Oriceran, Maria took a moment to appreciate it. My new home away from home.
She turned to Gramps, her head cocked. “What is that? Why is the portal opening on an empty field?”
Gramps smirked. “That is much more than an empty field, Maria. It is a kingdom!”
“A kingdom?”
Agnes and Salem were watching her with smiles on their faces.
“You may be strong, Maria,” Salem was saying, his hair blowing wildly from the wind that escaped the opened portal. “But there is much for you to learn.”
“Come,” Gramps said. He took Maria’s hand. “You, too, Sherlock!”
The Bloodhound didn’t look too happy about being torn away from his floor licking. On more than a few occasions, Maria thought that the Health Department would close Salem’s Ice Cream down if they saw Sherlock drooling all over the tile.
Maria reached down and scratched Sherlock behind his floppy ears. “Ready?” she asked the dog.
Do you want the truth?
“Is it about Gnomes?”
Sherlock did the canine equivalent to a shrug, which was quirking his head in one direction.
“Then no, I don’t want the truth.”
“Enough banter. Time is short if we want to get you back for your big date,” Gramps said.
Heat rose to Maria’s cheeks. The date. Right. I almost forgot. A portal opening up in the middle of an ice cream store does that to a person.
Suddenly, nerves overtook her. When it came to slaying giant spiders or traversing strange planets, Maria didn’t bat an eye—but dating the guy she’d been hung up on for the past God-knew-how-long? Whew, boy. Her palms were getting clammy.
Enough feeling nervous, she decided. Only wusses get nervous.
Tightening her grip on her satchel, which contained the music box, she plunged through the portal first, not even bothering to close her eyes.
Lois sat in a chair that was not as comfortable as she would’ve thought, from the looks of it. Her government-issued wand in hand, she made Tic-Tacs dance on the desk in front of her. The television screen behind her was blank of any shows…unfortunately. There was nothing she wanted to watch.
Dancing Tic-Tacs it is.
The door opened, and in came Patsy with a Hot Pocket. It was pizza-flavored; Lois could smell it.
“You’d think they’d give us more comfortable chairs since the promotion,” Lois grumbled, squirming in her chair.
“What did Mick say? ‘You can’t always get what you want?’ Yeah, that’s it,” Patsy answered. She winced. “Ooh, hot!”
“If the Stones were to remake that song, they’d change the lyrics to ‘You can’t always eat a hot Hot Pocket.”
“Clever.”
“I thought so.”
Patsy walked up to the desk and saw the dancing Tic-Tacs. “I guess this is where being patient gets you.”
“No, this is where being bored gets you. Big difference. Earl taught me this one. Watch.”
The Tic-Tacs suddenly stacked atop one another, stretching about two feet up in the air. One by one, the top breath mint jumped into the open plastic box until only two were left. These two landed on Patsy’s plate.
Lois pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “You might need these after you eat that Hot Pocket,” she said with a smirk.
Patsy smiled. “Thank you! You read my mind.”
“Not part of my magic skill set.” Lois winked.
The phone rang, and Patsy scrambled to the old handset next to one of the computers and picked it up. “Paranormal Detective Agency, this is Patsy speaking. How may we assist you? Hello? Hello?”
Lois pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, still ringing, and shook it at Patsy.
‘Whoops,’ Patsy mouthed.
Lois answered the phone in a friendly voice, “Not you again.”
“Yep, it’s me.”
It was Lacey Trader, head of the Silver Griffins.
“I’m not in trouble, am I?” Lois asked.
Patsy hung on to Lois’s every word, curious who would be calling Lois on her cell phone during her shift. She was almost certain it wasn’t Earl.
“Listen, Lois, I don’t have time to joke around,” Lacey began.
“No, you’re not one for doing that, are you?”
“Something big has happened.”
“Enlighten me. My worldview on what’s big and small in the magical world is a bit skewed these days, since that nasty business with the necklace.”
For a moment, Lacey didn’t say anything.
Uh-oh, this must be big, Lois thought. “What’s going on? What’s big?”
She sounded serious, which worried Patsy, her eyes wide.
“We don’t know all of the facts yet, but there’s been a big magical battle in Ohio.”
“The Silver Griffins don’t know all the facts yet? Hmm, that’s a first.”
“That’s where you come in,” Lacey said, unamused. “I need you to check it out for us.”
“I’m not a Silver Griffin anymore.”
“Once a Silver Griffin, always a Silver Griffin.”
“So they keep sayin’.”
“It may be nothing. There was an Arachnid sighting that most people are writing off as a hoax. The battle happened in the wee hours of the night, so there weren’t many eyewitnesses.”
“All it takes is one smart phone,” Lois said.
“Exactly.”
"I don't know… I hate leaving town."
"Please, Lois? I'd do it myself, but we're swamped."
Lois weighed that comment for a moment, then shook her head. If there was any way to get her to travel.
“Oh, all right, Lacey. I’ll look into it. Where in Ohio?”
“Akron.”
A smile broke out on Lois’s face. “Akron? Haven’t been there in awhile.” She was wondering if an old Wizard friend of hers still lived there, when Lacey interrupted her thoughts.
“Ignatius Mangood is the one you want to seek.”
“Ignatius! Why didn’t you lead with that, Lacey? I haven’t talked to him in…God, way too long. Ah, him and Salem and Agnes. Good people.” Lois smiled broadly.
“Good, you know them. We’ve had some unwanted magical activity up there lately; two Silver Griffins went missing, presumed dead.”
Her smile faded.
“Oh, no, this is serious.”
Patsy tugged on Lois’s sleeve, mouthing,
