When the Other Shoe Drops

When the Other Shoe Drops

Chapter One – Dragons R Us


It was raining on the day I was supposed to be married. I stood by the window to the balcony of our new digs and watched the dreariness unfold. It was a new apartment, complete with a new view, but it felt like the same-old, same-old relationship.

We should have been married by now. Eight years we’d been together and we’d had our ups and downs. Last year I got a bit miffed when I found out that he and ex-president Clinton shared the same outlook on hummers, no-- not the vehicles-- and that somehow they didn’t count as unfaithfulness.

So, I left him. And I got my revenge. I went out and explored new terrain, discovered that there were other men and other creatures out there. And even another whole world. But then he won me back.

Who’s he? Josh, one of the most handsome men (not just my opinion, Soap Opera Times will back me up) to walk this planet and now in his first featured role in a big Hollywood mega buster hit. And that was why instead of walking down the aisle right about now, I was standing in my new living room watching a soggy Central Park under grey, ugly skies.

I left the window and sat down on our new, ever so elegant grey leather modular furniture set. It was tastefully arranged just as our interior designer had wanted it to be. I felt like I was living in a showroom at one of those big furniture places, Seaman’s maybe. And if I should feel like messing the place up a bit, well, we even had a once a week maid now. My mother was in heaven over it the maid and the new place; she’d called from her retirement community in Arizona just this morning and reminded me yet again to not be upset. She told me that my fiancé was a good provider so be t ant and don’t complain. Reading between the lines was and if he doesn’t keep his pants zipped I was to look the other way. Damned woman could always read my mind. Yes, I was feeling jealous.

But hell, we were both in show biz and no man turns down a chance like Josh got. They even gave him a bonus to make up for all the down payments we’d lost on the wedding arrangements. Suddenly, I couldn’t breath and I headed back to our balcony. That balcony and its view of Central Park were to die for. It was the main reason I’d agreed to this place. The rooms were overly large and felt cold and empty, like living in a warehouse. Or maybe it was my life that was cold and empty without Josh.

I stepped out and took a deep breath of the mid-winter air. He was in California, where it was 86 degrees right now, I’d checked with the weather channel. I felt a tear drip down my cheek. Damn.

Just then a glowing mosaic of color, glittering out of iridescent black scales crossed the corner of my vision. I turned and stared. Yes, something was up there, gliding around like a children’s kite, and I knew what or rather who he was. His name was—was--- well, I couldn’t pronounce it very well, but it started with an M. Mad…en..lann.ska… right about there I gave up. I preferred his nickname, Jimbo. I watched him flying in circles now, coming closer to me in a tightening spiral.

Yes, he could fly when he was in his dragon form like he was now. And he was weaving through the air as he spiraled down, serpentine, like a lizard-snake with legs. He was coming closer to me. I worried for a moment that our balcony would crumble under his weight but then in the very last second before setting down he transformed into his human body. Suddenly, a short, wizened oriental man stood before me.

“Why, Jimbo, how nice of you to come visit me.”

He shook his head, “Cindy White.” He took my hand in his, “bad news.”

Just then the heavens opened up and a downpour came. The timing was perfect-- just to suit my mood.

I dashed in and he followed. I was shivering, but I could feel the heat radiating off of him.

“Can I make you some tea?”

He nodded and I felt grateful for the chance to collect myself. “Do you have a preference?”

“Herbal, if you have it.” He sat down and leaned back into the new sofa. He was wearing a teal blue tee shirt with a red flannel shirt over it. And blue jeans. Other than the steam wafting off his clothes, he seemed quite normal, nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Now, I suppose I should back things up a bit. Last year, Josh, the six foot one inch, blue-eyed, black haired Adonis of the soap opera world and soon to be a Hollywood heartthrob, threw me out of our apartment. We’d been going together since college and living together ever since we graduated, but I’d found out about his sexual indiscretions and called him on it. I moved into my cousin’s apartment in a tiny, run-down tenement and soon disced ted that this world of ours is a lot more complex than I ever thought it could be.

