"I do hope you enjoy Sauerkraut.  I love it!  It goes so good on anything..."

Dimitri watched Wiebke's (or whatever her name was) hands as she cooked carefully.  Hmm, maybe he should get up and inspect all the jars himself.  One might be poison, after all!

"How do you pronounce your name again, Frau Hoganheimmer?" Anya asked cheerfully.

"Veeb-keh."  Wiebke laughed, her plump hands clapping in the delight of a good joke.  "It's been so long since I've met anyone who doesn't know how to say my name!  It's refreshing!"

Dimitri turned his attention from the food to Wiebke herself.  She was definitely what one might call eccentric -- in a farmhouse homey way.  She wore several long scarves and spoke Russian quite well...except for her annoying little tendency to pepper her speech with German words.  Dimitri didn't even know what "danke" meant, and he was sure he didn't want to!

Wiebke took up preparing dinner again as they chatted back and forth.  Dimitri watched her get a slab of beef, take her knife, and -- practically mutilate it!  He stiffened in his chair.  What if she really DID try to murder them?

Okay, calm down, he thought quietly.  Anya was right.  She's just a nice old lady.  Anyway, he didn't want to give Anya anymore reasons to tease him.  They were "friends" now, sure, but he still had an image to keep up!  Secretly he wanted to impress her -- although he'd never admit that to himself!

After a dinner of Sauerbraten (Dimitri of course waiting for everyone to take a bite in case of poison!), he was fairly reassured that Wiebke was innocent of trying to kill them.  So he had let his imagination get ahead of him...well, in a few days when they were all in Paris they'd have a good laugh over it, and he'd talk about watching her make the food just in case.

"I know how to help you feel a little better, Vlad!  It's an old voodoo doctor's recipe I learned in Haiti.  If you'll just get me a little brown bottle from the upstairs workroom, Dimitri.  They're in the right cabinet."

Now you see, this was friendly stuff, he thought happily.  Surely she wouldn't try to kill them if she was trying to help!  He opened up the cabinet.

"OH good grief!"

He was expecting medicines, not GUNS!  There were guns of all shapes and sizes in resting there!  Big ones, small ones, black ones, brown ones, shot guns, pistols -- it was like a mobster's arsenal!  He quickly shut the doors.

He found the brown bottle in the right cabinet but hesitated to go back downstairs.  He had to tell Vlad...no no, Vlad would just laugh and come up with some probable reason.  He'd tell -- Anya!  Anya would not only believe him, she'd probably think him brave for deducing Wiebke's true intentions!  He beamed happily, making sure not to ask himself why he even cared if she viewed him as a hero.  Yes, he'd tell Anya!

Walking down the steps casually, he delivered the bottle to Wiebke.  "I'm sure Vlad'll get a BANG out of that medicine!" he said with an innocent smile.  "Anya, can I speak to you upstairs?"

"About what?  Wiebke is talking about India now, and I really want to hear her --"

"NOW, please??"

Anya sighed.  Oh boy, what did Dimitri have going on in that handsome little head of his now?  She followed him back up the stairs.

He quickly pulled her into the workroom.  "Wiebke is going to murder us!"

"Excuse me?  Oh please don't start on that again, Dimitri!  Now I'm going to miss her talking about her trip to Bombay!"  Anya started to leave but Dimitri quickly grabbed her arm.

"I tell you, she is!  Look at the clues, Anya..."

"The clues point to your insanity."

Dimitri flushed.  This was hardly the reaction he was expecting!

"Okay, first off she practically whacked that beef until it was invisible --"

"It was SAUERBRATEN, Dimitri!  The recipe says 'chop finely'!"

"Okay okay, but she made me get a mysterious brown bottle WITHOUT a label!"

Anya crossed her arms.  "Because it's just a little tough to get labels in the middle of no where!"

"And FINALLY!" Dimitri said triumphantly.  "Take a look at this!" With a flourish he opened the cabinet to reveal the firearms.  He grinned smugly at Anya's shocked expression.

"Good gracious.  There's enough weapons to fight the whole Revolution over again!" she whispered.  Dimitri nodded adamantly.

"You see??  A regular little old woman wouldn't keep this stuff in cabinets!  She wouldn't keep this stuff period!"

Anya placed her hand on her forehead in her trademark move.  "There has to be a plausible explanation, Dimitri..."

"I have an explanation -- she wants to kill us!"

"You're just letting your imagination get the best of you.  I'm not believing it!"  She marched back downstairs, Dimitri running after her.

"Look, we have to stop her and --"

"And then," Wiebke said to Vlad, "I got to actually sacrifice an animal to their Gods!  It was...exhilarating!"

"Who," Dimitri whispered in Anya's ear, "would find that exhilarating?!  Look, she's mixing the medicine now!"

They watched from the top of the stairs as Wiebke poured a few bottles ("Very mysterious, hmmm, Anya?"), then said a few words, added a couple of drops into it, and handed it to Vlad.

"Take that tonight right before you go to sleep and soon you'll feel as good as new!"

"Or as good as dead!" Dimitri said quietly.  "I don't trust her."

Anya turned back around, her blue eyes looking into his brown.  "Maybe there is something to your claims..."

"You bet there is!  And we're not letting Vlad take that medicine!"
 

© 1999 AnyaMuse@aol.com
© 1999 AnyaCI@aol.com