Broomstick Tales

Arnie Grimm

Description

New York crime detective Lieutenant Kovar discovered a murder scene wasn’t the normal Saturday night murder mystery crime drama he was so used to.
Lieutenant Kovar made his way back to the broken window and stared out. “Not possible,” he mumbled. “That a huge dirt clod with dynamite stuffed in it could be thrown through the window.”
“What you have here is a crossover crime from our magical world into your knotem world,” said Agnes.
“Magical world and knotem world, I knew this was going to get weirder before it will make any sense. What is a knotem?” asked Lieutenant Kovar.
“Not magical slurred together,” said Agnes.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Adventure (Guyana)
• Wizardry
• Epic
• Adventure
• Pandora
• Sorcellerie (jeu de rôle)
• Fiction
• Action
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 18 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665563895
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Broomstick Tales

Pandora’s Puzzle Box



Told by Wazoo the Wizard

Written and illustrated
by Arnie Grimm







AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]






© 2022 Arnie Grimm. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/16/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6390-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6388-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6389-5 (e)






Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.



Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.












B enjamin Franklin said, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.”
To my family, my wife Karen and her sister Joyce (You know why), my son Blake who promotes my books to all his friends, my Daughter Kathleen who worries about my sanity after reading my stories, and to my Granddaughter Elizabeth who inspires me to think young.



Contents
Chapter One
Mistakes
Chapter two
Cat’s Eyes
Chapter Three
Scaredy Cat
Chapter Four
Playing the Fool
Chapter Five
Coffee
Chapter Six
Dear Diary
Chapter Seven
Duncan Candlewick
Chapter Eight
The Box
Chapter Nine
Mule Run
Chapter Ten
Bombs bursting in Air
Chapter Eleven
Let’s Make a Deal
Chapter Twelve
Welcome to Broomstick
Chapter Thirteen
Believe It or Not
Chapter Fourteen
Tarot Card Revealed
Chapter Fifteen
The Twitxch
Chapter Sixteen
Twitxched Out Cat Bugler
Chapter Seventeen
Paper Chase
Chapter Eighteen
Three Blind Mice
Chapter Nineteen
County Fair Food
Chapter Twenty
Duty Calls
Chapter Twenty One
Twitxch with an Itch
Chapter Twenty Two
Clean up your Act
Chapter Twenty Three
Dr. Scammer
Chapter Twenty Four
Too Easy
Chapter Twenty Five
No Q for You



Chapter One
Mistakes
T here it was. It was just sitting in the display window of Edna’s Antiquities. It wasn’t fancy, yet it caught the eye of the young woman standing there outside of the store.
Her last name was McGill. Her first name was Lillian, but everyone knew her by her middle name of Nancee.
Nancee McGill worked out of New York City as an antique acquirer. Nancee McGill’s cover story for being in Broomstick was, she was just visiting friends.
Nancee supposedly had wondered off alone to see the town of Broomstick. At age twenty three, she was a lone in the world with no recordable past to speak of.
Nancee sat down in a seat on a southbound transit bus and rode it to the end of the line.
“Your destination is right down this street,” said the bus driver.
Nancee peered into the bus driver’s mirror with a perplexing stare. As if the bus driver seemed to know something she hadn’t revealed about herself.
Nancee got off the bus and started walking down the street void of any car traffic.
There Nancee stood in front of Edna’s Antiquities in the heart of the Preter-Normal Business District in the magical town of Broomstick staring at the puzzle box.
Nancee’s reflection in the window showed a rounded face with large lips wearing a matte nude shade of lipstick. Her eyes had clumpy sticky poorly applied black eyeliner with scruffy dark eyebrows. Hanging to one side of her shoulders was her natural black hair.
A young man, who was dressed oddly, at least to Nancee, appeared behind her.

“Be careful of what you buy in there. It may come with a curse,” said Duncan Candlewick.
Nancee didn’t turn around. Instead, she focused her eyes on the reflection in the window. There was a man with dark hair and dark eyes.
He had on an off white to beige cotton shirt that opened in front and tied close at mid chest. Neatly tucked into his knee high brown leather boots was his puffy pant legs.
Over all this was an open robe that didn’t have sleeves. On top of Duncan’s head was a pointed floppy hat with the point hanging to one side.
“It’s only cursed if you believe in such nonsense,” said Nancee.
That was Nancee’s first mistake of many she will make while in Broomstick.
“Allow me to show you some hospitality and offer to take you to lunch,” suggested Duncan.
“Only if you let me pay for my own lunch,” said Nancee.
That was Duncan’s first mistake of many he will make while Nancee was in Broomstick.
Oh, I have made a mistake also. I forgot to introduce myself. Who am I you ask? I’m your storyteller. I am Wazoo the Wizard and this Broomstick Tale is appropriately named ‘Pandora’s Puzzle Box’.

