65

"No," Deet said. "I know how the box works."

"You were lucky." Deet and Sergius Golowin were talking on the phone.

"Well, Serg, you're right. I was lucky. I knew a little something about how the box works, way back before all of this stuff started."

"Mm hmm."

"So I could keep an eye on anything that felt a little too easy, and make sure I had enough stuff going on that is still going to be going on, you know, when the box turns on me, or when I wake up one day and the box is part of Sam. When there is no more box."

"Yeah," Golowin said. "So Wizard Star, is it ... ?"

"Well, I tell you," Deet said. "I'm staying very careful, I'm keeping a close eye on Wizard Star. Nothing has changed so far. But I'm not taking anything for granted. I may not know just what I get to keep, you know what I mean?"

"Uh huh."

"Anyway, that's enough about me, I'm doing fine, how's everything out there? How's Sam?"

"He's adjusting," Golowin said. "He's not thrilled, he's not crushed. He seems to want to get on the back of a flatbed truck with his puzzles and go town to town, canton to canton, picking up a shilling here and a tuppence there."

"Sam Loyd, navigating the Swiss hills from the back of a flatbed truck."

"Mm hmm. I don't want to rain on his parade. I mean, he didn't exactly ask to be brought back, at least, not the way we did it."

"Rip Van Winkle."

"Yeah."

"I have to tell you though, Sergius, I do feel a little funny. The rhythm of this whole enterprise is a little ... lopsided."

"I know. Nobody knows that better than me. I mean, my grandfather trained me for this. My entire life I've had this silent, this latent possibility, I might or might not be the midwife of Sam Loyd's resurrection at some time in my life or my kid's life. Or my grandkid's life."

There was a low blast of noise in the background.

"What was that?" Deet said.

"Oh, that's just Pretty."

"You kept the goose?"

"Hmm, well, she can leave whenever she wants to. I think she's treating it as a holiday."

"I guess a Shetland Goose doesn't get to visit Switzerland very often."

"Yeah. Anyway, it's a weird letdown. But you know, I'm teaching a couple classes."

"So you're keeping busy."

"Yeah," Golowin said. "Keeping busy."

THE END