With the two hostiles in full retreat, she turned around and surveyed
the scene. “Are you all right?” she asked Cinnamon, worry now showing
in the crease of her brow.

“I’m fine, and thank ya for it,” Cinnamon sat up. “But I’m afraid my chair ain’t.”

Helena looked over at the wheelchair, lying on its side. “Well,” she
smiled gaily, as if she’d just joined up with her friends with no
effort at all, “let’s have a look, shall we?”

She laid the shotgun down, keeping it close at hand just in case, and
tried to turn the wheel. It was frozen tight. “Tina,” she called,
“might I borrow that marvelous toolbelt knife of yours. It must have
something I can use.”

Tina gave Bette a reassuring hug, fished the Swiss Army knife out of
her pocket and handed it to Helena, who pulled out one blade then
another, until she found the flathead screwdriver. She used it to pry
the covering off the hub. “Can I have some light please?”

Jenny walked over and shone her flashlight down on the chair.

“Ah,” Helena nodded, “some of the bearings are melted. Did the lightning actually come that close.”

“Yeah, it shore ’nuff did,” Cinnamon sighed. “First time too. ‘course, it weren’t regular lightnin’ but.”

“You were very lucky then.”

“Yeah,” Cinnamon nodded, “but it had a different sort of business on its mind tonight.”

Helena looked into Cinnamon’s eyes. Her mind opened and she sensed
something, some truth that she should know, but didn’t. There would be
time for questions later, she thought. “Well, let’s see what we can do
with this.”

With the flat tip, she began to pry at the bearings until she was able
to pop out the fused mass of metal. The other bearings seemed all right
but she couldn’t be sure. She crouched on her haunches and thought for
a moment. “Alicecan I have your marbles?”

Alice blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

“Thank you,” Helena smiled back, took the sack of marbles and emptied
them carefully onto a small rut in the road. “These are quite lovely.
Wilson would love to see them.”

“Well” Alice blushed. Dana gave her a quizzical look, feeling just a
little concerned at her girlfriend’s sudden display toward the dragon
lady.

“Let’s hope they will do the trick for now and get us to my house. We’ll have the chair repaired properly tomorrow.”