The Dragon's Crown Part 2

She opens the door and begins to say something, but stops. There is no person at the door. For a split second a shimmering red orange aura hovers above the doormat, then dissipates. Johanna just shakes her head and goes back into the house.

“Who was it?” Her mother had continued washing dishes.

“No one Mom. It was...one those again.”

A violent clinking, her mother stops and turns around with suds still dripping from her hands. “I thought it stopped.”

“Mom it’s been going on since I was little.” She heads back to the garden.

“Why should it stop now?”

Johanna practically dives into the dirt, loosening it; getting air into it; till its perfect for the bulbs. She takes tulip bulbs from a wicker basket, handling each one as if it was a newborn child placing it in its earthy cradle. A native friend of hers, Lulu, walks in through the chain link gate.

“Hi Lulu.”

“How are your plants? Great as always?”

“Of course.”

“What is my baby saying?”

Lulu looks towards a little tree in a sunny part of the garden.

“He just needed some fresh air. You shouldn't keep him inside all the time.”

“Does you mom know you...”

“Quiet!” Johanna cuts her off, and rears up to look at the kitchen window.

Her mother isn't there, and she can faintly hear a vacuum cleaner running downstairs.

“No, she thinks it’s weakened. Obviously it'll never die down.”

She makes a grand gesture towards the beautiful garden, bursting with plants of every description, all huge, healthy and happy. Everything from roses, irises, daises, birds of paradise, wild prairie flowers, vegetables, sunflowers; even three fruiting trees, one of which has no business growing under Hawaiian sun.

“I think you’re lucky to talk to plants and trees. Every Hawaiian would love to do that.”

“Wish my mother could look at it that way.” Johanna throws some unsavory roots into another basket.

“Well, your mother's very...” Lulu struggles to find a polite word.

“Christian, conservative, close minded, whichever you prefer.” She hauls herself up again and totes the basket over to a compost heap.

“Not to mention if the neighbors don't have a good opinion of us then nobody does.”

Lulu pauses a beat.

“I thought you two were getting along again?”

“Another mist man came knocking today.” Johanna goes back to her bulbs.

“Oh, man.”

“Yea, she's going to be ranting for days about 'opening the door to no one in front of our neighbors'”

“Why is it that only your mom sees them?”

“Hell, I dun no. Maybe I can see what they really are or they just change themselves.”

Lulu is burning to ask more questions but sensing Johanna's agitation forces it to the back of her mind. “So I heard Billy Miller likes you.”

Johanna snorts, Lulu's shoulders drop.

“Oh come on, what's wrong with him?”

“He follows every new fad that rolls through town like someone will knock him out, stuff him in a car trunk and drive it off a cliff if he doesn't.”

“He's not that bad, admittedly the tan leisure suit was a bit much but he's a nice guy. You know how much your mom wants you to meet someone.”

“Yea, meet a boy, get married, settle down a squeeze out squirmers. Just like every other nice girl.”

“What have I told you about calling babies squirmers?”

“Sorry.”

“Thank you. Is there any boy in the whole school you can consider dating, at all?”

Johanna sits up, and squints at the sun for a moment. “Nope.”

She puts her nose back in the dirt. Lulu is a little annoyed. She and Johanna met in elementary school and as long as she's known her, Johanna as been finding fault with every unlucky boy that crosses her path. Lulu folds her arms.

“Okay, is there any man you know of in existence, that you find mildly attractive?”

“Yea, McGarrett kinda.”

Lulu cringes. “Before he went psycho?”

“No, now even. Maybe not so much.”

“Have you ever considered the possibility that you’re gay?”

“No, I know I'm not.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“Because all my sex dreams are about men.”

“Wow.” Johanna's blunt honesty never fails to amaze. Lulu shakes her head. “What I can't figure out is how your standards are so high and yet you have no men in your life to base them on.”

Johanna sits on her heels and turns towards her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Look at Sue Graham, same kinda mom as you, never met her dad like you, and she's the school slut.”

“Guess I'm just lucky.”

“No, I mean,” Lulu kneels down next to her, “ever since I met you it’s like…”

“Johanna! We're going out!”

Johanna growls and throws down her spade. “Sorry Lulu, I'll come over to your place after we get back.”

Lulu nods and her friend drags her feet all the way back to the door.

*****

Sonyadora paces in her room in Domas Aurea. Her black eyes flash fire as she looks out the window. She can feel the seconds dissolving, she should be contacting the new queen, but damn that wizard!

McGarrett placed the Seal of Containment on the room when he left her there, leaving Sonyadora stranded both in the room and in her human form. Her pacing grows more frenzied, then she stops as she hearing rumbling coming close to the window. A huge black vehicle rolls past on the garden roads. An after burner in back kicks in and it leaps into the air, then disappears.

Bunkers left over from WWII on Hawaii often see many inhabitants long after the soldiers have left. This particular one was used as a surfer's pad in the 50's, and by the time the sixties and seventies rolled around it was mostly hippies using it. Thus it’s covered in side and out in colorful psychedelic graffiti, and littered with moldering mattresses and ancient roach butts. It sounds empty, it looks empty, it smells empty.

Its not.

Part 1

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