Dress 2 Impress: A Jennifer Cloud Novel (Jennifer Cloud Series) Read online

“Poor guy. Maybe I should go after him,” Ace said. “He might need a shoulder to cry on.”

  “Sorry, your shoulder is coming with me to find the freakin’ fairy godmother.” I did a little spazzy dance. “How cool is that? She is like the best character in the park.”

  Ace looked down his nose at me. “You have obviously never met her. Oh, she looks so sweet, and then she zaps off your knickers, and you’re standing there bare-assed in front of the teacups.”

  “She didn’t really do that, did she?”

  “Let’s go find the old dearie and see what she zaps off you when she finds out you’ve been climbing all over her favorite nephew.”

  Yikes!

  Ace and I walked through the park, avoiding the cotton candy–filled hands of the small children we passed.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Caiyan’s aunt was THE fairy godmother?” I asked, arms crossed over my chest.

  Ace shrugged. “Sorry, I thought Agent McCoy told you. Aunt Itty has the gift to move things small distances. She loves entertaining the children with her ‘magic,’ as they call it.”

  “Aunt Itty?” I looked at Ace.

  “She goes by Itty, always has as long as I have known her.”

  “Didn’t the people who hired her wonder how she did the tricks?”

  “You’ll just have to meet her to understand.” Ace shrugged.

  We crossed over a small footbridge. Wonderland was built on swampland, so there were many little ponds and waterways scattered throughout the amusement park. Futureland peeked out across the water. The colorful spaceships of the Mars Orbiter spun and tilted, while the inhabitants screamed their heads off.

  “You don’t want to go on a ride, do you?” Ace asked, looking down at the ground and scuffing his feet around. I knew he would rather be anywhere else. Las Vegas, Hollywood, Monte Carlo, maybe. Wonderland was certainly not his scene.

  “Nah, I just like watching people having fun.” I heard his sigh of relief as we continued across the bridge.

  The royal castle was beautiful. A purple glow was cast around it, reflected from the midafternoon sun, turning it into a shimmering wonder. The boutique was to the left of the castle as we approached from the front. A huge mouse was taking pictures with a small boy, while his parents tried to snap a quick shot with their iPhones. Amazing, I thought to myself—from the mouse’s lap directly to Facebook in a matter of minutes. A long line of not-so-patiently waiting kids wrapped around the side of the castle. We followed the line around the side and into a little magical town. A crowd of people had gathered, and Ace was standing on tippy-toe, trying to see what everyone was watching. Pretty soon a flash of blue smoke and a screeching “Hibbidi bibbity boo!” sounded from within the crowd. The people next to me cheered and clapped. The crowd parted, and a short stout lady dressed in a blue coat came barreling down the cobblestone street. Her hair was pulled up into a loose bun, and she carried a long white wand. She ran down the street amid the cheers from the crowd.

  “Wait,” I cried out after she stepped into the street. I was immediately shoved out of the way and fell backward onto my ass.

  “I’ll show her bibbity boo,” said a tall woman in a long green velvet dress covered with orange goo. Two other women trailed after her, both sporting mountain-high hair and long fairytale gowns.

  Ace was laughing as he held out a hand to bring me to my feet. “I think we might have missed all the fun.”

  “You think?” I asked, brushing off the dust from my fall.

  “Oh yeah, you guys totally missed it,” said a teenage girl dressed in a leather vest and an imitation sleeve tattoo up her right arm. “The ugly stepmother and her two daughters were telling everyone it was time to go, that they wouldn’t be giving any autographs to all us people who’ve been waitn’ for over an hour. I’m a big fan, you see. I’m tryin’ to get all the villains on this trip.” Ace nodded, and she took a bite of her candied apple, smearing red on her cheek. “Anyhow, a boy stood up and hollered at them and told them they couldn’t leave these fans after they waited so long. The stepmother just rolled her eyes at him and said, ‘Who’s going to stop me?’” The girl started talking faster, trying to get in all the details. “The boy took one of them small punkins over there by the fairytale garden and chunked it at her like a bowling ball. It took a bounce and hit her in the butt.” The girl slapped her thighs in a fit of laughter. Ace and I stood looking questioningly at her and each other. Tattoo girl continued. “The stepmother got that evil look, just like in the movie, ya know, then went after the boy with her long fingernails. She had her talons hooked around his jacket, ready to give him the what for, when here comes the fairy godmother shouting bibbity whatever and waving her magic wand. The punkin rises off the ground, dances above the stepmother’s head, then cracks open like an egg and spills orange goo all over the her,” the girl said, using her candy apple as a wand for emphasis. “I dunno how she did that trick, but it was the best. I’m gonna go see what time the next show is. You guys really missed it.”

