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Dear All,

My author site is:  www.johnpirillo.com

I post a lot more material there.

Have a great weekend.

John

Chapter Three of The Shasta Caper is now posted.

Chapter Three

Jimbo crashed into the emergency care waiting room to see Nurse Red on a chair and a tiny rodent circling one of its legs. 

"I hate rats!" She said, her eyes wide as moons.

Jimbo, slipped the sidearm he carried back into its holster, then bent down to the floor. He looked at the mouse who looked back at him. He pulled out a bit of bread he had stuffed into one of his pockets and put it on his left hand and laid it on the floor. 

"He's going to bite you!" Nurse Red said.

Jimbo said nothing. He just waited.

Several long moments later and a sore back as well, Jimbo smiled as the mouse sniffed the air delicately, then made a roundbout path to his hand. It paused at the edge, expecting something bad to happen. It didn't. It grabbed the bread, then sat up eating the bread delicately a bit at a time, its eyes on Jimbo, watching him warily. When it finished the bread it sniffed at Jimbo's hand for more, then looked up into his eyes.

Jimbo smiled. "Hungry are we? Gotta get onto my hand if you want more."

The mouse, as if it understood, hopped on his hand and looked up again.

Jimbo reached back and brought out more bread and held it for the mouse. The mouse took it and munched away. Several moments later, it was stuffed and curled up into a ball in the palm of his hand and closed its eyes to sleep.

Jimbo sat up slowly, then looked at Red. "Probably some kid in the hospital's pet hamster."

He sat down on a chair and gently stroked the hamster, whose nose twitched, but didn't stir othewise.

Nurse Red got down off her chair and eyed him more closely. "You two are different."

"Ain't that the truth, sweetheart." He told her.

"I'd better make sure your partner's okay." She offered.

"Good idea. Wouldn't want the bed bugs to bite him or anything."

She snorted at the joke, then exited the waiting room.

Jimbo got more comfortable. "Well, Sammie, looks like we have a new friend."

When he woke up, his coat was wrapped around his shoulders and the hamster was still asleep, but now it was in his shirt pocket, its tiny heart beating against his. He popped open an eye to find Nurse Red watching him from the doorway. "I bet your neck is killing you."

Samuel woke up, feeling normal again. All the psychic bruises were healed. It usually took him about six to twelve hours to drop them, but this time had been worse because of the depth of the eneriges. That woman had powerful mojo, he thought to himself with the hint of a smile, which only showed his mood was returning back into its more normal channels. Positive and upbeat.

He felt his face and groaned. He had a stubble almost an inch long. Maybe  he'd been in the hospital longer than he thought.

"Three days." Jimbo said from the doorway, Nurse Red peeking over his right shoulder with a smile. She shoved around him and came inside with a tray filled with breakfast goodies. "I heard you were a vegetarian, so I dug up some veggies for you."

Samuel gave Jimbo the evil eye. Jimbo looked away, pretending not to notice.

Samuel looked at the bowl of carrots, olives, pickles, celery and lettuce and groaned inwardly. He hated pickles. Especially the green ones that were heaped so generously on the salad. He reached for the salad dressing and almost choked. "Apple Cider Vinegar."

He gave Jimbo another scathing glance, which was not lost to Nurse Red this time. "You two boys aren't being...you know..."

"Boys?" Jimbo asked with a grin.