Myth-Nomers & Im-Pervections by Robert Asprin

“He raised a good point, though,” the Djin continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Just where are we going, anyway?”

“Down the street.”

“I meant, ‘what’s our destination?’ I thought you said the phone book was no help.”

Despite its millions of inhabitants, the Pervish phone book we found had turned out to have less than a dozen pages. Apparently unlisted phone numbers were very big in this dimension, just one more indication of the social nature of the citizens. Of course, leafing vainly through it, it had occurred to me that Aahz had been with me off-dimension for so long that it was doubtful he would have been in the book even if it contained a full listing.

“I repeat, we’re going down the street,” I repeated. “Beyond that, I don’t know where we’re going. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Then why are we moving at all?” the Djin pressed. “Wouldn’t it be better to wait until we decided on a course of action before we started moving?”

I dodged around a slow-moving couple.

“I think better when I’m walking. Besides, I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to us by lurking suspiciously in alleys while I come up with a plan.”

“Hey, you! Hold it a minute!”

This last was blasted with such volume that it momentarily dominated the street noise. Glancing behind me, I saw a uniformed Pervect who looked like a giant bulldog with scales bearing down on me with a purposeful stride.

“What’s that?” I said, almost to myself. Of course, unlike the direct questions I had put to him, Kalvin decided to answer this one.