Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 

“Now,” Demetrius said with a sigh. “Tell us about those flying people you saw in Neighborlee.”

He had taught all his students how to tell a story. A spark of interest and new energy came back to the eyes of both elderly men when she described flying over Neighborlee and seeing the trio park and get out of the truck, link arms, and rise up in the air. And the tingle of energy, the visible-but-not-visible shimmer, that were clear signs of a Gift in use.

"Adults, you think? So they developed or were already using their Gifts around the time you did." Beau thumped his fist on the table. "We missed them. How could we have missed them?"

"We're set in our ways." Demetrius smiled as he interlaced his fingers over his belly and slouched in his chair. "Haven't we been using literature to teach our students how real superheroes should act, how to hide their talents, how to live double lives? Who's to say that these three didn't discover similar stories before they found out what they could do, and were clever enough to apply those principles when their Gifts emerged?"

"You don't think that book thief you tussled with, fifty-some years ago..." Beau shook his head. Jane caught the tail end of a glare Demetrius shot him.

"What book thief?" She followed gut instinct. "You ran into someone in Neighborlee who might have had a Gift, and you got in trouble, so you left him there?"

"Too old," he muttered, frowning at a spot on the table. A sure sign he was lost in memories or thinking up some new theory.

"Too old?" She turned to Demetrius.

"Too hard nowadays to swoop in with falsified paperwork and whisk young ones like you away anymore," Demetrius said. His relaxed posture looked rock hard now.

“We have to do something to protect Neighborlee. Why do the Rivals always go back there? Why do you think they’re going to focus there and not somewhere else?”

"Neighborlee, my dear child, is unique in one specific aspect: an unusually high ratio of lost, unclaimed children found within the town's boundaries. And, if you think about it, an inexplicable tendency for all of them to end up in the orphanage there, instead of being snatched up by other child welfare agencies throughout the county or even the state. Yet, out of every ten such children, nine display not a smidgen of anything unusual."

"Who says?" She grinned when both old men cocked an eyebrow at her in almost perfect synchronization. "If those three I found stayed hidden from you, and from the Rivals, what if there are others, with much smaller, less noticeable Gifts? What if Neighborlee stays safe because … I don’t know … they work together, to protect each other? Only a fraction of us have visible Gifts. The rest could still have the genetics for something amazing. How many grow up and stay in Neighborlee, and marry others like them, and maybe produce Gifted kids?"

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 “What do we do?” Jane thought of the lovely town that felt like home, the warm, friendly people, and the Rivals finally making a move. Something worse than leaving those arrogant, power-grubbing Grandstones like a rusty spike in the town, to mark their spot and give them a foothold when they finally decided to act.

“Other than hope for a nice, tidy explosion to wipe the whole moronic town of Fendersburg off the map and set you free?" Beauregard winked. Demetrius snorted.

A bottle of whiskey levitated over from behind a stack of books that didn't hide it very well. Jane waited, holding her breath while the bottle tipped and poured three fingers' worth into the glass-bottomed tankard Demetrius always used, no matter what he drank, hot or cold, common beverages or scientific experiments. She was grateful his telekinetic talents were at full power right now. Depending on the phases of the moon and whatever problems he had, his energy levels could be high enough to be dangerous to everyone around him, or so low he couldn't even get out of his own chair without help. Another price of getting old, along with losing the ability to heal from anything short of amputation.

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 

"You have no legal responsibility. They can't force it on you," Beau insisted, patting Jane's shoulder. "As the Ghost, you are there to handle large accidents and emergencies. Floods and tornadoes, water main breaks, fires, that sort of things. Not to retrieve improperly disciplined boys from trees twenty times in a day and protect idiots from their own stupidity." He folded the newspaper in half and slapped it on the desk in front of him for emphasis, tumbling several scones off the pile with the force of the blow.

Beauregard might have been white-haired and paunchy and wrinkled, but he still had a lot of oomph left in him.

"However..."

Jane sagged, knowing she was in trouble when Beau used "however." She had overlooked something, and he had seen it. The fine print, so to speak, in her unwritten superhero contract with the town of Fendersburg.

"Well, part of this problem, you brought on yourself," he said, softening his voice.

