The bartender chuckled as he put a plate of olives in front of Nick, “I like where I ended up better!”

The report continued. “Vegas is believed to have fled the country, but all of his assets were seized until the numerous civil lawsuits are settled against him. IBM lawyers are leading the legal efforts for all victims in remembrance for one of their own stars who was tragically lost. Indeed, IBM is the largest plaintiff in the wrongful death suits. Of course Vegas is also wanted by the FBI, which has issued a $500,000 reward for knowledge leading to his capture.”

Nick threw a twenty-Euro note down on the counter and walked out.

***

Angelica unlocked the door at Cherokee Traditions in Clayton at 8:45 a.m. on Monday. She flipped on the lights in the store and took in the fragrance of the medicinal and culinary herbs on the shelves. The shop was neat and tidy, as she always left it, so there was little to do before she opened the doors at nine. Walking back to the door, she inhaled the scent of coffee from Grapes and Beans across the street, but it was the comforting smell of fresh baked croissants next door that lured her. She walked in and was swallowed by the aroma of bread baking in the brick ovens and the sound of J.J. Cale from the speakers.

“Morning, angel!”

“Well good morning, Hal. How was your Easter?”

“Lousy,” he said. “Didn’t have a drink all day! Preacher said I couldn’t.”

Angelica laughed. “Well, you should have had yourself a few drops of tincture, Hal. You do realize they’re made almost entirely of vodka, don’t you?”

“Hot dammit all, I knew there’s something I liked about you other than the fact that you look like that girl Angelina Jolie. I’ll trade you this here croissant for some moonshine tincture.”

“Well...that’s not exactly what I have,” she said. “How about my Sweet Sleep Tincture?”

“Done!” Hal wrapped a croissant in paper and handed it to Angelica. “All righty, that’ll be one Sweet Sleep Tincture,” he said with a smile.

“I’m sure glad you stayed in Clayton and opened this bread shop Hal. We needed it...and you.”

Hal dropped his head and shuffled his feet. He was more comfortable goofing off than being serious. A brief flood of memories washed over him. Of making bread with Connie before she died. Of living alone in the woods for so very long. Of the horrible storm and flood that very nearly killed him before he managed to follow the raging stream to a road. Of finding the remains of that boy’s head and working with the churches on Warwoman to help so many who suffered in the horrific storm.

Mostly, he thought of Ozzie and wondered what happened to the little fellow. He reckoned he wasn’t so little anymore and figured he was probably all right. But you never know...he’d never know.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’m glad too. I like it better than Athens. Like this mountain air. And I’m glad you opened that shop of yours, too!”

Angelica took the croissant and smiled. “Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., she said. Come by anytime!”

Angelica walked to the door and looked back. “Bye, Hal!”

She opened the doors to her natural herb shop and walked to the counter. Her eyes caught an aromatherapy candle that she and Blake had made together two months before. She lit the candle and smiled, recalling the fun-filled Valentine’s Day she had with Blake, making candles, watching movies and playing with Clayton. The candle flame began to burn brightly, but immediately––

“Oh no!” Angelica gasped, as the flame promptly died for no reason, leaving only a putrid trail of black smoke. Fumbling for the lighter on the counter, she placed the lighter over the flame, but even after two full minutes, the wick refused to light. Angelica looked around, feeling a twinge of unease that something was wrong. It reminded her of the feeling she had just before Rose went to the Bahamas. The same feeling she had at breakfast with her parents the morning their plane disappeared. She began to walk back to Hal’s to make sure he was all right, but the bells chimed on the front door as a couple walked in. Angelica checked the clock, 9:13 a.m., and summoned a smile.

***

“You ready to help daddy work in the garden?” Blake asked Clayton. The baby smiled, or so Blake thought, as he tickled his belly. “That’s my boy!”

Blake strapped Clayton into the infant carrier and walked out the front door. With the carrier in his right hand, Blake snaked his left hand through the air and showed his son how to do “the worm” as they walked to the garden shed. “Mama said we need to get the raised beds ready for tomatoes, little man,” Blake said in the childish, baby voice that all adults use with infants. “Now you just wait right here a moment.”

Before walking into the garden shed, Blake sat Clayton down at the entrance. Inside, Blake took a pair of garden gloves from a hook on the right wall and removed three tomato cages nested together from the overhead shelf, and then walked ten steps to place them beside his son. “We won’t be planting tomatoes for a few more weeks but might as well go ahead and set these out, right little man?”

Clayton reached unsuccessfully for the cages.

Blake walked back in and looked at the three plain cardboard boxes stacked on the shelf. He reached his hand for the top one, but it was just beyond his reach. He moved his fingers to the side of the box and tried to slide it so that the top one would tip off. It wouldn’t budge. “Hmmm. Whatever’s in there sure is heavy,” Blake said to himself and to the baby, if he was interested.

Looking around, Blake found a milk crate on the floor, placed it upside down under the boxes and stood on it. He looked over at Clayton, who still concentrated on reaching the cage that seemed impossibly out of his reach a couple of inches away. Blake landed the palm of his hand over the top box and pulled it toward him. It began to move, but stopped as the weight caused the middle box to crumple slightly, preventing the top box from sliding. He put a little more pressure on the side of the box and gave it a tug.

The shelf support to Blake’s left snapped loudly. As it did, the shelf and all the boxes fell hard and fast, hitting him squarely in the nose and knocking him off balance. As he began to fall backwards the milk crate tilted forward, causing Blake to crash through the waist-high bench behind him. The last thing Blake saw before he smacked his head on the concrete floor and fell unconscious was boxes flipping on the way down. They landed hard on his chest and face and slammed his head into the cement slab. Bags of bone meal burst open and covered Blake’s chest, face, and head in a thick cloud of moldy dust. He inhaled long and deep as he lost consciousness. Clayton’s attention was distracted from the cage at the noise and the white cloud that billowed thirty feet from him. He looked at it and reached again for the cage. He kept reaching for the next forty-five minutes until his father finally came to.

Aarrck!

A screeching sound jolted Blake. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. The white cloud had settled now, but Blake couldn’t recall what had happened. As he reached back he felt a wet spot on the back of his head. He grimaced and closed his eyes, rubbing them and feeling the powder on them. Blake looked at his white finger and tilted his chin to see the thick powder that coated his chin. Alarmed, he inhaled deeply by instinct and began to cough immediately. He rolled over as he realized he was covered in dust and looked down at the torn bags of Black Rock Organic Bone Meal.

What? When did I put this here?

He snapped his head up in agonizing pain as he realized what the powder was, the ground up bones of diseased animals that had spewed death far and wide from the mountain’s poisoned soil. Exhaling, he tried with all his might to blow all the breath out of him. The more he blew, the more he coughed.