Page 16 of A Light in the Dark
SIXTEEN
It’s not my fault they’re beautiful.
A mailbox featuring a rose trellis covered with sleeping luna moths proclaimed that the property belonged to the Sampson family. A rather familiar sigil decorated the front of the box, and I narrowed my eyes. “Well, that explains why you knew so much about shoring prices, Mr. Sampson. If it weren’t for that cute little mark on the mailbox, I would have thought it was simply a coincidence. But when you add all the clues together, from hints you went to Stonecreek to become successful, your endless knowledge about the company, and your ability to pay for an obscene amount of silk without the benefit of a bonus, you must be the bigwig.”
“I realized I was busted when you were buying silk,” he admitted. “My only saving grace is that I literally require all my employees to refer to me as Joel. I hate people going around and calling me Mr. Sampson all the time. And for the record, I absolutely did pay the going rate for my shoring work. It just happens I was the one doing most of the work on my project because I’m not a freeloader.”
“You billed yourself to do the work on your own house?”
“Yep. For a property like mine, it needs a team of six people, and I just happened to be one of the people. Everyone was paid as normal, myself included. I will admit that I called my secretary, had your contract pulled and flagged when you moved in; I knew you’d gotten the place at a bargain price, so I told them to give you our barebones price for the best work possible so you could afford it. I knew you’d come from outside of the city, and I didn’t want you to come to harm underestimating the floods. Then you started stepping up on the cleaning and rebuilding, so I bided my time to get your contract upgraded. I will confess that I had them put the contract on our lowest bracket we could do the work for, and I personally covered the difference for the extras. Some of those extras I suggested to you are only by special request, and as such, we charge out the nose for them. But since I’m going to be doing the work, the lowest bracket is feasible.”
I stared at the sigil before staring at him, unable to keep my eyes from widening. “I cost you a bazillion dollars, didn’t I?”
“Honestly, you cost me three days of my regular salary when I’m actually doing sigil work. My team offered to do the same after finding out you pulled Gabriella out of the water. I’m going to let them get away with it, but only if you’ll accept their offer.”
It didn’t take me long to come to a decision. “I’m accepting their offer, but I’m still extorting you for your silk, Joel. But I’ll be a kind extortionist and feed you whenever you come over, and I’ll pretend I have no idea where my stray luna moth came from. I’ll just feed him and take good care of him and let him pass out on my counter after indulging in a rose bender. I’m pretty sure this won’t be a burden to me in the slightest. I might move you to my favorite chair, but I’ll give you a basket in case you need to deposit a fresh batch of silk due to rose and fruit benders.” I smiled at the thought of my neighbor trying to be kind even before getting to know me. “I appreciate the whole contract thing. Unlike a lot of folks who move into Stonecreek, I’d done my research, and I knew how important that shoring was. I wiped out my grant getting that place habitable and safe, but I was free and clear of debt, which made living there actually feasible.”
“That’s why I live on the street, too. I wanted to be free and clear of debt, the house is nice enough, and the inner courtyard lets me keep my dirty little silky secret. I’m going to have to be careful about my rose garden, though.”
“You’re going to have every luna moth in the area getting high in your courtyard.”
“The instant they realize your garden is a luna moth paradise, you’re going to be targeted, too.”
“How terrible. I’m going to have a bunch of drunk moths on my roses, pollinating my garden for me. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this burden.” I flung the back of my hand against my forehead. “They can pay through leaving shifter vomit in the appropriate basket I will place in my garden during the evenings, and I will make sure I get some dim lighting so I can actually see my guests.”
“We glow, Valerie. You won’t need any lighting. All of us glow. ”
Even better. “It’ll be mood lighting for the nights I don’t have winged guests. Maybe I’ll get a guest with two legs and a preference for wearing silk suits visiting me. I better put two seats in my garden. Then he can make use of his camera in my garden paradise while I stitch or crochet.”
“The neighbors are definitely going to have questions if they spot me going over to your place.”
I snickered at that. “You mean more questions than they likely already have after watching me climb into your SUV numerous times this week? You’re not returning me until tomorrow, Joel. It’s going to be a scandal .”
