Soul Guardian

Chapter 40: Playing Catch Up

“We need to find a tutor for Six.” Bael said when he got home. “According to her transcripts Mike hasn’t taken her to school for over two years. I lied and said she had been homeschooled but that just buys us time.”

“Who do you suggest?” Maharet asked from her chair in the living room. “We’ve only got a week to get her caught up before the school year starts.”

“I was thinking we could bring in a specialist.” Bael mused. “Someone from down below. There have to be plenty of scientists and mathematicians languishing away in the torture pits not doing anyone any good.”

“How about Dippel?” Maharet suggested. “He’s good at biology and anatomy.”

“Too Frankenstein, if we let her study with him we’ll be neck deep in mix and match monsters. But on the flip side at least we won’t have to worry about her making new friends...” Bael mused. “No, Dippel is out. But what about Jack Parsons? He’s literally a rocket scientist.”

Maharet was already shaking her head. “We met back when he and Hubbard were trying to summon Babylon. He’s hell to work with.” Another name came to her, someone she knew would play ball. “What about Vlad Demison? He’s smart, good at math and biology. He’s perfect.”

“That’s the two headed dog guy, right? I love him. He sold his soul to a friend of mine to become a world renowned surgeon. He used to do a pretty good comedy routine too, he had the audience in stitches.” Bael chuckled. “I’ll go down to the basement and summon him up if you go get the books.”

“Books?” Maharet asked, reaching over to grab the list from Bael. “She’s nine, how many books can she need?”

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Granny’s world was in disarray. Ever since that little girl had paid him a visit the books had been restless, even going so far as to venture from the back stacks on their own and create displays of “staff favorites” in an attempt to leave.

“Nobody’s favorite book is a thesaurus!” Granny argued with a thick leather backed tome as he tried to wrestle it back to the shelf where it belonged. “Especially an out of date dinosaur like you!”

But the book wouldn’t budge. It knew in its heart that someone somewhere was looking for another word for “amazing” and it would be the one to help them. And that the experience would be awesome, incredible, and wonderful.

“Fine then.” Granny gave up trying to move the stubborn book. “It doesn’t make any difference anyways. Nobody is going to buy you.” He turned to go back to his chair by the fire and almost ran straight into Maharet. He froze in place from the surprise of suddenly realizing that he wasn’t alone.

“I require some books.” She said, handing over a list to the still speechless werewolf. “Used books would be the best.”

“Sorry about that. I didn’t hear you come in.” Granny looked accusingly at the bell over the door. For some reason it hadn’t chimed to warn him that there were customers. “But might I suggest new additions, some of these older used books can be a bit... unruly.”

That was an understatement, a first edition of White Fang had taken a bite at him earlier that morning when he tried to wrestle it out of the children's section and The Lord of the Flies had been doing its best to inspire the other books to anarchy. He only hoped that wherever his copy of The Prince by Machiavelli had gotten off to it wasn’t plotting some kind of terrible revenge.

“My daughter requested used books only and that they come from this shop.” Maharet picked up the thesaurus and flipped through the pages. “And believe me when she sets her mind on something she can be quite… persistent, determined, dogged even.”

“Ah, yes. A trait that she no doubt gets from her mother.” Granny said with a nervous laugh. “I’ll go get them for you. The books. In the back stacks.”

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