Just My Duck

Chapter 7 Mixed Blessing

Chapter 7 Mixed Blessing

"Is this a joke?" The goldsmith snaps as Doug shows him the gold.

"Probably just not on you," Doug retorts, sitting on the edge of Jake's desk.

"He and his brother ran across an old one." I say quickly. This seems to mollfy them.

"I just need to know if it's pure gold. Is it just gilded, will it revert the the source material after any amount of time?" Doug turns a little red having to say it.

"You could have brought this to my shop." Mr. Silt informs him.

"Maybe but we have other things to deal with today. You're the best with gold besides and I didn't want to bring a giant turd into your store, gold or not." Doug explains, reasonably.

"Alright. I'll take it back and look it over." Mr. White gingerly wraps it up again and places it in a plastic bag, then puts it in his case. "DoI have your permission to melt it down?"

"Of course. It's not like it's a work of art." Doug wrinkles his note.

"I dunno, it might spice up that lobby." I tease. Doug just gives me a half smile.

"If you'll excuse me." Mr. Silt nods to us and lets Alex escort him out. As soon as he's out of sight, Jake gets up and starts head butting Doug's hip.

"I think he wants you off the desk." I inform him.

"Probably." Doug grins and just lets his brother push. Finally Jake gives up and bites him instead. "Ow! Fine!"

"So why are you shitting a gold? Is it a gift or a curse?" I straighten up in Jake's chair.

"Well, I was polite but I may have laughed a little at Jake being a sarcastic bitch. But I did apologize before he was turned into a duck," He explains. "So I'm going with a quasi benevolent joke. So, how are you this morning?"

"It's been a wild ride, but I'm okay now." I get Jake another piece of paper to practice on.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up with that. His normal handwriting is barely legible as it is." Doug looks down at it. Jake just gives an annoyed quack.

"Well, he's doing something at least and not just sulking."

"It was not a pleasant experience, Jenny." Dough scowls.

"On the other hand you'll never run out of money. You'll just have to poop in a box and mail it off to a gold smith." This gets a ducky laugh from Jake.

"I'm not shitting in a box. But I don't particularly like the idea of racing into the toilet all the time either." Doug makes a face.

"Maybe the shower? Oh, a colander perched on the toilet." I snap my fingers.

"That could work. I'll have to buy a new one, if I used the one from the kitchen, Ms. Wellington would kill me."

"You'd better leave my kitchen alone, young man." Ms. Wellington appears, a tray of food in hand. Two large platea nd one wide soup bowl full of watercress and other grasses, some peanuts and frozen peas.

"For you, Mr. Maller." She places it down in front of Jake, then hands one to me, a less then friendly look on her face. Finally she hands one to Doug, We both have sandwiches and chips and dip with a pickle on the side.

"Wow, this is restaurant quality." I look at it.

"Of course." She sniffs but seems to soften a little. "Dessert will be in half an hour."

"Thank you." Doug and I say at once.

"I don't think she likes me much."

"Don't take it personally, she's not inclined to like any woman we bring to the apartment. And by we, I mean Jake. Not that he does often, but the last one was Sorcia and she did not like Ms. Wellington and made it clear. That's actually one of the reasons they broke up."