The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Author:T. Kingfisher [Kingfisher, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Published: 2020-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

I woke up with ten minutes to spare before the Wonder Museum opened. I almost went back to bed, but the irrational guilt that I hadn’t opened yesterday—despite a truly extraordinary reason!—nagged at me. I got up, ran a brush through my hair, threw on fresh clothes, and staggered out to flip the sign.

One of the regulars at the coffee shop came by to ask why we’d been closed yesterday. Kay was a wiry woman with short hair and an angular face. In a fanciful moment, I once compared her to one of those puzzles where you stare at the brightly colored lines and move your head around and suddenly it’s a spaceship or a cheetah or something. At the exact right angle, Kay is stunningly beautiful; then she turns her head or you blink and she goes back to being like the rest of us. It’s a neat trick.

(I mentioned this to Simon a while back, and he said those puzzles don’t work for him because of his eye and also he’s not into women, but he’d take my word for it.)

“You okay?” Kay asked. “Both you and the Hen were closed up yesterday. Bryce was convinced you’d both been murdered.”

“Had to run Simon to the ER. He had an allergic reaction to one of the flavored syrups, and I know that sounds just too stupid for words, but I went over to get my morning coffee and he’d keeled over behind the counter.”

“My God!”

“I know, right?” I paused. “Um… this is going to sound horribly insensitive, but I slept later than I should have. Could I beg you to grab me a cup from next door and bring it back?”

“Of course,” said Kay, as somberly as if I were entrusting her to throw a magic ring into a volcano.

She came back with coffee before I woke up enough to worry that Simon wouldn’t remember the absurd cover story we’d come up with, but nothing in Kay’s manner indicated that he’d told her I was lying. Instead she set the coffee down and said, “He looks pretty ragged.”

“Simon?” I raised my eyebrows. “Well, he was pretty knocked down by the allergies, but he’s probably still better dressed than I’ll ever be.”

Kay laughed. “How’s your uncle?”

“Oh, you know. Just out of surgery. Mom says it went well, but it’s early yet.”

Kay nodded. I thanked her for the coffee and she went back next door to drink her own coffee and work.

It was a slow morning, thank God. Mr. Bryce came in and told me that next time I had to leave, he’d be happy to run the museum. I smiled and thanked him and silently vowed to do so over my dead body. The UPS guy had left a box yesterday, which, upon opening, was nothing but birdhouse gourds and dried cane toads. I didn’t even bother to catalog them individually, just noted them as toads, lot of 8 and gourds, lot of 4. My spreadsheet was getting lengthy.

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.