He joined me in snickering and resumed driving, following the dirt road across a small yard to a large house absolutely covered in luna moths. He parked between a large pickup and a sporty two door car, killed the engine, and said, “The house is blue-green, not that it can be seen underneath the moths. And when it’s not covered with moths, the pupae like to use it for their cocoons. This place gets a raw deal after the eggs hatch, and my parents spend the quiet times fixing it back up after the luna moths. I tried to tell them to stop feeding the extra pupae near the house, but I think they like the repair bills.”
“Or the simplicity of gathering the silk if they’re just leaving it on the side of the house.”
“They keep saying that, and while it’s true, this is what their house looks like for several weeks out of every year.”
“I don’t understand the problem, Joel. Their house is awesome right now.”
“You are unexpectedly biased in regards to luna moths.”
“It’s not my fault they’re beautiful.” I waited for him to remove the keys from the ignition to unbuckle, slide out of the vehicle, and gather my camera and craft supplies. “Clearly, I am going to have to talk to Yolana about reserving your silk and Shifter Five’s silk for my pleasure.”
“You do not need a hundred pounds or more of silk a year, Valerie!”
“Like hell I don’t. You take that back, Joel. I am going to become a hermit swaddled in soft silk, and you can’t stop me. I’m going to cocoon myself in its glory, and the only reason people will know I’m still alive will be due to my emergences to go to work and buy food. Then I will retreat to my nest, where I will read, craft, and snuggle into my silk hoard to my heart’s content. I work to live, not live to work, and I have decided I live for snuggling into the best silks. You get to join the best silk category solely due to looks, personality, and ability to be kind. Shifter Five gets in due to their ultimate silk quality.”
Joel went to the back, got our lunch, and laughed at me. “You have decided you are throwing yourself into this without reservation, haven’t you?”
“Using the camera is fun, but I am driven by pure passion over these silks. I knew my life’s calling when I fondled all that silk. But Two and Three have lovely silk, too. They’re just not up to the quality of Five.”
“And if you were to get your hands on Five and start a second extortion racket, what would you take them for?”
“Clearly, an open invitation to get high in my garden for all silk vomited or otherwise produced during their visit. If they want to go into my bathroom and shift and leave extra silk for me, that’s their choice. But their silk vomit will go into a neatly labeled basket with their designated number.”
“That’s… actually not a bad offer.” Joel frowned. “Maybe yo u should start your own silk racket. The shifters under contract with Yolana only give her a percentage of their production. They can sell more if they want, but they usually have plenty left over. Running a rose garden to acquire shifter silk would get you some to play with and you wouldn’t even make a dent in their supply.”
“How much silk could I get?”
“I’d say it’d probably take five or six visits to get enough silk to spin a single skein of embroidery thread. The six strand skeins.”
“How much silk is lost during spinning?”
“Virtually none. You won’t have to card out any impurities. Silk texture tends to be the key issue, as you could tell from your fondling earlier.” Joel waited for me to finish gathering my things before locking his SUV. “My parents absolutely will try to steal my vehicle to prevent me from leaving, so I keep it locked. Or they’ll try to return their cut of silk production because they feel I should get access to their silks for free. This prevents them from hiding money inside. I still need to check the various places they might have stashed cash, checks, or prepaid cards, but this keeps most of their trouble contained. And yes, you were correct. Two and Three are my parents, and I want to hoard all their silk for myself. And give them money they fairly earned.”
“From vomiting and shifting.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“They won’t accept anything from you otherwise?”
“They really won’t,” he complained. “They won’t even let me buy them roses.”
“But they’ll let you buy them steak. That’s something.”
“They’ll spend the entire time I’m here trying to pay me back. They are independent parents and don’t need some snotty son paying their bills.”
I smiled at the frustration in his voice. “It must be hard having independent parents. Honestly, mine are convinced I live in complete destitution, but they refuse to come to Stonecreek to see my house. And until recently, I didn’t have a good cell phone, so I couldn’t show them pictures.”
