Chapter 7

The following characters appear in this chapter:

Frida

Maid, returns from vacation, 5’-6’’ tall (1.68 meters), 135 pounds (61 kg), medium size breasts, 23 years old, long blond hair, deep blue eyes, rather cute

Mr. Sinclair

Apartment manager, 5’-9’’ tall (1.75 meters), 185 pounds (84 kg), 48 years old, partly bald with a fringe of gray hair. Brown eyes

Knut Melnikova

Thug, chasing Yvonne, 6’-5’’ tall (1.96 Meters), 250 pounds plus (114 kg), 36 years old, long black hair, hazel eyes

Stephen Johanson

Yvonne’s boss, heart attack victim, older man in his fifties

Caroline Johanson

Stephen’s wife, 5’-7’’ tall (1.70 meters), 155 pounds (70 kg), medium breasts, 52 years old, shoulder length hair gone gray, blue eyes

Doctor Bob

Surgeon, 5’-11’’ tall (1.80 meters) 190 pounds (86 kg) 38 years old, dark blond hair, blue eyes

Yuryi Still has the Narrative

It was late before we were up in the morning and just after 10:30 before we reached the breakfast room to eat. We had just sat down to breakfast when Frida, the third maid, returned from vacation.

“Good morning, Master Yuryi,” she said on entering the room with her suitcase. On looking around at all of the strangers sitting in there with me, she added, “and guests!” in a surprised voice.

“This is Frida, the maid who was on vacation,” I told the others before turning to her.

“This is Yvonne Strupinski and her daughters, Ilene and Julia,” I told her in introduction, and asked, “How was your vacation?”

“Oh, the vacation was alright, sir, but the trip back was long and troubled. I was at the airport for three days. There are still a number of major airports that are snowed-in. Flights are overbooked and backed up. There aren’t enough airplanes, as some are still grounded at the snowed-in airports.

“The interstates are still impassable in many states. It snowed as far south as Florida, and the storm traveled all of the way to the East Coast. New England is still snowed-in. I was lucky to get out today. Someone who was on my flight apparently had an accident on the way to the airport. I got their seat, as I was camped out at the airport and was on the standby list. The airport was crowded and the concessions were running short of food. NO MORE winter travel for me. I’ll wait until summer, or at least, late spring before I go anywhere again,” she told us in a determined voice.

“You seem very well informed,” Yvonne said on hearing all of that.

“There wasn’t anything much to do but watch the news and the weather reports on the big television at the airport.” Frida told her. She sounded worn out.

“Get something to eat, and then get some sleep,” I told her. “There isn’t much going on here today,” I added.

“Thank you, Master Yuryi,” she said before going to the kitchen, leaving her suitcase in the breakfast room.

“When are we leaving to get our things?” Ilene asked following that.

“After we eat,” Yvonne told her impatient daughter. Frida soon returned with her meal.

“How did you get here from the airport?” I asked her after she was seated at the table.

“I called Kurt. He was able to get to the airport and pick me up. It must have snowed again last night, as all of the roads had fresh snow on them,” she told us. I hadn’t checked yet today so this was news.

“We will be going in the pickup truck then,” I told the others on hearing this. The twins frowned on hearing that, as they had expected to be traveling in a large SUV.

It was still cold outside when we were ready to leave some time after 11:00 o’clock. The new snow showed no signs of melting today, so it was probably still well below freezing.

“I need to call Paul,” I told Yvonne on the way to the truck. After getting it started, I called him while the truck warmed up.

“Morning, Yuryi,” he said on answering.

“Morning, Paul. How are things at the building?” I asked.

“A bit slow. Not all of the stores are open, and there haven’t been many customers yet today,” he told me. “It may improve this afternoon if the snow melts some,” he added hopefully.

“Sounds about usual for when it snows. I’ll try to get by later today. I’m a bit busy this morning,” I told him before disconnecting. The ride to Yvonne’s apartment was mostly uneventful. There wasn’t much ice on the roads under the snow, so we had little trouble. The parking lot at the apartment was more crowded than yesterday, but we were able to park in her spot without any trouble.

As we approached her apartment door, Yvonne brought her keys out to open the door. The door, however, wasn’t locked and started to open as she went to insert the key in the lock.

“What...!” she started to say, but I was already ahead of her.

“Get behind me,” I immediately told her and the twins.

“What’s the matter?” Ilene asked starting to move forward to join her Mother.

“Get Behind Me!” I growled at all of them in a demanding tone of voice. I already had a ward around me and physically moved a shocked Yvonne behind me while pushing the twins back, and then moving into the doorway. A scan with my Magic senses revealed that no one was presently in the apartment, but at least, three men had been in there recently.

“Alright, no one is in there presently, but at least, three men were here since we left yesterday,” I told them and moved aside so they could enter.

“Oh my God!” Yvonne exclaimed in shock on entering and looking around.

“Good grief!” the twins said echoing her, as they too saw what had been done to the apartment.

The apartment was a disaster. There was graffiti sprayed on all of the walls that we could see and probably also in the other rooms. There were broken furniture and ripped up cushions and pillows on the upholstered furniture. The television was trashed as was the music system and the music disks were scattered over the area out of their cases.

“Who would do something like this?” Yvonne asked, all choked up.

“It was Knut Malnikova. This is his kind of warning and revenge,” the twins told their mother in knowing voices,

“It will take forever to get this fixed up, and we haven’t even seen the other rooms yet,” Yvonne said in a sad voice.

