Ghost of a Chance

“You mean you have to watch this stuff every day?” Alex was dedicated to his work, but this seemed a bit excessive.

She chuckled and nodded.

“Alchemy isn’t like writing runes,” she said. “You can’t just do it whenever you have some spare time, it’s a round-the-clock job.”

“Which is why you’re here now?” Alex said. “Dr. Kellin has the day shift, and you get swing.”

“Yes,” she said. “Each of us tends the lab for ten hours every day.”

“When do you have time for your lessons?”

“In the morning,” Jessica said. “Now, let me see your hands.”

Alex held out his right hand and Jessica took it. Her hands were smooth and warm as she expertly turned his hands this way and that. The movements reminded him of Iggy’s examination.

“Are you a doctor too?” he asked.

“No,” Jessica said. “But Andrea teaches me what I need to know.”

She let go of his hand and opened a nearby cabinet, taking out a small, wooden stick with red paint on the end.

“More poison?” he asked, and she laughed.

“Open your mouth.”

He hesitated, and she grinned at him.

“Don’t you trust me?” she asked, barely able to keep from laughing.

Alex opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out at her. She used the opportunity to jam the stick in his mouth and maneuver it under his tongue before pulling it back out again.

“What was that for?” he demanded as she compared the paint on the end to a chart on the wall. Alex could easily see that the color on the stick had changed.

“Dr. Bell’s formula isn’t quite right,” Jessica said, adding a drop of something from a sealed bottle to the stick and checking it again.

“Uh,” Alex said, not sure what to make of that. He would trust Iggy’s skill with his life, and had. “Are you sure Andrea shouldn’t look at that?”

Jessica raised an eyebrow at that, giving Alex a scathing look.

“If you had to make some basic runes, would you wait for Dr. Bell to do it for you?”

“No,” Alex admitted. “Sorry.”

“You should be,” Jessica said. “I know what I’m doing.”

She put on a white apron, then removed a glass bottle with a rubber stopper from a shelf. Taking it to a large tank with a spigot at its bottom, she filled it a little over halfway.

“What’s that?” Alex asked.

“Alchemical base,” Jessica said. “All elixirs use it as a foundation; now quit asking questions or I’ll never get done.”

She went to a shelf with large jars of various liquids and began adding carefully measured amounts to the base until the bottle glowed a faint yellow color.

“This will do the trick,” she said, setting it on the workbench beside Alex. “You need to take a swig of this when you get up in the morning, one at noon, and one around five. Don’t take any after that or it will keep you up all night.”

Alex picked up the bottle and looked at it.

“I’m supposed to carry this thing around with me?”

Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Men,” she said, going to a closet and rummaging around for a moment. When she emerged, she held a metal hip flask. “What would any of you do if you didn’t have a woman around to fix your problems?”

She took a small metal funnel from a rack of tools on the wall and filled the flask.

“There you go, cowboy,” she said, tucking the flask into the inside pocket of his coat. “Just like the old west.”

She looked up at him and winked, and Alex felt a sudden urge to simply lean down and kiss her.

Must be the fumes in here, he lied to himself.

“Thanks, doll,” he said, putting his hat back on as Jessica moved to one of the brewing tables. “I appreciate you’re doing this.”

“I’m sure you can show yourself out,” Jessica said, leaning against the table with her sardonic smile in place. “You need to come back tomorrow, though so I can check on you.”

Alex raised an eyebrow and Jessica smirked.

“To make sure the mix is right,” she explained with exaggerated patience.

“Sure,” Alex said, picking up the bottle with the rest of the yellow elixir. “I’ll probably be able to come by around noon.”

Jessica shook her head.

“You need to come after seven, so I can see you,” she said.

“Can’t wait to get me back?” Alex said.

She chuckled at that and shook her head.

“It needs to be at least twelve hours after you take the first dose tomorrow morning,” she said, picking up the clipboard for the elixir brewing on the table. “You can count to twelve,” she looked back over her shoulder at him. “Right?”

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

“Tomorrow then.”

* * *

It was dark by the time Alex got home. Iggy chided him for missing the appointed, seven o’clock dinner hour, but had set aside a plate of poached salmon for him, under a cover to keep it warm. As he ate, Alex told Iggy about his meeting with Andrew Barton, his missing electric traction motor, and the third failure of a finding rune.

“Are you sure my magic isn’t getting weaker?” Alex asked over a mouthful of fish. He tried to sound nonchalant, but the thought still scared him. “Maybe whatever is happening is affecting my mind and that’s why the rune can’t make the link.”