Chapter 22

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Beverley Ross

Housekeeper and gardener, 5’-7’’ (1.70 meters), 130 pounds (59 kg) or so, 43 years old, short black hair, gray eyes, strong Talent

Alicia & Angela

Yuryi and Yvonne’s daughters, 7 pounds (3.2 kg) eavh, pink blankets, black hair

Yuryi Still has the Narrative

Arriving at the house, I passed us and the Suburban through the Defensive Shell, which was still in place. I would leave it there for now. In the house, Yvonne was a bit shocked at its conditions and the things left behind.

“We’ll have a lot of work to get this place ready to live here. Part of it can be done by Magic. Other things will need to be hauled away to the dump,” I told her, as we made our way to the den. I had explained where the portal was on the way here. Yvonne was still surprised when we walked through it, and she found herself in the music room of the Duluth house. We had arrived well ahead of lunchtime and the scheduled meeting because of the time difference in the two locations. We went up to our bedroom to unpack our things and put them away for now. Everyone was surprised when we came down for lunch.

“How long have you been back?” several of them asked on seeing us.

“Only a short time. We unpacked before coming down,” Yvonne told them. Next came the important question.

“But how did you get here? No one called from the airport to be picked up, and no one arrived by taxi,” Helga asked.

“We have a direct connection to the house that we bought near Atlanta,” I told them to surprised looks.

“Just what is this ‘direct connection’?” the twins asked, as they joined us for lunch.

“It’s something called a ‘portal’,” I told them. “Everything will be explained after lunch. Let’s all eat now, and I will fill you in when we are finished,” I told them. Everyone sat down and ate, but quicker than they normally did. Very shortly, everyone was sitting there staring at Yvonne and me, and I started my explanation.

“Shortly after we arrived in Atlanta, we went to see the Dragon Queen of the West. She invited us to stay at her house while there. Within a few days, we were married, and there was a grand party. Yvonne started working on their investments, and I received a book of Magic medical spells to study. Later, we went with the Queen to see her OB/GYN, and she confirmed that Yvonne is pregnant with twin daughters.

“About this time, we decided to buy a house there, and a friend took us to look at one they knew about. It is a rather old house and sits on six acres of land. After visiting the owner, we arranged to buy the house. We closed on it on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning, that is this morning, another friend helped me create a portal between that house and the music room here in this house. The other house is just a step away,” I finished to surprised expressions on everyone’s face.

“A step away!” Ilene asked. “Atlanta is close to a thousand miles (1600 km) away. How can it be a step away?” she demanded.

“Magic,” I told her and the others. “Come with me and see,” I invited. Everyone was instantly up and followed Yvonne and me to the music room.

On entering the room, I activated the portal surprising the others when a doorway appeared in the wall, and they could see a room on the other side.

“Follow me,” I told them, and Yvonne and I stepped through the opening and into the den of the Atlanta house. We were hesitantly followed by the others, who stopped to look around at where they were.

“And this is Atlanta?” Nora asked.

“Actually, we are near a medium size town a number of miles east of Atlanta proper. Can you feel the difference in the temperature or the Magic?” I asked as most of those working for me had, at least, a small Talent.

“Now that you mention it, yes, I can feel the difference,” Ingrid said after a few seconds.

“And just how old is this house?” Helga asked.

“It was built in the 20s. That’s the 1920s,” I added.

“While we are here, everyone look around at the condition of the different areas, as I will want suggestions on what you consider necessary to change or update. Yes, I already know that the floors will need to be sanded and refinished, and that some of the wallpaper will need to be replaced,” I told them.

They all spread out and began looking at their areas of interest. The cooks, all four of them, headed for the kitchen. The others split up the areas and went to look at the ones they took care of. Carl headed for the front door to go outside. He returned after fifteen minutes or so smiling.

“You have a beautifully landscaped property here, Yuryi,” he told me.

Olaf had gone to the basement to look at things, something that I hadn’t done yet but needed to do. One look around down there was enough to convince us that we were lucky.

