The Other McCawber Girl
by Amanda Rohrssen
Chapter Eleven
There’s a feeling
But you’re not feeling it at all
There’s a meaning
But you’re not listening anymore
I look at that open road
I’m going to walk there by myself
And if you catch me
I might try to run away
You know I can’t be here too long
And if you let me
I might try to make you stay
Seems you never realize
A good thing till it’s gone
Maybe I’m still searching
But I don’t know what it means
All the fires of destruction are still
Burning in my dreams
There’s no water that can wash away
This longing to come clean
~Annie Lennox, "Dark Road"
“Why are you wearing sunglasses?” Ariana asked curiously from the back seat of the sedan as it turned onto Flint Street. The tears were gone from her face, but she only found
the courage to talk to this stoic man so she wouldn’t have to be alone with her thoughts. The drive had been unnerving, as had the rest of her day, and any questions she’d had
about why they wanted to talk to her at SHUSH were met with silence. So she’d moved on to more mundane things to keep her nerves at bay.
“It’s part of the uniform,” he informed her flatly.
“But it’s so overcast outside…isn’t it hard to see?”
“We haven’t crashed yet, have we?”
The buildings had grown steadily taller and better maintained, and Ariana could tell they were in downtown St. Canard. The car slowed as they neared a stately tan structure with wide glass windows spanning the front. Above the stairway leading into the building was the golden outline of an eagle, and across it were the letters S.H.U.S.H.
“What does SHUSH stand for?”
“Huh?” the driver asked distractedly as they pulled into the parking lot. He flashed his ID at the gate attendant and whispered something to her. The guard nodded before pushing the button that allowed them access, and just as they were rounding the first bend in the lot, the front bumper edged along the back bumper of a black Aston Martin that had been parked in one of the very front spaces. A loud scraping sound could be heard, and Agent Millcreek flinched. “Oh, great. Where did that come from?” He plucked his sunglasses off of his snout and frowned. “Stupid things.”
From then until they parked, the warthog kept the shades tilted against his forehead rather than covering his eyes. Only when he got out to retrieve Ariana from the rear did he slide them back down. He escorted her into the building, which seemed like a vast, intricate beehive to Ariana. It felt endless, and was buzzing with agents bustling up and down the maze of hallways that sprouted off of the large entryway. They passed through security fairly quickly and he led her toward one of the front conference rooms.
“Look, don’t mention anything to him about the car when you see him. I’m already on double probation.”
“See who?” she asked.
“Millcreek!” a stern, harsh, and ragged voice barked from behind them. Immediately Agent Millcreek’s leathery face drained of color, and they turned to see a tall white mallard with cold sea green eyes and thick, angry eyebrows glowering at them. “Do you think SHUSH parking is a game? Does it feel like the go-carts at Goony Golf when you get behind the wheel?”
“N-no, sir, I--!”
“I am this close to making sure you never make it past GS-9, agent! And how many times do I have to tell you to take off those damn sunglasses?! Just because they’re standard issue does not mean you can wear them around 24/7 like you’re some kind of sorry-ass James Bean look-alike!”
The sunglasses flew off of the agent’s face so quickly it was hard for Ariana to decipher whether he had taken them off or if they had just evaporated.
“Yes, sir! I-I…”
“The cost of repairing the damage to my vehicle is coming out of your pay, agent,” the seething mallard snarled. “If I were you, I’d seriously rethink your position here and consider staying behind a desk, where you can’t continue parading around as a public menace.”
Millcreek deflated a little, and Ariana at once felt sorry for him. “Yes, sir…”
“Leave us.”
As the agent moved away, Ariana could hear him muttering, “How in God’s name did he know?”
Ariana swallowed thickly, her nerves having worsened tenfold after witnessing the rebuke. This was the person that wanted to see her?
“I apologize that you had to see that, Miss McCawber,” the mallard said evenly as he opened the door to the conference room and motioned for her to go in ahead of him. She did so stiffly, beginning to tremble all over from being in the presence of such a hard-nosed, unfeeling person. Once she had taken a seat at the large table, she looked over to see a wide mirror that extended across the far wall. She studied it curiously. Why such a large mirror in a conference room? Normal society was so strange sometimes.
The chair across from her scraped against the tile floor as the mallard sat down, his piercing eyes studying her shrewdly. “My name is Agent Mallard. Do you know why I had you brought here?”
