The little man shook his head.
“Wrong.”
“But . . .”
“What I am is drunk as a skunk!”
This last was accompanied by a conspiratorial wink.
“Drunk?!” I echoed.
Kalvin shrugged.
“What do you expect? I crawled into the bottle years ago. I guess you could say I’m a Djin Rummy.” Whether my mouth was open from astonishment or to say something, I’m not sure but I finally caught the twinkle in his eye.
“Djin rummy. Cute. This is a gag, right?”
“Right as rain!” the Djin acknowledged, beaming at me with a disarming smile. “Had you going for a minute, didn’t I?”
I started to nod, but he was still going strong.
“Thought we might as well get started on the right foot. I figure anyone who owns me has got to have a sense of humor. Might as well find out first thing, ya know? Say, what’s yer name, anyway?”
He was talking so fast I almost missed the opening. In fact, I would have if he hadn’t paused and looked expectantly at me.
“What? Oh! I’m Skeeve. I . . .”
“Skeeve, huh? Funny name for a Pervert.”
My response was reflexive.
“That’s Per-vect. And I’m not. I mean, I’m not one.”
The Djin cocked his head and squinted at me. “Really? You sure look like one. Besides, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t a Perver . . . excuse me, Pervect . . . who would argue the difference.”
It was sort of a compliment. Anyway, I took it as one. It’s always nice to know when your spells are working. “It’s a disguise,” I said. “I figured it was the only way to operate on Perv without getting hassled by the natives.”
“Perv!”
Kalvin seemed genuinely upset. “By the gods, Affendi, what are we doing here?”