  “Well, I guess that’s one way to use your gift and no one figures it out,” I said to Ace while we made our way toward the puppet maker, who had just taken a break from making wooden boys to see what all the fuss was about.

  “Do you know where the fairy godmother went?” I asked.

  “I bet she went on home. If I were to make the stepmother that mad, I would definitely head for the hills.”

  “You mean she left the park?” I asked.

  “No, she’s one of the few who has housing right here on the grounds.”

  “I know where it’s at, love,” Ace said as he thanked the man and locked elbows with me. “Onward, soldier.”

  I laughed. Jake had given us exactly eight hours to find out what we could about the mysterious blip on the travel screen. There wouldn’t be any fun on this trip. Ace’s fortune cookie had revealed he was going to the land of fun, but it didn’t say he was going to have any. With the full moon on Monday, we needed answers, fast.

  Ace and I power walked through Wonderland, keeping our eyes peeled for any signs of Aunt Itty. Ace stopped at the edge of the park in front of a group of pine trees. The trees were separated from the park by a fence. A golden cord was drawn across a narrow path that led into the group of pines. A sign read, “Wonderland cast members only.”

  Ace stepped over the cord. “Well, come on, love. We haven’t got all day. Hike up your pedal pushers and get over here.”

  “These are capri pants, not pedal pushers,” I replied, ducking under the cord instead.

  “You can call them whatever you like, but they aren’t going to take you into the fall season. They scream summer, darling.” He had his hands on his hips, staring at me.

  “Are we here to get some answers, or are we interviewing for Project Runway?” I eyed him.

  Ace laughed, grabbed my hand, and we walked down the path like Hansel and Gretel. As we cleared the trees, a quaint cottage sat square in the middle. It looked exactly like the house I would picture for the fairy godmother. Made of creamy stucco, it stood with a round door and vines trailing up the sides and hanging from the eaves. A white picket fence surrounded the cottage, and a little bell tinkled as we opened the gate.

  Ace rolled his eyes, and I giggled at the whimsy of it all. As we approached the porch, we saw that the round door was ajar. Ace walked in and called out, “Yoo-hoo, anyone home?” The inside of the cottage was charming. A plaid sofa sat along the wall across from us, bookended by two end tables. A cozy chenille chair sat to its right, and a small round footstool held a steaming hot cup of tea. The owner obviously was somewhere close by.

  “Aunt Itty?” Ace called out again.

  The sideboard cupboard opened, and out popped Aunt Itty. She was still wearing her fairy godmother dress. “Ace, oh my goodness! Is that you, dear?” She rustled over to us and pulled up her round spectacles, which had sl
id to the tip of her nose. “Why, it’s been ages. You’ve grown so tall, but I would know that voice anywhere. Are you still singing, dear?”

  Ace blushed from head to toe. I had never seen Ace embarrassed, but his gangly frame seem to fold up in itself as he gave Aunt Itty a hug. “Aunt Itty, why were you in the cupboard?”

  “You never know when ‘you know who’ might be lurking about.”

  “You mean, a brigand?” Ace asked.

  She peeped around Ace, questioning his handiness with the word brigand, like Harry Potter using his wand in front of a muggle. Her eyes lit up when she saw me. “Ace, who is this lovely?”

  “Aunt Itty, this is Jen.” Before Ace could get in another word, Aunt Itty was all up in my business, hugging me and standing back, holding me at arm’s length. “Oh, Ace, the door does swing both ways in your life.”

  Now Ace was truly tail-between-the-legs ready to bolt. “Aunt Itty, no—she belongs to Caiyan.” Realizing what he had just said, Ace stammered, “I mean, Jen is Caiyan’s transporter.” Nice save because both Aunt Itty and I were standing, hands on hips, ready to kick some butt.

