Starfire: Bellefonte Series, Book 2

Chapter 2

She sauntered over to the unassuming door, dipped her left hand into her pocket, and brought out Breyer who had altered how light hit his body, making him look like the set of keys she had in her other pocket. Holding him against the lock made it click and she pulled the door open.

Inside she found a narrow staircase on the left and a slightly wider hallway leading farther into the building on the right. A metal box with five locked compartments had been mounted on the wall at eye level at the foot of the stairs with little slots for names on each compartment door. The last one said “Fullan 5.”

“Anything interesting in his mailbox?” she asked.

“No, just a pizza flyer.”

“I guess I’d better start climbing.” She went up to the third (top) floor and got Breyer to open an off-white, wooden door for her with a brass number “5” in the middle of it. A soapy smell greeted her when she stepped in—a welcome change from the stench of rancid pot roast in the stairway.

“Your nose is remarkable for a human,” Breyer said, and Allison was glad to hear amusement in his voice.

“Thank you. What are we doing here, Breyer?”

“We’re here to steal money.”

“What?” she said out loud, then covered her mouth with her right hand. “Sorry,” she thought.

“No one heard you. Go over to that dresser drawer.”

She found the pile of cash.

“What now?”

“Wrap the bills in a towel. There’s one in a kitchen drawer you can get.”

She got the towel and wrapped the bills in it.

“There you go, but why?”

“Lay me on top of the towel. Thanks—this is why.” The shirt had transformed into a faux-leather bank pouch with “First National Bank” written on it. “You need to go to the bank, a branch of it is in the second building north of this one, and tell them you found that pouch on the ground outside the bank. This money was stolen from the ATM, but five twenty-dollar bills have already been used.”

“Okay. Anything else I should do?”

“No. You can leave.”

“Thank you! This place gives me the creeps.” With the new bank pouch under her right arm and Breyer in her left hand, she tiptoed out of the apartment and closed the door behind her.

“Hold me against the lock for fifteen seconds. I will lock the door and erase all traces of our visit.”

“I feel like a burglar,” she thought, holding him so he touched the door lock. As she did so, images flitted through her mind: the door itself, the mat inside the apartment, the floor, the dresser drawer where she had taken the cash from. However, the second she concentrated on keeping her mind separate from his, the images stopped.

“You can take me off,” Breyer said softly. “It appears my experiences can bleed into your mind unless you expend some energy to keep yourself separate.”

“It’s like we’re merging.” She skipped down the stairs. “Is this what happens with all your contacts?”

“No. You’re the first one.”

“Wow.” She reached the ground level and went out the door onto the sidewalk. She turned left and was at the First National Bank building in fifteen seconds.

“What do I do in there?”

“Say your piece, hand the bank pouch over, and get out.”

“What does this accomplish?”

“It’ll frustrate the Catcher.”

“I’m all for that.” She went in the door and walked up to a teller.

“Good afternoon, can I help you?”

“Yeah, I found this bank bag outside on the sidewalk and thought I’d return it.”

“Thank you, that’s so thoughtful of you,” the woman beamed and accepted the pouch.

“You’re welcome,” Allison said and got out of the bank. She went back to her car.

“We’ve gone through most of the historic buildings in town through that walking tour website and I’m worried,” she said, checking the time on the parking meter. Her car would be safe from tickets for the next eighteen minutes. The thought of having to go back to her old house depressed her. She decided to walk down the street to see her pals Burt and Blain instead. “So far we’ve identified a possible match for the lady’s theater but we have nothing for the other two clues.”

“We need to plow through the rest of the tour stops. If nothing else clicks, then I might have to do some creative research.”

“You mean there’s a way for you to get past the memory blocks?” She crossed Howard Street.

“There’s always a way around every block—it’s only a matter of time to construct a workaround. Yeah, I know: We don’t have the time.”

“No, we don’t, so let’s get on with the tour stops. What was the one you mentioned before our visit to Vinny’s place? Strychnine Corner? Isn’t strychnine a deadly poison?”

“Yes, it is. The southwest corner of East Bishop and North Allegheny had many bars and saloons, the website says. Apparently it became known as Strychnine Corner.”

“Because you went there to get poisoned by alcohol.” She stopped at the sidewalk where the two old man/nature spirit faces had been attached to two adjacent trees.

“That’s what I gather.”

She smiled up at Burt and Blain. “I bet those two have seen a lot of stuff that goes on in this town that never makes it to the paper, or the Internet, for that matter.”

