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“I didn’t choose to have the gateway here,” Blaine says.
“Who did, then?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe the gateway chose its own destination. Maybe it had a little help from the faerie courts. From the excavation for the new mall. But it wasn’t me. I swear it. All I know is that when it moves, I must follow it.”
“Why?” I ask. “Why do you have to?”
“Because it chose me,” he says. “Just like it chose you.”
“It chose me?” I ask.
“Yes, with the key,” Blaine says. “It chose you when it gave you the key.”
“What does the key have to do with it?”
“You have the gold key now. I have the silver and the bronze. I think the gateway wants another gatekeeper. Maybe the job is too big for just one person.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“I’m sure of one thing,” he says. “I’m sure I need your help. You saved my daughter and your friends. Without you, they would all have been—”
“But if I hadn’t done all that, Karen wouldn’t be dead now, would she?”
He shrugs. “You never know what could have been. But I know I’m grateful to you, and I’m so sorry about your friend.”
“Thanks so much for the words of sympathy. But they’re just that. Words. They won’t bring her back.”
He’s silent then. Finally the man shuts up.
“You really think we can help save lives?” I ask, finally. “Keep people safe from that gateway?”
“Let me be plain. I think without your help, Stanley, there will be more deaths.”
He lets me think about that for a moment.
“Do you think you can help me, then?” he asks.
“I’ll think about your offer. Is this job paid?”
He nods. “Pay and benefits.”
“And I’ll be helping the community.”
Blaine nods. “They need you, Stanley. We all need you.”
“Do you think you might have a job for my friend Jonathan, too?” I ask. “You know, he could help with your store — he’s really into manga.”
“I’ll have to consider it,” he says with a smile.
“Consider it?” I ask. “Like I’m considering your offer? Then hurry up, consider.”
He looks at me. “Okay, I’m done.”
“And?” I ask.
“And?” he asks, right back at me.
“Okay,” I say.
