“Sure.”
“You like me,” he said.
“No I don’t.”
“That’s a big fib. You think I’m hot.”
“That’s not mind reading,” I told him. “That’s wishful thinking.”
“Do you have any more miracles?” Glo wanted to know.
“Can you read my mind?”
Diesel shook his head. “I can read Lizzy’s mind because we’re cosmically connected.”
“Cosmically connected!” Glo said. “That’s so Salem.”
At the risk of sounding cynical, I thought it was pure baloney. “Can you read my mind now?” I asked Diesel.
“Yeah,” he said. “Good thing your mother can’t hear your thoughts. Did they teach you those words in chef school?”
My attention swung from Diesel to Cat 7143. He was investigating the kitchen, walking the perimeter on high alert, snooping in corners, his ears erect in full listen mode.
“I read somewhere that cats can see ghosts and sense energy fields,” Glo said. “Do you suppose he’s looking for ghosts?”
I took a second slice of pizza. “My guess would be he’s hoping to find food or kitty litter.”
“I’m such a dunce,” Glo said. “I almost forgot. I have food and a kitty litter thing in the car. The shelter gave me a start-up kit.”
Five minutes later, Cat 7143 was locked up in my house with his new kitty litter. I was on the road, sitting next to Diesel, and Glo was in the backseat.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I said, more to myself than to Diesel or Glo.
“We made a deal,” Diesel said. “You wanted a miracle, and you agreed that reading your mind was miraculous.”
“That was not miraculous. You took a couple lucky guesses.”
“This is part of the problem with the world today,” Diesel said. “People don’t believe in the mystical. I happen to be able to read your mind sometimes. Why can’t you just go with it?”
“It’s creepy.”
“It’s petty cash,” Diesel said. “You should walk in my shoes.”
“I believe in the mystical,” Glo said. “I actually think I might be supernatural.”
Diesel’s eyes focused on the rearview mirror and Glo for a moment before returning to the road.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
“We’re going back to Salem. I have an opportunity to search an apartment, and I need you to help me find an object.”
“Why me?”
“Do you know what an Unmentionable is?”
“Underwear?”
“I know about Unmentionables,” Glo said. “I read about them. They date back about a thousand years. An Unmentionable is a human with special abilities. There’s like a brotherhood or something and a governing body.”