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I was fighting bitterly with myself as I stood outside the front door I knew so well. Goodness, I wouldn't mind being back...but at that price? Sure, I wasn't paying...and neither was Gambino, not for that, at least. And he did deserve what he was getting... But did that poor family? As Dark had said, they were just suckers...
I shivered as a gust of icy wind blew through my thin shirt. It wasn't really anyone's fault, I decided. What was done was done, and the contract could not be unsigned...even if Gambino, likely gloating over the trick he'd played on Dark, would want to. I didn't want to think of him as my father, but if he wanted to think of me as his daughter...I'd take his Xmas gift and avoid him. Maybe I'd even be able to use it for something good, something that could wipe out some of the evil he'd done.
I unlocked the door and stepped loudly inside. It smelled of smoke and damp, with lingering hints of gas. Not enough to smell like a real leak, it must just be a remnant of the explosion. I tried the light switch...and nothing happened. Of course, the power was off! With a sinking heart, I squelched upstairs. Squelched, because the carpet was soaked.
The damage wasn't too bad...untill I got up the second flight of stairs. I was greeted with way too much light! What had been a dingy landing with two doors and more stairs up to my floor, was now a vast stone room with only traces of the thin wooden walls and floor that had chopped it up. It was featureless except for a soaring arch across the middle. Piles of snow had blown in the two huge arched windows, the glass of which was blown out. I saw that my living room and bedroom windows had been only the top half of them, my flat only a quarter of the imense room.
"Wow," I said, my voice ecoing against the stone, "Dark was right! This would make a really good disco!"
Indeed, images were floating through my mind as I picked my way beetween the snowdrifts. The room was a bit too big even for a disco, but they always had a gallery overhead, didn't they? With squishy couches that people could sit in while sipping their drinks, chatting, and watching the dancers... I spun on my toes, imagining a dancefloor with colored lights. A rooftop bar would be cool too, at least in summer... I stopped dancing, bit my lip, and started looking around for the stairs to the roof. I found them without too much trouble, snakeing their way up one wall. There wasn't any bannister, so I stayed close to the wall as I slowly climbed them, untill...
They ended on a tiny, railingless, landing, looking out over the room. There was another flight of stairs, but they climbed the arch, which didn't quite reach the ceiling, before twisting around and going the other way and disapearing into the domed roof. There wasn't a single bannister or railing is sight, and I was higher then I wanted to think of...but that twist looked like I'd climbed it before. So, on hands and knees, I climbed up the arch, around the corner, and up the last flight, trying not to think of how high I was. It was only after I pushed open the sloping door and scrambled greatfully out onto the roof that I looked down. It wasn't so bad from this point of view, and I could see how I'd climbed the stairs before. The top part of them had been behind the door in my kitchen, the door with the lock I'd picked!
I stayed on the roof for a while to get my breath back. The cold was about to drive me back down on that dreadful climb, when a "Mew!" interupted me. I knew that "Mew!"
There she sat, black against the snow on the edge of the roof, looking at me with a very feline mixture of amusement and scorn. Lady Luck had apparently gotten tired of my absense and come home to Durem. I scooped her up and hugged her.
"I'll have to call Cindy and tell her we're together," I said. "She must be worried about you..."
Lady Luck jumped out of my arms and sat down to wash her face, while I struggled with my phone.
Hysteria would be too mild a word for Cindy's voice when I finally got through. She started to babble about being so sorry she'd somehow lost Lady Luck. Relief was quickly followed by great irritation as I told her that she'd found me.
"So you're in Durem?" Cindy asked. "Good, I wanted to give you some presents... Where are you? I'll drive over..."
I didn't tell her about the building. Somehow, I didn't want her to know yet. Instead, we agreed to meet at a coffeeshop that was open and making a great profit off chilly carolers.
Lady Luck was much more agile then me at decending from the roof, looking impatiently up as I scooted fearfully down on my butt. Not that there was any hurry, for we sat in the coffeeshop for over two hours before Cindy showed up.
"Of all the days for my car to get stolen!" she raged, dropping her bulky parcels on the table and flinging herself into an empty chair. "I loath this time of year, everyone thinks they can slack off, I had to wait ages for the train..."
"It's the holidays, Cindy," I said "and a very merry Xmas to you too."
"Bah humbug!" she said, and we both started laughing.
A cup of hot chocolate cheered her up even more, and she pushed the parcels across the table to me. "Merry Xmas! Open your presents!"
I looked at the bulkiest one, which felt like it was full of paper. "That's from Mike," Cindy said, "he found them somewhere and thought you'd like them. Don't worry, I won't feel left out if you open it first."
It was full of paper, in the form of a large pile of old magazines and comic books. I leafed through them, noticing that the dates were from the 50s to the 70s, and that they were of the kind called pulp, for good reason. The paper was turning brown and crumbly, but still quite readable.
"That was my favorite dessert when I was a kid," Cindy said, pointing at the pink peppermint pie with chocolate icing I was looking at in a women's magazine I'd opened at random. I looked at the date: 1959.
"You're not that old!" I said, raising my eyebrows. Cindy laughed.
"Nowhere near," she said, "but Mother was old-fashioned about food. What about my present?"
I picked up Cindy's present, a roughly square box, and shook it. All I could hear was a rustling sound. It turned out to contain a large mug shaped like a cow, even with a head, four little hoofs to stand on, and a handle made out of the tail. It was filled to the brim with chocolates.
"I thought it was fitting," Cindy said, trying not to laugh at the look on my face. "You know, cows. I know it's not much..."
"What are you on about?" I said, laughing myself. "I can eat the candy while drinking tea out of the mug, and reading the decorating magazines I saw in that pile Mike gave me, so I can find some ideas for redoing the house..." I lowered my voice and went on, "that my father got me." There. I'd dropped the bombshell.
"Your father?" Cindy gasped. "Gambino? I thought you wern't having anything to do with him..."
"I'm not, but he is with me," I said. "And who am I to turn down him buying me the whole building when all I wanted was the flat?"
It took a long time to explain most of the story. I didn't tell her the more supernatural bits, but she was shocked enough as it was.
She was even more when I showed her the place, but she seemed to like the huge room...at least untill I started rabbiting on about how it would make a great disco.
"Why not just rent the place out?" she asked in what was clearly trying to be a calm voice. It failed, very badly.
"I think it's a good idea!" I said. That was a bad idea. Cindy launched into a tirade about dens of sin and corruption that I would never have thought could come from her. Nothing I said seemed to get through to her, untill...
"And you're not as pure as the new-fallen snow, either!" I yelled the words unthinkingly, not caring how much they hurt her, angry at her prudishness. I wasn't expecting the reaction I got!
Cindy stopped in mid-tirade. Her face drooped, and she sat down in one of the snowdrifts, crying. "If you knew," she sobbed, "if you only knew..."
But all she would say, later on, was "It's a nastier bit of our family history, Dawna. Let's just forget this dump for a while, ok?"
So guilty was I for shouting those hurtful words, that I discarded all ideas of a disco (at least for the moment), didn't ask about what family history she was talking about, and instead, scooped up my presents and Lady Luck, and went with her to the station to catch the last train back to Barton, where Mike gave us a lift back to Cindy's house.
She's got another car from the station now, but she's not using it much. She's been takeing as much time off work as she can, and it has been fun, having the kind of winter you see in books. We made a huge snowman today... Life's good! And I will get my disco, someday, somehow!