Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 I knew the place Pete was talking about. The lot held a ramshackle building that had once been a convenience store and then went through at least a dozen transformations all the years I was growing up. It was in a bad location for businesses. The chunk of land set aside for Neighborlee schools sat right on the southern border of town. The building had started out as a gas station, just across the street and over the border in Allenby, nearly hidden by huge clumps of trees on three sides. Over the years, all those businesses that had moved in and moved out had neglected the building and the parking lot. It was generally a bad location for businesses that depended on visibility and traffic driving by to survive. 

Thinking about it, I supposed a business that just used the building for a headquarters and sent its workers out would probably last longer than anything that had tried to set up there in the past. At the very least, Pete would have work for the summer. I couldn't imagine him keeping the job when school started again in the fall.

ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE, the next featured book in the Neighborlee Visitors Guide.

 

The feature book for October in the Neighborlee Visitors Guide is ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE, the first of the three Maurice stories.

Check out the books on the Neighborlee page and in the storefront at YeOldeDragonBooks.com

Maurice is a Fae who violated a few rules and went a little too far, dealing with bullies and bad guys. To teach him compassion and restraint, the powers-that-be exiled him to Earth. His parole officer: Angela, of Divine's Emporium. His sentence: 2 years shrunk down to 5 inches tall, with shrunken magic to match, and wings slapped on his back that even Tinkerbell wouldn't be caught dead in.

Wednesday, October 1, you can listen to chapter 1 of ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast, on your favorite podcast app or at the podcast page on YeOldeDragonBooks.com, to get a taste for what's happening, and prepare for the quiz to be posted later in the month. Answer the questions, and you can earn points toward free Neighborlee novels. If you're intrigued enough to read the whole story, ALLERGIC will be on sale in all formats on the website. Get it while you can!

And be sure to come back here every few days to read an excerpt from ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE.

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 "I can take my bike or the moped to the office and then ride with the truck carrying the signs and stakes and all that stuff. No problem."

"How close are they?" I tried to remember seeing a sign for Pi Surprise. They hadn't come into the Tattler to buy advertising yet. Which suddenly struck me as a little strange. All their advertising was either in the Plain Dealer, or stuffed into mailboxes. Nothing in the local paper. So how far away was their office?

"They're in that little flower market on the corner down past the schools."

"On the Neighborlee side of the border, or the Allenby side?"

Pete thought a moment, while I held my breath and told myself it was all right, nothing dangerous ever came into Neighborlee from Allenby. Darbyville, yes, but not Allenby.

"Across the street, so I guess Allenby. I saw the help wanted sign just about the time they were putting it up in the window. It's a new office. They moved here from Euclid. So I'll spend the first couple weeks just helping with renovating the office." 

"Okay. Sounds good." I told myself I was hungry, it had been a long day at work, and Pete would make a good spy, to figure out if there was something not-quite-ordinary going on with Pi Surprise. Maybe someone was just out to make things difficult for an expanding business, moving those gnomes around.

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

"Because it won't get in the way of going out in the afternoon, and it'll never get in the way of my other job."

"Okay, that makes sense."

Pete turned to look at me, to make sure I wasn't being sarcastic.

"Are you able to handle the work on your bike? Because I'm not getting up at four-dark-thirty to drive you around. I'm proud of you that you're being responsible for your expenses … and I can't believe I'm sounding more and more like …" I laughed.

"You were going to say you sound like Mum and Pop, but you don't, because they would never talk like that," he said, sinking down into the nearest chair with a big grin. 

"Just sounding like a parent. Man, is this what happens when there's a baby on the way? The air changes and does something to your brain so you start sounding like an adult?" I shook my head and held up a hand to stop him responding with whatever smart-aleck comeback was making him grin like that. "Okay, I'm proud of you. Even though you couldn’t pay me enough to take a job like that. Staying up late to fly patrol is one thing, but getting up early? Nuh uh. Not me."

 

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 Pete and I put some time in searching through my freezer and refrigerator, trying to figure out what to serve our guests for dinner. According to Maurice, Cerb and Loralee both liked ordinary Human food, and she had developed a taste for spicy cuisine in the last month. Great, a dog with a hankering for Szechuan or Mexican. It could have been worse. How would I explain a dog chowing down on pickles? Or chocolate? It was supposed to be poison in large quantities for dogs.

While we worked on dinner, Pete dropped his bomb: he had lined up a second summer job. I bit my lip to keep from asking how he thought he was going to spend any time with Meggie, when he was working a second job. I had the feeling the second job was so he could take Meggie out on really nice dates. *sigh* My little brother was growing up and facing adult conundrums.

"What was that?" I had an awful urge to stick my pinkies in both ears and dig, because my brain didn't want to acknowledge what Pete had just told me.

