Chapter 14 #2
He picked it up with both hands, as if it were made of delicate china, and carried it over to a high worktable against a wall. He put it down and turned on a cantilevered light clamped to the desk's side. Then he picked up a magnifying glass and began studying my nemesis.
"I've read about cursed objects. Have a whole book on them. But I've never run across one. This is so cool!"
"Yeah, cool." I gave Gray a wry shake of my head.
Sam went to a bookshelf and ran his finger along the spines. He pulled one. "It's Scandinavian, for sure." He carried the book back to the table and began leafing through it. "I'd say around 1900. And it was hand-carved and hand-painted."
Despite my disappointment that Sam was not my secret Santa, I found my curiosity piqued. I walked over, Gray following.
"Yes, here!” Sam tapped a page with an image of a Krampus.
It wasn't identical to mine. This one had a little dog at the base.
But it was close enough. "This one was made in Bergen, Norway at a workshop called Magisk Hage.
Yup—look. It says here that some of the Krampus figures from Magisk Hage were said to be blessed—or cursed, depending on your point-of-view. "
"How?" I asked.
"Why?" asked Gray.
"It doesn't say. But some woodcarvers had a special brand or sign they'd carve into their figures that were supposed to imbue them with special mojo." He moved back to studying the Krampus under the magnifying glass. "Sort of like this one here."
He motioned me closer and showed me a little symbol carved on the back of the base. A chill went up my spine.
"Fehu," I whispered.
"What is it?" Gray leaned closer. I backed up so he could see it. He looked at the symbol, then at me. "Why have you gone white? Are you okay?"
"I've just seen it before, that's all."
"Well, yeah, it's in our game," said Sam in a duh tone.
"Not there."
"What does it mean?" Gray asked.
"I know this!" Sam said. "Um. Fehu. It means prosperity, luck. That kind of thing."
I went to get my phone to look it up… and realized I didn't have it. Arg! Without a word, Gray opened his and handed it to me. I searched the web.
It was true, Fehu did mean prosperity and luck. But one site gave the symbol a slightly different edge. "It's wealth and success, but it's honestly earned luck, hard-earned success."
"So?" Sam blinked at me.
"What are you thinking?" Gray asked with an admiring glance.
"I'm not sure." That wasn't true. I knew what I was thinking, but I didn't want to admit it out loud in front of Sam. My heart's desire tonight certainly had been hard won.
Sam shrugged. "Anyway. I honestly don't know that much about magic and all that stuff.
But some cursed objects are cursed because of a deliberate spell or energy someone put on them, once upon a time.
If you have multiple cursed objects from the same wood carver, then whoever was laying down that magic was likely the wood carver himself—or someone in his circle. "
"Hmm. What about the inscription on the bottom?" Gray asked, as if he was just noticing it.
Sam looked at it, then at me. "There was a translation in the box, wasn't there?"
I nodded. "Yes, but the box was in my backpack. Which was stolen." I pulled up my favorite translate app and typed it in. I read it out loud. "Make a wish for your heart's desire. Krampus will bring it through flood and fire."
"Through flood and fire," I said, something dawning on me. "I assumed it meant despite flood and fire, like 'neither wind nor hail nor dark of night will keep a postman from his appointed rounds.' But what if it's really—"
"Krampus brings it through flood and fire," Gray continued. "In other words, by way of disaster." He gave a little shiver. "That's a little on the nose. I'm starting to believe in this curse."
"Starting to!" I lightly knocked his shin with my crutch.
He just winked at me.
"The heart's desire part doesn't suck, though, right?" Sam said, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"No, it doesn't," I agreed. I reached out my hand and Gray took it. I saw my gratitude for having met him reflected right back at me.
Sam looked at us. "Hey, Patrick, how come we never met Gray before?"
"Because we only got together tonight. He was my ER doctor."
"Oh," Sam said. Then, "Oh! Dang. Krampus works fast."
"You're almost worth it," I told Gray sincerely.
He laughed.
"So, are you going to keep it?" Sam asked. "Krampus?"
"I didn't say that!" I scoffed. "No, I think I'm good now. I got my wish. I still want to give it back to whoever gave it to me."
"Sam?" A reed-thin voice came from somewhere in the house.
Sam immediately stood up. "I'll be right back." He hurried from the room.
"Wife?" Gray asked in a low voice.
"Nah. Probably his mom." It was one of the things that made Sam chief nerd in my book.
