Tyff stuck her fingers in her ears and was still la-la-laing as Kelley crept out the front door and took off down the hall as fast as her sneakered feet would carry her.

The last thing she heard as she reached the relative safety of the stairwell was Tyff’s outraged cry. “Is that my French bubble bath?!”

By the time Kelley got to the theater, she wasn’t sure which was making her feel worse: her guilt over leaving Tyff in the lurch, or the restless sleep she’d gotten the night before. As the fairy dancers warmed up onstage, she sat in her dressing room with her head in her hands, fighting off a major headache.

“Hey, kiddo.”

Kelley looked up to see Mindi standing in the doorway with the corset for Titania’s costume in her hands. It’d had to be taken in rather drastically, and most of the lacing grommets had been replaced.

“I had Wardrobe do the work on this last night-you should get used to wearing it. See? They added some lace trim to hide the alteration seams. What do you think?”

“Oh, Mindi, it’s gorgeous!” Kelley ran a finger along the handiwork appreciatively. “It looks brand-new.” She glanced up into the older woman’s face, feeling suddenly guilty. “I guess this means Barbara’s really not coming back, huh?”

“Frankly, hon, I think it’s better this way. You’re doing a bang-up job-well, at least, you will. You know. I mean it was only your first rehearsal, right?” Mindi shrugged. “And this role needed some new blood, if you ask me. Now let me see how this fits.”