Summoned Again?

We were all off on the private plane the next morning and everyone was excited. Sandy came along as well, so Nat was happier than a white dog playing in a mud puddle. Eileen had been a little reluctant at first, until she realized I wasn't going to treat her like she was a new addition and needed time to adjust to being there. I completely included her as if she had always been there, just like I had with Sandy.

The difference came with her method of dress. Unlike Susan, whom was flamboyant and showed off her body all the time because she was proud of the attention she could garner, Eileen wore conservative clothing and was quite professional in both her speaking method and her behavior. It was quite the difference from Susan and everyone took it in stride, even Crystal.

To my surprise, Crystal had completely accepted that Eileen was the new woman in my life and had dismissed Susan as if she didn't matter. When I took her into the bathroom at the resort to ask her about it, Crystal looked me dead in the eye and said that if Susan didn't love me enough to forgive me for my mistakes, then she didn't deserve to be in my life and I shouldn't waste my time worrying about it.

I was stunned. This nine year old girl loved me so unconditionally, that I could do anything at all and she would forgive me. Tears came to my eyes and she held her arms up to me. I scooped her up instantly and I held her tenderly as I cried. Crystal whispered that it was okay and she loved me enough that I could get rid of everyone else and she would still be happy, except for Nat. Her we had to keep.

I laughed through my crying fit and Crystal giggled, then her feather light kisses peppered my cheek. I took several deep breaths to calm down and it was like each press of her lips on my skin pushed away another worry, my bad thoughts disappeared, and each of my problems became unimportant.

“Your kisses are magic.” I whispered when I was back to myself once more.

“I know.” Crystal said and reached down to tap the second ring on my hand. “Can you make me tingle all over again?”

I chuckled and used Cleaning Hands on her to make her giggle and used it on myself to clean up my wet face. We left the bathroom and rejoined our friends to have the best time of our lives. A week of sun and fun was had by all, even by Nat's mother Samantha.

No one was surprised when Nat eventually assaulted me for a real diamond ring before she took Sandy out on a romantic date. We followed discreetly to make sure she actually went through with it. She bent a knee and asked Sandy to marry her, and the only one surprised by it was Sandy herself. She started to scream yes and then fainted.

Crystal giggled and waved me over to revive the girl. Sandy gasped when she woke up and then she and Nat made out in front of the entire restaurant before they ran off without looking back.

“We will not see them for the rest of our vacation.” Eileen said wisely.

Crystal and I exchanged looks and we shared a similar giggle. We both knew there would be body painting going on, because paint did not splash onto certain areas unless clothing was optional. Samantha just nodded her head and enjoying eating her rare steak.

The next week passed before we knew it and we met back at the plane. The crew looked quite happy to have had such a nice vacation while earning an exorbitant fee. They didn't look as happy as Sandy and Nat, though. The pair of women practically glowed with happiness as they handed off their luggage to be loaded into the cargo area.

The trip home also seemed to take no time at all. I could say we also returned to our normal lives, except nearly everything was different. Eileen did return to her practice; but, she was living with me now and had hired one of her friends as her new assistant. The woman gave me the cold shoulder when she met me the first morning back and said she hoped I was satisfied for breaking up a happy marriage.

Both Eileen and I laughed, told her they had been separated for years, as she very well knew, and that her opinion wasn't going to affect our relationship at all because it was none of her business. She looked stunned, so I kissed Eileen briefly, told her to have a great day at work and that I would see her at home later after her new car was delivered.

Crystal started school again and Nat split her time between taking care of the new business with Sandy during the day and taking care of Crystal in the afternoons and evenings. Since I was home all the time now, I pretty much did the same thing, only my days were filled with working with Samantha to figure out the extent of her magical capacity and how much she could get out of all of the spell rings I could enchant.

Of course, I also made more of the Stay Awake amulets to hand over to my previous company. Those things sold out immediately after the announcement that another ten thousand of them were available.

