Page 79 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Maybe Max was starting to understand what Evie and Rory were saying about having actual time off. It was harder to work all the time when you were juggling so much. Max hadn’t expected any of this… but he wouldn’t change a thing if given a choice, either.

Rory smiled at him. “Time to get this show on the road?”

Yeah, it might be more chaotic, but it was so worth it.

The day passed with a steady stream of children and their parents, way busier than Sundays usually were for Max—except all his normal trends were slowly becoming less true thanks to the force of nature that was Rory. Somehow, when Max wasn’t looking, Rory had organized an entire Halloween book bingo sheet for children (and the occasional very enthusiastic adult), and today was the day to pick up that bingo sheet.

Participants had to read or complete a variety of Halloween-related activities, and when they crossed off lines or got a blackout, it impacted the prizes they would get next Saturday on Halloween. Rory had written on the sheet that the items were open to interpretation, and they just had to be able to explain their choices to him. He reiterated that to all the parents and children when he handed the sheets out. It was clear he wanted to make the game as fun and accessible as possible, and everyone responded to that. (Rory had gone to the thrift store, the dollar store, and the craft store for the prizes, and he’d wound up very happy but with a suspicious amount of glitter covering him.)

Alex had made Rory a bright orange shirt with eyes, a nose, and a mouth drawn like a jack-o’-lantern, and Rory seemed almost as excited about it as the children were. He listened without any impatience to their recitations of what they were wearing for Halloween—not always very clear—or what they were doing at school—not always very interesting—or what their pet was doing or their parents or their siblings. He accepted every person he encountered just the way they were. It was something that Max admired… and had zero desire to emulate. He was glad it made Rory and the recipient happy, though.

Max didn’t even mind that he couldn’t do as much spellreading. The store was busy enough that he came out to help Rory periodically, but Rory’s enthusiasm counted for a lot. And it wasn’t very long ago that Max would have had to be out here the whole time because there wasn’t anyone else. Besides, cheerful kids who loved reading were probably Max’s favorite humans overall.

This was a good thing, because a week later on Halloween, Max was dressed head-to-toe in black as the Dread Pirate Roberts, Rory was dressed as Princess Buttercup (in the red gown from her kidnapping), and Alex was dressed as Inigo Montoya (complete with fake mustache and boobs for a fabulous genderqueer version). They’d briefly considered Alex being Buttercup but decided not to risk worrying their mother, since Wesley and Buttercup were a couple. Inigo got to dance around with a sword, and Alex enjoyed that. Nōwē posed for one picture in a very fetching purple velvet onesie and crown as Prince Humperdink, but for some reason, she didn’t want to keep wearing it.

Max still wasn’t totally sure how he’d been suckered into doing all of this, except that Rory’s joy was infectious, and he’d gone with a costume that he knew wouldn’t upset Max. Plus, Rory made a very fetching Buttercup, and Max had to admit that the whole, “As you wish,” thing was kind of fun.

Alex had convinced them all to carve pumpkins, which had actually been more fun than Max expected. To no one’s surprise, Alex was the best at it. Rory was extremely enthusiastic, and Max took great pride in making his pumpkins look as grumpy as possible. His cutting skills didn’t always align with the vision in his head, but he tried. All the pumpkins used battery-operated tea lights so that there was zero fire hazard.

They’d reorganized the boxes in the basement and draped them in colorful sheets and blankets, put up fairy lights, and filled the room with jack-o’-lanterns. The long table worked as seating for parents and those who wanted to craft—because Rory and Alex had collaborated on several simple art projects the kids could do—and a whole bunch of pillows and cushions made up the new reading corner where Princess Buttercup was doing story hour before inspecting bingo cards and doling out candy and prizes.

Rory had several different stories to read, including excerpts from The Princess Bride—that included Alex and Max having a duel. The kids screeched with glee as Max-as-Wesley defeated Alex-as-Inigo.

(Max and Alex were definitely not technically skilled, but they did their best to make up for it with enthusiasm. Max couldn’t believe he was saying that.)

Nōwē couldn’t seem to decide if this was the coolest thing ever or the worst invasion of her space that had ever occurred. (Max agreed, to be honest.) But she was smart and fast, so Max trusted her to sneak away any time she needed to get away from everyone—or go high, so she could survey her empire like the queen she was.

They’d found all the copies of The Princess Bride they had, as well as other good fantasy choices. The kids—dressed in a variety of costumes that ranged from minimal effort to elaborate home sewn—were so excited to show Rory what they’d completed on their bingo cards, and Max watched Rory take such a broad interpretation of the cards sometimes that David and his rule-following D&D brain was probably getting shivers without knowing why.

Tom had wound up with a conflict for D&D, so they’d postponed yesterday’s game, which was just as well, because they’d had plenty of prep to do for Halloween in the bookshop. They’d meet instead for D&D on the 2nd—and dress up, because it would obviously have crushed Rory if they didn’t. Max had a sneaking suspicion that costumes were going to become a more regular part of their campaign, and he couldn’t quite decide how terrible that was.

Alex had also expressed interest in joining, so Max had cleared it with the group and Alex’s mom. Natalie didn’t love the late night on a Monday, but since it was usually a Friday, she’d accepted it. She’d told Max that Alex often seemed to get along better with adults than with their peers, and now with the added magic… She was worried about them. She didn’t want them to be isolated.

Max had assured her this group was all human, and while there was nothing to worry about, Max and Rory would of course take care of Alex.

But right now, all they were thinking about was Halloween and children who were dressed up and had already consumed too much sugar. The three of them tried to take turns with at least one of them upstairs, but there was more than one occasion where they were all downstairs, like when Max and Alex were dueling. Max had cast spells to discourage theft, there was no way anyone could get into the back room with all the wards he had up, and he was just hoping for the best. (The tiny bathroom had never been used this frequently before. Max was hoping that the older plumbing held up and planning to use industrial-strength cleaning solutions on the entire room afterwards.)

If they did events like this in the future, he should probably look at his staffing model again. Maybe he could find someone who was willing to pick up part-time shifts here and there… He’d have to think about all of it.

For now, the important thing was that there were a bunch of kids who thought that books were the coolest thing in the universe. Rory was fabulous at reading stories to kids, and if Max said so himself, he and Alex were pretty good at semi-improvised sword fights.

Max was learning a lot about himself these days.

They kept the store open until eight to keep giving out candy—Max noticed that a non-zero quantity also ended up in Rory’s mouth—although the number of kids slowed down as parents and children headed off to heavily residential areas to get as much candy as possible. Max didn’t blame them. He remembered trick or treating with Evie and his parents when he was young. Figuring out the neighbors who gave out loot bags with multiple items was always the way to go.

Since Alex still wasn’t allowed to work past seven, they were volunteering for that hour, and Max happened to be gifting them with an amount equal to their hourly wage in cash. (Their mom had said it was okay, under these special circumstances. She liked all the creative stuff Alex got to do here, and she was especially grateful now for the time Alex got to spend with people who were mixed up in “their magical world,” as she was now calling it.)

Alex and Rory made sure that lots of photos were taken, and Max sent a few of them along to Evie when there was a brief lull a little after seven. (Rory had even taken a video of one of Alex and Max’s duels.)

Max

You’ll never guess the day I had.

Most annoying sibling in the entire world

[entire row of laughing emojis] ARE YOU A POD PERSON, WHAT IS GOING ON???

Max