✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

47. My Unusual Routine

Author's note: I just posted two chapters for this book. One of them was a couple of minutes late, because it was scheduled for Jan 1st, and so should have been done before midnight. But that was thwarted when my net connection dropped out, so you get yesterday's and today's in quick succession. I hope that the slightly increased posting frequency on this book in the new year will help it to catch up with the other one soon!

Nothing noteworthy happened for the rest of the day. There was nothing creative to do in the office, just crunching numbers and making educated guesses at the probability that someone on my team would screw up. I thought that chance was pretty low; because I knew I would be driven to cover for anyone who was having problems. But there were so many different sets of numbers to deal with that I was glad to see the last of them.

About the most interesting thing that happened all day was an overheard whisper between one of the junior staffers, a guy whose name I didn't even remember, and Jessop on one of his sporadic visits. They were both at the coffee machine, which happened to be right outside my cubicle. Normally I would have tuned out the background noise, but I wanted to know what kind of mood my immediate superior was in. Just in case someone had passed an incriminating document up the chain where I had pretended to do so. In case he was disgusted with me, and I might be looking forward to a visit from the Elder Dragon. The coordinator of all staff on site, responsible for the emotional wellbeing of everyone in the Upper Ashfields site since its creation, rather than any specific project, no HR executive had ever been more feared than Bracewell, if the rumours were to be believed. You could learn everything you needed to know about our tyrant by the fact that her name was reserved for formal communications, lest she could be summoned by a casual mention.

They weren't talking about the tyrant, the dragon, or she who must not be named. There was no sign that Jessop had heard anything out of the ordinary. I was safe for now. But my boss seemed to be a little confused about another person whose name wasn't to be spoken. He wanted to know if there was anyone on the staff known as MK, because he'd heard mention of MK getting a bonus payment in the form of expensive artisan cheeses being dispatched weekly to a hotel suite during his vacation.

There wasn't an MK in the office. I was sure Jessop could have checked that himself, but he didn't know the nicknames of all the staff. James – I think it was James – was the kind of brown-noser who would be able to fill in that information. And Jessop ended his coffee break in just as much confusion as he had started. Of course, the break was followed by him leaving the building with a steaming hot cup of coffee. That was probably all the face-time he could put up with for today. I half wished that he had spoken to me instead, because I might have been able to earn a little more respect with an answer to his question. I didn't think the elusive MK was any of our creatives, but I could think of one person it could have been. I would certainly have to mention that conversation to Ffrances when I got home.

Clocking out time couldn't come soon enough for me. I spent an extra five minutes double checking my work, so that I would be confident in marking it all complete. And then I was walking around the park again, back to where I had left my truck on Ash Crescent. The drive home was relaxing, taking the opportunity to cruise through some of the more rural surroundings. Perhaps that was a little self-indulgent, but I didn't see a problem with letting myself relax occasionally. I wasn't stressed at all by the weekend's events; everything had gone well. There was nothing I needed to take my mind off, and I was honestly looking forward to see if there was still any trace of childish behaviour in my cousin. But at the same time, I felt like it would be good to have just a little time to myself. A break between the stresses of work and the joy of spending time with my family.

When I arrived home my Mistress was playing the motherly role, frying something that smelled heavenly, and my little was probably still on the bus back from school.

"Does MK love cheese?" I asked.

"Kernigan?" she answered without hesitation, confirming my guess with a single word. "Hell yes. You won't get him at a convention without a cheeseboard. It's his condition for doing any kind of panel, and it always has to be local. You know he really appreciated it when one of the cheeses shows up in his comics."

"I thought so," I said, with just a quiet grin. That was when Tess came in, and we exchanged the usual pleasantries before she headed up to her room to divest herself of her school uniform and books.

"So when did you become a fangirl?" Ffrances picked up the prior conversation as if the topic had never changed. "The last time we were going over the comics you just kept calling him 'the author'."

"Not so much a fan. I just heard a third hand rumour. The guy I heard it from wanted to know who MK was. I thought I'd seen the name Maurice Kernigan on all those comics, and I wondered if it could be him. Apparently Claughton International are treating MK to a selection of rare cheeses, delivered to the penthouse suite at the Birmingham Grandstand. And that's a pretty fancy hotel for anyone I'd be hearing rumours about. Sounds like they've still got him on retainer."

"Wow. So they're making another one? Tags 2 already in planning, when the general public only gets to see the first one next week?"

"That's my guess," I agreed. "But you know better than me what the next movie might be. I wondered if they might have that guy with the burned hand in; he seemed to be carrying the story on his own in the last couple I read. I was surprised he didn't make it to the screen."

"Too complex. I mean, yeah, he's iconic. But there's like two different versions of the character, and all the hardcore fans would be up in arms if you chose either of them. If you've not seen Dark Lamprey yet, I know exactly which story I have to show you next."

This time, we were too deep in conversation to change the subject when Tess came down again. She joined in as soon as we had explained what we were thinking; she'd probably read about as many of Kernigan's comics as I had now, with Ffrances trying to get us both involved in her obsession, but we'd each taken different paths into the huge canon based on which parts we found most interesting. Now we had very different impressions. At some point we were all going to be surprised by the next big plot twist, and I was just starting to regret that I hadn't picked up this hobby from my girlfriend as soon as she started trying to introduce me.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to continue the same conversation as we watched another of the old movies, discussing how the characters had changed between the comics and the screen. But unfortunately today Ffrances needed to be home before long. I would see her again soon enough, but I knew I would still miss her.