i bet they have invisible writing in them! magic spells! who knows what?”
zucky retrieved the three blank books she had found in the library and brought them to alexa, who was was waiting in the “drawing room”.
the drawing room was as shabby and run down as the rest of the house. but it had a fireplace, that was kept burning as best the two girls could keep it.
two sagging sofas, upholstered in scabrous brown and green, two high-backed chairs, a round table that looked like it might have been used for seances, and a battered oil lamp, comprised the furnishings of the drawing room.
alexa and zucky pulled the chairs up to the seance table, and alexa considered the books. all three had plain brown covers with no lettering, and were of the same height and width, but one was thicker than the others, almost as thick as the other two combined.
alexa picked up the thick book and flipped through it. she held the pages up to the feeble light of the oil lamp.
“i told you,” said zucky. “there is nothing in them. they are just diaries, that no one ever used.”
“i will be the judge of that,” alexa told her. “maybe if we burned then, some genies would appear!”
“don’t do that! i want to write in them!”
“oh, don’t get your knickers in a knot. i will just burn one page, to see what happens.”
and with that. alexa tore out the first page of the thick book and stood up and went over to the fireplace and tossed the page into it.
the page caught fire and burned to ashes, but nothing else happened.
“i told you,” said zucky.
“let us try one page from each book,” countered alexa. she returned to the table, and picked up one of the two thinner books. “as we tried the first page of that one, let us try the last page of this.”
and she tore out the last page of the second book and threw it in the fire, with no better results.
“what a surprise,” said zucky.
“don’t try to be sarcastic, it doesn’t suit you. i said i would try one page from each book.” alexa thought for a few seconds. “for this last book, i will take a page at random from the middle.”
“so if there is a story in invisible wirting, you will ruin it.”
alexa did not reply, but tore a page out of the middle of the third book and fed it carefully to the flame.
this time with different results.
in the suddenly bright flames the two girls beheld a grinning green creature who might have been described as a genie, a demon, a succubus, a sprite, or an imp of the perverse.
“aha!” alexa exclaimed triumphantly. “and who might you be?”
before the creature could answer, zucky asked it, “are you a genie, a demon, a succubus, a sprite, or an imp of the perverse?”
“nothing that you could put a name to,” the creature replied suavely.
“but in any case you must have a name of your own,” zucky insisted.
“josiah walter puddington.”
“that does not sound at all a proper name for a demon,” said zucky.
“oh, can’t you see that he is quizzing you!” alexa cried. “do not mind her, sir, she has no sense of humor. but come, let us get down to business.”
“and what might that business be, my dear young lady?” replied josah walter puddington.
“the business of what you can do for us. three wishes would be nice, to start off with.”
“i am afraid i can not do anything for you, unless you know the magic word.”
“the magic word!”
“yes, it is not enough to summon me. anybody might do that purely by accident. you have to know the magic word.”
alexa turned to zucky. “the word must be in the library somewhere!”
“what, in the novels of eugene sue and fenimore cooper?”
josiah walter puddington began to fade away. the flame that contained him grew less bright.
“quick!” alexa shouted to zucky. “give us a word from the library!”
“chingachook! that’s a word from fenimore cooper.”
but chingachook was not the word, and josiah walter puddington faded away, leaving the fireplace with only a glimmer of flame, and a few sad wisps of smoke.
“we will figure this out,” alexa announced confidently. “we will get him back. and he will do our bidding.”
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