Myth-Nomers & Im-Pervections by Robert Asprin

Chapter Eleven:

“How come I get all the hard questions?”

—O. NORTH

“SKEEVE! HEY, SKEEVE! Can ya ease up for a bit?” The words finally penetrated my self-imposed fog and I slackened my pace, letting Kalvin catch up with me.

“Whew! Thanks,” the Djin said, hovering in his now accustomed place. “I told you before I’m not real strong. Even hovering takes energy, ya know. You were really moving there.”

“Sorry,” I responded curtly, more out of habit than any thing else.

In all honesty, the Djin’s comfort was not a high priority item in my mind just then. I had had Edvik drive us back to the hotel after we left the Butterfly’s place. Instead of going on up to my room, however, I had headed off down the sidewalk. The street vendor I had spoken to earlier waved a friendly greeting, but I barely acknowledged it with a curt nod of my head. The Butterfly’s observations on my life had loosed an explosion of thoughts in my mind, and I figured maybe a brisk walk would help me sort things out.

I don’t know how long I walked before Kalvin’s plea snapped me out of my mental wheel-spinning. I had only vague recollections of shouldering my way past slower moving pedestrians and snarling at those who were quick enough to get out of my path on their own. The police would have been pleased to witness it . . . only on Perv two days and already I could walk down the street like a native.

“Look, do you want to talk about this? Maybe some place sitting down?”

I looked closer at the Djin. He really did look tired, his face streaked with sweat and his little chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Strange, I didn’t feel like I had been exerting myself at all.