Dragons Wild

He gestured toward the Moonwalk.

Griffen continued to hesitate.

“You know, Slim,” he said carefully, “I haven’t had much luck with surprise meetings lately.”

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Slim said. “But I ain’t no damn dope dealer ambushing you. I’m coming to you head on and axing to talk.”

Griffen made his decision.

“Lead on,” he said, gesturing for Slim to precede him.

The two men walked through the parking lot beside the Jackson Brewery, now a small shopping center of stores, crossed the railroad and cable-car tracks, and emerged on the Moonwalk by the paddle wheeler, Natchez , silent and deserted at this hour.

Slim motioned for Griffen to sit on one of the benches lining the Moonwalk, while he himself stood staring at the river and the tour boat. After a minute or two passed, Griffen began to grow restless.

“So. What can I do for you, Slim?” he said, breaking the silence.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about you, Mr. Griffen,” Slim said, not turning around. “Some of it good. Some, not so good. Been watching you myself trying to figure you out, but I can’t make up my mind. I’ve finally decided to talk with you direct.”

The man turned and faced Griffen, his arms folded across his chest.

“What is it you’re doin’ in my town, Mr. Griffen?”

“I thought that was common knowledge,” Griffen said. “Mose has asked me to take over his gambling operation, and he and Jerome have been teaching me the ropes.”

“And what else?” Slim pressed.

“Might I ask, first, what your interest in all this is?” Griffen countered.

Slim gave him a smile that held no humor at all.

“Take a look over your shoulder and figure it out yourself.”

Griffen turned slowly in his seat and looked back.

Rats! Twenty…no, closer to thirty of the large wharf creatures were arrayed in a loose half circle with him at the focal point. They weren’t snuffling around or foraging for food. Instead, they were sitting silently and staring at him.

A totally inappropriate thought flashed through Griffen’s mind—he was glad he hadn’t picked up the remake of Willard on DVD.

With an effort, he broke off his examination of the animals and turned back to Slim.

“So,” he said. “You’re one of those. The animal control people or hoodoos or whatever.”

The street entertainer grimaced.

“Never did like that name,” he said. “We aren’t really a group. We don’t have meetings or conduct rituals or anything. We’re just a few people with the same skills who know each other. Can’t rightly see why anyone would want to try to take us over.”

“Me neither,” Griffen said. “Least of all, me. I’ve got enough on my plate already.”

“That ain’t exactly the way it was told to me,” Slim said.

“Yeah. I heard that someone had given you folks some cock-and-bull story about my having a hidden agenda,” Griffen said. “Well, I’m telling you, man to man, that I have no interest in controlling your group or trying to use it in any way. I might like to sit down and talk with you someday, but that’s pure curiosity. If you didn’t want to share your secrets, well and good. That’s your call.”

“Uh-huh,” Slim said. “Of course, that’s what you’d say if you were hatching some kind of plan.”

“So, what am I supposed to do to prove it?” Griffen said. “I’m already doing nothing. I haven’t even tried to contact any of you, much less cozy up to anyone.”

“Isn’t that what I told you before?”

Both men turned. Rose was sitting on the next bench. Neither man had seen her approach.

To say the least, Griffen was relieved to see her.

“Are you in this, Rose?” Slim said. “Are you taking his side?”

“Don’t need to,” Rose said. “The man’s a dragon, and a strong one. He doesn’t need any help from me.”

Suddenly, Griffen was less relieved.

“Well then, have you maybe got an idea ’bout how we can resolve this?” Slim said.

“I’ve been thinking on it,” Rose said. “Seems to me the only way Griffen here can convince you that he’s not after you folks is for him to prove to you that he doesn’t need you.”

“And just how is he supposed to do that?” Slim said.

Rose turned her attention directly on Griffen for the first time that night.

“Show him,” she said.

Griffen blinked and cocked his head at her.

She gave him a small wink and nodded her head.

He turned his attention on the rats.

They moved forward in a loose line, passed under the bench he was sitting on filtering by his feet, then stopped in their original formation…but halfway between Griffen and Slim with their eyes focused on the entertainer.

Slim moved back a step. The rats followed.

The entertainer looked at Griffen and nodded slowly. Griffen nodded back.

Suddenly the rats scattered, disappearing into the shadows and over the edge of the pier.

Silence reigned for a long minute. Then Slim stepped forward and held out his hand.

“I appreciate your takin’ the time to speak with me, Mr. Griffen,” he said as they shook hands. “If you’d like to talk about this further sometime, I’ll be happy to exchange information with you.”

Turning, he walked away down the Moonwalk without looking back.

“How did you know I was strong enough to do that?” Griffen said after the entertainer had gone. “I’ve never tried anything like that before.”

“I didn’t know for sure,” Rose said. “I knew Mose had been working with you, though, and it seemed like a good time to see how far you had developed.”

She stood up and started to walk away, then turned back.

“You know, don’t you, that this isn’t the real problem,” she said. “The big question is who pointed these folks at you and why.”

“Mose is working on it,” Griffen replied.

“Tell him to work harder.”

Forty-eight

“I miss the cards,” Griffen said.

“Who are you kidding, lover, you are just fighting the urge to stack up the dominos and knock them down like a kid,” Fox Lisa teased from his left side, carefully arranging her hand.

“He is, isn’t he? I’m amazed you’ve lasted this long, lover,” Mai put in from his other side.

The two women paused a moment to narrow their eyes at each other, as they seemed to do every time one of them used that pet name for Griffen. But they were too busy smirking to hold it long.

“If everyone is done over there?” Mose said.

He was sitting opposite Griffen at the table, and was amused as hell by the whole setup.

“All right,” Mai said looking at the hands. “Griffen loses outright, Fox pushes, and Mose wins. Again. You’ve got to be cheating.”

“How could I cheat? You brought the dominos.” His eyes twinkled.

The group was at Griffen’s apartment and playing pai gow, or rather learning it under Mai’s careful instruction. Though usually it was played with more, Mai had handled the invites. That had triggered a few warning bells in Griffen’s head, but he was glad that Mose was getting a chance to look her over. He wanted advice later on the whole situation with the Eastern dragons. Tonight, though, dragon talk was kept to a minimum. Mainly because of Fox Lisa’s presence. Instead, they talked gambling, and played.

Each hand used, instead of cards, four Chinese dominoes, with pairs being made and scored. To win, both pairs in a hand had to meet the dealers pairs, but a “push” was achieved if the front hand, or lower scored pair, beat the dealer’s front hand but the rear hand, the other pair, lost. Then the player broke even. If neither pair beat the dealer’s, as in Griffen’s case, it was an outright loss and away went his money. Mose was building quite a stack of Griffen’s money, and enjoying it.

Mai dealt the next round, and went through a brief reminder of the Gee Joons, Gongs, Wongs, and pairs. Griffen watched the shuffling of the tiles, which was itself intricate and fairly ritualistic, and once again failed to remember the pattern. He just hoped he never had to play dealer for out of town gamers. In a lot of ways, he felt like he was back in school again.