"Kick the girl while she's down, why don't you?" Demetrius grumbled. “We did it to her, sending her there to bait the Rivals. The same stupidity that lets these half-wits shift all responsibility to her is what we depended on to keep our enemies stymied.”

Jane sighed. She knew he was right. She also knew she was stuck in Fendersburg until the Rivals got so frustrated they carelessly left clues for Hoax to track them to their headquarters. If that ever happened, they could at long last settle the problem and the war the Rivals had declared with their actions, if not words.

"If she wouldn't wear herself to a frazzle pulling their nuts out of the fire, day in and day out, if she'd just let them fall down and bloody their noses a few times, they might learn to stand on their own two feet and not sit around on their fat backsides, expecting her to come to their rescue." Beau gestured with his scone. "You have to admit I'm right, Janie-gal."

"Yeah, you're right." She sank into a chair. "But honestly, it's easier to take care of the mess right away, instead of listening to them scream and whine and make it even worse."

"You're stuck, Cookie," Demetrius growled, twisting around in his overstuffed chair to turn it without actually getting out of it. "I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“Is she?” Beau said. “Every lead generated from her acting as bait has evaporated. No suspected Rivals have come back, and no newcomers have been spotted in town in nearly four months. I’m inclined to think they’ve given up.”

“Or?” Jane said, hearing the unspoken qualifiers.

He sighed and seemed to deflate a little. “Or they’ve moved on to more fruitful hunting grounds.”

“Neighborlee?” she whispered.

“Who can be sure? None of the other potential arrival spots for Gifted have panned out. You were the last one from Neighborlee.”

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 "I have never been so happy to be the Ghost in my entire life," she grumbled as she tossed the newspaper down in front of Beau and Demetrius less than an hour later.

Beau smoothed it out on the desk the size of a small swimming pool while Demetrius settled down in his easy chair in front of the massive fireplace big enough to roast an entire cow. One drawback to their Gifted longevity was feeling chilled even in the muggy warmth of summer. Jane used just enough Ghost field to let her get close to the roaring fire without dripping in sweat.

The headline read: "Fendersburg Uses Samaritan Law to Sue Ghost." Jane snorted as she glanced over the big, black letters in slightly runny ink. The complaints lodged against the Ghost, her alternate persona, were printed in fourteen-point font instead of the standard ten, and took up the bottom half of the front page and most of the second page. Mrs. Crookins must have been furious when her society column got pushed to page three.

"I'm sorry, my dear. Obviously these..." Beau scowled, searching for a better word.

"Throwbacks? Inbred morons? Hicks?" Jane suggested.

The proper old gentleman glared at her, but a few seconds later the look dissolved into merriment. He sighed and shook his head. "Obviously, these benighted folks have chosen to ignore your regular warnings, posted in this very newspaper, stating you are not responsible for the everyday incidents and accidents in their lives. You are one person and therefore cannot be everywhere at once. No lawyer in the land will agree to take the lawsuit."

"I wouldn't count on that," Demetrius grumbled around the stem of his pipe. It was empty, and had never held tobacco for as long as Jane had known her teachers. "For every ten good lawyers with common sense, there's one who makes ambulance chasers look reasonable. Someone will take up the case, just to make a name for himself."

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

  

Legal action against the Ghost? The nerve of those lazy, self-righteous—

"Hey, did you hear?" Sylvia Daystrom squealed as she bombed through the propped open door into the spa.

Jane stopped in mid-crumple, her hands shaking.

"Yeah, I guess you did." Shaking her head, Sylvia made her way across the large main room to the nook where she had her manicure and pedicure station set up, open for business four days a week. "Can you believe the nerve of those morons?"

"Nothing about this town surprises me anymore." Jane managed a smile. Sylvia was one of the more commonsense people in Fendersburg. Knowing she was disgusted by the story on the bottom half of the page helped release some of the pressure that threatened to take off the top of her head.

The Old Poops need to see this.

The town was abuzz with the story. Jane's spa sat in the middle of the tiny business district. She kept her door open all day in the summer and the biggest gossips in town always sat on the benches in front of her store, so she heard everything. All day. Speculations and reminiscences and laughter and criticism. Every time someone agreed with her assessment of the irresponsible, immature twits in Fendersburg, someone else came along to dump everything back into the Ghost's lap. Jane watched the clock as the hour hand inched around, until she could finally close her shop.