She shook her head and felt her throat drain of moisture. Her voice seemed to have disappeared altogether, which made her feel even smaller than she already felt.
“I want to ask you some questions about the events that transpired yesterday,” he said lowly. He was taking in her every movement and reaction, and it made her want to squirm all the more under his gaze.
“All right,” she replied hoarsely. A feeling of dread pitted itself in her stomach, and she hoped that she wasn’t in trouble. She had only done what she thought was right.
“Where were you yesterday at 5:45 p.m.?”
“At the Sitting Duck National Bank,” she answered truthfully. The last thing she wanted to do was lie to him and land herself in any legal trouble. He scared her.
“Recall for me the events that took place while you were there.”
“I…I was depositing my pay…” She trailed off, remembering her earlier conversation with Mrs. Pennyfeather and feeling suddenly hurt and upset again. She pushed the emotions aside and continued. “A-and a masked duck came in with a gun, and told everyone to get on the floor.”
“Do you know the masked duck’s identity?”
“It was…Negaduck.”
He nodded and waited for her to go on.
“He took money out of the drawers and the vault, and made us watch the news update about him.”
Agent Mallard made the tiniest knowing smirk, but didn’t interrupt.
“Th-then the S.W.A.T. team came in with gas, a-and he took me up to the top floor in the elevator.”
“Who took you up?”
“Negaduck.”
Again he nodded. The chair creaked slightly as he leaned back more comfortably and steepled his fingertips. His eyes never left her face. “What happened on the top floor?”
“We went into a corner office, and he was yelling at the police to bring him a…a warhead.” She paused and looked at him curiously. “What’s a warhead?”
Agent Mallard raised a brow, but waved her question off. “Nothing you need to be concerned about, Miss McCawber. Continue.”
“O-okay…” She, too, shifted in her seat, but rather than feeling more comfortable she felt less so. She hoped this would be over soon. “They told him to come downstairs to get the warhead, so…so he took me back to the lobby, a-and…” She swallowed thickly, the memory of the roar of gunfire and the look of complete shock and helplessness on Negaduck’s face as he fell to the floor springing into her mind.
“And?”
“And we left…”
He made a disgruntled sound and slid abrasively out of his seat. He paced the room a few times, a calculating expression on his deeply-lined face, before he whirled on her again, his grip digging into the backrest of the chair he’d abandoned. “Left how? The money was recovered, as was Negaduck’s weapon, but there was no sign of either of you. I had agents surrounding every possible exit of that bank, and the S.W.A.T. officers said that it looked as though the both of you vanished. I don’t believe in magic tricks, Miss McCawber. How did you get out?”
“I…” She looked away from him and felt herself beginning to quiver in fear. What could she say? If she told him the truth, would he believe her, or think she was crazy? Would he send her to some science lab to be studied? Would he kill her right then and there? This man was dangerous; she could feel it.
“Agent Mallard! Negaduck’s been spotted in the east district threatening to blow up Canard Regional!”
The green-eyed mallard straightened back up and readjusted his suit jacket professionally. “Right.” He pointed authoritatively at Ariana. “Don’t leave town. We’ll finish this discussion later. Millcreek will see you out.”
As soon as Agent Mallard had left the room, Ariana exhaled and felt her anxiety escape with him. There was something about that man that was more frightening to her than any death threat. She hoped that maybe he’d forget about her and move on, but somehow she knew she would see him again.
It was raining across the city again, as it often did in the spring. Ariana had refused an offer for a ride from Agent Millcreek, and was contemplating what to do next as she wandered the city streets. She found herself running away from her problems once again, and the confrontation with Agent Mallard hadn’t helped to ease her anxiety about her situation. What was going to happen now? Was she in a lot of trouble? Did they know she’d helped Negaduck? Morgana had told her this might happen, and it scared her. She had no idea how Normal society operated, especially when it came to their laws. All she had to go on what was she believed was right and wrong. Had she ruined her shot at fitting in here as she had in Duckburg?
Once again, using magic had gotten her into trouble. She’d sworn off of it, well – mostly, and she had hoped that by doing so it would prevent any repeats of that unfortunate day at McDuck Studios. Yet she continued to feel so vulnerable and misplaced in Normal society. Was she wrong about Negaduck after all? Who could she trust? Agent Mallard? She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach when she thought of him, though. This whole situation made her feel lost and afraid of consequences she couldn’t even be sure of. All she wanted was for this whole thing to blow over.