The funny thing was, my outing as someone that loved his sister, had pretty much blown over. Apparently, being super-rich and eccentric had given me a lot more leeway than anyone thought was possible.

Jenny on the other hand, was seen as manipulative, gold-digging, and opportunistic. She was not seen in any kind of favorable light, despite becoming so well known that people recognized her on the street. She absolutely hated it, if her hundreds of text messages to me were any indication. I just responded that she should be angry at her ex-boyfriend and the government, since they released the footage.

Not surprisingly, she ignored me and brought it up with her psychiatrist. Eileen, being the professional she was, listened attentively and did not enlighten Jenny about our relationship during their sessions. Thanks to Jenny not talking to Susan anymore, because of all the previous bad blood between them, she never found out that Eileen had become a part my life. It wasn't any of her business, either.

Crystal's offhand comment about my fear protection amulet looking cool because it was a wolf's head like her Wolfy, reminded me about selling them in the other world. Since I had the production equipment in my inventory and it was just sitting there, I took everything out for several hours every night and made thousands and thousands of protective pendants as well as the Stay Awake ones.

*

Life went on and we all learned to adjust to our new standard of living. We took several trips to my European country with Stephanie and Bethany during the year, especially at Christmas, and we brought everyone we wanted with us. Friends and family loved getting a free vacation and the occasional stopover in Paris for a week or two made all of the women extremely happy.

The pendants were selling internationally and everyone wanted the Protective Wolf. There were still idiots that bought some to melt down for the gold content, only to kick themselves later because the secondary sales for the unaltered pendants exceeded the cost of the gold used to make them. Exclusivity really was a driving force for a limited market.

*

Crystal's tenth birthday party at the rented park was filled with kids and adults. She had tons of friends and they all got along famously. The parents were only a little reluctant, because of who I was. They knew the government screwed me over and I screwed them right back, which was a bit of a conversation stopper when it came up. I just laughed it off, because it was over and done with.

The country was starting to become self-reliant with a lot of the imports and exports changing to Canada being the major economical power in North America. It was a new mentality for the general person to accept, because they had grown up with everything being shipped in from other countries. Now they had to produce a lot of things on their own and realized it was quite expensive to do so locally.

They were making it work, though. The GDP was slowly increasing to the point that the government started getting interested inquiries from the World Bank. I wouldn't have known about that, if it wasn't for Mr. Graham. He had remained in contact with me after all the help he had provided to me years ago, just so he could stay on top of things.

“She's still a cute little thing, despite shooting up two inches this year.” Samantha said to me as she looked at Crystal pigging out on chocolate cake.

“She did pass the point that I can pick her up comfortably.” I said, sadly.

“Then do it uncomfortably, stupid.” Samantha said with a smile.

I chuckled. “I meant for her. I could hold her in my arms forever. I just don't want her to start disliking it.”

Samantha gave me a searching look and then reached over to grip my forearm. “Change how you hold her. Don't try to brace her on your hip like when she was little. That won't work. Pick her up like you would for a full grown woman.”

I thought about what she meant. “I can't pick her up like a child anymore. I should pick her up like a princess instead.”

“Or like a sack of potatoes slung over your shoulder.” Samantha said with a knowing smile.

“Hey, leave my bedroom antics out of this.” I joked and she laughed.

“You know what I mean.”

I nodded. “Crystal deserves to be treated like she's growing up. I won't disappoint her.”

“Good.” Samantha said and let my arm go. “You need to start your magic show. The kids are getting restless.”

I took her advice and walked over to where the majority of the kids were gathered. “All right, who here wants to see a bit of magic?”

“WE DO!” All of them yelled. Crystal was the loudest because she was my biggest fan.

“All right. I'll just look around for a bit to try and find my magic hat.” I said and pulled a top hat out of my inventory and stuck it to my back out of their sight. I turned around to pretend to look for it.

“It's RIGHT there!” The kids yelled.

“Where? I don't see it?” I asked and turned back around.

“Behind you!” They said and pointed.

