Page 36 of In the Nick of Time
“No, worries. We’ll catch up with her at some point.”
Back in their room—Doughad remembered to hang the Do Not Disturb sign on the hallway-side knob—Nick pulled Tim out from underneath the bed.
“I’m going to get him outside again,” Nick said. “Did you think anything was odd about the Elvis?” Now that he knewabout subpar powers, he suspected many people had them and probably used them for evil and not good.
“That’s a good idea. I don’t know how we’d explain reptile poop.”
“Tim would never go inside,” Nick said in horror. “He’s not that kind of tortoise.”
“As far as Elvis goes, I didn’t notice anything. Did you?”
“Maybe? I don’t know.” Nick wasn’t going to make a fool of himself by speculating that the Elvis impersonator might be able to relax people or even put them to sleep. What would the benefits be?
Once he’d checked to make sure no cleaning staff were making their way down the hallway, Nick hustled Tim to the stairwell and made his way downstairs. The exit door shut behind him with a solid bang and he stopped in his tracks.
“Fuck.” He hadn’t grabbed a key card.
“Language.”
Nick looked around, but no one else was out in the parking lot in the too-bright sunshine. There were just gleaming cars and a lot of cacti.
“Was that you?” he asked the tortoise.
“Yes, who did you think it was? Put me down.”
Wondering if he was having an out-of-body experience, Nick gently set the reptile down.
“Youarea talking tortoise. Aunt Kat was right.”
With the way the rest of his week had gone, he wasn’t surprised at all that a tortoise was speaking to him. He was a little offended that Tim had waited until now to come clean with him though.
Tim started crawling toward the corner of the building.
“Where are you going?” Nick demanded.
“To do my business, where did you think? And if you wouldn’t mind turning around.”
“Turn around?”
Nick realized Tim was looking at him with what could only be a tortoise’s disdain. Wow, life got more interesting every day.
“And shut your mouth or you’re going to get flies.”
Nick shuffled after Tim. When they reached the corner, Tim turned his head in a way that told Nick if the reptile had eyebrows, they would have been raised in his direction.
“Fine.”
Nick turned his back and stared out at all the cars driving up and down the Strip. It wasn’t as busy as it would be after nightfall, but there was a constant stream of traffic.
“You can turn back around now.”
Nick turned around. Tim was in the same position. Had he taken care of business? Nick was going to assume that yes, he had.
“That hay is terrible. Do you think you could scare up some lettuce or maybe even fruit? I also like watermelon.”
“Why are you a talking turtle?”
“I prefer tortoise to turtle. And why do you have the ability to roll back time?”
