For the lovely Rosalyn

Part 5: link


    “Already? Excellent,” Arthur says when Merlin hands him the much-awaited court order. He picks up the phone and dials Jack Aredian.
    Half an hour later Arthur and Aredian are waiting by the warehouse entrance.
    “Where is your man, Pendragon? You did say eleven a.m.”
    “He’ll be here. He’s got a warehouse to run, Mr. Aredian, he may have gotten waylaid—ah.”    
    The door opens and Percy’s head pokes out. “Hey,” he says. “Sorry...

Part 2: link


    “Pendragon Law Offices, this is Vivian, may I help you?” a bright voice answers the phone Monday morning.
    Gwen had two days to ponder calling Arthur. Her father’s funeral was on Friday, and she couldn’t very well call him on Saturday or Sunday. She spent Saturday mostly alone, in her apartment on the second floor of their house, thinking about Percy and Duncan and Ezra and their words. She thought a lot about what her father would want her do to. She prayed about it in church on Sunday, asking for guidance to make the right...

Part 1: link


Three weeks later.

    “…When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts, They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches. They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.”
    “Miss Thompson?” a voice interrupts Gwen’s class. School started two weeks ago, and Gwen is seated on a colorful rug on the floor with twenty-two five-year-olds, reading Dr. Seuss.
    Gwen looks up to see one of the classroom aides standing in the doorway. “You have a phone call in the...

link

    “NOOO!!!!” Arthur falls back and crawls away, nearing the cupboard and shrinking away into the shadows. “NO!!” he keeps saying, shaking his head. ‘This is not true … not true!’ he keeps thinking, still shocked.
    “Arthur…” Geoffrey stops, unable to continue as his own heart suffers watching the boy he raised since infancy in pain. He swallows and sighs. “I understand this must be hard for you but… It’s the truth, Arthur.”
    “NO!!!!!” Arthur shouts back at his butler. “You’re lying, Geoffrey…...