A Twisted Riposte by Alyn Troy

Author:Alyn Troy [Troy, Alyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

“Fun shopping with Uncle Hop?” I grinned at Chaz as he flipped his chair and zapped it to small size again. I had parked in the short alley between the Hippodrome and the old bowling alley building next door.

“Fortunately, it was all indoors.” His tone didn’t sound like he had fun at all. “Umm… I’ve been meaning to ask. Why is there a bowling alley on a pier over the ocean?”

“Well, it’s not over the ocean now. When the town council put the breakwater in around the Great Depression, the sand started to build up in its shadow, right under the pier. That bumped out the shoreline, and the town council had to import sand to keep the shoreline even with the growth. So now, the shoreline at high tide is down by the coffee shop.”

“Uncle said the bowling alley has been here since the pier opened in the 1890s. Wouldn’t the boards of the bowling lanes have warped?”

“They did at first. But magic. However, with the faerock, we have to be careful. Sometimes the surges of the magical fields cause the boards to warp suddenly. If you bowl, keep your eye on the ball until the ball goes into the return chute. They’ve had to reinforce the walls to prevent the balls from being flung out from a board suddenly warping.”

The bowling alley employed younger pookahs. They excelled at magic of moving and cleaning. Their small size made them great for handing the pins and balls at the bowling alley, while hiding from mundanes.

“Ouch. Fortunately, bowling isn’t high on my list of sports.”

My phone buzzed as Chaz shut the door to the Prius. I gave it a check and had to swipe up to read the entire message.

“You don’t look happy.”

I untucked my lower lip from between my teeth. Biting my lip was a bad habit I had when I got unwanted news.

“Sorry. I found out today what Star Sinclair has been up to. Seems she’s working to get the town council to agree to dismantling the pier.”

“Ouch again. That will suck. Is it going to happen?”

“We don’t know. There are five members of the town council. I had Dick, the broker at the firm I’m with, start digging into the politics of it. He just texted that Star and one other councilmember are in agreement about the pier. They just need to get one other council member to agree to it before they put forth their plan on what comes after.”

“Plan for what?”

I shook my head. “Dick doesn’t know. He’s going to dinner with one of the councilmembers at the country club tonight. He’ll let me know if he can pull anything out of him.”

“Does that explain who’s been purchasing options on the leases around here?”

Another shake of my head. Fortunately, he had been there last evening when Hop, Amanda, and I started discussing the lease issue, so Chaz was up to speed on it.

“Let’s not worry about that and go check out your new home. Shall we?”

“Please do.

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