Jimbo was a part of that complexity. He was a dragon who could take human form and he was just the tip of the iceberg.

All those things that happen in the fairy tales that my father used to make up for my bedtime stories, they were true. And he knew about them, because he’d lived it. My father was a warlord from another realm who had come here to hide when his side lost, or maybe he did just turn yellow and ran away as so many claimed. Anyhow, he fell in love and married my mom and then, when I was fully grown, faked his own death so as to return to try to reclaim his throne or whatever it was warlord’s had. Daddy’s never been exactly the reliable type. I found out all about it a year ago, and oddly enough, when Josh and I made up and got back together, I was able to leave it all behind. The strange foreign land with it’s odd animal-like people know as the folk, the politics, and whoo boy they were complicated-- everything, it all just seemed like a bad dream. But here was Jimbo sitting in front of me and waiting for his herbal tea.

We don’t have a kitchen per se in this new place; there’s a culinary island, which is part of the open plan of the drafty, yet arty and extremely trendy faux loft we now live in. I added a few biscuits to one of our old plates, the ones with little pink roses that I had bought at a Salvation Army shop, and made up a tray for him.

He took the cup and nodded his thanks. Jimbo didn’t talk much. I was dying to find out what news he had for me. I squashed the impulse to tap my foot, while I watched him sip his tea and munch on the cookies, and I wondered exactly when it would be considered polite to ask him to explain why he was there.

He glanced at me and finally put down the mug of tea. “Thank you, it was very good.”

“I’m glad you like it. Do you think you could tell me what the bad news is?” I crept a bit forward on my seat.

“He’s gone.” Jimbo’s face was normally quite placid, like old polished wood, but his eyes gave him away.

“Who?”

“Leo Rosen.”

I blushed. Leo was a part of that life that I’d slammed the door on a year ago. “Do you know where he got to?”

“I do not know, but I have my suspicions. It is just that the moon is turning full and—we are all quite concerned.”

“We. I thought that almost all the refuges had gone back. I thought Leo had also returned.”

Yeah, yeah, I know you haven’t a clue what I’m going on about. Well, when my Daddy allegedly turned tail, it left his land open to some rather nasty types. A lot of people escaped over here to New York City, just like my father did. There’s one or two places where the shields between the realms are weak or unstable and people can and do cross over. So now you know why this is such a weird town. Fortunately, most New Yorkers don’t notice even the really outlandish crossovers because their eyes don’t have the ability to see other realm bizarre. So the large, green furred creature covered with moss and lichen and reeking of decaying vegetable matter sitting in the subway car will seem like just another bag person to them, as they avert their eyes, hold their noses and quickly find another subway car.

Leo Rosen was from the other realm, and he was of the same species as my father, Elfish, but he was also lunarly challenged. He’d been bitten by a werewolf at some point in his life and no, being an Elf didn’t seem to do diddly in the way of protection from the curse. Leo was incredibly sensitive about his condition and, being a very careful man in general, he was almost paranoid about taking precautions so that nobody would get hurt when he was in his altered state. It made sense that he had stayed in New York and in his apartment, which was all decked out as a cage for those times of the month.

“Cindy White, I did not know who to go to. So many have returned that the building is almost empty. Normally, Leo would be locked down and prepared for his ordeal by now.” I noticed that Jimbo’s eyes weren’t really brown at all, but a very dark red. His voice was sad and tired.

“No, I’m glad you found me. How did you do that?” My breathing was speeding up at the thought of Leo alone and away from his friends. I knew the hell that Leo went through every month. It was a disease and a curse and not just some cute turning-furry sort of thing. It caused him hours and even days of agony.

“I was calling to you and knew you would come out where I could find you.”

Cool, mystical stuff, yeah, Jimbo and the others had these little talents. I remember how Leo licked my hand to see if I was truly of his people. “So could you find Leo that way too?”

“I have tried and he is not here in this city. I think something has prevented his return here.” His hand shook a little as he removed his handkerchief and patted his brow.

“So what do you suggest I do?” He was warm but I was shivering. It would have been a good idea if I’d gotten out of my damp clothes or had joined Jimbo in having some tea.

