Page 72 of A Light in the Dark
“I’m part of his flutter,” my boss informed me. “I wasn’t born a luna moth, however. My wife is the guilty party for my current status as a shapeshifter. I’ve been one for about three years now. Joel told me it’s fine to talk to you about it, as the flutter is heading over to your place to partake of your new rose garden. We are under threat of death if we damage your roses.”
I laughed, marveling that two luna moths had been hiding right under my nose. “Are you sure it’s safe to tell me you’re a luna moth?”
“We don’t sell our silk, and we don’t know what to do with it, so we have a room in our home that’s just silk everywhere. You are free to come rob us of our silk at your leisure. It’s mixed, but for some reason, I don’t think you’ll care. There are a lot of it.”
“How much do you want for it?”
“Nothing. It’s literally eating up room in my home, and if I give it to you, the wife can replace her book nook, and maybe she won’t cry at me about having lost her second one.”
I considered how my boss had ‘met’ Joel and realized the two men had been rather comfortable with each other. “You’ve been after the Sampson Sigils contract for a while, haven’t you?”
“I’ve been after that damned contract for as long as that brat has been running his company. There were a few reasons he considered the contract. One of those reasons is recent and involves the refugee situation. The instant my company decided to move forward with mass refugee hires,his most important reason was met. It lets the company I work for employ good people, and it lets him go forward with his expansion projects. It then benefits you significantly, because it cinches your job security. As long as you stay with us and work with his contracts, he’s happy—that means we’re going to keep a massive contract. I’ve been praising your work to him since you got hired, so he’s been aware of your work ethic. He won’t poach from members of his own flutter, so he has been sulking.”
“I had no idea you even knew each other.”
“That’s the point. It’s a way for the flutters to protect themselves. But since you know we’re luna moths, your garden is our version of absolute paradise, and you have a serious problem with silk, it’s fine. And since Joel is the leader of the flutter, if he says we can be friendly with you, we can be friendly with you. Well, friendlier than normal. We’re trying to figure out why he’s so keen on you, though.”
“I’m guessing I humored him and kept the rest of the street from yelling at him over his steps this year.”
“The entire flutter has heard about the steps drama. It’s such a problem every year, because he refuses to shirk on safety standards, but safety means he doesn’t match everyone else. This year, you came up with steps that met his safety standards and allowed him to be comfortable about the whole thing.”
I sighed, remembering I had a baked dish on my counter. “The banshee down the hill made me a cobbler or something like that. If I don’t show up for work on Monday, it’s due to food poisoning. The second year I was here, she foraged her own berries for her cobbler. She knows I won’t touch bakedgoods until Friday nights, so it’s been sitting out waiting for the moment of reckoning. But on Sunday, shewillvisit me to ask how I liked her cobbler. And as I value my life, I will tell her I loved it and blame any illness on my inability to cook rather than her inability to avoid poisoning her neighbors.”
“Uh oh,” my boss said, and he eyed me before starting the engine of his SUV. “And you’re going to eat it?”
“If I don’t, I will never hear the end of it. I’m going to eat one small piece and wait to see if she poisoned me again. If she poisoned me again, I’m sure a luna moth is going to figure it out in a hurry.”
“Do you have a spare key?”
I laughed and nodded. “I have four spare keys, so I’ll give you a pair of them, and you can hand one over to Joel until we’re certain I survive Elenora’s latest baking adventure. The problem is this: when sheisn’tengaging in the use of poisonous berries, she’s really good at baking. I concocted an excuse that I don’t eat sweet things on work nights hoping that I recover from her latest poisoning attempt before Monday.”
“I am concerned about the lengths you will go to prevent people from knowing your neighborhas poisoned you.”
“She didn’t mean to!”
“Valerie, how many times has she poisoned you?”
“This year?”
While keeping one hand on the wheel, my boss rubbed at his temple with the other. “You’ve been poisoned more than once so far this year?”
“I didn’t even need medical care for either poisoning. I’ve learned to identify the unique flavors of all toxic berries thatgrow anywhere near Stonecreek. I also know the best home remedies to handle being poisoned.” I giggled. “At this point, strangleberry just irritates my throat a little.”
“How many times has she poisoned you with strangleberry? That one has that namefor a reason,” my boss bellowed.
I laughed at having broken his general restraint. “Six times alone last year. The first time was rough, and I did go to the doctor about it. The second time, I coughed for a week but otherwise had no problems. The next few times were fine. I spit it out upon tasting it and only had mild irritation. This year, I ate an entire piece of her cobbler and barely noticed it. It was the other berries that were a problem.”
“Dare I ask?”
“Why don’t we wait for Joel at my place? I’ll show you the cobbler, and you can observe while I determine how badly I’m being poisoned this time. It’s a game to me now, and some of those berries are absolutely delicious.”
“Valerie, some of those berries canliterally kill you.”
“Honestly, I want to know how she hasn’t killed herself and her husband yet with her baking. She even told me to keep the baking dish. It’s a nice one. Of course, her husband was calling me a hussy again, which is what he does when he thinks it will take a miracle to have peace on the street.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not. It’s hilarious. Just don’t tell Joel that the old snakes down the hill like calling me a hussy every time something goes right on our street.”
