Cat was sitting in the middle of the living room when we walked in. Carl did the scary smile and gave Cat a finger wave, Cat hissed at him, and Carl shrunk back and farted.
“Chill,” Diesel said to Carl.
“I’m hungry,” Glo said. “I didn’t get a chance to eat, what with the vomiting and swelling and stuff. Maybe we could order out for something.”
“I haven’t got a lot in the house,” I said, “but I could make you a grilled cheese sandwich.”
Glo’s eyes got big. “Grilled cheese would be awesome.”
“I could use a grilled cheese,” Diesel said.
“Eep!” Carl said. “Eep, eep.”
“Three grilled cheeses coming up,” I said.
I assembled the bread and butter and cheese, and Glo thumbed through Ripple’s.
“I found a different spell from the uppity one,” Glo said. “I have it marked here. The description says it’s helpful for moving difficult objects.”
“Have you read it out loud yet?” I asked her.
“No. I thought I’d wait and do it here where Diesel can do damage control. Sometimes my spells don’t turn out exactly perfect.”
I put my big fry pan on the cooktop. “What object are you going to move?”
“I thought I’d try something small. Like a glass.”
“No glass!”
“Bread? Cheese?” Glo asked.
“No. I’m using the bread and the cheese. I don’t want enchanted food.”
Glo looked around. “How about the toaster?”
“Sure. Do the toaster.”
“Light as air, listen well, rise to the command on words spriggam, barflower, my will be done.” Glo pointed her finger at the toaster. “Spriggam, barflower, my will be done. I command thee to rise.”
We all watched the toaster for a beat and BANG! The toaster burst into flames. Diesel pulled the plug and dumped it into the sink.
“I think it rose a little before it caught fire,” Glo said.
“It jumped when it exploded,” Diesel told her.
Glo threw her arms up in exasperation. “I don’t get it. I know I read it correctly.”
“You didn’t need powdered octopus suckers or anything, did you?” I asked her.
“No. It’s all right here in black and white.” Glo read the spell out loud again, following along with her finger. “Spriggam, barflower, my will be done.”
A shout went up from the street.
“Oh no,” Glo said. “Now what?”
We ran to the door and looked out at Mel Mensher. He was standing on my sidewalk, watching three other members of the Spook Patrol chase after the Spook Patrol van.
“It just took off,” Mensher said. “We parked it, and we all got out and started checking our equipment, and next thing, the van’s going down the street all by itself.”