“Seeing how you were involved with him, I thought perhaps if we tried together-- I could go to the other realm with you and together we might find him.”

“It’s actually easier for you to find him here because he is not of this land?”

“Yes, in the other realm it might take some doing.”

I’d never seen Jimbo be so chatty. I sighed. I hadn’t told Josh that I was actually a bit closer to his Celtic roots than anyone thought. I never explained about my time away from him. Or my affair, strike that, affairs, that I’d had after he tossed me out and I was pissed off with him. However, this whole tenement of refugees knew about Leo and me. The folk just don’t keep secrets!

I looked down and saw I’d just chewed off a nail. One of my perfectly manicured nails—and it hurt. I had never said really said goodbye to Leo. I just went back to Josh and forgot about him.

“Okay, I’ll take a quick shower, pack and oh, I’ll just have to tell my fiancé that I’ll be out of town for a few days and then we’ll try to find Leo.”

“I knew I could trust you. You will be a fine ruler some day.” I noticed that his clothing had stopped steaming.

“Jimbo, you folks don’t need us. The Elfish caused more trouble than good and you know it.” I got up and headed for my bedroom. “The lands don’t need a ruler, at least not the kind that my family has been.”

“You made that very clear. Yes.” He had a bemused expression on his face.

Inside my bedroom I opened a drawer and took out some thick socks. Then I poked my head out of the bedroom door.

“I mean hasn’t my family mucked things up enough already? It was stupid to get into fights with the Faerae. They aren’t anything like us-- they go their way and we go ours, so there was no reason. And then bringing demons into it all—“

I told you the politics was a bit crazy.

He nodded and smiled. Back to quiet mode for him.

“Okay, I’ll just take a shower and pack a few things. What’s the weather like over there?” The other realm timeline wasn’t exactly in sync with ours.

“Lovely, quite mild not all this cold and wet.” I noticed that the cold and wet didn’t phase my steamy friend.

“That’s good.” I headed back into my bedroom and dug out my hiking boots. Public transportation doesn’t exist in the other place. And the unicorns don’t give out pony rides. While standing under the shower and getting the chill out of my bones, I thought about the food I had on hand and what I needed to pack. When traveling with him it was easier to just sit on top of him, holding onto his long whiskers, and let him do the driving—er-- flying. Problem was that his scales were razor sharp and could shred me if I wasn’t careful wis wished he had some sort of a saddle, although I wasn’t sure how to raise the issue.

I came out of the bedroom with a backpack of my warmest clothes and a sleeping bag. One of the things that had kept Josh and I together all these years was camping. His love of it, not mine-- but as in so many things, he would drag me into it, kicking and screaming, and then I’d eventually come around and be a good sport. Okay, maybe even liked it a little. Karate was like that andwas was camping and at least we were well equipped. I sighed. Camping I didn’t mind, but hiking? Fergedaboutit, I hated it. I remembered the hiking I’d had to do in the other realm. Well, with Jimbo taking me, hopefully I wouldn’t have to worry about blisters on top of my blisters. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed packets of dried fruit and some tinned foods I had on hand, a can opener, a pot, a sports bottle and an enameled cup.

“I think I’m ready. Do you want to take a cab to our building?” Funny, one year later and I was still thinking about the place as if I belonged there.

I g I get carsick.”

I had to stop myself from staring. He flies, but gets carsick. Well. “So no one will notice us?”

“They lack the vision for it.”

“Right. Umm. How do we manage the sharp scales problem?” There it was out in the open.

He removed from his pocket a folded piece of dark matte cloth. “Material from the Faerae. It expands and cannot be cut and it will allow you to ride me with no injury. You shall wrap it around my chest, just under my arms and it will expand and stay in place even after I change form.” He went into his back pocket and produced a pair of gloves. “Same material to protect your hands.”

“Cool. That’s good then. So we head out and find Leo.” It was all becoming very real to me now. I’d be returning to my father’s and Leo’s land and we’d be traveling in style.

