Journalscape/gabriel

ADMIN PASSWORD: Remember Me

:: HOME :: GET EMAIL UPDATES :: Click on Kathy Gabriel and read my stories :: 2-in-1 Romance by me (but the back cover's misspelled!. grrrrr.) :: November is National Novel Writing Month! :: The Feel Good Manual - happiness can be learned :: Mugs with the wet ferret :: Fractured Frugal Frieds - the best frugality site around :: The ferrets, and other pics by a talented local (very local) photographer :: Kettins_Bob's journal :: Clarion SF & F writing workshop :: Genevieve's journal (Clarion classmate) :: Phil's website (Clarion classmate) :: Nnedi Okorafor's blog (Clarion classmate) :: Online magnetic poetry :: Dave's interactive html tutorial :: Make a snowflake here - WARNING: Addictive! ::

gabriel
Love and ferrets and pretending to be a writer.

2004-09-11 5:48 AM
the kidnapping, cont.

Previous Entry :: Next Entry

Mood:
Content

Read/Post Comments (0)

The ferrets are: licking Vitatone off their tummies
Weather: light rain
Reading: Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Gregg and I stepped out strongly, and the kid followed along. Technically, then, perhaps it was not a kinapping at all. The guard kepot his eyes on the kid to the extent that I don't think he could have described either one of us. Not that it'll come up, actually, until tax time when the kid's shitty parents look around to see where their exemption has gone.

We bought the mask and the kid was beaming. He tried it on and it was very becoming. "Dinner?" I asked the air in the vicinity of Gregg and the kid.

"You buying?" they answered in chorus.

Mazatlan in the mall is not too bad. The kid liked his arroz con pollo and didn't ask any questions, talking instead about Halloween; the adventures, the history, the varieties of treats to come. The kid had a low opinion of people who put razor blades or poison in candy. "I mean, if they want to hurt kids, why don't they just not open the door? Failing to put out the treats is worse than any weenyass razor blade."

"Anyone who would hurt a kid isn't worth the paper his birth certificate's printed on," Gregg stated, rather baldly, I thought. I felt my nostrils flare.

Gregg and I talked a little, too, not about anything that would give away our identity, of course, in case the kid bolted. No last names were mentioned, and the kid's name, first or last, wasn't mentioned at all.

When the plates were being cleared away and the kid and I were waiting for the fried ice cream, and Gregg was wating for his fourth margarita, I said, "I'm sorry. I didn't ask you your name."

The kid grew solemn, his long lightly-freckled face getting longer. He deepened his voice. "You may call me Samovar."

Gregg gave forth a small grunt, or possible a burp, but I just nodded, my wicked little heart swelling with approval. "Samovar. Very well."

As he wiped the last bit of ice cream from his bowl with his finger, I said to him, "You do realize, don't you, that you're not going home tonight?"

He frowned. "Are you going to buy me any more Halloween stuff?"

"Day after tomorrow, perhaps. Not tonight, and not tomorrow."

"Why not tomorrow?"

"Yes, why not, Kathy? It could be fun," Gregg suggested. I studied his rosy cheeks and glowing eyes and knew in a moment which one of us was not going to be driving tonight.

"Because the day after tomorrow starts a new budget week, and we have just spent our..." I looked at the kid. "...our Samovar budget."

"I'm in the budget? Already?"

Gregg said, "That depends partly on how badly you try to escape."

"Shit, who'd want to escape? You've already talked to me more than my parents do in a month. They buy me stuff, but so what? I can't be bought." He straightened, drawing his shoulders back. "Samovar chooses with whom he will associate."

Read/Post Comments (0)

Share on Facebook

Previous Entry :: Next Entry

Back to Top

:: JOURNAL HOME :: SUBSCRIBE TO THIS JOURNAL :: Click on Kathy Gabriel and read my stories :: 2-in-1 Romance by me (but the back cover's misspelled!. grrrrr.) :: November is National Novel Writing Month! :: The Feel Good Manual - happiness can be learned :: Mugs with the wet ferret :: Fractured Frugal Frieds - the best frugality site around :: The ferrets, and other pics by a talented local (very local) photographer :: Kettins_Bob's journal :: Clarion SF & F writing workshop :: Genevieve's journal (Clarion classmate) :: Phil's website (Clarion classmate) :: Nnedi Okorafor's blog (Clarion classmate) :: Online magnetic poetry :: Dave's interactive html tutorial :: Make a snowflake here - WARNING: Addictive! ::