Page 53 of The Seducer
“Magni does have a point, honey. What man can think straight with twenty beautiful women in tight outfits dancing around him? I agree, that it was a sneaky attack to make us look bad.”
“Finn, tell them they are paranoid and crazy,” Pearl begged.
I laughed and realized how much I missed them. “You two are paranoid and crazy.”
“Not at all,” Magni protested. “You wait until you see the way the women danced. At one point a whole group of them bent over and touched their toes,right in front of Richard.And it’s not like the fucking costume they made him wear did anything to hide his excitement. I would have flat-out refused to put on those tight pants,” Magni pointed out with a grimace.
“Okay, no dance lessons,” I said. “It’s understood.”
“If you’re done talking your crazy talk, ask Finn what’s he’s been doing these past two days,” Pearl said.
“Why? He can hear you, you know.”
“Pearl, I’m happy to tell you that I’ve been to a family unit and met a pair of five-year-old twins and a baby called Marita.”
“Aww, I love babies. Did you get to hold her?”
“No, but she gripped my finger, and we also went to visit the local school, and that‘s when things got crazy.”
“Why? Did you get in a fight?”
“What the fuck, Magni?” I frowned. “Who the hell would I fight in a school?”
“I don’t know.” Magni shrugged. “You were the one who said things got crazy.”
“Because I met a copy of myself.”
“I’m not following.”
“There’s a kid there. His name is Tristan and I swear to you, the boy looks just like me.”
“That is crazy.” Magni lifted his eyebrows. “A Motlander kid that looks like a thirty-four-year-old Nman. I wanna meet that kid.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” I flipped him my finger. “I’m serious. It was like seeing myself at fifteen.”
“Send me his picture and let me be the judge.”
“You don’t remember what I looked like,” I said and added, “Do you?”
Magni grew serious. “I remember everything from those days.”
I stopped breathing for a second, all too aware what he was saying. But then I threw in a joke like a diffuser to take the tension out of the moment.
“Well, then maybe you can remember if I got really piss-drunk about sixteen years ago and sneaked across the border for a quickie with a woman named Randa Christine?”
“Nope, doesn’t ring a bell. If you did I wasn’t with you that night.”
“No, I didn’t think so. I’m just so amazed at how much the boy looks like me,” I said and regretted that I hadn’t brought a jacket outside with me. It was cold and when rain started falling, I said, “Look, I promise to check in more often, but I’ve got to get inside to my prison guard and her sidekick, the sparkly turtle. Just tell me before I go, how are the kids at the school doing?”
Magni’s face softened. “I come back as often as I can, but the rebels on the east coast have been giving me grief. I’m telling you, Finn, there’s no better feeling than the hugs I get from those kids every time I swing by the school. It’s like vitamin shots, you know.”
“Magni hung one of the boys upside down in a tree because he teased Mila,” Khan shouted in the background.
“That’s right,” Magni nodded and lifted his chin. “Nobody touches my little princess.”
I chuckled and raised a hand, signaling I was ending the call. “Talk to you soon, my friend.”
“All right, go show that witch who’s the boss.” Magni gave a mock growl and I smiled at him before I pressed end and returned to the house.