“Don’t forget to call your beau.”

My heart sunk. Telling Josh I’d be out of town for a while shouldn’t be too difficult. He couldn’t complain, not after putting off our wedding for the sake of his career. Yet at the thought of seeing Leo again I’d forgotten all together about Josh. That worried me.

I headed back into the bedroom to make the phone call.

And I got Josh’s voice mail.

“Hi Bunnyboo, it’s your Cindydoo. Ummm. I’m just calling to let you know that I have to head out of town for a few days, nothing special. Mom and Dad are all right. Ummmm. Anyway, hope the shooting is going well. See you when I get back. Love you, darling.”

I positively suck at leaving voice mail. I wonder if anyone is good at that sort of thing? Definitely there have been times when I have hung up, sat down and written out the message and then called back with my “script.” Problem was with Josh I just didn’t have anything better to say. I then called my agent.

Rachel is new and I have a hard time wher.her. Here’s the scoop, she’s really Josh’s agent but insists on having me as her client because she’s scared that if we had different agents that mine would try to steal him away from her. I couldn’t make up this stuff if I tried. She’s that possessive and fickle. For her it’s non-stop wheeling and dealing for the best bargain in human flesh. And she was the one who put the kibosh on our wedding. She knew the wedding dates, even had an invitation, damn her. But money for her came first and while it wasn’t the lead, it was a very good supporting actor role.

He offered to turn it down for me. He did. And I read the script praying that it would be a piece of crap. Only it wasn’t. It was a good, meaty role with deand and breadth that would nicely display his talents and range. I was even afraid we’d have to sublet our new place because, well, this was the beginning of his film career. I could feel it in my bones. Good bye New York and hello California.

Rachel picked up in two rings. She had caller ID and practically lived in her office. Normally she never picked it up for me in less than six. Something was up.

“Cynthia. Oh, I was just thinking of you.”

“You have something to send me out on?” I couldn’t, just couldn’t. Leo needed me. I’d turn it down. But what if—

“Oh, NO. But Josh’s director is coming in on time and might even be a bit under budget. Now I know I promised to send him right back to you, but I’ve lined up a few auditions.”

Perfect, I thought, he won’t even notice I was gone. “Well, Rachel, you know I’d been planning to fly out there and surprise him for the wrap party, but I’ve got a little something that I have to head out of town for—“

“Oh how wonderful, we are all set then. Thank you and don’t you worry about a thing. I know you’ve been feeling a bit at loose ends since your cartoon was cancelled.”

I hated the woman. Why did she have to bring that uEverEvery single time we spoke, and so what if it was a voice work on a cartoon, it was a role! I really needed to get my own agent now.

There was a clatter from the living room and I looked out. Jimbo was picking up the tray with his empty mug on it.

“Sorry. I’m a bit clumsy at times.”

Great a clumsy dragon! I covered the receiver with one hand. “Don’t worry about it. Just leave it on the island.”

He looked confused so I pointed to the kitchen area. He gave a rare smile and headed over.

“Cindy, are you still there?”

“Ah, yes. Sorry, I’m working on developing a one-woman show, so it’s all for the best. Really. And since you don’t handle Off-off Broadway, maybe I’ll just be giving Mel-- you remember him--our old agent a call. He has the best contacts that way.”

Dead silence. I counted to three, said, “Have a nice day” and hung up. Life is sweet sometimes. I guess she probably wouldn’t be sending me any more work after that, but she never sent me out on anything decent anyway so it didn’t matter.

I hitched up the backpack and walked out to Jimbo.

“You seem quite prepared,” he said.

“Yeah, but I think we need to get some stuff from Leo’s apartment, just in case we meet him at a bad time.” Leo’s apartment had one room that was completely reinforced with silver coated iron bars to contain him during his changes. He’d forgotten soundproofing as I found out when I was his next-door neighbor. However, he had enough silver and silver coated chains, hypo’s and animal tranquilizer to keep him safely sleeping through part of the event. Still, until the first shot he was pretty miserable and during the worst of it, there wasn’t enough tranq in the world to keep him sedated.

