Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“So next we need to start by making a few more basic decisions and then we can go from there.” The silence was better than the constant stupid ideas, so I took that as permission from everyone to continue. “From my perspective, I think the first decision we vote on this time is if we’re going to ask a mixed group of volunteers to go through the portal.”
There’d be a thousand decisions after that, but to me, it was the place to start.
More silence.
Reminding myself that at least it wasn’t another idea for a theme park, I decided I was glad for the silence. Boyd seemed to agree and gave everyone another push. “Another important decision we need to make is if we’re telling the US government what’s happening.”
Nearly every head in the room cocked to one side, confusion on their faces.
He looked like he wanted to throw something at them…a spell or something firmer…but he settled on sighing and rolling his eyes. “We’re not our own country no matter what some people seem to believe.”
The number of scoffs that filled the room said very few people were going to agree with that. It was mostly the locals that were stubborn about it but that didn’t surprise me. Boyd’s expression said he thought they were morons, so he elaborated slowly. “We could end up bringing anything from aliens to dinosaurs through that portal. Is that really something we want to surprise people with?”
Boyd paused before rolling his eyes again when his question didn’t seem to faze any of them. “What would your mothers do if you brought home a fucking dinosaur without warning her?”
“Oh.”
It was like watching a cartoon.
Every stubborn idiot in the room had their epiphany and started nodding, brains finally coming back online. Even Kenzie noticed it because he glanced between Boyd and Merritt and then leaned closer to my boy. “Do you know a spell that would make a light bulb go off over their heads when they do that oh thing?”
Good grief.
Thankfully, the deputy cleared his throat before Merritt could answer. Kenzie sighed and straightened in his seat. “Never mind.”
I was glad to hear that because judging by the way Merritt’s eyes lit up, he’d figured out a way to do it.
Boyd’s lips twitched too, but I was going to pretend I hadn’t seen that.
“Now, let’s start at the beginning and see what kind of progress we can make before we break for lunch and you all tell everyone that we’ve done nothing but play pretend all day.” Merritt and I had been asked earlier if we were going to play imagination with the council again.
He’d thought it was cute.
I hadn’t.
At the other end of the table, one of the mages from Canada huffed. “The men at the diner got me. It’s not my fault.”
We were going to have to check out the diner.
“It’s understandable.” Somehow. “At least we know it’s an efficient system for distributing information.”
“And we’ll know everyone’s opinions on our decisions by breakfast.” Another out-of-town dragon shook his head as he barely held back a sigh. “If they think we’ve made the wrong decision, we’ll hear about it soon.”
That reminder seemed to make it easier for everyone to get into decision-making mode. “Alright, do we have any logical questions or topics of discussion about the first vote to send a group through the portal?”
When several people sat straighter and looked a bit too excited, Boyd stepped in. “He said logical questions. Don’t ask anything stupid.”
Kenzie and Merritt managed not to laugh, but Wren had a coughing fit and even the deputy seemed to have something stuck in his throat.
The next time anyone in my family volunteered me for something, I was going to let that sparkly dragon eat them.
****
“I think the deputy aged ten years in that meeting.” Finally getting privacy as we climbed in the car, I was relieved to be able to be honest and not polite any longer. “Did he actually think Kenzie wouldn’t want to go to another planet to meet dinosaurs?”
“Do we know how that got started?” Merritt frowned as I buckled his seat belt. “I wasn’t raised hearing that we had any connection to dinosaurs at all. Is there science in that?”
He had to be kidding.
“There’s no science in anything they do around here, or logic, so I’m making the incredible assumption that it was a strange comment that got completely out of hand.” That seemed to be how everything else happened around here.
Merritt’s sigh said he agreed with my assessment. “In better news, Kenzie went to the diner at the afternoon break because he conned his Daddy into buying him cake? I think there was something about winning against everyone yesterday, so it might’ve been a reward? Never mind. Either way, the general consensus is that we made the right call agreeing to send a party to the other side of the portal.”