GS and Dude were busy setting up the buffet while Eric Lover and I were putting our chairs in a circle and Liz and Mel were setting down table cloths and getting ready to put out the treats and the drinks for the meeting. I had made pumpkin bread and Westexan had made orange sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins and Vi made little sugar skulls and used candied frosting to make little roses and curly queues on them to give them that Latino Dias de los Muertos look to the festivities.
This place looked more like a true cellar than an actual basement. It did not take a vivid imagination to see manacles and chains, a rack or perhaps even a lab table big enough to build your own monster. The walls were laid stone but were covered with years of white wash. The floors were hand laid slate and though you would think they would be damp, they were dry and little dusty. I envisioned stone dust on the floors of the house above and reminded everyone to wipe their feet on the throw rug at the top of the stairs leading to the house.
God Speed brought down the big coffee maker and Hoyt, being a good sport, brought down the cups and the plates and the napkins, still secure in their Walmart bag. I went over and took the bag and began to spread everything out as Mrs. God Speed brought down the tray of mini corndogs and pizza rolls. I swear the meeting place looked more like the basement party of kids whose parents were out for the evening than a meeting of a very different sort of 12 step group.
Dude put chairs down in the shadowed places where there were doors. Two were at the bottom of the steps where the female counselor and her counselor in training would be sitting and two were placed on the far wall opposite, near the outside door to the cellar. Finally, everything was done and it's place and we milled around and got coffee and tea and filled little party plates with treats and sat down in our accustomed places in the circle, though our circle was now in a definitely different place.
Soon though it was not long til we heard the voice of the lead counselor.
“It is so wonderful to hear your happy voices,” he said in his low deep voice. “The party has you very excited. I like the energy.”
“What shall we talk about tonight?” asked my counselor, in his equally comforting voice with it's southern drawl like a warm breeze off the bayou.
“Let’s talk about the Queen,” said Westexan. “We haven’t really talked about her.”
“What would you like to say about the Queen of Louisiana?” asked the female counselor.
“Well, is she a friend or a foe? Is she good or bad, can Sookie and Bill and Eric trust her? Or is she ruthless and spiteful?” asked Westexan.
“I think she is good at what she does,” said Lina. “She is a young queen with Vampires who are older and stronger than she and she is ruthless, but I imagine she has had to be that way to be a successful Queen.”
“As far as can Sookie and Bill and Eric trust her?” said GS. He looked around at the group who looked back at him. “Can you really say that Sookie can trust any of them? Oh she trusts Bill a lot, perhaps to her detriment. She doesn’t trust Eric so much. Bill doesn’t trust Eric at all, and can you blame him? And Eric doesn’t care enough about Bill to wonder if he trusts him, he knows that Bill has to mind him because he is sheriff and Eric and Bill both have to mind their makers…well, not Eric, since his maker is gone, but Bill does, and they both have to mind the queen, who doesn’t trust anyone in principle because she is the queen, that is how she has survived.”
“Is she way you thought she would be?” asked the southern counselor. “From what you knew of her in the one world to how she is presented in the other.”
“No, she isn’t,” said Eric Lover. “In the Connection’s world, she looks like a little girl, but something more sophisticated. In the Source’s world, she is haughty, petulant, perverse, spoiled.”
“Perverted? Like in sex perverted?” asked the young counselor.
“No, not like that,” said Eric Lover, “She likes to see the world and then twist it to her own point of view…sort of like that weird philosophy about yahtzee, how it equalizes her among those who may be her social, intellectual or physical inferiors because it is all just about a roll of the dice.”
“A roll of the dice…” I said, in a far away voice.
“Yes Aslinn? Did something come to mind?” asked Eric.
“Well, the young guy, the one that favored Bill with a blood meal, he complained that the queen was using magik…do you think she really is? I mean, she could be…Vampires may not like witches, but they like having any edge over one another. Do you think she already has an edge?” I said.
“She could, but I think it is too soon for that sort of scenario….” said my counselor.
“No, no really because Eric gets in such big trouble with witches….” I said. “Now I am not only worried about Sookie and Bill but Eric as well as far as the queen is concerned… What if she is involved with….”
“That is pretty far fetched,” said Dude, “But, I have heard crazier things come true out of our speculations.”
“What time will your party begin?” asked my counselor. I looked in his general direction. This time, I was very suspicious. Why doesn’t he wish to discuss this bit of speculation? Is that it may be going too far in the future and is crazy to boot? Or was it something he simply didn’t want us exploring anymore?
Whatever it was, I didn’t have a chance to say anything because there was animated discussion around the circle as they discussed the party and all the things we had planned.
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