We headed out to the balcony and I wrapped the material around him. It gave like it was made out of spandex, yet once it was wrapped around him it clung to itself like Saran Wrap. Cool. I watch Jimbo turn himself into his dragon form. It was strange with the shape shifters. Some like Leo simply had it as a curse. When he changed shape, his clothing ripped and tore and when he changed back he was naked as a jaybird. For Jimbo he had complete control of everything on him including his clothes. The never got caught naked. And for many of the folk of the other realm, they didn’t actually transform at all. Their humanness was more an illusion that involved having “the sight”. So what I could see as some sort of huge spider creature would appear human to a human. I can’t figure it out, but I guess one man’s magic is another man’s science. They all seemed quite comfortable with the way things were. For me, I didn’t think I’d ever accept it. It took Leo to show me that even my appearance as Cindy White who was skinny with a Semitic appearance and a nose to guarantee I’d always play either the girl next door or a comedic character was nothing more than an illusion. I suppose it came from identifying so strongly with my mom. Yet when I looked at myself with the sight, I only looked a little human and mostly looked Elfish, with a triangular face and an upturned nose. Talk about having a confusing heritage, or being a half-breed; I’d truly learned what it meant to belong to two worlds.

Jimbo transformed and I felt a burst of heat expand outward, causing me to close my eyes and shield my face. I needed to remind myself to not stand quite so close to him when he changed. I put on the special gloves. It was eerie putting them on. They weren’t made of inert material, instead they painted themselves onto me, feeling as if there was nothing at the same time as my hands felt massaged and gentled. I wish I could explain that better-- it was like putting on a thick, rich emollient, something halfway between liquid and solid, I would say a gel, but my hands felt natural and open to the air. Damn, you’d have to experience it to understand. But you can’t blame me for trying to explain it.

I hopped on his back and held on to his long whiskers. And he smoothly, swiftly lifted us. It was good I had dressed warmly and put on a hat with earflaps, because the rain was pelting us and the wind whistled past my ears. Jimbo was radiating heat between my legs, but the rest of me could have been frozen by the time we went the couple of miles down to Chelsea and our old tenement.

At first I just felt cold and scared, but after a minute or two a feeling of exhilaration took over and I laughed giddily. Jimbo turned his long, elegant head toward me and snorted. Little puffs of smoke mixed with sparks came out of his nostrils and I gave him an extra squeeze with my legs to let him know I was fine.

I saw the top of our building in the distance and in seconds we had landed on the black, tarpaper roof. Jimbo returned to human form and quickly unwrapped himself. I tried to hand back the gloves, but he waved them away. I put them in an inner pocket of my parka. He opened the door and we headed down into the building.

There was a musty smell of a place abandoned and I felt sad. Looking around it seemed that no one lived there anymore, so I startled when I heard a crash coming from what was Thor’s apartment.

“Natalie, I told you to be careful.”

“Honey, it was perched precariously, how can you expect me to pack when there’s hardly enough room to turn around?”

I looked at Jimbo with some shock. “Why didn’t you ask Thor to help you?”

“He hasn’t been around in months. He and his lady friend have been living upstate.”

Just then the door whipped open and there was Thor. His parents had named him well, the man looked and acted like a thunder god. “Who’s out here—“

He smiled when he spotted us. “Cindy. How are you?”

“Fine, Thor.” From around the side of him a face appeared. I’d seen her before at the gallery opening. Thor was a painter, I hesitate to say artist, he really wasn’t the artsy type, but his entire apartment was cluttered up with paintings he’d done of various demons he’d known. He’d been the servant to one particular demon for many years, and as a result he was a couple of hundred years old.

“Hi, how are you. I’m Catriona.” She smiled and I counted six piercings in her face. Two lip hooks, a nose piercing, one pointy little barb going through her the skin between her eyes and two eyebrow studs. I noticed that her ears weren’t pierced. She might have been attractive if it weren’t for all the silver, but heck, I tend to be conservative.