“They have. They want to talk to you and help us.”

“What?”

“They say you’ve been the only one who has given them names, really paid attention to them, and made them feel like a part of this town.”

“Would everyone see and hear them talking?”

“No, just you. The conversation would take place the same way we talk to each other.”

“Huh. Well, let’s get this show on the road.”

“All right. Let me provide a support for you.”

Allison felt Breyer’s weight leave her pocket at the same time as something touched her left hand. When she looked down, a walking stick had appeared at her side.

“Lean on me. This can be disorienting.”

“Even so, I can hardly wait.” She switched him to her right hand, gazed up at the faces in the trees, and tried to breathe deeply and slowly to keep calm.

Nothing happened at first, but then a fluidity appeared in the formerly immobile eyes, noses, and mouths, and before long she was staring at two pairs of blinking eyes and lips that had drawn together into a smile from a formerly open-mouthed expression.

“Nice to meet you, Allison,” the one on the left said. “I’m Burt.”

“I’m Blain,” said the one on the right. “How can we help with your Quest?”

The surreal sight of them talking to her made her head spin. Leaning on the walking stick that was Breyer did help her maintain touch with “normal” reality.

“I have three clues that should lead me to three buildings where parts of a broken Spirit of Bellefonte are located. If I told you the clues, could you point me in the right direction?”

“We’ll try,” Burt said.

“We’ve heard the Spirit’s groans from around town over the years,” Blain added. “We would love to help make the Spirit whole.”

“Wonderful! The three splinters we’re looking for are said to be at the town’s namesake building, the old, black railroad nest, and the lady’s theater.”

“The lady’s theater has to be the Plaza Theater designed by Anna Wagner Keichline,” Burt said.

“That’s what I think, too. Any ideas on the two other clues?”

“Is there a building from which Bellefonte got its name?” Blain asked.

“I don’t know. I thought the clue meant the building would have ‘Bellefonte’ in its name, like the Bellefonte Academy,” Allison said.

“That’s possible, too,” Blain conceded, “although the widely accepted story of how the town got its name is most likely fiction.”

“Really? How did it happen, then?”

Burt and Blain exchanged looks.

“The Big Neg would put the kibosh on us if we gave you those details,” Burt said.

“Who? What?”

“The negative spirit, the evil spirit, the one who broke the Spirit of Bellefonte and the one who is like the negative version of the Spirit,” Blain said. “The Big Neg has everybody dancing to his tune around here.”

“Who is everybody?”

“Oh, you know, the trees, the ghosts, the fairies, the gnomes, or as we say, the peripherals, the beings who aren’t usually acknowledged by humans. We’re all afraid of the Big Neg, except the gnomes, whose link with the earth and the animals keeps the Big Neg off their backs, but they don’t like him, either, obviously. So until the Spirit of Bellefonte is made whole again, this town’s peripherals will always be looking over their shoulders,” Burt explained.

“Fine, I won’t pressure you, but thanks for telling me that much. Hey, why’d you pinpoint the Plaza Theater, then?”

“Oh, too obvious,” Blain said. “Anyone with half a brain could figure that one out.”

“Yeah, it’s not a secret or anything,” Burt said.

“I see,” Allison said. The lady’s theater clue wasn’t as clear-cut to her as it seemed to be for the two faces, though. For example, Petrikin Hall on West High was built for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. It had had an auditorium that could seat up to 800 people with the stage able to hold up to 150 people. The “lady” or “ladies” in the clue could be a reference to the women’s group and the auditorium could be thought of as the theater, plus the building had been built from 1901 to 1902, predating the splintering.

However, she didn’t bring up any of those details because she had a feeling the faces wouldn’t be interested, or couldn’t be interested, out of fear of the Big Neg.

“What about the old, black railroad nest? Any ideas?”

Burt and Blain hemmed and hawed, sighed and made weird noises with their lips.

“You might want to focus on the black railroad part,” Blain said.

“It’s old, it’s historical, it’s a black railroad!” Burt shouted with glee.

“We’re out of time, madam,” Blain said, chuckling at Burt before growing more serious. “Be careful, okay? Messing with the Big Neg could land you six feet under.”

“I know. Thanks for your input. I’ll drop by if I make it through this Spirit Quest alive.”

“We’ll be here,” Burt said.

“Take care,” Blain said.

“See you later,” Allison said and turned back toward her car.

