I'm not sure this Denny's was affiliated with the national chain I remembered. It was more likely that Caravan had found the Denny's sign, brought it up with a crane and renamed the existing building. But they did have a Grand Slam, an Original Super Slam and a Moons Over My Hammy. And booths, which was nice.

I was worried about ordering. "Is that real ham? Do pigs have souls? I haven't looked it up yet."

Adaobi was indeed angry with me. "Irresponsible, you could have killed people doing that!" She angrily wolfed down her scrambled eggs, stopping only to point furiously with her fork. "Not real ham. And I'm mad at you."

Adaobi's skin was still purple, but a full-blown anime storm was in full force across her neck and shoulders above her red tank top. Mad at me indeed.

I produced a bottle of tylenol, opened it and shook six tablets onto the table.

"Oh, thank god," Adaobi said, mid-tirade. She scooped some up, washed it down with Denny's coffee, whatever that was like these days. They still make tylenol? How old is this? And I'm still mad!"

"When you gonna cheer up, Lux?" I was trying not to laugh.

Because she was glowing with happiness at the successful night. She also looked desperately tired. And I had that soul-connection going, I could easily tell how hung over she was.

"Drink water, take the tylenol," I said. "You'll be okay in a bit."

"You ain't my dad!" she said through a tired smile.

"He's right, drink drink drink." Adaobi watched as Lux downed the tylenol, then turned her anger back on and continued taking it out on me. "You just don't do that, Owen-Mateo."

"I apologize for whatever you're mad about."

She looked at me like I was lying on the witness stand: contempt of court before Judge Adaobi. "Eventually I figured it out. I know it was you. I heard you. Felt that it was you! Why lie about it?" A bolt of anime lightning travelled from her white hair, down her face and neck.

"I'm just glad you took care of my friend, Ms. Adaobi."

"She sure did!" crowed Lux, wreathed in a grin. "Did you know that if you rub a Human in the right spot, in the right way, that it causes-"

"I'm aware, Ms. Lux. I ah…we're connected now that they took that tattoo away."

Her eyes got wide She yelled a laugh, covered her face and blushed. "Sorry, I'm so sorry." But she didn't sound sorry at all.

I offered her a high-five, and she returned it across the table. We tried not to laugh and failed.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Adaobi tried for stern. She had genuine fondness for Lux, I could feel it. But she zeroed in on me again. "What were you trying to do, anyway?"

"I don't know what you're yelling at me about, Ms Adaobi. I need to thank you for getting that rune off of her. I should have tried it sooner but I'm still getting my sea legs here, if you follow me."

"Winnie walk, we call it. And you're welcome, you can't think of everything, OwenMateo." She grimaced. "Answer the question, what were you doing?"

"I was trying not to violate my friend's privacy and failing."

"That's a cultural thing, you get used to it…NO! Answer my question god DAMMIT!" She took a forkful of eggs and chewed them aggressively at me to show she meant business.

"I don't know what I did wrong."

"You talked to a Winnie!"

"Is that who that was?"

"Yes! It chose you to ask for help, and you didn't even try to come get me! What if you'd made it crash into another Winnie? These guys are like passenger jets on a runway, dummy, you can make them collide on accident. Last time it happened a whole Winnie village was destroyed."

"I don't want that. I thought I was helping. I'm sorry, Ms. Adaobi. I didn't even know who was yelling at me. And why would I have gone to get you? You were busy."

"She sure was!" Lux said around non-pig breakfast food.

"I told you I was a Winnie mahout, what did you think that meant?"

I shrugged. "Still don't know."

She leaned back, looked thoughtfully at me. "You're just as new as this girl in your way, aren't you? Okay. Let me start from scratch. A mahout is someone who works with elephants. A Winnie mahout does the same thing, but the Winnie has different demands and requirements."

Lux asked around her orange juice: "Do elephants have souls? Do they talk?"

Adaobi nodded. "They have a country of their own called the Herd of Nobles. They're really nice people, but wary of Humans. The matriarch has a channel you can watch, she's funny-" Adaobi growled. "Don't change the subject. A Winnie isn't an elephant. They're not as focused or interested in making friends. So when it talked to you…" She trailed off.

"It wasn't the only one involved. It was listening to Todd, who was going into a drunk Hamlet fugue. It asked for help against his bad vibes. What was I supposed to do?"

She paused in her anger. "Two of you?"

I shrugged. "He was broadcasting, and it was irritating."

"Tell me exactly how it happened."

So I did, as the three of us rinsed and loaded our plates into the dishwasher. Post-slice restaurants had you do your own dishes.

"That's weird," she said. "Who was it?"

"It was Todd. You know, leader of the Human rebellion, trenchcoat connoisseur."

"No…who was the Winnie who was hooked into you guys?"

"I don't know. Not the one we're on, I assume?"

"No, she doesn't talk to tourists. Will you come with me to ask her about this?"

"Hell yeah," Both Lux and I shouted.

"And bring Todd."

We scowled.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.