The Fountain Pen

We had a showing of our house today. We’ve been trying to sell it for months. So I found myself sitting in my car in front of my neighbor’s house waiting for the realtor to show up with her clients. I managed to knock out nearly 1,000 words. It was a bit distracted as our cats decidedly do not like being inside cars so much as they like being on top of them.

The physical pressures of this schedule are catching up to me as I fell asleep on the floor after dinner, eating away at precious writing time. I never did truly wake up, so today’s efforts weren’t the best I’ve done, but at least I did something. On the plus side I did finish Chapter 5 with the usual ePub and PDF files available.

Here is today’s progress:

“I’m fine thanks,” Katarina replied watching Joe carefully as they walked into the gift shop.

They browsed through the gift shop for a little while, Joe showing no signs of his previous enthusiasm. When the carousel started to close Katarina escorted Joe out of the gift shop. Joe started walking toward the carousel and casually started walking around it, looking for Magic. When they got to the entrance Katarina stopped and started talking with the attendant. Oblivious to Katarina’s actions Joe kept walking until he spotted the flying unicorn, at which point he backtracked his way back to Katarina and the attendant.

“Taken a fancy to one of the carousel horses have you?” the attendant asked Joe.

“Something like that,” Joe said cagily.

“A lot of folks like Magic,” the attendant said. Turning his attention to Katrina he commented, “But then, who doesn’t like unicorns?”

“Joseph, I would like you to meet Ignatius P. Blackmoore,” Katarina said.

“Good to know you, son,” Ignatius said, offering his hand to Joe.

“Good to know you too,” Joe replied grasping the man’s hand with a firm grip. Joe winced as Ignatius squeezed harder than Joe expected.

“So, did you pick up a souvenir at the gift shop?” Ignatius asked, making polite conversation.

“Nah,” Joe said. “Say, doesn’t this place close soon?” he asked, thinking he was doing his part in securing some alone time with Magic.

“Aye, it does. But not to worry. I lock up most nights. Besides there’s always a bit of maintenance to be done after hours.”

Desperation flooded Joe. It did not appear that Ignatius was going to leave anytime soon. “Ah. Great. Say, do you need a hand with anything?”

“Why that’s right kind of you son. I might need a hand at that. But first, I think we have some business to attend to. Isn’t that right Katarina?”

“You’re sure we’re alone?” Katarina asked Ignatius, peering around the room.

“Perfectly,” he replied with confidence. “Besides, this is as private as I want to get. Whatever it is that has you out of your comfortable abode I want to be plainly visible in a public place.”

“Do you have something to hide Ignatius?” Katarina asked, a stern gaze etched into her face.

“Not a thing. But I won’t be having any of what happened last time. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“As long as you are honest and forthcoming with us Ignatius I can promise no harm will come to you on our account,” Katarina said soothingly.

“I aim to keep it that way, just be sure to keep up your end of the bargin.”

Katarina nodded in assent.

“What’s going on here?” Joe asked. “Who is this guy?”

Katarina turned to Joe, surprise on his face. “I thought you knew. This is the man we came here to meet.”

Joe was dumbfounded. “You mean… . But what about… ? We aren’t here to meet with Magic?” Joe cried incredulously.

“The horse?” Ignatius barked out a laugh.

“You thought we were here to meet with that wooden horse?”

“Well … yeah. I thought it wasn’t really a wooden carousel horse at all, but a unicorn in disguise.”

Ignatius held his belly as he howled with laughter. Katarina put her hand over her mouth trying to stifle a laugh of her own. Joe’s face began to redden. “You can’t blame me. What I’ve seen today it made sense.”

“Is that why you were so eager to ride that horse?” Katarina asked a laugh caught in her throat.

“Yeah,” Joe said.

“And why you were talking to it while we were riding?” she continued.

“Yeah,” Joe responded dejectedly. Ignatius bent over, putting his hands on his knees, and guffawed loud and long.

“It’s not that funny,” Joe muttered defensively.

Katarina laughed daintily despite herself. “It is a bit funny Joe.”

“Son, you’ll look back on this day and laugh,” Ignatius said wiping tears from his eyes. “You’re alright. A little punchy, but you’re alright in my book,” Ignatius said slapping Joe heartily on the back. “Now what did you all want with me?” he said in strict seriousness.