“The furnace appears to be about five years old or so, and the water heater has an installation tag dated four years ago. What did they do for air conditioning, as they heat with radiators?” Olaf asked.

“I guess they were used to the heat. They are quite old after all, and they have ceiling fans in most of the rooms. When we arrived in Atlanta, we had the same question. The Dragon Queen introduced us to the Air Change spell. With it, they pull cold winter air to the house or rooms here and send the hot summer air to replace it. Of course, you need a rather strong Talent to do that,” I told him.

On returning from the basement, Olaf and I were assaulted by the four cooks. Helga was the spokesperson.

“Tell me that no one has been living here or cooking on that antique stove for some time,” she demanded in an angry voice.

“The Morgans, Daniel and Theresa, lived here until a couple of days ago. I’m sure that she cooked on that stove all of the time,” I told her.

“That thing is dangerous. They were taken out of use decades ago. The design was obsolete a half century ago. I can’t believe that anyone would still be using one,” she told me, still upset.

“So, we need a new stove. You can go with me when I go to look for one,” I told her. This seemed to mollify all of the cooks.

“Yvonne has a refrigerator and other household furnishings in storage. We can have them shipped here after the other work is nearly finished,” I added.

“Who will be working here?” was the next question they brought up. I didn’t have an answer.

“I haven’t decided yet. I’ll need to consult Yvonne to see how long and how often we may be staying here. Perhaps, I should hire someone to stay here full time to keep an eye on the house and property, but I’m not sure yet,” I told them.

“For a time, it may be easier to return to the Duluth house for meals and other things,” Olaf suggested. We remained there until everyone had a chance to check on their areas before returning to the main house.

Yvonne hadn’t had much time to talk to her daughters, as they had quickly returned to the main house after seeing the shape the new house was in. On returning, she went to speak to them. She joined me later to inform me what she had learned.

“They took the SAT on the 10th of May. They said that it seemed much easier after the studying, but they aren’t sure how well they did. It will be a few weeks before they receive the test results,” she told me. Grigor had left me a note saying that he had done his best, and they seemed to do well on the practice tests that he had given them. He wished them well.

In the meantime, I had been on the computer looking for people who refinish floors, and others who do wallpaper work in the Atlanta area. Fortunately, I was able to find both in the area not far from Maddy’s house and our new house. I arranged to have the floor done first, and then the wallpaper would be installed after I had gone through and used my Magic to repair and renew the finish on the remaining woodwork of the house, except for the kitchen.

Later, Helga went with me to look at stoves, new cabinets, and counter tops for the kitchen. With all of this work going on, I had lowered the Defensive Shell and replaced it with the wards that I use around my building as perimeter wards. I also had another ward around the house. This required that I be there to lower the wards for the workmen and their vehicles to access the house and the property.

We had also arranged for Yvonne’s household goods to be shipped to the new house. They were scheduled to arrive once most of the other work was nearly finished. We had also discovered, much to our regret, that the bathrooms and the septic system needed to be upgraded. The company managed to fit this in between some of the other work. None of this had been inexpensive, but it was a cost when moving into an older house, and it wasn’t like I was poor.

The moving company eventually arrived with Yvonne’s things and unloaded them to the rooms where they would be used. They even reassembled the things they had taken apart. They were finished by mid-afternoon and departed. Carl had already been here a couple of times to cut the grass with a rented lawn tractor and to trim the trees and bushes as necessary. I was outside checking the wards and how the property looked after the moving van had left when two large commercial vans pulled up on the road near me and stopped. Several men got out of each. One man approached me to speak to me. He was a rather large fellow as were the others.

“You the new owner?” he asked, as he neared me. I was on the other side of the ward, which he couldn’t see as he had NO Talent.

“Yes, I am.”

“You have done a lot of work since moving in,” he observed.

“Quite a bit, yes. Old houses often need updating,” I told him.