She mentioned to half a dozen people, including one of the gossips out front, that she was tired, had a headache, and was going to take a sleeping pill and take her phone off the hook. That would ensure everyone in town knew by nightfall that no matter how many times they called or knocked, no one was going to get through to her. People who ignored posted store hours would just have to wait to get their detox cream or a new lipstick tomorrow.

Jane went to her apartment and made a sandwich. She needed the energy even if she wasn't hungry. While eating, she tucked the newspaper into her backpack, then phased into Ghost mode and went up through the roof. She took her last bite of sandwich while hovering in the air, looking down at Fendersburg and wishing it could be as quiet and friendly as Neighborlee. At eighty feet higher than the tallest building in town, she headed west and north for the Sanctum. 

Thank goodness for secret identities. None of those idiots can follow through on their threat to sue the Ghost, because they can't find me. Jane snorted and grinned into the setting sun. Not to mention they think I'm a guy.

It's QUIZ TIME! Earn points toward free books.

 Time for the quiz for this month's featured book in the Visitors Guide to Neighborlee:

QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

How do you play?

• Listen to Chapter 1 of the book either on the Ye Olde Dragon’s Library storytelling podcast page on 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.

All month, the featured book is at a discounted price, if you need to fill in the holes in your collection. I mean, there are 13 books altogether. If you have all 13 already, THANK YOU!! But chances are good you don’t have all of them.

Yet.

This is your chance to get more and catch up on the weirdness that is Neighborlee, Ohio.

 

1. What is the first line of the chapter?
2. Why does Hoax do a twice-yearly check of Neighborlee?
3. What town is Jane's current assignment?
4. Finish this quote: "One man's restless spirit was another's _______"
5. Why did the woman at the sandwich shop warn Jane to be careful of Divine's Emporium?
6. What nickname did their students give Demetrius and Beauregard?
7. How does Hoax, Inc., earn their living?
8. How old was Jane when she was found and taken to the children's home?
9. What colors were the shirts Jane bought? How many shirts did she buy?
10. What does Angela offer Jane to drink?

 

 

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

Nobody in Fendersburg had gained any common sense while Jane was away. The usual routine had gone on without the Ghost to remedy problems a little common sense could have prevented. Joe Conrad had run out of gas while picking up milk from the cooperative’s four small dairy farms. He sat for half an hour, yelling for the Ghost to help him, before he used his cell phone to call his brother to come with the gas can. Georgie Tupper decided he could fly with just a blanket tied to his shoulders for a cape. When he climbed up the tallest tree in the center of town, the blanket got tangled on a branch. He hung there, kicking and screaming, while his mother sat on a park bench a few dozen feet away, working on her nails. Someone finally got tired of hearing her complain about the Ghost taking so long to show up, and they called the fire department. When the fire department presented Mrs. Tupper with a bill for rescuing her son, she told them to charge the Ghost, since he was "shirking his responsibility."

Various assorted other foolishness happened. People ignored stop signs and ate food from swollen cans. When the Ghost didn't show up to stop them, they dented their cars or rushed to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped. Jane got to her spa in time to open the doors for business at 10am, and by 2pm she had heard about every incident in the two days since she had gone to visit Neighborlee.

The newspaper the next morning listed all the minor disasters on the front page and the complaints from the people who expected the Ghost to do their thinking for them. Same old stupidity. Jane supposed the incredulous fascination of people who rubbernecked at traffic accidents kept her reading. When she unfolded the newspaper, to continue reading down the double-wide column, the headline on the bottom half of the front page stopped her cold. She stared, blinked, shook her head, and balled up the newspaper.

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 

Amelia Quinn and Theo Brickman were the only ones home, when Jane drove up the long, gravel drive through the woods to the old mansion of the Sanctum. Demetrius and Beau were meeting with some friends at a think tank that monitored world events. Amelia sent Theo to contact the Sanctum’s leaders, then herded Jane into the kitchen for a late breakfast.

“Something has you rattled, lovey, and that’s rare enough to be worrisome,” the dainty, elderly woman said, just before plunking down a huge cast iron skillet on the stove, big enough to cook a dozen eggs at once. “You had the Neighborlee evaluation. What happened?”

