The Gemini

21. Welcome to the Circus

Jane-Anne Pearce

"More popcorn?" Finn asked, tilting one of the buckets towards me. A couple of kernels fell onto the bleachers, but I still managed to grab a decent handful.

"Are you sure this isn't a waste of time?" I asked between a mouthful of popcorn.

"We're gonna be fine," Finn assured me. "That Forbidden tiger isn't going to come around anytime soon, and even if they do, they aren't hurting anyone."

"I guess." I mused. I wanted to be doing something. I wanted to be holed up in that motel room staring at those newspaper clippings until I got dizzy. That, or back in the suffocating police station drilling questions until I was ready to pass out. I had the chance to save someone, and I had to take it. One mission couldn't undo everything that the yuki-onna did, but it was a start.

"Did we ever hear from that one nurse?" I asked. "Yang, or whatever her name was. We've probably sent, like, 50 emails at this point."

I had a small hunch that the nurse was the Forbidden we were looking for, and even though Finn wasn't completely sold on it, he was helping me get in contact with her.

"Still nothing," Finn admitted. "I'm still not sure if it's her. I see where you're coming from with the predispositions, and it makes sense for a nurse to heal people. But it doesn't make sense that someone who has been gone for months would haunt their former place of employment."

"Maybe there's a connection. A patient. Like Daniel or Hiro." I suggested.

"Then why isn't she still here?" Finn asked.

"Well, maybe she's scared of something," I said.

"What could she be scared of?" Finn asked.

"Jane-Anne?" I broke away from my conversation to greet Sheriff Tanaka, who was carrying a bucket of popcorn for himself. A kid trailed close behind him, followed by a petite woman with black hair that had been carefully tied back. She was the only person in the tent who had dressed up for the circus, her crisp white blouse and calm demeanor reminding me of my own mother.

When the kid looked at me, I could see him instantly get nervous, and take a few steps back. Mrs. Tanaka smiled, stroking her son's hair as she guided him back to the conversation.

"Hi," I said, waving casually.

"How have the investigations been going?" Sheriff Tanaka asked.

I took a breath to say something, but Finn got to it first. "We can't really discuss that with anyone else."

"Alright," said Sheriff Tanaka. He seemed amused by the idea of us being a couple of glorified ghost hunters. I guess he didn't have a reason to take any of this stuff seriously. "Well, I guess some introductions are in order." Sheriff Tanaka continued. This is Yuko," He gestured to his wife, who gave a small wave. "Yuko, this is Agent Matthews and Jane-Anne. They're here to look into the sightings we were talking about earlier."

Mrs. Tanaka bowed, and I bowed back, hunching over awkwardly from my seated position.

"Hajimemashite," I said, smiling at Mrs. Tanaka.

"Hajimemashite." Mrs. Tanaka replied, her soft voice nearly lost in the murmur of the attendees.

"Hey," I said, waving to her son gently. He bashfully smiled back before turning away.

"You know, we've been talking about inviting the two of you over sometime in the next few days. Just for dinner or something. It would probably just be nabemono, but we'd love some company." Yuko offered.