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BACK TO FRASER'S FRACTURED FICTION HENRY VI Part 2, act iv: scene ii (part the second)by A. Fraser
© Copyright 2004 A. Fraser. All rights reserved.
The living room at Valley Mansion was seldom used. The furniture
was all top-rate, expensive stuff that usually sat under dust covers and
wasn't terribly comfortable. Alex himself hardly ever set foot in this
room. He'd have preferred the meeting to have been held at
Fairlawn, in the comfortable surroundings of the Brotherhood's
meeting room. But here they were. Since this concerned everybody,
not just the Brotherhood, the whole Cliff Road crowd was there.
Even Janine and Bess, one hastily jetted in from Toronto and the
other from MIT.
Hermione had the floor.
"They have us," the Nameless One lawyer admitted. "If we try to take
this to court, there will be identity checks, searches, and so on of a
much more stringent nature than usual. It would come to light that
many of your documents are forgeries; that some of you aren't even
real people in a strictly legal sense."
"I don't understand," Janine said. "How can they say the land isn't
ours?"
"They bought the deed from the Fletchers," Hermione said. "And
since the change in ownership of the deed was never registered, then
the descendants of Josephat Fletcher are still the legal owners."
"Sounds fishy to me," Evan snorted.
"It wouldn't stand the chance of a chocolate kettle on a hot stove in a
court of law," Hermione admitted, "but the thing is that we can't risk
taking it to court, because then the whole question of who _does_
have legal ownership would come up. And not one of you could
withstand the results."
"So they're going to drive us off our land," Michael said, rubbing his
chin. "Did they mention what they plan to do _with_ the property?"
"Raze the houses and build a Wal-Mart," replied Alex glumly.
"Cool, a Wal-Mart!" Vivain exclaimed, and was glared at so fiercely
that she started to cry. Her older sister and her brother both patted
her on the back. Their parents exchanged looks.
Everyone else just looked glum. They were thinking of their houses;
the little comforts, the way the furniture fit, the carefully tended
garden at Fairlawn, the conservatory with its roses at Oakwoods, the
underground workshop in Ray's bungalow, the gloomy Gothic
trappings of Valley Mansion, the thrilling danger of driving the Cliff
Road with its lack of guardrails. They were all diplomatic enough not
to mention that razing Francis' shack would improve the general
neighbourhood.
"Where on earth will we go?" Gideon asked. He and Joshua were
holding hands tightly, for comfort. A lot of people were holding
hands, as if bracing against the unthinkable.
"We could move into a hotel," Mitch suggested. "Then Evan and I
could set up a lemonade stand, and you could sit around the hotel
room in your underwear and Josh could get a job teaching
kindergarten."
"What?" several people chorused.
"Never mind," the werewolf muttered.
Pandora and Nicholas, who didn't live on the Cliff Road and weren't
affected by this disaster, looked at Maggie, who was in the same
situation. She shrugged. She lived in half a duplex in the village; not
much room for guests. Meadowsweet Ridge, home to the Edwards,
was also a small house.
Estella, holding Ray's hand (which kept wanting to curl into a fist
whenever BOO was mentioned, however obliquely), stirred.
"There are several trailers for rent in the park," she said. She was still
nominally living in her trailer. "Since it's off-season. Then you
wouldn't have to leave Fletcherville." She saw their expressions. "It
wouldn't have to be forever," she added. "Just until you figure out
what to do next."
"Vampires in a trailer park," Joshua said, but he was smiling.
"Sounds like a very bad drive-in movie."
"There's no shame to living in a trailer park," Estella told them.
"There's no law that says you have to be trailer trash."
"Oh, good, because I'd look terrible with big hair," Mary said, and
they all laughed. It was laugh or cry, and laughter seemed the better
option.
"We aren't going to be poor," Michael reminded everyone. "Except
those of us who already are," he added, looking at Francis. "They
can't touch our finances, just our land."
Francis, who had the least to lose, grinned. "The trailer park sounds
good to me," he said. "More private than a hotel."
"Do you really want the whole Brotherhood as neighbours?" Ray
asked his girlfriend.
"They're going to be eventually, anyway," she replied. "I might as
well get used to the idea."
"If you two kiss, I'm going to gag," said Mitch.
"I can't believe it worked!" said someone in a suit.
"This is the 21st century," said someone else in another suit. "This is
the way we hunt monsters now. Not with flaming torches, stakes, and
crossbows, but with writs and lawsuits."
"Going in with guns blazing is for the comic books," said a third suit.
These were BOO agents. They did not have silly names stolen from
Tolkien. They did not wear lab coats. BOO, despite its rather
ridiculous acronym, was a serious organization. They'd tried several
times to rename themselves, but the upper brass liked the word
"Bureau" and so they were stuck with being BOO. But the agents
used their real names, and not field names of a highly suspect nature.
The suits were named Higgins, Chen, Orlova, and Nelson. BOO was
an equal opportunity employer. If you could fire a crossbow or
process a writ, you were in. Minor details like skin colour, accent,
religion, sexual orientation, etc., didn't matter. In BOO, only your
species counted. It had to be homo sapiens, with no inconvenient
little mutations like being a vampire or werewolf.