Duncan, being a gentleman that he was, opened one side of the double doors to the Poison Apple Tavern. Nancee stood for a moment looking up at the flaming sign above the doors before she walked in.
When Nancee entered the tavern, goose bumps ran up and down her arms. Nancee felt as if she had just walked into a nest of little hungry spiders.
She started to turn to leave, but Duncan was right there with his left arm gently on her shoulder and his right arm out pointing the way to a booth.

Bee, a long time server, walked right over to the booth before the seats had an impression pushed into the cushions.
“What will you two have today?”
Duncan spoke up quickly, “Two lunch specials and two rich foamy carbonated witch hazelnut sodas.”
Bee looked at Nancee with a smile.
“First time in Broomstick?” asked Bee, already knowing the answer.
“Just visiting,” said Nancee.
Bee pulled out her deck of tarot cards.
“Would you like a reading while you food is being prepared?” asked Bee with a pleasant smile.
“No thanks. I don’t believe in that mumbo jumbo,” stated Nancee.
That was Nancee’s second mistake of not believing in magic.
Bee gave Nancee a look of suspicion. She spread the tarot cards out on the table anyways.
“Just pick one card,” said Bee.
Nancee leaned her head to one side and looked up at Bee through her black eyebrows. She grabbed a card and looked at it.
Nancee stared at Duncan then to Bee. She also made a quick sweep of the tavern with her eyes.
“Well, what is it?” asked Duncan.
Without a word, Nancee seemed to put the card back into the deck and scrambled the cards around the table.
Then Nancee said, “Pure foolishness.”
Bee picked up the cards and put them back into her apron pocket.
“I’ll check to see if you order is ready,” said Bee as she walked away.
“With the card trick out of the way, maybe we should introduce ourselves. I am Duncan Candlewick.”
“Nancee McGill.”
“What brings you to Broomstick?” asked Duncan.
“Visiting some friends,” was Nancee short answer.
“I suppose not near here, more like the northern part of town,” said Duncan.
“Don’t play physic games with me,” said Nancee.
“I’m just trying to make conversation by stating the obvious. The not so obvious is what or who you are trying to get away from?” said Duncan.
“It doesn’t take a scholar to figure out I’m getting away from work for a while,” said Nancee.
“Yeah, I should have figured that out. So, what was the card you picked?” asked Duncan.
“I don’t know. It had a strange picture that had no meaning,” answered Nancee, not wanting to tell.
“What about you. Let’s talk about you. What were you doing staring at me in the window reflection?”
“I just happen to see you through the window and wanted to meet you,” said Duncan.
Nancee said, with a slight elevated voice, “You saw me through the window? You were inside the store looking at me?”
“I work at Edna’s Antiquities,” said Duncan. “I see everyone that looks in the window.”
“Oh, I see,” said Nancee.
“You’ve been the most attractive person that has looked in the window since I started working there,” commented Duncan.
“Here’s your two lunch specials and two rich foamy carbonated witch hazelnut sodas,” said Bee.
Nancee stared at the sandwich. It wasn’t exactly a tuna on rye. It looked more like a dome of bread with stuff stuck in it with…she assumed melted cheese.
“What’s inside of this?” asked Nancee.
“Just air,” said Duncan as he poked his sandwich with a fork to deflate it.
Conversation was at minimum to zero while they ate. Nancee was glad to get out of the tavern and back on the street. The creepiness however didn’t quite go away.
“I should get back uptown,” said Nancee.
“I too have to get back to work,” said Duncan. “Will I see you again?”
“I doubt it. I’m just here for couple of days,” answered Nancee.
Nancee started walking down the street to where she had gotten off the bus.
Duncan watched her as she pretty much walked out of his life forever. Duncan went back to work in Edna’s shop.
Nancee stopped at the corner and looked back. Duncan wasn’t there. Nancee made her way back to the bus stop and got on the north bound transit.
She sat in the back of the bus alone. In her seclusion, Nancee pulled out the tarot card she had pulled from the deck and stared at it.
Nancee had pulled the only card from the deck that told her story of why she was at Edna’s Antiq