“Did you have much trouble getting out of your enlistment?” Tananda was sayin’ after we finish explainin’ why we are back.
“Not really,” Nunzio sez, refillin’ his goblet from a pitcher of Big Julie’s wine. “Oh, eventually we had to call in General Badaxe to approve it, but after we told him we were on a special assignment for Skeeve, he signed the papers without asking any more questions. The only problem we had was that they really wanted us to stay … right. Lieutenant?”
He starts to grin at me, then notices from the look on my face that I am not in a mood to be kidded.
“Fortunately,” he continues hastily, “the bait they kept offering was to promote us even higher … which, to say the least, was a temptation we had no difficulty resisting.”
What my cousin is carefully omittin’ from his report is that the real problem we had with leavin’ wasn’t with the army … it was with our crew. Speakin’ for myself, I hadn’t realized how much they all meant to me until our discharges had been approved and we was ready to say goodbye. I guess it wasn’t until then that it hit me that I’d probably never see any of them again.
“Goodbye, Guido,” Spellin’ Bee had said, shakin’ my hand solemnly. “I really appreciate the help you’ve given me with my magik. I guess I’ve been so caught up learning the techniques that I’ve never stopped to think of all the ways it can actually be applied.”
“That’s nothin’,” I sez, feelin’ a little embarrassed. “When you get out, look us up and I’ll introduce you to the Boss. He knows a lot more about that magik stuff than I do, and I don’t think he’ll mind givin’ you a few pointers.”