“Why would they think that?”
“I went to Stonecreek and squandered my grant, Joel.”
“You bought yourself a beautiful house and set yourself up for debt-free living. How is that squandering your grant?”
“I could have been a nurse.”
His brows shot up like I’d slapped him across the face. “They wanted you to be a nurse?”
“Yep. A nurse. Not a doctor, not a surgeon, not a paramedic, not anything I might actually be interested in, but a nurse. I am a woman, and that’s what women do. They become nurses. Let’s just say it’s a sticking point, and the calls every few weeks can get uncomfortable. I am not telling them about my bonus—or my upcoming bonus. Apparently, the management of my company is freaking out because I’ve been a profit producer and I have not been fairly compensated.”
“You work for a good company, so that doesn’t surprise me. They are performance driven, and they do not like when their performers are underpaid. They know if they underpaid, men like me will swoop in on gossamer wings and steal the good staff. And if they do not treat you like you deserve, I am confident in my ability to find an appropriate position for you at my company.”
“I really appreciate the offer, but they’re going to send me to school for whatever I want. A class or two a week, all on their dime. And the bonus!” I held up my project holder. “This represents the day my company decided I was worth keeping around.”
He grinned at me. “They offered you the Holy Grail in the form of the education you sacrificed so you’d have a guaranteed home and a comfortable lifestyle.”
“They really did. The money means a lot, but the offer to continue my education? That means everything.”
“I’ll reach out to your work about the education issue. My company has a grant program for employees that allows access to most schools in Stonecreek, Moonriver, Valleyville, and Mirage.”
My eyes widened at the mention of Mirage, a city-state located halfway across the planet and renowned for its education system. “You have ways into schools in Mirage? But how?”
“They have a luna moth population, and I went to pay their flutter a visit.”
“Flutter?”
“Yes, we call large groups of luna moths flutters. We flutter everywhere we go, Valerie. We are beautiful, and we know it. Their flutter has an agreement with my flutter, and if they have adventurous young shifters who want to see the world, they intern with my company. In exchange, when I bump a student their way, they get a foot in the door. Considering you got a grant here, you’re eligible for attending their schools, and we have a good distance education setup. Since you don’t have a computer, you can come to my place for the classes. My internet connection is solid, and I suspect you’d rather just not for that sort of thing. And since I have to set you up with a gaming computer anyway, I’ll just make sure it’s also good for schooling.”
“I’m a luddite, it’s true. You can do that for me?”
“Absolutely. And I can get a hefty enough discount you can do a business degree and a pleasure degree with no problem. I can talk to your work about it. I’ll just ask to get you for some general work things two or three days a month; my secretary has to go out for health treatments, so it would let me have someone to fill in for her without having to fuss around with a temp firm that never has the kind of person who works best with me. I suspect you’ll take to the work easily. I’d say you’d get a discount on your shoring, but you already get as low as we can possibly go on that.”
“I suspect my work could live without me for two to three days a month in exchange for saving them a huge bill on my education.”
“And they can help pick your business degree while you maintain full control over your pleasure degree. They get the perfect employee for their needs with Mirage education, I solve a small problem that irritates me once a month.”
“Is your secretary going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine, but she will need to do treatments for a few more years on a monthly basis. You’ll probably be graduating by the time she’s set free from her doctors.” Joel herded me around to the back of the house where a couple who didn’t appear to be much older than him stood near the sort of grill I would consider committing felonies over. “I’m being extorted for my silk, and the woman behind it is making me like it. You did not do a good job raising me.”
I doubled over from laughter, set the bag with my yarn stash down, and waved my free hand in front of my face. “Joel!”
“What? It’s true. I’m liking being extorted, and this is not at all fair. Had I been raised better, I wouldn’t be liking being extorted.”
“I see you have made mistakes, my son,” Joel’s father said, and he strolled over. Sure enough, Joel had grown up to look a lot like his father, although he had his mother’s eyes. “You must be Valerie. Pleased to meet you.”
I recovered enough to straighten, cleared my throat, and shook hands with him. “Pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Sampson.”