“It would be too bad if your house burned down, or something happened to you or your family,” he told me. I just smiled.

“Are you suggesting that there is a problem?” I asked.

“Only if you don’t sell the house and property to the Developers at their price,” he told me, as he closed his right hand into a fist and showed it to me. I smiled even more.

“Why don’t you boys get back in your vans and leave before something happens to you,” I told him with an even bigger smile.

“Listen, asshole, you don’t know who you are fucking with,” he snarled in anger.

“NO, you don’t know who or what you are trying to fuck with,” I told him, just before transforming into Kekarnyek at the twenty-five-foot-tall level and breathing Dragon Fire over their heads.

“If I’m not here, there are six other Dragons who can be here, and that presumes you can get through this,” I told them, as I activated the Defensive Shell and turned it silver, so they could see it. They weren’t really watching anymore, as they were too busy clawing their way back into the vans, which pulled out as soon as they were loaded. I was sure they wouldn’t be back, but left the Defensive Shell up for the remainder of the day but not silvered. When I related this to those working for me and to Maddy and the other Dragons, they all had a good laugh.

The twins received their scores from the SAT after two and a half weeks, on 27 May. Ilene had scored 1348, and Julia scored 1352. These scores were good enough to get them into college. A few weeks later they began to receive acceptance letters from several colleges. They went through them and considered two of them: Lake Superior College, and the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

They made their decision after checking out both of them on the internet. Lake Superior College was a two year school, and their curriculum did not appeal to them. The University of Minnesota, Duluth was much better. To start with, it was a four year school. They chose its Labovitz School of Business and Economics to attend, and Human Resource Management and Management as Majors with Business Administration for their minors.

They hadn’t scored high enough to be eligible for scholarships, but they could apply to their grants program and for Federal Student Assistance. The site indicated that the average cost per year for Minnesota residents was about $28,000. Assistance would reduce that. After receiving their letters and making up their minds, they went on the internet to put in their applications for admission.

Things finally began to wind down, as the various updates, repairs and modifications to the house were completed. In my spare time, I had been looking for someone to stay at the house and keep it reasonably clean when we weren’t there, and to help out when we were, especially after the twins were born. To do this, I needed someone who had a strong Talent so they could get through the wards around the house and the property. So far, my search hadn’t been very productive.

Finally, I asked Maddy if she could recommend anyone with a good Talent who needed a job. She smiled big time on hearing this.

“Yes, there is a young man, a near Dragon, who has worked for us for two years or so. His mother has a strong Talent and knows a lot of Magic. The Dragon who got her pregnant left her a house and a good bit of money. Recently, she and several of her neighbors lost their nice houses to a road expansion project. While they were all paid for their houses and property, she now lives in an apartment and is very unhappy. She might consider working for you,” she told me.

The woman’s name was Beverley Ross. She was 43 years old, 5’-7’’ tall, and 130 pounds or so. She has short black hair and gray eyes. I also learned that she had concentrated most of her Magic to growing plants, especially those difficult to propagate successfully. I met the lady through her son, Samuel, and we had a very productive conversation. I explained what I was looking for, and where we lived. She indicated that she was interested but wanted to see the house and grounds. We arranged to meet the next day at the house at 10:00 AM.

Yvonne was there with me the next morning when Beverley arrived in her minivan. I lowered the ward at the driveway for her to enter. She had obviously detected the wards around the property, as she had stopped outside of them. She pulled up behind our new Suburban.

“You have a large property here,” she said on looking around after exiting the vehicle. “And strong wards around it,” she added with a smile.

“The Developers of the subdivision wanted this property. The previous owner refused to sell it to them. They, or rather their people, tried to persuade me to sell it to them at their price, but my Dragon, Kekarnyek, dissuaded their continued efforts,” I told her before remembering Yvonne.

“Oh! This is my wife, Yvonne,” I added turning to Yvonne. “This is Beverley Ross. She is considering being our housekeeper,” I told her. The two of them shook hands, but Beverley had a confused look on her face.