Maybe Morgana would know what to do, since she’d apparently had her own run-ins with Normal law. Did she want to trust her sister with this, though? Did she have a choice? McCawber Mushrooms aside, Ariana wondered what else Morgana might have been lying about. She had always trusted her sister implicitly, and that trust had been severely shaken. Everything seemed so gray now. Agent Mallard and SHUSH were on the side of the law, but didn’t give her a good feeling. Negaduck was most definitely a criminal, but he did give her a good feeling. Her feelings about Morgana were all over the place, and she felt frustrated and confused that she couldn’t pin them down.
Never would she have even dreamed that Morgana would have been capable of the things Negaduck had accused her of, and yet…he had been right. She and Morgana had been so close growing up; Ariana had believed things would still be the same. But they weren’t. How could they be? They hadn’t really spent time together since the summer before Ariana had graduated from Webminster. Their correspondence afterward hadn’t been as consistent as either one had hoped, but surely Morgana couldn’t have changed that much in two years! Unless she’d been keeping those changes from Ariana. Considering this, Ariana felt angry and betrayed all over again. There had to be a reason for all this… Maybe Morgana had been forced or tricked into it. If that was the case, then maybe with Ariana’s help, Morgana could make things right. They could start up a new enterprise… pay everyone back, and then some. And if they did that, maybe…maybe the people of St. Canard would accept them whole-heartedly. Maybe Agent Mallard would forget about her and any involvement she had with Negaduck. They could be part of a community…like a family. They could be like everyone else.
Now that she had some time to herself, Ariana plopped down on the next soggy bench she came to and collected her thoughts without giving thought to how drenched she became. Had she overreacted? There had been so many things happening to her – bank hostage, lost job, interrogation, sibling betrayal - that she wasn’t sure. She still felt strongly that what Morgana had done was wrong, and that Morgana should make amends. Maybe her sister had known Ariana would react this way and didn’t want to disappoint her, which Ariana could understand, but she still wished Morgana had told her she needed help and money before going to the extreme of stealing. Ariana also didn’t like the fact that her sister had dragged her familiars, Eek and Squeak, into it.
She felt a bit silly now for her outburst and for hightailing it out of there the way she had, and she felt guilty at the possibility that she’d hurt Morgana’s feelings. Maybe when she went back they could talk about it more calmly now that it was out in the open. Then they could discuss her idea of making reparations…
“A little far from home, aren’t you, little girl?” a voice purred lowly beside her head, chilling her insides.
Immediately she turned and jumped off of the bench.
“Who--?”
“Give me all your money, and if you even try to resist, we’ll take more than that.”
She took two steps backward as the unknown canine pulled out a switchblade, and bumped into another, similarly dressed, lowlife.
“Goin’ somewhere?” he inquired smoothly.
“I…I don’t have any money.”
It was the truth. Everything she had she’d either left at the bank or at Morgana’s.
“Hmmm…why don’t I believe you?” the first thug drawled.
“Maybe ‘cause that’s the first thing everyone says,” the other answered with a threatening glare down at Ariana. She barely stood up to their shoulders.
“I know!” said the first, feigning an epiphany. “Let’s see what she’s got under that pretty dress…”
The bulldog behind her sniffed her blonde hair deeply. “She smells like the inside of Momma’s purse…”
“Don’t! Please!” Ariana cried softly, so afraid that even her voice shrank away.
The one behind her latched onto her arms while his partner advanced and grabbed the bodice of her dress.
“I’m gonna enjoy this…”
“Not as much as I will!” another, darker, voice cut in from above. Standing in the shadows of a fire escape crouched a midnight figure with glowing red eyes.
“Beat it!” the knife-wielder snapped. “Get your own victim!”
The mysterious figure rose to his full height, gripping a rusted machete and glowering at them before leaping down from his position and into the light, revealing his identity. Although his stature wasn’t terribly impressive, his reputation was widely feared throughout the region.
“Negaduck!” both Ariana and her captors cried. While the two dogs’ expressions held terror, hers held surprise and relief. This was the second time he’d come to her rescue.
“Back off, you buffoons, before I cut you into kibble!” He swung the machete in his hand warningly.
