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It was getting late. Bones looked over her shoulder at the piles of paper on a table lurking in a dark far corner of the room. Information, scribbled notes, leads, connections, phone numbers they were all there. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.
I'm getting too old for this shit. Just a few years ago I could track down a lost cat without a collar in New York City. she sighed again and took a long sip of wine. Nothing had given her any trail of Masque's lost kid. Des Rameux. This was the last day she had given herself. A week of research as always, and then she'd be "booking flights". Brooklyn was where all the clues were leading her, Masque told her the same... Suspiciously she glanced up at the pale calendar roughly nailed to the wall. November the 22nd. It would be a miracle if she could find this kid in time for Thanksgiving...

Des Rameux...
Des Rameux...

She ripped the phone from the wall, with a melody of numbers following soon after.
"Masque, I need to know everything." a mumbled and irritated reply came seconds later.
"Shit Bones, it's 2 in the goddamned morning, what the hell could you possibly want?"
Bones tapped a pencil on the desk and bit her lip.
"Is there anything you've left out about what you know about your kid?"
"No, I told you everyting." Pause. "Look, babe I never asked you to do this."
"Shut up. Are you positive there's nothing else I should know?"
"No." the stern reply came and with it Bones hung up.

She swept the papers up from the desk and stuffed them in a leather suitcase, various corners and pieces stuck out on all sides. "No time like the present." she mumbled to herself as she swept her coat onto her shoulders and set out on her search for Des Rameux.




I slept on the train ride to New York, walked the familiar streets as an x-resident. How long it had been?... sixty years at the least. The morning mist rose above the trees of central park and the noisy cars had begun their chatter. I marched my way up the stoop and knocked on the door.
'Who is it?' a voice demanded from the other side.
'The ghost of Christmas past.' the door opened and an eye inspected me for a moment longer than I wished to be standing in the coming-winter cold. 'Let me in goddamn it it's cold out here!' curtesy at it's finest. He laughed and then let me in. 'You can afford an apartment in this hole of a city? God, I swear it was at it's prime in the 40's.' I brushed off my jacket and tossed it to him.
'The G-Great Depression can trump anything to you.' he stuttered and I turned from my strong gait to the livingroom and watched him with a curious eye.
'Nervous?' I asked and took my seat on a love seat. 'You act like you've seen the devil herself...' I winked at him.
'That's because I have. What right have you in my home?' I looked around me.
'You call this a home?' I chuckled. 'Look, past grudges aside padré, I'm looking for someone.'
'No, I'm not interested in helping you and your sorry excuses.'
I twisted a section of my pearly hair in two clawed fingers.
'Who said this was about you?' I stood up and walked toward him. 'A child of my friend is lost. I need to find her. All I need to know is if you know someone called Des Rameux... then I'll be on my way.'
His eyes brightened immediatly of the thought of me leaving so soon.
'What's her age?'
'Early teen.'
He shook his head. 'No kids around our church, nor among my congregation.'
'Well there are a lot of churches to be visiting then.' I stood, snatched my coat from him and headed for the door.
'Wait, Bones. You're, finding this child-- why? A good deed?' I smiled and flashed my silver-capped canine at him.
'Even the devil herself has a weak spot for children, and the father of this child happens to be a friend of mine.' I started down the stairs. 'Good day Father.' I shook my head and scoffed to myself. 'Priests.'

It felt good to walk the streets of the city once more, take an easy stroll in the park before resuming my search. But before I did I took a good moment to stop, and stare at the massive statue before me. What a commission! I thought to myself as a scene of Alice in Wonderland played out before me in perpetual bronze. I wonder what this child would have encountered on her travels. Characters that would help her... temptations and struggles, all the while, feeling lost, and lonely. Some characters would not have been friendly no doubt...