Jane told her in the time it took to crack and scramble the eggs. Amelia nodded and pursed her lips, and her eyes went vague with thought for a few moments. Then she sent Jane to get ingredients for brunch for the three of them. Theo joined them in time to help set the table, and Jane had to repeat her story. She had new doubts. Had she fled too soon? Should she have investigated, and risked being caught?

“You did the right thing,” Theo said. “Get out of there, avoid notice. Let the professional worriers chew on the questions and send out feelers.” He winked. “My personal theory is that some Gifted got overlooked. They’ve dug in and know how to stay safe. Neighborlee has its own means of defense. You don’t want to run afoul of those who belong there, do you?”

“Of course she doesn’t. She’s a good, smart one.” Amelia reached across the table to pat Jane’s hand.

Jane wrote up her report before she left. Amelia loaded her down with treats members of Hoax brought back from their world travels. Jane was glad she had driven there instead of flying in. She had never tested the limits of how much weight she could carry while flying, but a dozen boxes and bags and tins could be awkward. She could just imagine losing her grip while flying over heavy traffic and dropping some decadent treats. As the youngest member of the family, she felt like she had several dozen aunts and uncles, all intent on spoiling her.

Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

 

The truck stopped just within the edge of the park, among clumps of bushes. That was a bad sign, no matter where it took place. Jane dropped a little closer, enough to see three people in the truck when a door opened and the inside light came on. The driver got out, and two people slid out of the passenger door. The three linked arms. Her fingertips tingled faintly, and a soft rainbow-tinted shimmering hovered in the air around the trio.

"Oh heck heck heck," Jane muttered, and threw herself backward as the trio rose straight up in the air. She knew they couldn’t see her, but logic said if she could sense the vibrations of Gifted energy in use, someone else might be sensitive enough to sense her using her Gift. Shivering, she flew straight back to town, glancing over her shoulder, ready to change course if those three followed her. Being invisible might be no help at all.

Oddly, she felt vaguely disappointed when she got back to the airspace above the Neighborlee Arms and there was no one within sight or sensing. She sank down through the roof, down through an empty room, into her hotel room. Distracted, she almost didn't phase back into solidity before changing back into her pajamas.

"Get a grip," she scolded herself, and laughed a little when she realized she had forgotten to go check out the Spindelmutter building.

She stayed up until nearly 3am, curled up on the chaise lounge in front of the balcony door, searching to feel the presence of the flying trio. Whoever they were, wherever they were, she didn't feel any Gifted energy being used. When she finally climbed into bed, Jane knew what she had to do. This wasn’t something to report over the phone.

Which side of the decades-old battle were those three strangers on? Agents of the Rivals. Allies of the Gifted old man whose family ran Sheridan Communications? Residents of Neighborlee who had escaped the notice of Hoax and the Rivals?

NEIGHBORLEE VISITORS GUIDE: June featured book: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 

The featured Neighborlee series book for June is QUITTING THE HERO BIZ.

Jane Wilson disappeared when she was a child. When she learned to make herself invisible, her teachers made her disappear from Neighborlee Children's Home. And just in time, too -- before some nasty folks known only as the Rivals tried to take her away, to turn her into a weapon.

Years later, she used her semi-pseudo-superhero powers to become the Ghost, defender of the little town of Fendersburg. The plan was to attract the attention of the Rivals, and lure them into a trap. Unfortunately, the people of Fendersburg got lazy, and soon grew so dependent on the Ghost to fix all their problems, they stopped thinking for themselves.

So Jane quit being the Ghost. In the wake of the odd events during the holidays in Neighborlee, she returned to her roots. Her mission:

Find out what happened to all the Lost Kids who lived in Neighborlee Children's Home.

Find out what the Rivals are looking for in Neighborlee.

Find the guardians.

You can listen to Chapter 1 of QUITTING THE HERO BIZ on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast, either on the Ye Olde Dragon Books website or your favorite podcasting app. Check back here later in the month for the quiz about Chapter 1, and send in your answers to earn points toward free books in the Neighborlee series!