Joel sighed while his father grinned. “Please, call me either Dad or Ronald. I also respond to Uncle, as I’ve got more than a few nephews and nieces around. If you ever need a spare child, just ask. I’m sure I can scrounge one up for you. We were wise and understood we only needed one son. The rest of the family can’t help but toss girls left and right, and they seem to think having a boy is a good idea. It’s really not. Boys are nothing but trouble.”
“It sounds like you deserve to be extorted, Joel.”
“Oh, come on, Valerie. Don’t side with them.”
I gestured at the bag with our food in it. “Those should be ready to go on the grill now, as we got delayed rescuing all those moths on the road. Thank you for firing up the grill for us.” I eyed Joel. “Are you going to get mad if I start calling your dad my dad? Because my dad doesn’t just fire up the grill for me. He makes me do chores first.”
“I don’t mind. In bad news, Dad, she’s from the gossip town. ”
Both of his parents shook their heads and made disapproving sounds. Joel’s father wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in the direction of the grill. “You just come along this way, you poor sweet thing. Let’s get you a set of tongs and teach you the joy of unconditional fire.”
“Love, Dad. Love, not fire.”
“No, love is a default in this household, so we’re going to teach her the joy of unconditional fire. This fire is safe, and it turns steak into food. Don’t you be ruining my fun with your damned rules.”
Joel’s mother handed me a pair of tongs and took my yarn and project holder, placing them on a nearby picnic table. “You can call me Mom or Sarine. Joel is already used to sharing his mother, so don’t be shy. If I’m not Mom, I’m Aunty to many of the brats in this town. And the ones who aren’t calling me Mom or Aunty call me their sister. There are some around these parts I’m not related to, but we have a hobby of luring in spouses from other places. We usually avoid the gossips, though. They gossip. Do they ever gossip.”
I nodded my agreement, and as I had the tongs and a serious case of hunger to address, I took charge of the meat, checked the grill’s temperature, and slapped on our steaks, bouncing on my toes at the anticipated sizzle. “They really do. I fled the instant I had confirmation of my grant and understood I could use it to buy my house. I view keeping the peace on my street after the floods a small price to pay for my house. It’s a nice place, and I spend most of my extra money on fixing it up to be even nicer. Unfortunately, I discovered Shifter Five today, and I fear the majority of my frivolous money will be spent on their silk. And then I discovered Joel can be extorted for a small percentage of silk. But he gets to enjoy my garden as some compensation for being abused.”
Joel laughed, came over, and sat on the picnic table next to my stuff, rummaging through it and pulling out my project holder, showing it to his parents. “I was fully prepared to buy this for her, because if she wasn’t going to buy it for herself, she was getting it. She saw it, and her face lit up.”
“I have developed a compulsive luna moth obsession.” Amusingly, the back of the house had even more of the winged insects clinging to it. “I’ll be cross-stitching a luna moth with a waterfall exclusively using Shifter Five’s silk. That one was the best. Yours is good, too, but Shifter Five’s is the way.”
“She checked every shifter’s silk, and it was no contest. Shifter Five is her favorite. But she’s going to dabble in spinning, and she’s cleverly extorted me for the silk. And she’ll spin yarn for me.”
“Is it really extortion if you like it?” Joel’s father asked. He went to the building, worked his hand under a ghostly white luna moth, and carried it over. “Here. This little girl bred last night, so she’s going to pass away in the next few hours. This breed of luna moth tends to do that, though some die immediately after laying their eggs. She won’t wake up, so don’t fret about her suffering. They really don’t, not even at the end of their life. She’s in excellent condition, and you can put her on display. We have everything to preserve them, and I have a case I can spare.”
My eyes widened; the luna moth was small compared to the others, and she barely moved, supporting his statement that she wouldn’t live for much longer. “The females die right after laying their eggs?”