I turned around and they shouted again, so I unstuck it from my back and let it fall to the grass. I turned back. “Oh! There it is.” I said and picked it up to put on my head. “Hmm, okay. What should I do first?”

“The money trick!” Crystal and the other girls shouted.

“You ask for that all the time.” I complained.

“Yes, we do!” They responded and laughed.

I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly. “Fiiiine!”

“Yay!” They shouted and I did some hand waving and pulled a fake wand out of the hat, then went to each of them and tapped them on the top of the head. Each of them let out a happy sound and quickly searched through their pockets for the money. With inflation so high, instead of pulling out a five dollar bill, they were twenty dollar bills.

I went back to the front of the group. “With the most important trick out of the way...” I paused to let them laugh and giggle. “...I'm going to do a bit of juggling.”

“Boring!” One of the boys said.

I smiled at him. “This might get a little dangerous, so I'll move waaaaay over here to be safe.” I said and took one step to the right and made the kids laugh and giggle. I reached into my top hat and pulled out a short sword.

“Oooo!” The other kids said.

I did this twice more and their eyes were wide. “I think I need some protection, just in case.” I said and reached into the hat and pulled out a rubber chicken. “How the heck did that get in there?”

“HA HA!” Most of the kids laughed and a few of the parents joined in.

I squeezed it to get it to cluck and tossed it into the crowd. It was snatched up and quickly squeezed to make it cluck a few times. “I know I put a hardhat in here somewhere.” I said and took out a squeaky rubber duck next and threw that into the crowd, then a rubber ball and a beach ball. “Ah! Here it is.”

A few people applauded when I put on a real construction worker's hardhat and secured it.

“Now remember, do not try this at home. I am a professional idiot... I mean performer!” I said and they laughed. I handed Crystal my top had to hold for me, then I picked up one short sword. I flipped it over in my hand and caught the handle. I did that a couple of times and then picked up a second sword.

Everyone watched as I flipped them, one in each hand, and caught the handles. I had done this trick in the Beastman world and knew exactly how to perform it perfectly. I picked up the third sword and did a great juggling act that had everyone's attention, then I threw each sword high up in the air.

“Uh oh! I seemed to have lost my swords.” I said and looked at my empty hands.

“They're UP THERE!” The kids yelled and pointed.

“Where?” I asked as I stepped to the right slightly and looked up. The blade slipped past my shoulder and thunked into the ground as it stuck. “Oh! Here's one.” I said and turned around to pick it up. “I was sure I just dropped them around here.” I said and looked around at the ground.

“Look out!” They shouted and pointed.

I turned back around and stepped forward as I put my hands on my hips. “I looked up the last time you said to and it was on the ground.” I said and the next blade just missed my back and thunked into the ground. “See? There's another one.”

“LOOOK UUUUUUP!” They yelled and pointed up as a few of them jumped in excitement.

“All right, I'll try looking up again.” I said and tilted my head back. “I'm sure there's nothing...”

Just like the last time I did it, the short sword was flipping end over end and the hilt just so happened to be on the bottom and the sound of metal on metal clanged as the sword hit the top of my hardhat. I shook comically and dropped to the ground.

Everyone laughed.

“Owww!” I said loudly as I sat up and rubbed my head. “Why didn't you warn me?”

Everyone kept laughing.

“Someone remind me to not do that again.” I said and picked up the swords as I stood. “Hey, I just remembered that I know a neat juggling trick with swords...”

“DON'T DO IT!” All of the kids yelled and the adults laughed.

“I guess I'll try something different, since swords might be a bit too dangerous to play with.” I said and shoved them into my top hat with the construction worker hardhat. It really was funny that everyone thought pratfalls were hilarious.

I proceeded to do a whole magic show for the kids and I included a few of the adults as well. They all had a great time and I hammed it up a lot, too. Crystal looked extremely happy about the whole thing, almost as if she wanted everyone to see me like this. I couldn't fault her for that, though. I would do anything for her and she knew I would, and that's all that mattered.

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