My pace quickened as I found my way out of the park. On my way I would stop to talk with any bum, or parentless child about Rameux. Nothing still. I took a shortcut through chinatown, and walked any back alley I could find. Stray cats met me there, along with broken beer bottles. Voices echoed down an alley to my right as I brought myself back to a high-traffic street. I slipped down the alley as silently and as swiftly as a shadow. Around the next corner, four faces met mine. Two male, two female. All teenagers, or less. Two were smoking.
'What do you want?' they demanded. I could read them, the two males had homes but would rather have been without them, and one of the female had a good home but bad parents. Their clothes were fair, but the youngest of the group looked without everything, save for badly worn clothes.
'Des Rameux.' I contered back, and they were silent for a good amount of time.
'What do you want her for?'
'Yeah you some kind of creep?'
'So you do know her.' I smiled at them.
'Yeah we know her.' They moved in around the smallest of the bunch so she was out of view.
'I admire your sense of family to her. But I am here to bring her to her real family.' One stamped out his cig and turned his back to me. He reached in his pocket to conceal something and whispers followed. I heard a 'click' and he turned. A silver gun in his hand. I shook my head.
'You don't want to do this son.'
'You going to take her away from us? Gatta get through me.' I heard the smallest child whimper and huddle behind the other female of the group. I couldn't tell for the life of me what she was more afraid of, me or the boy with the gun. He made quite the big deal out of himself, his pants nearly off his ass, most of his boxers showing. Baggy t-shirt with hoodie. He smelled like pot.
'The gangsters of your generation should have met the gangsters of the 40's, smart ass.' he danced around for a few more seconds.
'Why, bitch?'
'Because,' I took a seat on a chair, and swung my leg over the arm in a very casual manner, taking a knife out of my pocket. 'They would have had the balls to shoot me.' He lowered his gun and looked behind him to the other possie, in a flash I was out of the chair and had the blade pressed to his throat. 'Don't fuck with me!!' I roared into his face. He backed up and I slapped the gun out of his hand. 'Des Rameux, come with me.' I sheathed the knife. The child stepped forward and I took her by the hand and lead her out.




'W-Where are you taking me?' the wide-eyed child asked when we were safely in a crowd of people, away from the alley. I looked down at her.
'I'm taking you to your father, Des Rameux.' I replied, and I could see her eyes light up.
'M-My dad?' she nearly squealed. 'You mean, he wants to see me?!' I nodded.
'He does indeed. I volunteered to find you for him.'
'You know my father?' her mouth hung open and I smiled. 'W-Who are you?'
'We have a shallow relationship, but he wants to see you more than anything my dear. My name... you can call me Christine.' She was silent for a good amount of time after that. 'We're going to grab some lunch in the City... and then...' A gust of wink kicked up several tattered leaves, which danced by our feet. 'I can take you to a show. Afterall, I was not expecting to find you until tomorrow. We'll get some sleep and then catch the train in the afternoon, and be home in time for Thanksgiving.' She let go of my hand, which still held hers, and I turned-- careful not to let her go. She looked down. 'What's wrong?' I asked after a moment, she looked up, her eyes moist.

'W-What if he doesn't like me?' Her eyes returned to the ground, and I knelt before her. Letting her hand go, but keeping close. This poor kid, totally alone, afraid and now-- overwhelmend and not sure if it is good or bad. 'W-What if something happens, and h-he sends me away... Chris?' I shook my head, my eyes never leaving hers.
'He will never do that. Never. He loves you.' I reach up to her knotted hair and placed a chocolate-colored dreadlock behind her ear. 'Alright? We're going to get some lunch now. You pick the spot.' She immediatly sniffed up her tears and looked at me.
'C-Can we see... the Lion King?'
I laughed glad to see she had taken my word for everything, and was now onto more important matters. 'Yes. We can, I've always wanted to see it.'
'Me too!!'

