Keeping Fantasia: The Third Book of the Fantasia Series

Chapter 124: Brother In Lawsome

Chapter 124: Brother In Lawsome

Jim spent all night devising a plan to break Gwen out of jail.

His plan relied heavily on Ariel's willingness to lend him her trident; Morph's distraction skills; dumb luck; and good ol' fashion improvisation.

Of course, the jailbreak never occurred. Ariel received a text from Admiral Triton warning Jim not to interfere because (1) he'd be arrested and (2) Gwen had already made bail.

So, Jim moved to the next problem.

Wendy's text message.

"We need to talk...." Jim read for the millionth time. "This is urgent....Do not tell anyone."

Minutely, he shook his head. "God damn it Wendy."

Thereafter, he stopped trying to decipher the text. Urgent could mean anything to Wendy, from murder to an overflowing tea kettle.

The intriguing part was Wendy's secrecy. Whatever she was harboring, she obviously hadn't told Peter and trusted Jim not to tell Ariel.

This was strictly best-friend business.

Jim entered Mad Hatter's. He grimaced at the vegetal, flowery aromas.

Tea. So clean. So fresh. So gross. How could Wendy drink this stuff?

Jim scanned for Wendy but she hadn't arrived. Unphased, he went to the counter and stood across Dawn.

"Morning." Remembering their previous altercation, he tried to be blandly pleasant as possible. "I'd like to order a cup of tea."

Dawn set down the jar of loose leaf she'd been restocking.

Jim's eyebrows raised. Puffy eyes. Shiny cheeks. Pink nose. She'd been crying.

"Oh. You again." Dawn sniffed. "What can I get you?"

Jim frowned. "Tea."

Dawn sniffed again, but this time angrily. "Sure you don't want the Frothy Coffee without froth and extra coffee?"

"It's not for me." Jim said. "It's for my sister, she'll be here in a minute. And I could actually use your advice on ordering her tea."

Dawn scoffed.

"Right. My advice! Because I'm such an expert!" Tearfully, she snatched yellow loose leaf from the wall. "Because my blog looks like I'm mixing fecal matter instead of tea leaves! Because people should only drink my brews if they want to have an abortion!"

Jim's frown deepened. "You okay?"

Dawn dipped an upside-down teacup into a saucer of honey.  Hiccupping, she sprinkled crystallized honeycomb around the brim.

"No I'm not okay. My blog got a bad review from Tinkerbell this morning. I worked so hard on it! I thought Brewtiful would be my big break! But...I....I had to take it down. It's gone." 

She wiped a sleeve under her glasses. "Totally gone."

Jim's heart sank.  Tinkerbell had a knack for killing dreams and Dawn had certainly lost her her zeal.

"I'm sorry kid. That's a tough break. But if it makes you feel any better...."

He lifted the teacup. The draught looked like liquid sunshine surrounded by gold diamonds.

"This is beautiful."

Dawn welled. "It's chrysanthemum tea. The honeycomb crystals are supposed to pull out the sweet tones."