"Pi Surprise." He sighed, like he had gone through this a few times already in his mind, and practicing hadn't helped.

"Why would you want to do that? Especially after Gordon told us about all the complaints they've been getting."

"Because it has to be done really early in the morning --"

"I repeat, why would you want to do it? You're the one who doesn't run on solar batteries, remember?" 

Getting up early to bomb someone's lawn with decorations was part of the package. It had to be done early, so the workers wouldn't get caught and sent away by the unwilling recipients of the embarrassment.

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

Pete came home while I was settling the expectant parents in Harry's old room. He was pretty excited to see Cerb, then tripped over his tongue and nearly tripped over his own feet a few times when he saw Loralee and realized what was going on. He didn't say it, but he gave Cerb the "you dog" look. It was kind of funny.

Once we had things set up to Loralee's liking, she and Cerb and Maurice headed out again. They were on patrol, after all, making sure that inimical forces on Earth didn't hear the lying siren song of Big Ugly like the Rivals had, and come into our town to try to help him break through to invade Earth. 

Pete's timing was good, because there was furniture to move around and put into storage. Not much, since Harry had moved almost everything he owned into Felicity's place, after she and Jake finished renovating their house and moved out. Sometimes I did miss that ridiculous espresso machine. The furniture in Harry's old room was simple, meant for guests. Pete moved the desk out, and we turned the dresser drawers upside down so they became stairs, so Loralee could climb up onto the bed. I had a few squeamish moments, imagining her giving birth and soaking the mattress. Well, it was a spare bed. I would worry about replacing a mattress when I needed to replace it, and not before.

 

It's QUIZ Time!

 

Ready to take a quiz and earn points toward free books?

How do you play?

• Listen to Chapter 1 of RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF either on the Ye Olde Dragon’s Library storytelling podcast page at YeOldeDragonBooks.com, or on your favorite podcast app.
• Answer the questions.
• Send the answers to 2OldeDragons@gmail.com

Points add up to get a free ebook or audiobook or print book in the Neighborlee series. This is your chance to catch up on the weirdness that is Neighborlee, Ohio.

RETURN QUIZ:

1. What did Lanie do to the attempted carjacker?
2. What did the cop call Lanie?
3. What did the carjacker do while the cop's back was turned?
4. Who made the keychain for Lanie, and what was it made from?
5. What was the name of the lawn decoration company?
6. Where were Athena and Wallace going, to spend a week with Bethany?
7. What was in her neighbor Tom's front yard, when Lanie got home from work?
8. What did the flyers for Pi Surprise advertise?
9. Who dropped his cup of coffee when Lanie mentioned blue storms?
10. Who was Gahlmorag?

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 What I wanted to know, but didn't dare ask at that time, was why some extra-dimensional visitors had to take on terrestrial forms, and their limitations, such as Cerb and Loralee, while others, like Maurice, went around in their own bodies? Although, granted, in the case of Maurice, with some modifications.

Instead, I thought for a few seconds, then said, "Harry moved into Felicity's place. Would his old room be good enough? Not much furniture to move around. Put the mattress on the floor, or would they want to sleep on the bed at normal height?"

Maybe I gave in too fast. On the other hand, this was a pregnant woman, even if she didn't look like one. I owed Cerb for protecting my neck a few times last year.

"Are there any special arrangements they need?" I hated talking to Maurice when Cerb and Loralee were right there. I had gone through situations just like this after I landed in my wheelchair. Too many people had a tendency to want to talk over or around someone in a wheelchair or showing other handicaps. They seemed to prefer to deal with the able-bodied person with the gimp, instead of talking directly to the gimp. Kind of rude. I didn't want to do that to them. Since they couldn't talk to me, I had to ask Maurice, who was clearly there as go-between.

"Just a place to get out of the darkness. There's a kind of a clash of magics and resonances, so it's a little uncomfortable to stay at Divine's for too long once the sun goes down. Don't ask. I don't understand."

Cerb snorted and Loralee gave a little whine. 

"Yeah, neither do they. Probably some side effect of staying so long in these bodies. Anyway, during the day, they'll be on patrol, although Loralee will probably spend a lot of the next couple weeks getting off her feet, down in the park, or at Divine's." Maurice shrugged. "They've never been through this, I sure as heck haven't been through this before, so … we're all guessing."

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 "At least, we hope. We need a safe place for her to hole up until the demon spawn are born."

So help me, I wished I had a fly swatter. I knew Maurice liked Cerb, so he wouldn't say something like that unless he was either in a viciously snarky mood, or he was joking. Still, I wanted to hit him hard enough to send him all the way to home plate at Progressive Field. Considering how far away we were from Downtown, that would take a lot of muscle power, aided by my telekinetic talent. I was sure I could manage it. How dare he say something like that about babies who hadn't been born yet?

Unless he wasn't joking?