I learned a lot about this kid within the next few hours, from her favorite color to her life on the streets... all on her part! I hardly had to ask any questions, she seemed to talk for hours. Honestly I can say if I was hired for this job, and knew nothing about either side of the situation, I would have immediatly forgot everything the kid told me. I didn't want to know. And it's not like I'd ever been hired to find a person I didn't need to 'take care of'... I was never hired for a job to find a minor... this was a first for me. And there isn't much I haven't ever done before, but this experincing was heartwarming and a well-needed adjustment on everyone's part. This kid is my friend... this...kid. Anyone who knew me would have laughed.

She continued to talk through her pizza, we sat on a bench in the park. Near the Balto statue. She told me a lot about it as well, the first time she had seen it, and what it meant to her. She said she even wandered from Brooklyn just to see it. She would talk to the statue about problems or concerns. It kept her company, and was now sad to see it go.
'I would also go to a place that makes me feel safe, I go there sometimes-- it's in the woods.' I continued to eat my pizza, not exactly listening.
'Oh really?'
'Yeah,' she stares off at the statue and sets her pizza in her lap. 'A forest really, there are deer and...' she pauses looking up.
'And what?'
'Are you a religious person Christine?'
'Not exactly sweetie.' I smile.
'Because there are gods in the forest.' she leans over and whispers to me in a conspiratal voice. I nearly fell off of the bench. Apparently from the look on my face she knew I was startled. 'W-What's wrong?'
'What is your first name?' I spit out quickly. It couldn't be... this couldn't be.
'Desanm.' Her bright face looked at me. My mind raced a million miles an hour.
'Desanm, I'm Lady Bones.'

Later Still

Her face melted from shock to happiness, and then repeated the proccess over again. She stood up as if something bit her. "L-Lady Bones. Lady BONES?" I continued to sit on the bench, and look as if nothing strange at all had occured, I reached up to my white hair and took a strand of it in my clawed fingers. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Desanm, holding her mouth open for a good portion of a minute. When she finally blinked, I threw her into the air in a flash and caught her when she landed. Her body weight was so frail, and at that moment I wished she had ordered more for lunch. She shrieked and then laughed, and of course, then it was a full game of tag... running through the park. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, and me chasing her, nearly tripped and fell flat on my face to avoid crushing her. I looked up from the ground.
'What?'
She looked at me. 'Your name is Christine?!'

Evening

The moment she had told me she wanted to see the Lion King, I called a friend, who I met because of another friend-- who was a backstage manager of some sort. I don't know the details but we've had a few intimate discussions... Err.. "Intimate". I told him to meet me at the doors, two tickets, front row, front box. Front center was all filled out, and believe me, I tried to get them.

In the end she was beyond thrilled and excited. And then of course she sucked me into buying her a mask like the ones in the show. She didn't ask for one, but when we passed the counter selling items, her eyes glittered to see them. I gave it to her outside-- she never even saw me buy it for her, having purchased it at intermission. She was glowing.

Deciding no place was suitable for us to spend the night, among friends (or friends of friends that I couldn't trust with a minor-- or otherwise didn't care to find out) we booked a room in a nice hotel for the night, ordered Chinese, rented a movie (her choice was Alice in Wonderland. I thought for a moment about the irony of the situation... throughout the entire thing she would shake me when my eyes shut. "Lady Bones, Lady Bones, it's not done yet!" I slept well as you can imagine.) and then woke up to the morning light.

Due to the fact the apartment all four of them were meeting at was in the city, I decided to a be a little selfish to spend a portion of the day with her. Desanm and I wasted a good amount of time in Chinatown, and then we went to the Statue of Liberty. Chocolate shops, music stores, clothes stores-- must I continue? Until 6.