  “Oh…how nice for you.” Aunt Itty seemed a little distraught at the fact that I was a transporter and I worked with Caiyan.

  “Can I get you a spot of tea?” Ace and I took a seat on the sofa as she tootled into the kitchen. A few banging pots later, she returned, carrying a tray with two steaming cups of tea and blueberry scones arranged on a delicate china plate. She topped off her tea and placed a teapot wrapped in a little coat on the table between Ace and me. “What brings you to the happiest place on earth?” Aunt Itty asked, sitting down in her cozy chair and sipping her tea.

  “Caiyan has gone back to 1985 and hasn’t returned,” Ace explained.

  “Hasn’t returned? Oh my, that’s bad.” She put her cup down and placed her hands in her lap. “Is his key working?”

  “Yes, we can see him on the transport screens, but for some reason he isn’t returning.”

  “Did you say 1985?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Ace replied. “It’s getting near his birthday, and we need him to return this next moon cycle, or you know…”

  It dawned on me, if Caiyan didn’t return before he was born, he would die. Caiyan had explained it to me on our first travel together, but I couldn’t recall the details.

  “He’ll die?” I asked.

  “Yes, love,” Ace said. “You can’t travel back to a time when you are already living, but if you travel back and then you are born, some kind of cataclysm happens and you die.” He shrugged. “Your life becomes an endless cycle. We have sent people back to look for the travelers who have disappeared off the travel screen. It’s like you just disintegrate.”

  A big knot of fear was rolling around inside my gut. I needed to figure out a way to get to Caiyan.

  Aunt Itty was wringing her hands. “I haven’t seen him since the month before last. He brought Campy here to live in August, right before the fall semester began.”

  “I didn’t know Campbell was living with you.” Ace took a sip of his tea.

  “Yes, I’m afraid he was in a pinch of trouble back in London. His sister works nights, you know.” She smirked as she said this, as if she didn’t approve of either the job or the night shift. I became curious about Caiyan’s sister’s night job. Caiyan never talked much about his family. I knew he had a sister and his parents had died, but I got this information from Jake.

  “Who’s Campbell?” I asked.

  “That’s my great-great-nephew, dear.” She nibbled on a scone and educated me on Campbell’s situation. Caiyan’s sister didn’t have the gift. She was a single mother who lived in England and worked as a server. Her son, Campbell, was involved in some trouble and came to live here with Aunt Itty. He goes by Campy because he hates the name Campbell. It was his father’s name, and he was a big-time loser, according to Aunt Itty.

  I leaned toward Ace. “Does he have the gift?”

  “No.” Ace shook his head.

  Aunt Itty said, “Caiyan tested him with the key when he turned thirteen and every year after—nothing.” She sighed as if her family tree was hanging on by its last limb.

  Ace set his teacup down and picked up a scone. “I haven’t seen Campy since he was five. He’s probably all grown up.”

  Aunt Itty set her scone down on the pretty china plate and reached into a Vera Bradley tote bag she had hanging on the arm of her chair. It was the new print out this fall, and I had extreme bag envy.

  “We toured the park the day he arrived, so I took a few photos.” She pulled out an iPad and opened her picture app. Scrolling through the photos, she stopped on one of a teenager, the spitting image of Caiyan. He was standing in the breezeway between the small galley-style kitchen and the back door of Aunt Itty’s house. His black leather jacket hung off his narrow frame, and he balanced a skateboard between the top of his canvas shoe and his right leg.

  The next photo was a close-up of him and Caiyan surrounded by a group of princesses from the royal castle. Caiyan had his arm slung around the redheaded princess’s neck, and she was looking up at him with desire. Campy and Caiyan were centered in the picture, and they both wore the same shit-eating grin. The resemblance was incredible. They both had the same dark hair and square-set jaw. Campy’s eyes looked a shade darker, maybe brown. It was hard to tell from the picture because they both had red-eye reflecting back at the camera.

  “Maybe he’s a late bloomer,” I said, considering his thin frame and lack of any outward signs that his hormones were in high gear. He had a smidge of acne across his chin.

