The Stranger - Max Frei [263]
“Fine. If you’ve got it into your head that you just have to be surprised—well, I’ll just head back to my board over there. When you’re over your shock, send me a call.”
“What? No, it’s not worth going back and forth. I’ll be quick about it,” I said. “Naturally, the person who taught Sir Juffin Hully what’s what in his time would know everything in the World.”
“You got that right. You know, Maba and I had a falling out—”
“Sir Maba Kalox is here?”
“How should I put it . . . At the moment, as we speak, no. And you never can say anything for sure about Maba. Whatever the case may be, he does sometimes pay me a visit. That’s how we got to arguing about you, and neither of us guessed. I wasn’t at all sure you’d drop in here, and I was getting ready to pay you a visit. But Maba talked me out of it. He reckoned that within a dozen days or so you’d come round to Down Home Diner. But we sure didn’t expect to see you this soon. Have you any notion how lucky you are, partner?”
“Sir Juffin tells me all the time. I’ve got a whole slew of arguments to the contrary, but they don’t count, I guess?”
“You got that right. You lucky dogs are all like that. It was even a miracle that you were born, did you know that?”
I shook my head in bewilderment. Up to this point I had thought that the story of my conception contained no dramatic plot twists.
“The details are immaterial to you, but you can keep it in mind, anyway. Well, no matter. Looks like you want to smoke?”
I nodded. The problem was that my cigarette box was empty and my magic pillow was at my lodgings.
“Maba left you a present. He asked me to tell you that you’re a very quick learner, so it’s probably not so much a present as a well-earned reward.”
Mackie handed me a whole pack of my favorite cigarettes, with three gold stars on a yellow background.
“Whoa! Looks like I won the jackpot!” I exclaimed. “You were absolutely right, Mackie. I’m the luckiest person in the universe!”
“Almost,” he nodded distractedly. “What else can I offer you? I think a good dose of nostalgia would do the trick. Hellika!”
The smiling tavern-keeper hurried over, put a tray with a cup on the table silently, and disappeared as quietly and abruptly as a shadow.
“She is a shadow,” Sir Mackie said, seconding my thought. “But a very sweet one. Well, are you happy?”
I looked at the cup. That smell . . . Kamra is, of course, an excellent thing. But nothing beats the smell of . . . good coffee!
“I’m going to cry!” I said. “Sir Mackie, I’m in your debt forever.”
“Don’t bandy words like that around. It’s very dangerous, especially in your case. Your words sometimes possess a special power, and some of your wishes do, too. They come true, you know. I think this World is going to see some interesting times ahead, if you don’t become old and wise in the very near future. But neither one nor the other is likely to happen any time soon, I reckon.”
“Sir Mackie, do you always speak in riddles?”
“Only some of the time. The rest of the time I’m silent as the grave. So just be patient.”
“No problem,” I nodded, and greedily slurped down another gulp of coffee. “Now I’m going to have a smoke—and you can do whatever you like with me. I’ll agree to anything.”
“Is that right? By the way, your sense of duty isn’t very strong. If Juffin were in your shoes he would already have fired a dozen questions at me, made a few million deductions, and formed a hypothesis. Don’t you plan to interrogate me about the mysterious fate of Kettari?”
“I know that you’ll only tell me what you consider necessary for me to know. And you’ll tell me that without any prompting on my part.”
“Bravo!” Sir Mackie said. “I can’t help but envy Juffin. It’s very easy to deal with you.”
“I feel the same way,” I agreed. “But I wasn’t like this before. Juffin’s jokes and lots of good food will turn anyone into an angel.”
“Juffin’s jokes? That’s funny. He used to be the gloomiest fellow in Kettari. I had to work