Temporary Monsters
Page 19
Lenore glanced over at Lenny while they were waiting.
“That was very well done, Lenny. I think you’re capable of great things.” She smiled at him. “We just have to find some way to get it out of you.”
Lenny found himself smiling back. He really hoped the two of them could work on just about everything together.
Ms. Siggenbottom spun toward the door as soon as it opened.
“Get them while they’re hot!” she shouted. “Get them while they’re hot! Giant economy corn dog!” Unlike Withers and his fur coat, Ms. S. was still dressed in the gray business suit she had been wearing when the spell had overtaken her.
“Yummy, hot corn dog!” She looked as if she was trying to say something completely different, and desperately wanted the three of them to understand.
“Don’t worry, Ms. S.,” Karnowski said reassuringly. “We will have you back to being boss in no time!”
Withers seemed excited by the prospect. “We’re all in this together. This is the way Terrifitemps is supposed to work.”
Lenore flipped through the back of the paperback one more time. “Let’s see. Here it is. Spells, corn dog.” She looked up at the rest of us. “This book is very thorough.”
They went about assembling the ingredients one more time, slightly different and slightly more complex than the first spell (this time around, they didn’t need any staples). But, with Withers’s help, it went even more quickly. This time around, the spell concluded with Lenny dripping three drops of the new potion on the top of their leader’s head.
“Giant economy—what was I saying?” Ms. Siggenbottom blinked. Karnowski grabbed her elbow as she wobbled unsteadily.
Their leader shook off the ghost finder’s help.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be fine.” She looked at the crowd around her. “I’m happy to see that Terrifitemps can still be a crack team in my absence.” She nodded to Lenny. “And you’ve gotten yourself right in the middle of it. Good job, everyone!”
She surveyed the room again. “I will need to return to my office. And Withers, you will need to find some clothes.” She walked, unaided, to the door that led to the hall. “I think all of you deserve the rest of the day off. You may brief me tomorrow on anything that occurred while I was indisposed.”
She shook her head. “And I never want to eat another corn dog as long as I live.”
Two elevator doors opened. By some sort of silent agreement, their leader took one while the rest of the team walked into the other.
“Karnowski needs sleep!” the ghost finder announced.
“And I need clothes,” Withers added.
“I think we all could use some rest,” Lenore agreed. “We still have a lot to talk about. Let’s reconvene in the main office at nine tomorrow and compare notes.”
The elevator deposited them in the lobby on the main floor. The others waved good-bye and went their separate ways.
That was it? Lenny had hoped they could talk a bit about things now. He wouldn’t have minded talking to Lenore about just about anything.
Still, just standing here, he could feel a wave of exhaustion roll over him. He could probably talk, and think, far better after a little sleep. He left the building and headed for the subway.
He was so tired his feet tended to wander a bit. He did his best to stay focused on the entry that led to the trains, swerving away from an alleyway lost in shadows. Did he glimpse a man in a raincoat there? Somewhere in the crowd, a cell phone came to life:
“You’re my baby! You’re my baby!”
The song sounded somehow familiar. He closed his eyes for a second in the bright sunlight. The inside of his eyelids looked bright blue.
Blue? He was forgetting something blue.
Lenny decided he didn’t know what he was forgetting. He barely knew what he was thinking. He redoubled his efforts to make it down to the subway and then home.
Terrifitemps certainly was a fascinating place. He hoped, after a little rest, he could remember just how fascinating these past twenty-four hours had been. And he just couldn’t stop thinking about Lenore.
One thing was for certain. He finally felt like his life was going somewhere. He would go home, relax, and do something relaxing, like work on his stamp collection.
Wait a minute. He knew with a sudden certainty that something in his stamp collection was very important. Lenny realized he was holding his breath, as if he was waiting for something terrible to happen. Something terrible? From his stamps?
Lenny took a deep breath. He was going to relax and forget about everything, at least for tonight. He’d take some time tomorrow to figure out where his life was going, with or without Terrifitemps.
Lenny walked swiftly down into the subway station, ignoring the shadows that followed him down the stairs.
Look for the second Temporary Magic novel
TEMPORARY HAUNTINGS
Coming May 2014 from InterMix
Craig Shaw Gardner is the author of eighteen fantasy novels with titles like A Malady of Magicks and Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies, more than forty short stories (and two short story collections), and over a dozen novelizations and tie-in novels to such properties as Batman, Buffy, Back to the Future, and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which suggest he can only work on projects beginning with the letter B. A native of Rochester, New York, he now lives in the greater Boston area with his wife and the two cats who run the household.