Want to get more tastes of the story? Check out the excerpts, twice a week, here on the blog.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 The following Monday, she put her Going out of Business sign in the window of Lazy Days Spa, in among the Christmas decorations and day's special signs. No one remarked on it. They were too busy exclaiming over the Christmas tree designs and other fingernail art. They had to get a massage right that moment. Christmas shopping was wearing them down. What were those delicious aromas coming from those amazing candles? Jane didn't know if her extended holiday hours were a blessing or a curse. How much more obliviousness from Fendersburg could she take?

She let out a shriek of utter relief when she retreated to her apartment, and collapsed on her couch, in the dark, to listen to Christmas carols. She had survived her first day of Going out of Business.

Two minutes later, buyer's remorse struck.

If her life was a horror film, or a farce, this was the point where all the bad news would start rolling in. She would find out that Neighborlee had an insane asylum at the north end of town and a federal prison at the south end, and despite the renovations and repairs and the building inspector's certification, her building was prone to gas leaks, stubborn plumbing, ghosts, and had lost six tenants in the last four months.

"No. It's going to work out. I've earned it," she told herself repeatedly.

She certainly couldn't stay in Fendersburg. Even if no one noticed her Going out of Business sign, she couldn't, wouldn't turn back now. Learning to be blind and deaf to the regularly occurring minor catastrophes all around her had been painful. Letting Timmy Higgs suffer for his nastiness and refusing to pick up after irresponsible people was easy enough. Refraining from tripping shoplifters and chasing after runaway baby carriages was not. So she didn't. She could still manage such rescues without anyone guessing.

The fact that the accident and crime rate continued to trickle downwards rather pointed out she wasn't needed after all. She should have quit being the Ghost years ago.

Time to move on.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 

The research into the graduates of Neighborlee Children's Home ran into a roadblock. Only the records of the last ten or so years had been computerized. Everything earlier was waiting to be uploaded, and it wasn’t a priority. Getting physical access to the older records would have to be added to Jane’s list of tasks once she moved to town and became accepted.

"It just strikes me as odd, you know?" she told Katie during a quick dinner visit spent in speculating. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone is hiding the information, protecting it, maybe ...”

"Maybe someone is keeping important information like that from leaving the town boundaries?" Katie suggested.

"Maybe. Who knows?" She looked around her apartment, caught somewhere between packing and unpacking. She had been too optimistic, jumping the gun and packing before all the delays with the building hit. When she needed things for daily living, she had started unpacking. Every time she got a bit of news of progress from the landlord, she started packing again, but when there was another delay, she unpacked a little bit.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 Jane dove into her own research, now that she had taken care of the big, time-consuming tasks like planning how to renovate the inside of her new building, ordering cabinets and display cases, and creating her own sanctum in the apartment on the third floor that was three times larger than her current apartment. She calculated how much more space she would have and researched new items to add to her spa’s inventory. That was the fun part. Then she programmed her computer’s search engine to flag any stories that appeared on the Web dealing with Neighborlee, any police news, TV broadcasts, following up on personalities. Digging further on news in the town and surrounding area kept her busy in the evenings and helped her ignore the constantly fluctuating feelings about the Ghost. Honestly, when was Fendersburg going to accept the fact the Ghost was gone, and nothing they could do or say would bring him back?

She studied the major businesses in Neighborlee, the community leaders, and town stories and legends. Jane learned the Tattler had been bought at Thanksgiving by Sheridan Communications. That necessitated a quick trip to the Sanctum to confer with Demetrius and Beau, resulting in two researchers being assigned to dig into the Sheridan family. The family patriarch had been a graduate of Neighborlee Children’s Home, a lost child. Even more important, he had had several close calls with Demetrius and Beauregard in the past. Whether he was friend or foe was uncertain, but the Hoax family was sure he wasn’t allied with the Rivals. Not like the resident Neighborlee nasties, the Grandstone family.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 Her teachers found some amusement at the vagaries and stupidity of the people of Fendersburg. Jane was touched that they were concerned about her feelings and her progress in getting out of town. The Council finally met. They agreed, the focus had to shift from finding lost and abandoned and unclaimed children, to finding the next generation, the descendants of the lost and abandoned who hadn't displayed powers. People who had married others like them, produced children who might be Gifted, and had helped them hide their Gifts. 