“They do. We got lucky with her. We caught her in the act of laying, and we already took the eggs off to be hatched in Valleyville. Their population took a hit recently, and she had a really good clutch of eggs. Someone from town will be driving the eggs over tomorrow.” Joel’s father turned his hand so I could get a better look at the luna moth’s wings. “This color morph is pretty rare, and we don’t know if it’ll breed true, so we’re keeping a few of the eggs for ourselves and rearing them indoors. Joel has his first luna moth in his room. You can show it to her after dinner, so don’t you go running off, boy.”
“Mine’s just a regular one, but he’s pretty big.” Joel held his hands apart, giving me a general impression of the moth’s size, which fell in the massive category. “Is she the only color morph this year?”
“We have a lavender female and a rose color morph male in the house, so we’re hoping we get eggs from them tonight. I also have a few lemon morph females we’ve managed to catch with some of our better pale green males. We actually went farther afield to get the males, hoping for genetic diversity. The lavender came from the waterfall, and the rose was found near town from the wild population, so those should be good breeding stock.”
“Nice. Can we take home all the color morphs?”
“Sure,” Joel’s mother said, smiling at her son. “I’m sure we have enough preservative and cases for them all, and we can register them before you head off. What time are you leaving? ”
“Tomorrow. Valerie was able to get the day off work, and I do what I want.”
“I know you do. That’s why you’re in Stonecreek being a bossy brat. Don’t you even start with me, Joel Nathan Emmanuel Oakley Sampson.”
At least I only had three names to contend with when my parents became irritated over my independent behavior. “Is it okay if we impose?”
“You can impose, dear,” Joel’s mother promised. “The brat? He’s being sent to his room. You’re grounded, Joel! Grounded!”
“What did I do?”
Joel’s mother whipped out her phone, tapped at the screen, and turned the display so we could read it, revealing that Yolana had tattled on Joel’s purchases. “You bought how many bolts?”
“All of them,” he replied with zero evidence of guilt nor shame. “Valerie let me after I confirmed my appropriate usage of the previous batch. I need suits. I need suits from the soft silk my parents provide to people willing to pay ridiculous prices. I was willing to pay the price for my suits. I am not returning them, and I’m not accepting any refunds. Those bolts are mine . I bought that with money I earned fair and square, and you can’t take them from me.”
The trio engaged in a glaring contest, and I grinned over their behavior, which involved a great deal of posturing. Once I flipped the steaks, I hung the tongs from the hook on the grill and took the luna moth from Joel’s father, easing her onto the back of my hand. “She’s so pretty.”
My comment mostly reined the Sampson family in, and Joel leaned over to admire her. “She really is. How long do you think she has left, Dad?”
“No more than an hour or two. I’m going to go put her inside so it’s quiet for her, likely in the sunroom so she’s nice and warm.” Joel’s father took the luna moth back from me. “Why don’t you come inside and pick some eggs for yourself from the various clutches to take home with you while your mom finishes up the steaks?”
“How do you want yours, Valerie?”
“Medium rare, please.”
“Oh, good. We’re all in Camp Medium Rare. It’s good to not have to do any guesswork on good steaks. Go run along and pick some eggs for yourself, and we’ll set you up with a hatching kit and food for the little ones so you can enjoy some moths at home. Joel does a hatch once or twice a year, although he hasn’t visited for a while.”
“Prepping for the flood gets busy,” he replied before urging me to follow after his father. “Thank you, Mom. We’ll get the dishes and utensils ready.”
“There’s corn ready to be put on the stove. The water should already be seasoned and ready to dunk them in. Your father suggested we shouldn’t be complete heathens for a change. Pick your eggs, get the corn on, and set the table. I’ll put her things somewhere safe, so don’t you worry about that. And Joel? Try to contain your excitement over the color morphs. I know you’re obsessed with them, but there should be limits.”
My neighbor shot a glare at his mother. “I’m not that bad, Mom.”
“Yes, you really are, but that’s okay. We all have our quirks, and yours is an unreasonable obsession over color morphs. Try to behave.”
While he heaved a sigh, Joel limited his protests to that and hurried to open the door for his father, who carried the white luna moth inside the house so she could spend the remainder of her life in comfort, warmth, and peace.