Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
“How do I summon Frank? I can’t do magic.”
The ghost waved for Nolan to follow her into the living room and pointed to a cabinet. “Take out the black candle inside and light it. Then call for Frank.”
Well, that was easy. He opened the tall wooden cabinet and spotted the slender candle resting in a carved wooden holder. He carried it to the kitchen, where he found the long candle lighter on the counter next to the mail and a stack of ads neither of them had bothered to go through yet. After a couple of flicks, he got the candle lit.
“Um…Frank? You around?”
With a puff and brimstone and sulfur, the fuzzy black ball with spidery limbs and sharp teeth appeared. After months of seeing Frank regularly, Nolan had learned not to jump at the sight of the underworld minion.
“Hey, Frank. I need you to run an errand for me. I’m cooking a special dinner for Sky. Can I get Sky’s usual deal of you get me something and I give you a sandwich?”
The minion said something that was gibberish to Nolan’s ears. The only person he knew who could understand Frank and the other minions was Sky.
Nolan frowned at him. “Are you negotiating for chips?”
Frank lifted a fist and gave him a thumbs-up with a very long, curved claw. Lovely.
“Okay. One errand and you get a sandwich and a small bag of chips, but only after I’m finished cooking dinner for Sky,” Nolan countered.
Frank gave him another thumbs-up.
“Excellent!” Nolan darted into the kitchen and pulled up the recipe on his tablet. “Okay. I need a pint of buttermilk. It should be in the dairy aisle with the rest of the milk. But it says buttermilk. Got it?”
He’d barely finished speaking when Frank disappeared. Nolan sighed. He was not looking forward to explaining to Frank that he wasn’t getting paid for two trips if he retrieved butter and milk.
While Frank was gone, he set about boiling water and peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes. The stove was preheating for some fluffy rolls from a tube. There was also a package of crunchy green beans that would be made in a skillet, but that was later.
“Shit!” he exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” Grammy demanded, zooming close.
“I just noticed that the recipe calls for white pepper. I’ve never heard of it. Is it the same as black pepper?”
“I’m not sure.”
He lifted his head and glanced around. Frank wasn’t back yet. “I think I need another minion. I can’t mix the spices with the flour without it.”
He’d barely finished speaking when a minion Nolan had never seen popped into the kitchen. He looked almost identical to Frank except instead of being black, this one was pale gray, as if he were made of ash. The minion chirped at him, sounding like a large cricket.
“I guess you’ve got another helper,” Grammy said. Nolan didn’t miss that she floated somewhat behind him, so that Nolan was between her and the demonic minion.
“Um…have you helped Sky before?”
The minion chirped again and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Same deal. Run an errand for me, and you get a sandwich and a small bag of chips.”
The minion made a happy noise and offered two thumbs this time. That was a good sign, right?
“Okay, I need white pepper. It’ll be in the spice and baking aisle at the grocery. Just a container like this,” he instructed, holding up a glass container of paprika.
The minion chirped one last time and disappeared. A moment later, Frank reappeared with a pint of actual buttermilk. Clearly, these minions were smarter than he’d given them credit for.
Nolan returned to prepping the potatoes and the flour mix for the chicken while the oil on the stove heated. The second minion appeared a minute after Frank and set down the white pepper on the counter. This was excellent. They moved to the dining room to sit and wait for their payment.
But while he solved those two problems, more were cropping up. Some of the potatoes in the bag were bad, so he needed more potatoes. They were low on butter. Someone needed to set the table. They needed new candles for the table. How could it be a romantic dinner without candlelight? And dessert! He needed something sweet for after dinner.
The dinner was progressing as Nolan called out request after request. Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and Nolan’s phone vibrated on the counter.
He turned away from where he was draining the boiled potatoes in the colander to see Sky’s smiling face on his phone screen.
Shit!
“Hey, babe!” he called out when he answered the call. “Done already?”
“Yep. It was a fast one. The guy woke up, cursed at us for waking him up, and then admitted that he had forgotten to make a will.”
“That’s crazy. You still got paid, right?”