Chapter 24

For the first time in years, Sean woke up without the voice of Lily demanding that he get out of bed. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell that the room was much brighter than normal. He yawned and said, “I must have left the light on last night.”

Upon opening his eyes, he glanced at the clock and saw that it was after seven in the morning.

He couldn’t remember ever being allowed to sleep that late. Surprised, he sat up in bed and said, “I wonder if Lily is okay.”

Feeling much more awake than usual, he got out of bed and dressed. Leaving his room, he stopped and looked in Lily’s room. She was still asleep in bed with a peaceful expression on her face. He watched her sleep for a minute, but his bladder made its demands known. He headed to the bathroom. The massive quantities of soda that he had consumed the previous evening took a long time to leave his system. He zipped up and washed his hands.

Walking into the kitchen, he found his mother seated at the kitchen table working over a stack of papers. He said, “I can say for once that this is indeed a good morning.”

“The day is almost over,” his mother said absently.

“This is a perfectly reasonable time to wake up,” Sean said.

His mother looked up from her work and said, “When it gets hard, use your pants and willpower on it.”

“That’s not what I said,” Sean replied rolling his eyes. He had a feeling that he was going to be hearing a lot of comments like that.

“That’s right. It was use your willpower to get it hard and then bust out of your pants,” his mother said laughing.

Protesting, Sean said, “I was half asleep.”

“You must not have been that tired, you got up and cleaned the backyard last night,” his mother said. She had been surprised at how neat and clean everything was when she woke that morning.

“Uh, I don’t remember doing that,” Sean said wondering how she would react to the news that it was probably Brownies who had cleaned up the mess.

“Someone cleaned it up and it wasn’t me or your father. We were a little busy last night,” his mother said with a private little smile.

That clinched it for Sean. It was definitely Brownies who cleaned up the mess. Sean asked, “Are we having another movie night tonight?”

“Of course,” his mother answered. She looked over at him and said, “You will run the projector and Suzie will run the concession stand. You might want to make sure that you keep it in your pants. Her father was a little upset at finding you groping her.”

“I wasn’t groping,” Sean protested.

“Groping, fondling, squeezing, massaging, and generally appreciating a girl’s breasts are all the same to a father,” his mother said brightly.

“I was asleep,” Sean said.

“That’s a poor excuse for letting your lust run rampant,” his mother said.

“I give up,” Sean said. He eyed the stack of papers and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve been researching Leprechaun traps,” his mother said.

“You believe Liam is a Leprechaun?” Sean asked.

His mother answered, “Of course, I’m part Irish.”

“There’s no Irish in our family,” Sean said surprised by the claim.

“I know, I just feel Irish this morning and that makes me part Irish,” his mother said dismissing his objection.

Knowing that arguing wouldn’t do any good, Sean asked, “So what did you find?”

“Most of these traps are just too small,” his mother said. She lifted a sheet of paper and said,

“This one says to use a shoebox. Can you imagine that Leprechaun trying to fit in a shoebox?”

“Ah, no,” Sean said.

“This is going to be tricky,” his mother said looking over another sheet of paper.

“I imagine,” Sean said thinking that he should probably warn Liam that his mother was taking up the hunt.

She said, “You have to understand your prey in order to catch it.”

“That’s a good start,” Sean said.

“Did you know that Leprechauns are cobblers?” his mother asked.

“Desserts are in high demand,” Sean said with a smile.

His mother looked over at him and saw his smile. Ignoring his comment, she said, “I need some bait. I think I’ve got a pair or two of shoes that need to be repaired.”

“I’ve heard Dad describe your shoe collection in terms of tonnage,” Sean said. One night his father had created a shoe train that extended from his mother’s closet and ran all of the way out the backdoor.

“Posh! He’s always exaggerating,” his mother said dismissively.

“He’s not the only one in this family with a propensity to exaggerate,” Sean said.

His mother said, “I remember reading how the tendency to exaggerate was tied to the Y chromosome.”

“You don’t have a Y chromosome,” Sean said.

“I know,” his mother said smiling at him.

Giving up, Sean said, “I guess I had better eat breakfast.”

“Do you work today?” his mother asked.

“I don’t know,” Sean said scratching the back of his head.

His mother said, “You haven’t had a day off since you started that job.”

“I hadn’t realized that,” Sean said. He had spent a week painting the building when no one else was around. Before that, he had worked a couple of days and then had worked yesterday in the kitchen.

“You’re supposed to have a day off occasionally,” his mother said.

“I’ll ask Mr. Catchums about it,” Sean said grabbing a cereal bowl.

Lily came out of her bedroom rubbing her eyes. She saw her mother seated at the table and, in a very surprised tone of voice, said, “I’m not an orphan.”

“Of course you aren’t,” her mother replied looking at her surprised. She asked, “Did you have a bad dream?”

“No. I thought you would be busy trying to catch Liam,” Lily answered.

