Elgin had been gone barely three days when Rucker woke me abruptly in the night. He had decided that I had to broaden my field of expertise.
“Get up, sleeper! I’ll give you five minutes, no more, to meet me downstairs.”
I sat up to look at my alarm clock, it barely showed half-past four in the morning, it was still pitch dark.
“Is there a problem?” I grumbled.
For once I had decided to sleep!
“Just because your pet has packed up for a while doesn’t mean you’re on vacation too. Get up!”
“But what are you...”
Rucker grabbed my quilt and rolled it into a ball before tossing it away.
“Rucker! You didn’t even know how I was underneath!”
His eyes lit up with a mischievous look.
“Nothing that I haven’t seen before, kid. Come on, don’t waste time, I want to make the most of the night. An