Other members of Hoax got to work doing research. They dug into the few records of Neighborlee Children's Home that had gone public, following up on the lost children who had grown up normal, who had been adopted or who had graduated and gone out into the world. Where they had gone, what they had done with their lives.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 As the weeks crawled by and fall turned into winter, the reactions in Fendersburg wavered slowly back and forth. Glad the Ghost was gone, because it meant he wasn't interfering with their lives. Glad the Ghost was letting them grow up and think for themselves. Suddenly, the Ghost showing up to fix or prevent every minor catastrophe was seen as interference with the rights and freedoms of the people of Fendersburg. Then someone would make a mistake, cause an accident, take a stupid risk, essentially thumb their nose at the warnings of people with more common sense, and suddenly everyone was furious again. The Ghost had no right to abandon his responsibilities. The race resumed to blame someone for driving the Ghost away.

There was always someone who spoke with an almost homesick fondness for the days when the Ghost showed up within a few seconds of a call for help or the sound of squealing brakes. Girls who had never been within a hundred yards of the Ghost talked about the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand, feeling his arm around them as he carried them away from danger. Jane wondered how many times she could hear such outright lies in her shop before she became physically ill. As time went on, the worst of the airhead liars got into fights with each other over who the Ghost would have dated and eventually married.

She found some amusement in the torments Otis went through, when people remembered the broad hints he had dropped that he was the Ghost. Girls wanted him to prove his secret identity. People wanted him to pay for damage that he, as the Ghost, hadn't prevented.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 At the three-week mark, Jane took off Saturday night after closing up the spa and headed for Neighborlee. She walked around all day on Sunday, glorying in the quiet, the fall sunshine, the people who smiled at a total stranger and offered advice on where to get the best burger, the best bed & breakfast, and recommended she attend the college’s newest theatrical production. She made an appointment with the realtor to look at the Spindelmutter building, and laughed at herself, remembering last time she thought about doing it the Ghost’s way. It was perfect. Huge picture windows and a recessed doorway, old brick, in the middle of the business district, in a long row of quaint, fifties-style buildings.

The realtor, Debbi Kunardi, answered all Jane's questions. She couldn't take over the building right away. The county building inspector had found major foundation damage that needed to be repaired. The owner was in the middle of gathering estimates and determining what he wanted to do, how extensive he wanted to make the repairs. When Debbi told him that Angela at Divine's Emporium had recommended the location to Jane, the owner promised the repairs wouldn't impact the lease price at all. He would even sign a paper locking in his price before he found out the cost of repairs, guaranteeing Jane would have first refusal after the renovations had been made. He also promised a power wash to freshen up the outside of the building.

"Definitely weird," Katie agreed, when Jane reported on the results of her first foray into resettling to Neighborlee. "But nice." 

"It's kind of like what Beau told me. The town is alive and reaches out to welcome you, if you've found your place there."

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 The usual bi-monthly diatribe about vigilantes and people living in fantasy worlds ran in the Fendersburg Trumpet a week after the Ghost's resignation letter. Instead of the usual demand for intensive psychiatric evaluation for the Ghost, the letter writer, Marijane Hunter, congratulated the Ghost on finally gaining some perspective and a grasp on reality.

Three days later, her house was burglarized. She wrote a scathing letter to the editor, blaming the entire town for the Ghost's retirement.

Other than Marijane being robbed, Jane didn't notice any change in the crime rate in Fendersburg. She suspected someone had struck Marijane because of her letters to the editor. For all she knew, people blamed her vitriolic letters for the Ghost leaving.

The accident rate went down, now that people no longer took their safety for granted. Jane would have laughed, except she felt an odd little twinge of guilt. Had she encouraged people to be careless about their own welfare? Maybe her leaving was good for Fendersburg. Maybe it was good for the world that there really weren’t any comic book style superheroes.

It didn't matter. She reminded herself of that firmly every time she heard someone discussing the Ghost’s reasons for quitting. She reminded herself of that every time she crossed a day off her hidden countdown calendar.

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 

Timmy Higgs got stuck in the tree, chasing his balsa wood plane two days after the letter appeared in the paper. He hung there for nearly half an hour before his mother called for the fire department. Ginny Piper, Fendersburg's fire chief, laughed about it when she came into the spa that afternoon for her weekly therapeutic massage.