"Are we really going to raze those homes and build a Wal-Mart?"
asked Agent Nelson.
The others looked at her. "Of course not," replied Agent Chen
crisply. "We don't have a contract with Wal-Mart."
"So what will we do with the property?"
Higgins leaned forward, his fingers steepled. It was a habit of his. "I
doubt the question will actually arise," he said drily. "They will find
a way to block us. The important thing is that we have made them
worried, and aware that BOO is not a joke."
"How will they block us?" Chen asked. "They dare not take this to
court."
"They can afford expert legal advice," Higgins waved aside this
objection. "And they have most of the citizens of this podunk little
town on their side, for some peculiar reason."
"They pay taxes," Orlova spoke up. "And do... good deeds." Her
tone of voice indicated that doing good deeds rated with sacrificing
babies.
"Good deeds?" Chen looked affronted. "Vampires doing good
deeds?"
"I believe that Goldanias donated money for the town library," said
Higgins. "And Redoak paid for the community centre and sports
fields. Fairlawn is heavily involved in the PTA. That sort of thing."
"So the citizens of this town have been _bribed_ to accept vampires
in their midst?" asked Nelson. "Disgusting. We should burn the
whole place to the ground."
"I keep telling you," Higgins sighed, "that sort of thing just isn't done
anymore. No, they will find a way to keep us from truly taking
possession of the land. You will see. But we will have put fear into
them. They will no longer be secure in those houses."
"And what will that accomplish?" Chen asked.
"We have to think long-range, Chen," Higgins said. "We can't just
go in and pound stakes into the lot of them. Making them nervous
and insecure will serve our purposes in the long run. And word will
spread that BOO is serious."
"You can't be serious."
Nobody was quite certain who had said that, but the sad little caravan
of cars, trucks, motorcycles and mini-vans (and one large black
demonic horse) from the Cliff Road had come to a rest in the Happy
Trails Motor Camp on the edge of Fletcherville.
"Come now," Josh said, bracing himself against the Caddy as Gideon
got out. "It's not so bad as all that."
Gideon stood up and surveyed the prospect. Most of the trailers were
clean and in good shape, if not the newest models. There were no
broken-down old cars or junk heaps in sight. But there was an
overall miasma of the temporary that had inevitably become the
permanent about the place.
"I'm not living here!" Galen exclaimed. "I'll get the shit beaten out
of me at school if I tell anyone I live here."
"Galen!" his mother said sharply. "Don't swear."
"Well, I will," he grumped.
Mary leaned against her husband, close to tears. He put his arm
around her wordlessly.
"They have a basketball court," said Bess, trying to jolly her little
brother.
He gave her the sort of scathing look only a thirteen year old can truly
pull off. "I play _soccer_."
"Put a sock in it, Galen," Mitch hissed at the boy. "You're going to
make your mother cry."
"Boy, am I glad I get to go back to Toronto," Janine commented,
peering inside one of the vacant trailers.
"Thank you for your loving support and concern," her cousin intoned.
"I happen to live here," Estella said icily, "and there is nothing wrong
with it."
Ray kissed her. "Of course there isn't," he said. "It doesn't have to
be bad," he said.
"Actually, this is a step up," Francis noted. "For me, anyway."
"This would be a good time to shut up, Francis," Ray told him.
Francis opened his mouth, saw the expression on Mary's face, and
shut his mouth again with unusual tact.
"It will be an adventure," Josh said, trying not to look at Gideon. If he
actually looked at Gideon, he knew, he'd never be able to carry this
off.
Evan grunted. "We'll have to move the trailers to a more defensible
position," he said. "Perhaps in a circle."
"They're trailers," said Estella, quietly. "Not a wagon train."
"And there haven't been any Indians in town in a century," Michael
added, still holding Mary.
"It isn't Indians I'm worried about," Evan said. "This would be an
opportune time and place for BOO to take us out."
"No, they only work through legal channels," Hermione spoke up.
She'd come along for moral support.
Andrei, perched as usual on Ray's shoulder, make what sounded like
a derisive comment in falcon.
"You said it," his owner mage muttered.
Calvin neighed. Gideon gave his gigantic stallion a vague pat.
"Calvin won't fit in a trailer," said the vampiric Baron, aware of how
utterly stupid that sounded.
"You can always pen him up in the basketball court," Galen
muttered.
Evan raised an eyebrow at the teenager. He didn't even move,
otherwise, but Galen stepped back behind his parents.
"Why don't we all go and get some dinner?" Josh suggested. "Things
will look better after a good meal."
"I'm not hungry," Bess replied. "I feel too sick to eat."
"Listen," Hermione said. "It hasn't been forty-eight hours as yet. We
need to sit down and talk and come up with some way to prevent
them from seizing the Cliff Road. There's time."
"I thought you said they had us," Alex looked at his lawyer.
"Maybe we can come up with something. It's better than just giving
up."
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