  “He turned fifteen this August,” Aunt Itty said, shaking her head. “Most travelers start showing the signs from early puberty.”

  “Is he at school right now?” I asked.

  “No, his mother sent for him.” Aunt Itty sighed. “He only spent a few weeks with me, and she sent him a plane ticket to return home.”

  “Aunt Itty, did you see the ticket?” Ace asked.

  “Well, no,” she said hesitantly. “But I took him to the airport.”

  Alarm bells were going off in my head. Was it possible Campy had a key and Caiyan knew about it? And if so, why didn’t he tell Aunt Itty?

  “Aunt Itty, do you wear your key at all times?” Ace asked.

  Aunt Itty looked a little put back at the question. “I wear it every day. I am the fairy godmother, you know.” She took a dainty sip from her teacup and placed it gently on the saucer. “After all, I have a show to perform. I just took it off before you arrived.”

  Ace stood and moved around the room, pausing to look at a photo of a young man hanging on Aunt Itty’s wall. “Headquarters had unprecedented activity that came from this area, and they thought you might know what was going on.”

  “What do you mean by unprecedented?” Aunt Itty asked.

  “An unregulated traveler has been blipping about the screen on an almost daily basis.” Ace turned and looked at her, eyes questioning.

  “Well, I wear my key on my workdays. It’s a little heavy, and I’m not getting any younger.” She stood, smoothed the wrinkles from her dress, and walked toward the kitchen. We followed single file behind her.

  I gave Ace a jab in the ribs. “You didn’t tell me that we were coming to interrogate a little old lady.” Ace grimaced.

  “My memory may be a little fuzzy, but my hearing is top-notch, dear.” I swallowed a big piece of humble pie. She pointed to a ceramic cookie jar of the royal castle. “When I’m not wearing my key, I always put it in here.”

  Ace walked over, lifted the lid off the jar, and reached inside. “Uhm, Aunt Itty, there’s nothing in here.”

  She hurried over to see for herself. “Well, I could have sworn I put it in there. No, wait. It’s in the Winnie the Pooh.” She made her way over to a bookshelf that held three other ceramic cookie jars. Sure e
nough, she plucked the key out of the Winnie the Pooh. We all gave a sigh of relief. It was beautiful. A starburst with a large blue diamond in the center and tiny white diamonds lining the rays that emanated from the medallion fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. “I told you it was here,” she said with a sly look of satisfaction on her face.

  The woman was a cookie jar maniac. They were everywhere. She had two on an entry table in the hallway and four on a shelf in the sitting room, holding books upright.

  “Aunt Itty, you know I hate to ask, love, but where is Liam’s key?” Aunt Itty’s face went all soft, and I could tell this was a painful memory Ace was digging up.

  Aunt Itty walked over to the photo Ace had been admiring earlier. The young man looked about twenty, and he was wearing a military uniform. “It’s in my bedroom. I’ll go see to it.” She left the room, and Ace filled me in on the details. Liam was her grandson who was killed in Desert Storm. He’d refused to wear his key to help protect him. He wanted to fight like a real soldier and lost his life in return.

  Aunt Itty called from her bedroom. “It’s gone! It’s gone! Liam’s key is gone.” She ran out, holding a heart-shaped cookie jar. “I’ve been robbed.”

  Ace walked over and returned the lid to the jar, placing it gently on the table. “Let’s call Campy. Maybe he knows something.” I put an arm around Aunt Itty’s shoulders and escorted her over to her cozy chair, and she pulled her cell phone out from somewhere inside her bra.

  All three of us huddled around Aunt Itty’s cell phone as she made the call. Placing it on speakerphone, she wiped away a tear as the phone connected.

  London was about five hours ahead of Florida, and Caiyan’s sister picked up immediately. Just as I expected, Caiyan’s sister told Aunt Itty she had not seen Campy since the day Caiyan took him to Florida. Aunt Itty explained about the plane ticket, but of course, she said she never sent a ticket. The sister sounded worried. Itty told her she was sure he was with Caiyan and not to worry.

  Ace asked to see the room Campy had used. Aunt Itty took us down a short hallway to the back of the cottage. The small room was big enough for a twin bed, a nightstand, and a beanbag chair that pointed toward a flat-screen television mounted on the wall.