My attention wandered to a framed photo on the wall nearby.
I went over to look at it. I thought it might be Sam and his mom, and I was curious about her.
But no, it was clearly not Mom. Sam was dressed in an Oxford blue short-sleeved shirt, his hair neatly flattened.
He was on a beach with a woman, and he had his arms around her, both of them smiling and facing the camera.
The woman was our age, with black hair, thick eyebrows that were nearly a unibrow, and a goofy smile.
She wore a peasant-style blouse and skirt.
She was not by any means a classic beauty, but they both had sweet, open, guileless smiles. Sweet.
Sister, maybe? But, no, the pose was not brotherly.
Sam came back into the room. "Sorry. Mom just needed some water. She told me to offer you guys some cookies. Want some cookies?"
"I'm good," Gray said. "We just ate. But thank you."
"Who's this?" I pointed to the photo.
Sam got a weird look on his face, like he'd just been struck in the chest with Cupid's arrow. "That's my girlfriend, Phoebe. She's the best."
"I didn't know you had a girlfriend."
Sam gave a little giggle. "I had her picture up at work for a while, but Eleanor said I spent too much time staring at it, so I put it in a drawer."
I snorted. "Does she live around here?"
"No. Florida." Sam's face fell. "I don't get to see her much."
Ouch. "Long distance. That sucks."
"Yes, but we talk every night. We'll have Christmas over Zoom. And she's coming to visit after she spends Christmas with her folks. Just two days from now! We're going to get married, and I'm going to move to Florida. Maybe next year. Anyway, some day."
There was something odd about his tone. He went back to studying the Krampus.
"Why wait?" I pushed. Hell, if I was going to finally learn about my coworker's lives, I might as well do it right.
Sam shrugged, staring down into the magnifying glass. "Mom has her doctors here, so we need to stay right now."
Gray leaned against the table. "What's her diagnosis?" he asked in that sympathetic, bedside tone of his.
"Pancreatic cancer," Sam said in a flat voice.
That's when I noticed what I should have seen earlier.
Or, rather, truly registered what I had seen and dismissed.
The easy chair with the lumbar pillow and heating pad on the seat.
The basket with a dozen prescription pills.
The walker at the entry to the hallway. And, through the opening to the kitchen, I saw a POLST form on the fridge.
I felt sick. I'd had no idea.
"I'm sorry, Sam," Gray said. "Have you been satisfied with her care?"
"Oh yeah," Sam said. "Her doctor's been great. But. You know."
"I'm sorry too, Sam. I… wish I'd asked before. And I'm sorry about that too. About being oblivious. I've been stuck in my own head, and that's not right."
"It's okay. You've got a lot of responsibility," Sam said sincerely, and that cracked my heart a little more. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, about Krampus…. What's your next move, Patrick?"
I thought about it. "Okay. Well, if my secret Santa isn't Raphael, it's not you, and I'm pretty sure it's not Traya, who is it? Have any ideas?"
Sam looked again at the page with the similar Krampus. "Figurines like this… they weren't really made as toys. More like folk talismans. Or like a special holiday lucky charm. Usually handed down through families. Of course, it's possible one ended up in a pawn shop, but…."
Gray said, "You think whoever gave it to Patrick had it in their family?"
"I can't say for sure, but this is in pristine condition. You're not likely to find one like this in a flea market. More like an estate sale, like it's been in grandma's attic for generations. That's the vibe."
Gray looked thoughtful. "Does anyone on your team have Scandinavian roots?"
Sam and I looked at each other. We both said, "Eleanor" at the same time.
I felt a moment of shock.
"She is the resident expert for Veilborn," Sam pointed out.
"Eleanor, your boss?" Gray asked.
I nodded, still trying to piece it together in my mind.
"Wait. Who organized the secret Santa in the first place?" Gray asked.
"Eleanor," Sam and I both said together again.
"So, if there was an extra present…."
God, I felt so stupid. Of course! Eleanor was the only one who would have known that I got Doug's name, and that there wouldn't be a present for me from Doug in the bag. And no way would Eleanor let someone be disappointed and have no gift during the exchange.
"God, I should have seen it like, ten hours ago," I whispered.
Only Eleanor would never want to hurt me. Would she? Did I really know her at all? What if she was secretly a witch who liked to eat small children and torment gay men?
After all, I'd been wrong about Raphael and Sam. I thought I knew what I knew. But now I knew that I didn't know anything at all.