“Let’s get outta here!” Both hoodlums sprinted down the nearest alleyway, their frightened footfalls echoing off the brick buildings.
Ariana instantly felt a lot of weight fly from her shoulders, and she actually smiled at the villain. “Thank you so much, I—“
“What are you doing back in this neighborhood?” he snarled, pointing the machete at her.
“I…” she faltered, unprepared for his brash attitude. “I w-was…” She stopped again before spouting guiltily, “You were right about Morgana.”
“Of course I was,” he replied smugly, lowering the weapon. “I don’t lie all the time, y’know.” A dark chuckle escaped his bill, and he eyed her curiously. “So why come back here?” he asked again.
“I ran away,” she answered slowly, feeling ashamed to admit it. “Then an agent from SHUSH wanted to ask me questions about the bank, and –"
“What agent? What did you tell him?” Negaduck cut in urgently, an undercurrent of menace in his voice. His grip on the machete tightened.
“A-Agent Mallard. I told him everything…well…” she said.
The sharp end of the weapon flew up toward her face. “If you told him where my hideout is, I’m going to –"
“I didn’t tell him that,” she retorted, folding her arms. “He never asked.”
He smirked and lowered the weapon again. “Smart girl. SO, you ran away, huh? Brilliant move.” His tone was snide, but Ariana chose to ignore it since he was right. It hadn’t been the smartest decision.
“I’ll go back,” she said, as if trying to justify it. “We’ll make things right.”
“Oh, I see…” That snide tone again. “You’ll help her rectify all her petty crimes, is that it? And then everyone can live happily ever after.” When she nodded hesitantly he looked disgusted. “Oh puh-lease. As if it’s so easy. And besides…does she even want to?”
“I’m sure she does.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. The day’s events had thoroughly shaken her sense of reality.
“We’ll see about that. But next time you feel like running away, why not skip the brute squad drama and look me up? You know where.”
“But I thought you didn’t want me to trespass—"
“Hey, I’m Negaduck!” he snapped, though at the same time his voice was dripping with conceit. “There are no rules. Now beat it! And don’t make me come after you again.”
With a flourish of his cape, he took off toward the nearby alleyway while she headed in the direction of McCawber Manor. From behind a dumpster, he watched her disappear before he let a wicked chuckle escape his bill. The laugh was cut short when he noticed two large shadows looming over him. He whirled, machete at the ready, and bared his teeth, prepared for a fight.
When the two assailants from just a few minutes before put their hands up in surrender, Negaduck let out an irritated growl. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Sorry.”
“At any rate, here’s your reward for scaring the girl. You both passed with flying colors.”
“A measly fifty bucks? We agreed on five hundred!”
The machete ripped through the air, lopping off the top half of both thugs’ hairstyles. They both froze in fright and stared at the public enemy.
“You’re lucky I didn’t aim lower! Now scram!” He swung multiple more times after them, chasing them off. It wasn’t until after the two goons had disappeared from view that Negaduck grinned and another dark chuckle came out. “Wait’ll they realize that fifty was counterfeit…”
As she neared the home of her elder sister, Ariana could feel less and less of the late afternoon sun against her feathers. The weather had finally given way to beautiful spring warmth, and she had started to dry off along with the city streets. The air grew chill around her as she approached the high iron gate that led into the grounds. When she stepped in, the sunlight disappeared and gave way to a steady downpour of rain. Ariana sulked briefly at being wet again, but as she walked she noticed there was no lightening or thunder. There was simply a cascade of water that showered the dead grass with melancholic futility. At once she felt guilty. Morgana was depressed.
“Morgana?” she called as she entered, her spirits having improved significantly since her departure. There was no need for a key – they opened and locked the doors with spells. Even though this technically violated her vow to cease all magic use, she felt it was a tiny enough infraction to be negligible.
“Morgana?” she called again, her voice carrying up the rickety staircase.
“Ari…?” Her sister’s green eyes peered tentatively toward her from the top of the stairs, and Ariana restrained herself from running straight to her. “Are you…still mad?” Then, without waiting for Ariana’s reply, she rushed, “Look, I’m sorry about what happened before, and that you had to find out the way you did. I should have told you, but I really liked owning my own business and I figured I wasn’t really hurting anyone… And, to be honest, I was enjoying myself. I…liked taking things from people, things I thought I deserved. But I…I’ve met someone that may have changed all that…”
Ariana had wanted to interject into Morgana’s monologue with her idea of reparations, but her sister’s last comment threw off her train of thought, and she raised an eyebrow. “You met someone? When, today?” How long had she been gone?