“Oh. I imagine that we’ll have him by the end of the week,” his mother said confidently.

Lily looked over at Sean and said, “It is you and me against the world.”

“Do you want some cereal?” Sean asked.

“Yes,” Lily said. She looked at her mother and said, “I’ll have the one with the Leprechaun on the box.”

Sean handed her the box of cereal saying, “Here you go.”

Lily said, “Mommy, you might want to hold on to this box after I’m done with it.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got a feeling that it is going to be as close as you get to catching a Leprechaun,” Lily said solemnly.

“Your faith in me is truly inspiring,” her mother said.

“And well deserved,” Sean added with a smile.

“Oh, yes,” Lily said.

“I’m wounded to the core,” their mother said theatrically holding her hands over her heart.

“I’m sure you are,” Sean said.

“I guess I better go. Suzie’s mother and I are meeting to plan how we’re going to catch that Leprechaun,” his mother said rising from her seat. She gathered the papers together and straightened them by rapping the edges against the tabletop.

“When will you be home?” Sean asked.

“I’ll be here for lunch,” his mother answered distracted by the material on the top sheet.

“Where’s Dad?” Sean asked afraid that he’d have to skip work to watch Lily.

“He’s in the living room reading the paper. There’s an article that people have reported seeing Fairies and Dwarves in the woods around here. There’s another article saying that local officials are worried that there is something in the water affecting the mental health of the people living in this area,” his mother answered.

“Is there any chance the two articles are related?” Sean asked.

“I would think not. It makes sense that if there are Leprechauns running around, that Dwarves and Fairies wouldn’t be too far away. To think otherwise would be crazy,” his mother answered.

“Of course,” Sean said.

She smiled and said, “It is going to be a busy news week this week. First there will be the article about my film festival. I have enough material for a whole page. Then there will be the article about how I caught the Leprechaun. I’m sure they’ll print up a special edition for that.”

Lily poured her cereal and said, “I better eat up. I don’t think we’re going to get lunch.”

It was a little after eleven when Sean showed up at the Dairy King. Mr. Catchums was busy getting the shop ready for another day of business. When he saw Sean come in, he said, “Ah, you’re here.”

“I thought that is where I was. I appreciate your confirmation of it,” Sean said nodding his head in agreement.

Mr. Catchums shook his head thinking it was better just to have the kid working than to spend any time talking to him. He reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out a check. He said, “Here’s your pay.”

“Oh, boy! I forgot completely about that,” Sean said taking the check. He looked at the check to make sure that his name was spelled correctly. Surprised by the amount, he said, “This is a big check.”

“I got an estimate on how much it would cost to paint the place. You earned it,” Mr. Catchums said. The amount was slightly less than half of the estimate he had gotten. With the amount he had for Suzie, he had gotten the building painted for about one-third of the price he had been quoted.

“Wow. Maybe I should be a painter,” Sean said. He held his arm out with his thumb pointed up like he was some sort of artist.

“I imagine that you’d like a day or two off to take that little lady of yours somewhere,” Mr.

Catchums said.

“That would be wonderful,” Sean said thankful that he didn’t need to bring up the subject of having some time off.

“Hold on,” Mr. Catchums said on noticing that someone was already at the service window.

Business had really picked up since the building had been painted.

“Okay,” Sean said still looking at his check. It was for a little over eight hundred dollars. He remembered the price of gold and thought, ‘This is one more ounce of gold.’

After taking care of the customer, Mr. Catchums returned and said, “It looks like it will be a busy day. Everyone keeps asking if the place is under new management.”

“I’m sure that everyone is overjoyed upon learning that I’ve joined your customer service team,” Sean said.

Mr. Catchums nearly choked. Recovering he said, “I need you to work Monday. You’re going to be on your own for a while. I’m going to the bank to try to get a loan to improve the business.”

“Alright!” Sean shouted. He started doing a little victory dance.

“What?” Mr. Catchums asked taken aback by Sean’s rather exuberant reaction.

“I’ve been on the job for less than a month and I’ve already been promoted to day manager!”

Sean said.

“Oh,” Mr. Catchums said wondering how asking Sean to watch the store for a couple of hours translated into a promotion.

Sean said, “Don’t worry Mr. Catchums. I won’t let you down.”

“Well, I’ll see you Monday,” Mr. Catchums said shaking his head. He hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake.

“I’ll be here wearing a suit,” Sean said.

“No need. Just wear your regular work clothes,” Mr. Catchums said.

“Ah, I get it. Casual Mondays,” Sean said.

Ignoring the comment, Mr. Catchums said, “I’d appreciate it if you would tell Suzie that I have a check here for her.”

“I’ll do that,” Sean said.

Another customer came to the window. Mr. Catchums said, “It is going to be a busy day, today.”

Sean left the Dairy King and decided to stop at the convenience store for a little conversation and a soda. He would have gone straight to Suzie’s house, but he wasn’t quite ready to face Mr. Emery yet.