Balthazar Fabuloso in the Lair of the Humbugs by I. J. Brindle

Author:I. J. Brindle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

19. Stuffy’s Storage

Enveloped in its own personal cloud of exhaust and engine fumes, Ignatius’s old junker panted and wheezed along beside the vast frozen expanse of Lake Ontario, the gray ice sprinkled like confetti with skaters taking advantage of the record-breaking cold. Shoreside, bundled-up tourists poked along the lakefront stores, window-shopping for artisanal pottery, maple fudge, faux-beaver-fur potholders and other regional specialties. They had been driving for some time in silence, Ignatius studying Balthazar out of the corner of his eye.

“So are you going to tell me what that old fart was after, or are you going to make me guess?”

“Who . . .” Balthazar started. “Oh, you mean the Hogsthrottles?”

“No, before that. The angry, kilt-wearing, geriatric Scottish bastard. What did he want? Did he ask about me?”

Balthazar frowned. “I didn’t see anyone like that.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Ignatius muttered.

Hooking a left, the car shuddered inland and uphill toward Dalhousie Street, the street that marked the boundary between the trendy tourist area and the auto-body shops and warehouses beyond—and also the street where the Magic Mansion Dinner Theater was located. Only instead of turning right on Dalhousie, the car continued uphill before making a right on Albatross Avenue and pulling up behind a large concrete lump of a building with a washed-out sign that read TU T RAGE, weathered down from the original STUFFY’S STORAGE.

“Stuffy’s?” Balthazar frowned.

“Where we used to keep the spillover from the Fantasticum. The really oversized stuff,” Ignatius explained.

“I know,” Balthazar said, shaking his head. “But dad gave up the space a couple years back.”

Nobody had been happy about the decision, but they couldn’t afford the rent on it anymore and it didn’t make sense to keep sacrificing the present for the past, Mr. and Mrs. Fabuloso had agreed.

“Apparently not,” Ignatius observed.

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.