Morgana nodded, then shook her head quickly. “Well, not today, no. We met a couple of months ago…he’s someone who intrigues me, and who likes me even though I’m technically a criminal. In fact, I think understands me better than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s because of him -- and you – that from now I’ve decided to go straight. I won’t steal any more money, and I’m going to try making my own through a legitimate business, without resorting to crime.” She smiled, looking pleased with herself. “What do you think?”
“You’ve only known him for a couple of months…? Who is he?” Ariana tried to keep the dubiousness out of her voice.
“I don’t see him that often because of his work, but when I do see him…” She sighed heavily, pulling at an emotion at the back of Ariana’s mind that Ariana fought to suppress. “I think I’m in love with him.”
The younger sister had to force herself not to roll her eyes, and instead put on a congratulatory smile. “That’s great, Morgana.” The fact that Morgana had passed over her second question didn’t really make a difference to her. “And once you have the new business up and running, you can make reparations for…well, for the past.”
Her sister’s brow creased slightly. “What do you mean?”
“You know…give that money back. Make amends. Donate it to a charity or do something good for the community with it.”
“You mean you’re not going to turn me in?”
Taken aback, Ariana stared at Morgana before shaking her head. “No, I…I was hurt before. I don’t want you to get in trouble, I just…I want things to be right.”
“Me too,” Morgana confessed. “But it’s going to be hard. I’m just so used to doing things…the other way. It’s a lot easier to just take something when I need it.”
Ariana nodded. “Well, we’ll help each other! Come on…let’s make some spider leg stew. Just make sure Archie stays out of the kitchen.”
Morgana grinned. “I’d like that.”
Whispers of spider webs grazed the top of Morgana’s lustrous midnight hair as she wafted through the doorway of her younger sister’s bedroom, humming happily to herself. She paused, however, when she laid eyes on Ariana, who was hunched on the edge of her bed, weeping softly.
“Ari? What’s wrong?”
As Morgana floated nearer, Ariana quickly wiped the escaping tears from her eyes and looked up at her sister, mustering a small smile.
“Nothing! I’m fine.”
A skeptical expression flitted across Morgana’s face, but nonetheless she returned the smile, which was pressed with anticipation. “I’m going out with Gruenen in a few minutes. We’re going to see that new thriller starring Frankenduck!” She clasped her slender hands together with a dreamy expression and sighed. “ I think I might kiss him later! …Are you sure you’re all right?”
Ariana nodded feebly and felt as if a jagged stone were constricting her throat.
“Well, if you’re sure…”
The haunting chimes of the McCawbers’ doorbell sounded, and Morgana’s face lit up in sharp contrast to the crestfallen look on Ariana’s.
Muffled voices filled with anxiety drifted up to Ariana’s ears a few moments after Morgana had gone to answer the door, and she thought her stomach had surely plummeted through the floor with the weight of her envy. It had been so easy for Morgana to leave her, so easy for Morgana to pass over her emotions as if they hardly mattered. True, she had asked Ariana what was wrong, but anyone could tell by the scarcely concealed excitement on Morgana’s face that she was asking out of duty more than anything. That was what bothered Ariana the most. Did her sister really even care?
Slowly she rose from the bed and, as silently as she could, she slipped down next to the railing of the upper level overlooking the entryway. Peering through the spindles, she watched Morgana and her latest boyfriend laugh and flirt with one another, and felt an indescribable yearning seize her. She wanted to have that look Morgana had on her face, she wanted to feel that happiness Morgana was radiating, and she wanted to experience that mutual spark of attraction that was flickering in their eyes. She wanted to be Morgana right now.
How did she do it? How did Morgana manage to find boy after boy who seemed to worship the ground she walked on? The flame of jealousy burned agonizingly inside of Ariana. She was lucky to even make eye contact with an attractive guy.
The laughter abruptly grew muffled with the snap of the closed door, yet the sound of it seemed to echo hollowly in Ariana’s ears. Her heart ached so much she felt it might burst at any moment. The familiar sting of tears burned her eyes, and she backed away from the railing as if retreating from a nightmare.
Why was Morgana always the lucky one?