“Why don’t you go check the other rooms while I deal with the area out here,” I told them. The twins quickly moved to check their room, while Yvonne went to check her room and the bath.

The Magic was strong in this area of the city, as it wasn’t far from where I had my building. This wasn’t true for all of the city, only certain parts. I was repairing a piece of the broken furniture with a spell when the others returned.

“How did...!” Yvonne started on returning, while the twins looked around them in shocked surprise.

“Just a little Magic,” I told her and them. “There was too much to do to use repair spells on everything. I used spells to return most of the damaged areas and the upholstered furniture to their previous condition. For some of the furniture, I am using repair spells,” I told them as I finished working on a chair.

“You can do something like that?” Yvonne asked.

“Certainly,” I told her. “How are the other rooms?” I asked.

“About as bad as this area was,” she told me with a sigh.

“I’ll have a look at them after I finish here and look at the kitchen,” I told her.

“What about our clothing and things?” the twins demanded in upset voices.

“I will look at them shortly,” I told them. Yvonne had gone to look at the kitchen. I joined her there shortly.

“They broke most of the dishes, even the plastic ones, and some of the small appliances,” she told me. I used the spell to return most of the things to their previous condition. Not new, but the condition they were in before being broken. I also used a spell that removed all of the paint used for the graffiti from the walls and sent it to those who had sprayed it, just as I had the walls in the other areas. Somewhere, there were a number of people covered in their own paint.

The bedrooms and the bath were basically the same as the other areas, and I used the same spells to restore them. There were different spells used to repair the mattresses and the clothing. We had been there for well over an hour doing all of this before someone knocked on the front door of the apartment. Yvonne went to answer it.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Sinclair,” I heard her say before joining her.

“Yuryi, this is Mr. Sinclair, the building manager,” she informed me as I joined her.

“YOU will be responsible for the repair of all of the damage to the apartment. You shouldn’t have left the apartment door unlocked,” he told her in an officious voice. She looked stricken on hearing this.

“Damage! What damage?” I asked.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“This is my friend, Yuryi. He came with us to help move some of our things,” Yvonne told him.

“The damage to the walls and other things,” he said, as if it was obvious.

“Again, what damage?” I asked, as he moved past Yvonne to point out what he meant. He stopped about three feet (0.9 meters) into the apartment and stared around in shock.

“But ... but!” he said in amazement. “This apartment was a disaster this morning,” he said in disbelief.

“You are certain it was this apartment?” I asked. He quickly turned to look at the number on the door.

“Yes ... yes, it was definitely this apartment. How could it have been repaired so quickly?” he wondered in an amazed voice.

“As you can see, there is little if any damage to the apartment. You must be mistaken,” I told him.

“What about the other rooms? They were heavily damaged also,” he said, but in an unsure voice. I shrugged.

“Look for yourself,” I told him. He checked each of the rooms and other areas of the apartment and was finally satisfied.

“Maybe it was another apartment,” he finally admitted. “But which one? I’ll need to check each apartment in all of the buildings,” he said in a worried voice before leaving. Yvonne fell into my arms after I closed the door.

“Thank you, Yuryi. I don’t know what I would have done without you,” she told me before I kissed her. We were soon interrupted by the twins.

“We need to move our things out of here before those assholes come back. There is no telling what they will do the second time,” they told us.

“There won’t be a second time. I’ll cast a ward around the apartment. No one will be able to enter it without me to lower the ward. I probably should have done that when we were here yesterday, but it didn’t seem necessary at the time,” I told them and Yvonne.

“We still want to move most of our things out of here today. Will we be able to move all of it in your truck?” they asked.

“In the truck?” I asked.

“Yes, how else could you move it?” Julia asked.

“The same way that I moved your mother’s things,” I replied.

“Oh! ... OH!” they said remembering how I had moved their clothes at the building.

“Go and put everything in bundles and the small things in boxes or suitcases, and I’ll move it to your rooms at the house,” I told them. They hurried off to prepare their things.

“What about the furniture, mattresses, and appliances?” I asked Yvonne, once they were out of hearing.

“Most of the furniture, beds and mattresses are mine as well as the refrigerator and the electrical things. The range belongs to the apartment as do the fixtures except for the movable lamps. The washer and dryer belong to me also,” she told me. “Where can I put them though?” she added.

“We can put them in storage. There are movers who can handle the job. When is your lease up?” I asked.

“The end of next month. I was going to renew it, but not now,” she told me.

“Good, there is no hurry then. They will be able to work this job in with no problem,” I assured her.

The twins soon had their things ready to be transferred, and I started sending their clothes, books, and other things to their rooms at the house. They still had two rooms, even though they were using only one presently. There were things that I didn’t want to transfer with Magic. They were electronics, like their stereo system and the music disks, plus their DVDs and their computers, and the television that I had restored. They are all electronic, and Magic can destroy them. We would move them with the truck.

The twins had some boxes that they had cut the tape on and flattened out. They would need to be re-taped to carry anything. I called some clear plastic packing tape to me from the Timeless Zone and taped the boxes up so they could be used. The television was a different matter. It was a 48 inch (1.2 meter) flat screen model, and there were no boxes large enough for it. Instead, I wrapped it in a blanket and called some paracord to me to tie the blanket closed around it. I have a number of things stored in the Timeless Zone for repairs and other emergencies.