Quick Fix by Linda Grimes

Author:Linda Grimes [Grimes, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Dad had fixed up the basement ages ago to look like an Irish pub. A little on the dim and shabby side, with the unmistakable cachet of Guinness on tap, it was as wholly welcoming as Dad himself. As I suspected, he was behind the bar, having already dropped his Moe Howard aura. He always chose one of the Three Stooges, much to my mother’s dismay; truth was, he’d rather play host and bartender than try to fool anyone for long.

I perched myself on a bar stool next to JFK and said, “Manhattan. Two cherries.” I didn’t care how sissy Clint would look sucking the cherries off the stems. At the next gong I was going to reveal my freckles, and then somebody would be sure to guess me anyway, so it really didn’t matter.

Dad grabbed a shaker, added ice, bourbon, sweet vermouth, and a hint of bitters, and did his special mix-it-up dance, rattling the drink like it was a maraca and he was Carmen Miranda. “Happiest sound in the world, isn’t it, Mr. Eastwood?” he said with a wink.

“Right now I’d have to agree with you.” I kept in character, in case JFK was Mom. She got really pissed off if we didn’t take the game seriously, Dad excepted.

“Here you go, sweetie pie. Two cherries, with stems.” He leaned over the bar and kissed my forehead. I was going to assume he’d figured out who I was.

“What gave me away?”

“Two cherries. You always specify.”

The gong went off above us.

“Thank God,” I said, and let my freckles loose. I threw in my eyes for good measure. Since Dad had technically outed me, I could justifiably drop the whole persona, but then my pants would fall off when I stood up, so I decided to keep playing until I was back upstairs. It wasn’t like Dad would tell on me.

JFK was suddenly bald, with a recognizable constellation of sunspots on his pate.

“Hi, Uncle Joe. Gotcha,” I said. Uncle Joe was Dad’s fraternity brother. A lot of adaptors wind up going to the same universities—life is easier when you’re not alone in your weirdness. He’d been a regular fixture at Dad’s basement bar for as long as I could remember.

“Damn. Wish I could return the favor, but I’m a little hazy on which Halligan hooligan you are.” He looked a little hazy, period. He’d probably been sitting there, quaffing his favorite brew, since the party started. You’d think the kiss, or even my freckles, would’ve given it away, but Uncle Joe knew Dad was as likely to kiss my brothers as me, and the freckles were probably a bit blurry to him at the moment.

“So, where’s that hot redhead you came with? She ditch you for somebody better looking?”

“Spat me out like a dirty stream of tobacco juice. Ran off with a doctor. Women,” I said with mock disgust.

Molly had left with a doctor of sorts, smuggled out the back door with James. They were on the way back to his lab, where he would work on speeding up Molly’s change-back.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.