Breyer jumped back into her left pocket.

“Nice guys,” he said.

“Very, although I don’t like the thought they’re putting themselves in harm’s way by talking to me.”

“They want the Spirit to be healed, too.”

“Right. Oh, brother! I’ll think about the historic black railroad all night. Wait, maybe I could visit the Historical Museum. It’s here, after all.” She turned right on Howard to access the side door to the building. Once inside, she spotted a woman who looked like a librarian with her long dress, glasses, and a severely short haircut.

“Excuse me, where could I find the records about the black railroad?”

“You mean the Underground Railroad?”

“Of course!” Allison exclaimed, clapping a hand on her forehead. “Yeah, that’s what I meant! Oh, sorry, I forgot I have to be somewhere else. I’ll come back another time.”

“We’ll be here,” the woman said, smiled, and turned back to the pile of papers she had been going through.

Allison bounded out of the building, wondering how the woman could have used the same phrase that Burt had used only a minute ago.

“Burt and Blain can influence people who have a strong connection to this town,” Breyer said. “They made sure she gave you the right answer to your question.”

“That’s amazing. I hope the Big Neg doesn’t find out they helped me.”

“The energy of their interference with that woman’s mind will have dissipated by the time he wakes up at sunset.”

“Good. Oh, I feel stupid for not figuring out the black railroad reference on my own!”

“Don’t blame yourself. You’re doing the best you can.”

“Yeah, I’m doing everything humanly possible to discover the buildings that go with the clues, and at least I see light at the end of the tunnel for the railroad clue. There can’t be that many buildings associated with the Underground Railroad in this town.”

“At least two buildings were known stations, although memory blocks are preventing me from discovering which buildings they were. By the way, Bellefonte had a large black population back in the day that was in part due to the iron industry’s need of a large workforce.”

“Interesting.” She got into her car, turned the air-conditioning on, pulled out, and drove the short distance to her old house. “Dang it,” she said to Breyer. “All the parking spaces are gone.”

“There’s a spot on the other side of the street. You can pull a U-turn…now.”

“Thank you!”

“Brian is minutes away. You better get inside the house fast.”

Brian Barnes turned out to be a friendly man in his early forties who flirted with her every chance he could. Breyer informed her he was seeing three women at the same time, which made Allison laugh even harder at Brian’s jokes. The business of assessing the fire damage to the house was done more quickly than Brian would have wanted and Allison had to practically push him out the door.

“Whew! I’m glad that’s over,” Allison thought at Breyer as she stood at the living room window to make sure Brian really drove off. “I’m especially glad I won’t have to worry about having to be here for the repairs because of the consent forms I signed for Brian. I won’t have to set foot in this house until I’m ready to start purging it. I’ll have to sell it. Raquel won’t mind at all, Harry might get sentimental, but I have to unload this place. So many bad memories here, Greg Seidman’s visit eleven years ago being at the top of that list, although you and I would never have met each other without Greg’s intervention.”

“True. Even the blackest cloud can have a silver lining.”

“I’d feel a lot better if I knew Greg and his friends were somewhere else than on this planet, though.”

“I’ve tried to ferret out the location of the Catcher’s real body and the people who changed locations with him, but I can’t get a lock on them. The Catcher’s cloaking is too much for me.”

“Too bad. Oh, remember the probe you sent out when you hijacked my consciousness yesterday at the cemetery? All those foxhounds with the riders following them? You were trying to find out who controls the human traffickers.”

“I keep checking if it has come to a hundred-yard radius of me. The probe should have been back by now, but it hasn’t come back. All the probes I have ever sent have come back in the allotted time except this one. I don’t know what’s going on and it scares me.”

“It scares me even more. Could the probe not coming back have anything to do with your new evil impulses?”

Breyer moaned.

“I know nothing anymore except we have to get the Spirit of Bellefonte functional again, fast, or there will be hell to pay.”

“I agree. I’d love to keep going through the list of stops on the Bellefonte walking tour, but I’m so hungry I can barely think. There’s no food here. Where should I go?”

“Mamma Lucrezia’s has a gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan pizza on their menu. It has a crunchy crust and the filling has tasty tomato sauce with peppers, onions, and zucchini.”

“Sounds wonderful. Let’s go!” She got out the door and locked it. “You’re the best, you know. I don’t even have to wait for you to put on your sneakers.”

“Not having a proper body does have some advantages,” Breyer said.