"Kind of nice, you know? Using our equipment and training." She sighed as Jane rubbed deep into her shoulder muscles. "That kid was actually scared, just hanging there, kicking and starting to blubber. And you know what he told me when we got him down to the ground? He said the Ghost was his friend, and he wanted to know what we did to scare him away. The Ghost has too much sense to be friends with that brat. He kicked me in the ankle when I told him not to climb that tree again." She snorted. "His mother swatted his bottom before she dragged him away. I bet that's the first time that ever happened. For both of them."

"Probably," Jane agreed. Inside the privacy of her head, she wavered between shrieking and laughter. Timmy thought he was her friend? Not for all the tea in Asia!

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 

"The moment you're ready to make the move, do let me know." Angela rested her hand on Jane's wrist for a few seconds. "I know a good two, three dozen people who would be ecstatic to have a place like yours come into town. In fact, if you started now, you could be open in time to take advantage of the Christmas rush."

"Oh... I... Well..." Jane fought not to yank her hand out from the soothing warmth of Angela's hand. “It’s not that easy.”

Demetrius and Beauregard would never let her abandon Fendersburg. Even if the Rivals were ignoring the town lately.

"Anything is possible."

Later, as Angela was ringing up the shirts Jane had picked out, and a bag of two pieces from every candy jar, the Wishing Ball caught her attention. Angela laughed and nodded at it.

"Go ahead. Make a wish." A chiming laugh escaped her. Something in her gaze dared Jane, while quashing the automatic, unspoken response: Wishes are for children.

Jane waited a moment for the colors to swirl gently in the reflective, black opal surface. They didn't. When she put her hand flat on the top curve, she didn't feel that zip-tingle she had always gotten as a child when she made her wish. The disappointment was thick enough to block any words she might have tried to speak.

Please... I want to get out of Fendersburg. Away from those lazy, greedy, totally oblivious people. I want to find a new place to live, and a spa even better than the one I have now, where people use common sense and don't expect a miracle to come out of a jar. I want... I want there to be magic again. Something beyond me, bigger than me, stronger than me. Something mysterious and awesome.

A single spark leaped off the Wishing Ball as she removed her hand and Jane gasped, staring at her index finger where the spark rested for a moment, a golden-green, swirling ball that seemed to have a core of black, just before it vanished.

She thought Angela frowned at her, but a moment later she wore her usual serene, slightly superior, slightly amused expression. What her friend Katie always called a "Vulcan smirk."

New release sample: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ

 "I have a spa, back home. Facials, manicures, pedicures, massages, sauna."

"You do all that? Multi-talented. And probably overworked." Angela gestured with a tip of her head toward a corner of the main room. Jane saw a white wrought iron bistro table and chairs.

Definitely overworked, but nothing I can admit to you.

Angela chuckled as she went behind the counter. "Iced green tea with ginseng and honey?"

"That sounds lovely, thanks." Jane settled down at the little table. "Umm, actually, I don't do all those things. I have people who come in and provide services. I have plenty of room in my store, so... Most of what I do is make appointments and sell all sorts of teas and creams and bath salts. The good kind, the legitimate kind," she hurried to add.

"Of course. I wouldn't expect anything else." Angela came back to the table with two glasses full of ice and two tall bottles of iced green tea in Jane's favorite brand. 

Was there room behind the counter for a cooler and glasses and ice? She shrugged away that consideration. Things happened at Divine's Emporium and it was wiser not to ask questions. Answers might destroy the wonder, the sense of "anything is possible."

"We could use a spa like yours. If you ever consider coming back home to Neighborlee, I know just the place. The old Spindelmutter building. Lots of room, three floors, and the third floor is an apartment. You could add a whirlpool and expand your offerings to include exercise clothes and such."

Jane took the information from Angela and chatted about the possibilities. She had actually been thinking about expanding her merchandise to include clothes and homeopathic treatments. Who was she hurting by playing along? It was a good cover story.

Although, a niggling sense of warning crept through her after just a minute or two. Essentially, she was lying to Angela, and Jane vaguely remembered some unspoken law that no one ever crossed Angela or tried to steal from Divine’s Emporium.