Page 39 of Simon Says

CHAPTER NINE

“You wanted tosee me? Again? Don’t you already have a girlfriend?” Rosie said as she flopped down in the chair in Simon’s office. He knew she was coming when he heard the Mario Brothers flower music. Rosie had persuaded her grandfather to give her his ringtone. He took his second choice, which was herald fanfare.

“Yes. This coming and going from other dimensions. It’s been going on forever.”

She blinked. “I know that, Simon.”

“Well, it needs to stop.”

“Why? Because Simon says?”

He gave her a withering look. “Never heard that one before.”

“But surely you appreciate the fact that mine was delivered with a rose twist.”

“What’s a rose…? Never mind. Let’s stay on topic, shall we?”

She saluted. “We shall!”

“You’re trying to turn me into a mindless spouter of expletives.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not. Swear.” She crossed her heart then giggled. “Okay. I didn’t mean to say swear.”

“Elora Rose. Time to grow up.”

She looked a little offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’ve been given the ability to do things no one else can do.”

She nodded. “Superpowers.”

“Let’s not get carried away. I’m trying to say that, if your special abilities aren’t paired with extra responsibility to use them for the good of our world, and maybe others, then what’s the point?”

“Maybe you don’t know everything about me, Simon,” she said quietly, in a tone he’d never heard her use.

“Maybe not, but I’d like to.”

“So you can exploit my ‘abilities’.”

“Using what you’ve been given to its highest purpose is not exploitation. Considering that I know who your mother, father, and husband are, I’m surprised to hear you talk that way about service.”

She blinked slowly and sighed. “What do you want?”

“I want you to save the world.”

She barked out a laugh. “You implied my use of the term superpowers was hyperbole.”

“That’s because I don’t think vanity is an attractive quality for a division head.”

“Division head?”

“Yes. I’ve been given clearance to offer you the job of setting up a new division and, hopefully, heading it up. We’ve decided to call it D.I.T., which stands for Department of Interdimensional Trespass.” He opened a cabinet behind his desk and withdrew an accordion folder. “There’s an entire section of the library dedicated to open case files that might be attributed to detrimental visitations. The only reason why it has heretofore not been considered as big a problem as vampire is because, before you, vampire were more easily dealt with.

“We’re not concerned about visitations of a benign character. Just those that cause problems.”

Rosie was stunned. “That’s really flattering…”

“We want you to hire personnel to determine where these doorways are and who’s using them to what end. Where they can be shut and sealed, we want to do that. Where they can’t be, we want you or your people to act as police. Run them down and stop them from returning. Get the word out that our world is no longer a defenseless smorgasbord for purveyors of all kinds of mischief.”

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