Then we walked in the door.
I thought I'd surprize them all by not knocking. Looks like I did just that. The turkey was seconds away from being set on the table, and Fledermaus carried it on a large platter. Everything paused, and everything was absolutly silent, except a hissing noise from the kitchen sink (on full blast), someone chattered away until they came out to see what was going on; Wyvern, stood next to Fledermaus, who still hadn't set the turkey on the table. She was wiping her hands on her apron. Everyone then looked at me and at the child now clinging to my coat, partially behind me. Masque, who had been sitting for more than enough time at the table, stood slowly. And the way he brought himself up, he could have fooled anyone that he wasn't very sick. He walked ever-slowly to the child at my side, knelt and just sat there, looking Desanm in the eyes. I cleared my throat and looked down at Desanm. "Desanm, this is your daddy; Masque... Masque, your daughter Desanm." Tuna, who had been sitting next to Masque at the table also stood, and now that movement was allowed again, Fledermaus set the turkey on the table finally-- and Pan, who'd obviously not been invited to the other half of the family's gathering, jumped up.

Masque glowed and held his hand out for Desanm, who took it shyly. A few heart-warming words were exchanged between the two, and trust was formed, enough for De to insist she would sit next to him at dinner. Starting at my right sat: Desanm, Masque, Tuna, Pan, Wyvern, Fledermaus and then Me. For not much of a religious group, all of us could surely say in the past years we didn't have a whole hell of a lot to be thankful for. This year was different, and in a good five minutes Desanm had summed up everything she was thankful for, and as she lowered her eyes to pray, the adults sitting at the table (save for Pan who was keeping her eyes sealed tight for no apparent reason at all) made eye contact and each shared a smile with the next.

There was so much more ahead.
A first of many.

THE END

P.s: Dear Diary Some Funny Shit Happened Today,

"Where should I bring the kid Masque?"
"Uhh, we'll be meeting at Fledermaus' apartment in the city..."
"...Well fuck, just peek out your goddamned window and wave as I walk by. I'll probably be walking right by there. Oh and by the way, if you do look out your window and happen to see me carrying a kid kicking and screaming....... don't call the cops."



Lady on the Plane:

Jesus Christ, I swear to God, every fucking time I get on a plane there is some weird ass character either sitting next to me or near me. Almost always I have to share a bag of peanuts, give them a tissue, hand them a coughdrop, fork over the arm-rest...
I hope that loser appreciates all I do for him.
Anyway, after we'd taken flight and I was proptly reading a massive collection of Edgar Allan Poe's works, a woman a few seats behind me began a caterwalling that was either an attempted cough or a fake cry. I couldn't decide which. Luckily enough the plane I was one was just a "pond jumper" and the nonsense would stop within fifteen minutes...

I look behind me just in time to catch this woman standing in the aisle, screaming tot he top of her lungs in a deep Italian (or Spanish couldn't tell which) accent:
"I-ma Goonah Die!!" I couldn't smother my laughing in time to the irony of the situation.
"You read my mind." I called out. The flight attendant finally sat her back down, and yet the hilarity insued as she continued this poor attempt at crying. I winked at my neighbor and began to echo her wailing, and making light of the terribly annoying situation, gathered up more volunteers as we all howled into the airport. The entire plane was cying when we finally landed...

De at The Island:

It was someplace she decided she had to go see, as she had seen it from a distance almost all her life. Of course on the island, there were the moving statue posers, and thinking Desanm already knew about what they were-- I urged her to take a picture with them. They moved and I had never seen a kid high-tail it out of any area that fast in my life.

Pan:

I had noticed some strange motions and eye contact going on between Desanm and Pan, who was sitting directly across from her. After watching this silent conversation I understood immediatly what Pan was saying. She took a fork, pressed the tines to her neck, and then stabbed it directly into her turkey... needless to say after I'd told Tuna that Pan was trying to teach De how to be a Fork-Assassin, the cutlery was taken away from Pan, and a dissapointed Desanm looked up at me.
Note:I should sleep with my eyes open.

Amen:

It was a good fifteen minutes before my turn came around to say what I was thankful for this year. I was glad pan didn't make it 25 minutes with all the thanks she was giving the Constitution for the Right to Bear Arms, for knives and gunpowder and guns... and forks, thankfully Tuna moved her on. "God is great God is good let us thank him for our food amen." and explosion of knives and hungry faces tucked into their plates. I was really goddamned glad I wasn't thankful for much!