"Umm, Maurice … what will the babies look like when they're born? Do they take after the physical bodies of their parents, or are they …" I couldn't finish the question. I looked into Loralee's big amethyst eyes and I couldn't find the words. 

Yeah, ever heard of a normal, ordinary dog with amethyst eyes? Proof she was otherworldly.

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 Just a few days after that, Maurice rode over to my house on Cerb. I hadn't seen my guardian hound-angel for a while, and one look at the smaller, cuter hound sitting next to him told me why.

"Cerb, you dog." I couldn't help it.

The hound was a girl, and since she was visibly pregnant, chances were good she was the sweetheart for whom Cerb had taken voluntary exile and guardian service on Earth.

He snorted and his mouth fell open, tongue lolling out extra long, with lots of drool. His gross way of laughing at me. Maybe getting back at me for the teasing.

"Hey, Lanie," Maurice said, and leaped off Cerb's back to hover in front of me. I knew he was uncomfortable with all the sparkle and glitter of his wings, which were part of his punishment when he was exiled to Earth, but watching them go at nearly sonic speed to keep him hovering was … mesmerizing. "We need your help."

"Felicity is as close as you're going to get to an OB-GYN for … well, anthropomorphic interdimensional travelers."

"No, not that." He swallowed and looked a little green for a few seconds. The color hovered longest in the tips of his tiny pointed ears. The guy was only five inches tall, but that was a vibrant shade that just stayed visible. "At least, not yet. Loralee isn't due to pop for another month." 

Cerb made a sound somewhere between a cough, a choke, and a grunt.

PRE-ORDER AND GET SOME GOODIES!!

 

My next Book & Mug Mystery, SKELETONS IN THE CELLAR, is slated to release October 15

IF YOU PRE-ORDER, and email me the Amazon receipt, I'll send you the epub file for a short story set in Cadburn Township, along with a JPG of the town map. Follow this link to get to the Amazon page!

https://amzn.to/4625CRf

SKELETONS IN THE CELLAR

A tale of small town legends, rumors, and academic rivalries.


Local legends speak of a Cadburn daughter who ran off to fight in the Civil War, disguised as a boy, and never came home. Other legends tell of a girl's ghost, in Civil War costume, haunting Cadburn Creek. And then there are the stories of Underground Railroad tunnels going from Cadburn Creek to suspected station houses. But no one has ever proved those stories true.

Three years ago, those rumors mixed with the usual wrangling between the two rival historical societies in Cadburn Township, complicated by the activities of the Spirits of '62, the local Civil War reenactors group, and the bickering between their leader, Steve, and Lyndsy, a history student hoping to make a name for herself, no matter the cost.

Olivia, head barista for Book & Mug, finds herself in the middle of everything, when Lyndsy rents a room in the same historic home and stirs up trouble with an old man obsessed with the Cadburn ghost. She and others breathe a sigh of relief when Steve and Lyndsy leave town abruptly, and the political in-fighting seems to be resolved.

Until an unusually rainy fall causes flooding in Cadburn Creek, revealing the rumors of tunnels to at least be true. When secrets buried for three years are uncovered, the rumors and rivalries and bickering return to the light of day. Saundra, Kai, Eden and Olivia join forces to separate truth from rumors and let the dead rest at long last in peace.

This is the 4th Book & Mug mystery, and I've already got a few things set up at the end of this book to prepare for Book 5, tentatively titled, CARRYING A TORCH.

Email me with your receipt to get your free short story: MichelleLevigne@gmail.com

Excerpt: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 9

 

Just two days later, Hayward responded with information, classified for now because of its oddness: images of churning, unusual weather patterns in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. What looked like the "seeds" of hurricanes, there one moment, with streaks of electric blue going through them, and then gone just a few heartbeats later. And no signs that anything had been disturbed, other than broken palm fronds or foam on the water.

I might have found some hope, to share with my brothers. The disturbances that seemed to be tied into Lost Kids or Hunt activity were in the vicinity of the Triangle. However, there was a big blank area, clearly visible once the locations of all the disturbances were marked onto one map. Smack dab in the middle of that blank area was the hotel where my parents had been staying when they vanished. And, as Daniel had revealed to us last summer, where his grandfather, Arthur, had been staying. He had been in Bermuda at the same time as my parents, following up his own research. We were all disappointed to learn that he hadn't been there to meet my folks or pursue a similar line of research. It was all luck. Maybe bad luck on Arthur's part. He had been knocked flat by something that was still inexplicable, about the same time my folks vanished. He had been drained physically, and his memory of several days wiped away. Arthur had taken months to recover.

Of course, Neighborlee sat in the middle of a big blank area, too. All sorts of electrical energy and disturbances, and our town was in the proverbial eye of the storm.

Kind of makes you wonder, you know?