We still need man-things!

Chapter Twenty Four

After the car had left, Lady Dimitrescu felt like she had also escaped the bloodhound. She picked up the candy paper that the old woman had accidentally dropped on the pavement and then returned inside. It was mere luck that Mike wasn't on the first floor when Miranda arrived. Originally, she was supposed to come tomorrow, but something changed, and she got that seamstress today. That's why Alcina didn't warn him that the village matriarch was coming.

During their talk in the garden, Mother Miranda didn't start suspecting that Alcina might be hiding someone. The only thing she said about Mike was that she mentioned that Heisenberg scrapped his car yesterday without asking permission. And that was all, since Lady Dimitrescu avoided asking more questions.

But deep inside, she was really angry at Karl because Mike's safe return to his home was made significantly harder by this.

How do we send him away now? She thought. He will end up like this goddamn Spencer, stuck in the snow!

Alcina decided that she should not inform Mike about this yet. She didn't want to anger him or make him escape secretly. But she wanted, however, to make him leave as soon as possible, as Miranda could arrive without warning and things might not end so well next time like they did in this encounter.

Mike tried to forget what just happened and thanked God for giving him another day to live. After finishing repairing the wall, he cleaned all the tools and took them back to the basement. He then began reading books in the library again, until sometime in the afternoon, Lady Dimitrescu asked him for help. She had taken a break from bottling her wines and wanted him to find out what was really wrong with her private chamber lock. Since Bela was tired and wanted to rest, she allowed him to bring some tools from her workshop and do whatever was necessary to make this thing work again. Mike had some experience with locks before starting to work as a chimney sweep, which was also the reason she trusted this old door to him.

By this time, Daniela and Cassandra were feeling better and hanging around in the castle to see how things were going today. Daniela spotted Mike trying to use tweezers to get the broken key out of the keyhole and teased him by pulling an empty trash bag suddenly over his head.

"I couldn't believe that my own child was hiding you!" She tried to imitate Mother Miranda's voice.

Mike started laughing as he clearly understood that it wasn't the evil village leader whose voice was far different.

"You are not able to scare me like this anymore." He spoke and removed this plastic bag from his face.

"What are you doing?" Daniela wanted to know, as she didn't know anything about today's problem.

"I'm repairing the jamming lock. It got stuck, and your mom used a little too much force and broke the key inside."

"I imagine that. She doesn't like small and weak things. Like men, slugs, and cellphones."

"Ho-ho-ho! Has she already forgotten that she is alive thanks to me?"

Mike resumed and spent some minutes just small-talking to her and listening to how Cassandra was sleepwalking, until it became clear that the tweezers are too soft and it isn't possible to pinch the remnant of the key strongly enough to pull it out.

"Okay, I think that a good magnet is what I need." Mike finally gave up and put these pointless tweezers back in the toolbox.

"I have one! Do you want me to bring it?"

"Yeah, but if you have a large needle, you should bring it too."

"I have an entire collection of needles. Wait a minute."