Open Minds: The Bubble (2)

Chapter 7: The House

In Which There Are a Lot of Arms

Lexi

Lexi sat in the front seat, head tilted back and a tissue in her nose. She rolled her eyes to see Jean in the driver's seat. Taylor and Charlie were outside, watching the last of the sunset. "I'b sorry I didn't tell you. I was worried...I dunno. I'b sorry."

Jean sighed. "It's okay. I kinda suspected. It just..made me really mad to hear it. I'm sorry I punched you in the face and pinned you. Too bad Corey's not here."

Lexi laughed and regretted it; it made her face hurt. "I'll jusd habe to deal with it the good ol' fashion'd way. I thig it stobbed bleeding." She removed the tissue and gingerly prodded her nose. "Yeah. Maybe broked though."

Jean winced. "Sorry again."

Charlie opened the driver's side door. "Out, Lee. We're gonna be late." Jean nodded and crawled over the center console and into the back seat. Taylor got in the car too, a little uneasily. As they drove away from the pullout, Lexi saw the scrunchie Charlie had given her lying in the gravel. It must have come out of har hair when she'd fallen. The sudden urge overcame her to go back and get it, but Charlie looked stressed enough. He must have been worried they would be late. Lexi kept her mouth shut and picked at the seat.

They pulled into the clearing expecting...well, Lexi knew she was expecting some sort of logging cabin or summer house. Allison hadn't told her much about the side job, just that a donor at this address needed some special help. She wondered what kind of donation this person had made.

The house was massive, almost like one of those old Confederate, Civil War-type mansions Charlie said he dreamed of buying. It was semi-round, with collumnt running up and down it's two stories and a wide, elegant staircase in the front. On the inside of the gate, the lawn was immaculate; green and trimmed with scattered flowers and some sort of flowering bush lining the walkway.

Jean gave a low whistl and leaned up on the gate. "This place is like...Greek revival!"

Taylor shook his head. "No, Greek revival is different. This is more on the side of colonial revival."

Charlie helped Lexi and her nose out of the car whileJean hopped the gate and ran up the path. "Rad!"

"Jean, wait!" Charlie tensed as if expecting Jean to attack them again, but she just turned around and stuck out her tongue.

"No, losers! This is the job! I'm just gonna ring the bell, anyway." She jogged up onto the porch and spastically pushed the button and Taylor opened the gate and they gathered behind Jean. Lexi was about to tell Jean to give the bell a break when the other girl gave a cry of excitement. "Look!" She ripped an envelope off the door and waved it under their noses! "It says 17 on the back. That's us!"

Taylor made a whoop noise and Charlie frowned. "We really shouldn't open that. It could be private, for a caretaker or something." He tried to grab it but Jean yanked it out of his reach and tore it open. "Oh. It just says we should come inside." Before anyone could stop her, Jean opened the big, white door and stepped inside. The others, if hesitantly, followed suit.

The room was minimalist and pretty. The walls were white (Taylor insisted that they were 'soft eggshell' and jean that they were 'really pale asian'), and so was the furniture. There were a few bare-wood shelves with plants, and a wicker ball with the light in it hanging from the ceiling. The room looked kind of like a waiting room, but the chairs were soft and there were no magazines. Across the room from Lexi, a painting of a Hindu goddess with a guitar-looking-thing hung in a thin frame. Lexi was about to say something when the interior door opened.

"Welcome! I'm so sorry I was late, you must be team seventeen! I'm Sonja. I'll just show you what I need."

The lady was tall and a weird colour, like mixed race or something. She was dressed wacky, with a top like toga/sari fusion and high slacks. Taylor knew some basics of fashion, but he wasn't sure there was a word for the shirt. She took everyone through her immaculate, stylish, and slightly Hindu house. They finally pushed open two massive wooden doors onto a gloriously sunny patio. Old songs were playing dimly from a speaker he couldn't see.

The lady smiled and led them onto a long marble walkway in her spacious yard. Yard was probably too little of a word. There was a massive garden with flowers and fountains and statues, but all scattered and simplistic in white and gold. The lady gestured at a crate on the end of the promenade.

"I'm having a meeting here tomorrow, and I need my statues to line this promenade. I haven't access to my architect and it's short notice. J-Elemental, can you grow me marble pillars every five feet on either side of the walk?" She pulled Jean back to the patio. "Like these ones." She patted a column. "Can you do that?"

Jean cracked her knuckles and appraised the column. "I'll have to be careful, but yeah, prolly." She strolled over to the edge of the walk and crouched, started pressing her fingers into the soil.

The lady turned to Taylor. "And you, I need you to float those little statues once the pillars are up." She walked him over to the crate and took out little, unpainted statues of Hindu gods. "Can you do permanent levitations?"

Taylor frowned. "Eh, I've never needed one to last more than a week or so." He gently appraised the energy around him, bobbing a little off the ground. "There's a lot of Lihe here, so probably."

The woman clasped her hands. "Great! I just knew you would. Let's just get to work then, shall we?"

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