“It’s about your former mentor,” Katarina replied.

Ignatius groaned. “I figured as much. I curse the day I met the man,” he said and spat on the ground.

“What can you tell me about what he is up to these days.”

“Nothing. I broke ties with him long ago. You know that better than anyone.”

“I do, but you know him better than anyone alive. Don’t tell me you can’t at least guess, nor that you haven’t heard something of him.”

“Truly, I’ve heard nothing of him in at least fifty years. He went underground and no one’s heard of him.”

“Well what do you think he’s up to?”

Ignatius sighed, “Probably the same thing he’s been up to all his life. He’s trying to secure security through power. I’ve told you before he’s not out for world domination, at least not in your usual sense. He’s just looking for a place where he can be left alone to live in peace.”

“And yet every time he has popped his little head up out of his secure little nest he’s usually raising cain.”

“He thinks the best way to be left alone is to amass power and intimidate people. That’s why I broke ties with him. I got tired of all the posturing and general mean spiritedness. There’s more to life than what he’s up to.”

Joe was doing his best to follow along with the conversation but clearly he was missing some crucial information. His patience was running thin and just as he was about to interject with a question Ignatius asked, “Why? What has he done this time that you come looking for me?”

Katarina nodded to Joe. “Joseph here has a little problem, and I think Sikander is behind it.”

Ignatius eyed Joe with curiosity. “So what’s the problem then?”

“I’m stuck in Salem,” Joe said curtly.

Ignatius raised a questioning eyebrow, “Stuck?”

“When I tried to leave I ran into an invisible wall which other people were able to cross. Besides that there have been a string of coincidences getting in my way.”

Ignatius whistled. “Why do you want to leave so bad in the first place? These things sometimes wear off you know.”

“For starters I’m not from around here, and I need to get back home, back to my life and my business. Additionally there is,” Joe looked pointed at Katarina, “or was a giant trying to kill me.”

Ignatius, looking alarmed, turned to Katarina and asked, “What makes you think Sikander has anything to do with this?”

“Joseph is Helmut Krummhorn’s descendant,” she sated mater-of-factly.

Ignatius whipped his head around and looked at Joe with renewed interest. “That sounds about right actually.”

“We don’t know any of this for certain,” Joe protested.

“We know that someone thinks Joseph is Helmut Krummhorn’s descendant,” Katarina corrected. “Joseph requires more proof.”

“I’m not one to doubt that Sikander could do something like this, but old Helmut has to have had a lot of descendants by now. Why Joe?” Ignatius asked, looking between Katarina and Joe.

Katarina gave Joe a meaningful look but when he remained silent and stony faced she answered, “Joseph has been unwittingly reproducing some of Helmut’s figures and diagrams. His company logo is Helmut’s sigil, and he’s publicly displayed the frontispiece to one of Helmut’s books.”

Ignatius whistled again. “No kidding? You’ve got moxie kid, I’ll give you that.” When Ignatius saw Joe’s blank look he added, “Either that or you don’t have a clue who or what you are dealing with.”

“Look, it was just a fluke alright. For all I knew they were just doodles I came up with. I didn’t know they bore any meaning to anyone else,” Joe said defensively.

“It’s okay son. It’s okay. All of us have blundered into things we wish we wouldn’t have. It’s part of what makes us human,” Ignatius said soothingly.

Joe eyed him suspiciously. “I got the impression from Katarina that her and her kind aren’t exactly human.”

Ignatius looked over at Katarina. “Still on that same soapbox? Just because we are a little different doesn’t mean we aren’t human.”

“This is neither the time, nor the place. What we need to know is if this really is Sikander’s work.”

Ignatius shrugged. “It could be. Like I said, it sounds about right.”

“Just who is this Sikander anyway?” Joe interrupted.

Ignatius looked at his watch. “Look, I can stick around a little after hours without rousing suspicion, but we’re coming up hard against that limit.” Katarina gave him an icy stare. “I gather that you have more questions to ask of me, so let’s go somewhere else.” He looked at Katarina, “I’d like to keep my job, if you don’t mind.”