Chapter 27 - Ice cream

Wolfgang peered into the smoking sinkhole. A rusty family saloon car could be seen, spiked on the remains of one of the turrets that wasn't entirely swallowed by the Earth yet. 'So much for subtlety.' he grumbled, then howled up to the waning gibbous moon to regain some wolf-cred after two days of dog behaviour. Nobody answered. Well, at least it had earned him some fine raw steak. If humans only knew that all canines were able to understand them. That would certainly boost the werewolf story industry.Ambling off to the right, Wolfgang dodged the police line and went off to the bank of the Castle Mill Stream to collect the SHC envelope with his wages, before merging into the shadows, disappearing into the night.

Hours later, the area around 42 Eden Drive was still quiet. Except for the hovering helicopter and the high speed construction of a chain-link fence perimeter with large signs declaring 'Area 42 – Restricted area - no trespassing beyond this point – off-limits to unauthorised personnel – use of deadly force authorised.' A clear recipe for regular signage theft.

The Prime Minister had returned to London late last night with some multiple choice questions for her Cabinet Ministers. Basic things like 'Shall we give Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic or re-join the EU… to solve the last border issues? It'll be both if you hesitate too much.'

Meanwhile Eddy was lying spreadeagled in the middle of his new bed, struggling with the question whether a good night kiss was supposed to last that long. He was going to have to ask Ava, after finding a way out from under the large duvet that was holding him hostage.

Ava had to go wash her arms last night after she tried to embrace her pillow, remembering too late that the backside was still covered in slug slime.

Awakened by a ray of sunshine, she decided to take action and jumped off the bed to collect her laptop and the government credit card. Opening the window, she threw out the pillow and the rest of the bedding, then apologised to the secret service man standing there. With a sense of relief, Ava started ordering some stylish stuff to get her bedroom up to age. She briefly wondered if there would be a credit limit on the card, but then surged on regardless.

Satisfied, Ava skipped down the stairs to see if she could get some breakfast, concluding halfway that out-of-bed clothing requirements might be slightly different for adults, seeing the shocked expression on Dad's face.

Coming down the stairs again, now fully covered up, Ava made a mental list of things to do today. This included handing the paperwork releasing Eddy and her from school duties to the head mistress of their Primary school. Caoilinn had arranged that paperwork just before leaving last night. As far as Ava could see, it included a non-disclosure agreement and a pretty hefty sponsorship for the school, by an anonymous benefactor 'C'. Eddy had been adamant that he should come with her. She wondered if this had anything to do with Dillon, the bully in Eddy's class.

Ava saw that Eddy was sitting at the breakfast table. He had somehow managed to fill a large blueish glass cup with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce. He was about to finish this with whipped cream and all the sprinkles he could find.

'Where did you get that cup?' Ava asked 'Never saw that one before.'

'In my cupboard of course! It looks like that grail thing hatched.'

'So what you are saying is that you are possibly eating ice-cream out of the Holy Grail?!'

'It was the largest cup I could find and I was hungry.' Eddy said with a satisfied look.

'So the fact that it is emitting light doesn't bother you? It could be dangerous.' Ava enquired with ever increasing disbelief.
'Well, I reasoned that since the light is cold, it doesn't melt my ice-cream, so that is OK, right?'

At that point, the colour of the light briefly switched from blue to bright red, causing a fountain of suddenly molten dairy product to be emitted in all directions and leaving a scarred spot on the kitchen ceiling.

'I suppose it disagrees about that…!' said Ava, angrily wiping her face.
'Shall I put that outside?' Dad intervened, looking at the mark on the ceiling, as he stood up from the couch.

'How did you even move this thing?' Dad said with a strangled voice, attempting to lift the Grail and failing.

Eddy picked up the cup, rinsed it under the kitchen tap and walked outside with it without any apparent effort. Ava did notice the creaking of the floorboards though. She could only remember hearing that from when they came to deliver the piano. The other strange thing was that the water from the tap had vanished with a loud hiss.

'Maybe we should call Caoilinn to get that thing checked. I don't trust it'