“Nice to meet you, Catriona.” I shook hands and then realized it was smeared with lime green paint. She got an oh gosh look on her face and quickly handed me a damp, not too clean rag.

Thor rumbled with laughter. He was a big guy, a couple of inches taller than Josh and carrying more muscle as well. His reddish gold hair was tied in a leather strip and he still sported a 70’s retro look with his sideburns and mustache.

“So what are you two doing here?” asked Thor, still smirking as I attempted to get my hand clean.

Jimbo cleared his throat. “You haven’t been around or you’d know. Leo didn’t return.”

Thor went still. “I warned him that he might not get back.”

“The tunnel is still working. I used it this morning.”

“Idiot. You are all crazy. Either stay on this side or head back.”

“A new entry is opening somewhere in the north part of Riverside Park. I felt it.”

“Okay,saidsaid, “if I’m following you, the portal between the realms is shifting.”

“It does that. Once there were entrances all over Europe, and then only in Ireland, but that one closed a couple of decades ago. It’s been moving towards the West.”

I turned to Jimbo. “Why didn’t you tell me we might not get back?”

“Thor is being an alarmist.” I’d never heard Jimbo’s voice go so cold. “Even if the entrance has shifted, another one has opened in the park.”

“And finding it from the other side might be difficult,”

“So we won’t go through the tunnel. We can go through the new park entrance.”

“Whoa. I don’t like this.” I felt drawn in two directions. I really thought I could trust them both. “Jimbo, don’t you think you should have told me.”

I felt the heat rising up in him. Something was very wrong. Jimbo hissed and then turned to head down the stairs.

“Thor?”

“Hell, Cindy. They’re all crazy. I hold Leo not to head off half-cocked.”

“So, what am I missing here? Come on, Thor. I need to be able to trust someone.”

“Come inside, Cindy. This might take a bit.” Thor turned and headed into his place.

Catriona smiled, “Hey are you THE Cindy White who was the voice of Mixie Mukovsky on that Fox show they just cancelled.”

I rolled my eyes and headed in as Catriona continued, “They shouldn’t have cancelled it. Hey, you were good. Can I get work like that?”

I shook off the impulse to growl at her. After all a fan was a fan.

Inside I found Thor’s place to be even more chaotic than ever.

“Excuse the mess.” Thor tossed some papers off his mattress on the floor and gestured for me to sit down. I did, careful not to make a face at the dust. “We haven’t been around a lot.”

“That’s what Jimbo said. So what happened to Leo.”

“Your father again. Wrote to Leo and asked him to go speak to the Faerae. That was just before we headed upstate.”

“We’ve got a farm up there.”

“Her family does, but her father’s sick and so I’ve been helping out.”

Catriona took Thor’s bearpaw of a hand in hers. “He’s been a real love.”

I sighed. I never knew Thor to be the gushy type, but he seemed rather smitten by her.

“So do you think Leo is okay?” I asked beginning to hope.

“I think he’s probably dead by now, so yeah, he’s okay.”

Oh Thor, you never change. “That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for.”

“What do you want from me? The guy is cursed.”

“He could be hurt.”

“It’s a big place over there. No guarantee that you’d find him.”

At that moment, a cold certainty came over me. “No, we’ll find him. Thanks for your time, Thor. I’m happy for you.” I got up and headed for the door.

“Fuck Cindy, what did I say now?” He opened his huge hand in frustration.

“Nothing. You’re just being you. I have to go find Jimbo.”

Thor had an attitude problem. I think it came from selling his soul or something. But I remembered how he’d been willing to kill Leo at the drop of a hat, and even now, he’d written Leo off. That was why Jimbo hadn’t bothered with Thor. Some people just weren’t worth the time.

Jimbo was waiting for me outside the basement door.

“I’m ready.”

“Are you sure? This tunnel will eventually close down.”

“I trust you.” I winked at him.

Had I trusted the right person? Looking at my sometimes dragon friend, I felt deep down I had. Thor and I never understood each other. He was… annoying. And maybe being in love had made him a bit selfish. I couldn’t say anything better than that for him. Jimbo opened the door and we headed out.