rdm on Nostr: I'm sitting on the loungeroom floor, trying to work out the geometry of how my new ...

I'm sitting on the loungeroom floor, trying to work out the geometry of how my new office chair fits together. The instructions, such as they are, appear to be a sixth generation mimeograph of the original which was written in a combination of Finnish and Spanish. And that's the 'English' version. My Cantonese is not great, but that version makes even less sense. Whoever wrote the original, as far as I can tell, had no human language as their native tongue. Which, given who I have met through Charlie, is entirely possible.

The front door bangs open, and Charlie comes in, and flops onto the couch. After a moment, she sticks out her hand.

I get up, and get out a wine glass. She shakes her head. I get out a shot glass, and she shakes her head. So I get out a tumbler, and mix the the unholy terror she calls a drink.

A Santorini is two shots of sweet vermouth, a shot of Scotch, and a quarter shot (or in Charlie's case, a full shot) of Ouzo. All over ice, with a bit of orange zest.

She takes a generous sip of it, and sits back.

"It went badly then?" I ask gently.
"I should have asked what they were arguing about."
She's talking about the parents and aunt of our late night visitor - a kid called Gavin Jones, who apparently needs to be taught how to be a witch.
"Huh?" is my intelligent response.
"They were arguing about who should teach him. His mum is Korean, and his dad is from one of the local families. And I'm neither."
"So no student?"
"No, I'll cover the basics to get him grounded, but the serious stuff will be taken care of by both sides. I convinced them that that was the best option."
"Both sides?"
"Mum is getting an old scholar to come across from Seoul, and Dad is getting one of the local elders. I got them to agree to alternating lessons."
"How's Gavin with this?"
"Surprisingly OK. I did explain to him that there is no one true way, and what works, works. He's not so keen on two sets of extra homework."
"And for now?"
"I've given him a couple of basic exercises, and I'll go over there on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for a few weeks to get him settled."
I frown "That all sounds pretty orderly. So why the drink?"
"That was the bit that I should have asked about. Their house is haunted. Aunt Margaret has been dead for about a hundred and ten years. And she has strong opinions."

#SF #SFF #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting #CharlieAndToby #UrbanFantasy