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Babysitting was something that Sue enjoyed. It was
a shame that high school girls undercut the market.
Nevertheless she could study and earn money at the same
time. Constance and Guy had a very pleasant apartment,
not quite in Greenwich Village.
They showed Sue where everything was and then rushed
out for their late supper date. Sue had come straight
from Doberman's apartment, still a little queasy but
looking forward to the second part of the evening.
Sebastian, alas, had plans of his own. First he cried,
then he made a mess in his diaper, and then made a fuss
when she tried to change him. Afterwards she sang to
him which seemed to help.
She sat him on the floor beside her, turned on the
television set and picked up a book on existentialism.
The little boy crawled to the television screen and
peered in. She carried him away but he went right back.
"Come and sit with me?"
"No!" This was practically the extent of
his vocabulary, but he used it with impressively authoritative
scorn.
He set off again behind the couch. Sue turned back
to her book. Somehow she had to conjure up two thousand
words this evening.
The detective agency took much of her time, and with
evening jobs and school too her schedule was busier
than ever. She just hoped the hard work would pay off.
The mystery of the Harker Building was tantalizing but
how could it be profitable? The museum theft might produce
more immediate income.
A loud crash interrupted her reverie. The baby had
pulled over a plant and broken the pot which now lay
in a pile of dirt on Constance and Guy's expensive rug.
To avoid stepping in the mess she swooped towards the
child, scooped him up, and set him down by the couch.
He immediately set off back to the site of the accident,
eager not to miss the fun.
Sue felt obliged to clear up and she knew that wouldn't
happen while Sebastian was at large.
"Come on," she said. "I think it's bedtime
for you." She carried him into the bedroom and
deposited him into his crib. He was full of mischief
but it was hard to feel angry. As she left the room
he began to scream in protest. That made it easier to
feel angry, but only a little.
It took her a while to find a dustpan and brush, and
then the vacuum cleaner. Sebastian's howls were distracting
but she ignored them.
When she was finished she went back to quiet him down.
She wondered if he was old enough to understand magic.
She picked up his stuffed bear in her right hand and
shook it to attract his attention. He watched the animal
sullenly, as if challenging her to show him something
new.
She made the bear invisible, threw it from one hand
to the other, and turned it visible again. He looked
at it through wide eyes and she sensed that he understood.
She repeated the trick and he chuckled. Then she handed
it to him, hoping the reunion might prove a distraction.
He threw the animal away and began to scream.
"Sebastian," she pleaded. "Hey look,
Sebastian." She thought hard and then fetched a
toy train from the corner of the room, turned herself
invisible, and flew around the crib with it, giving
the effect that the toy was flying of its own volition.
The child watched in awe. After a few circuits, fearful
that she might make him sick, she flew out of the room
with it, rematerialized, and walked triumphantly back,
holding the train. The child laughed and held his hands
out.
"Now, it really is bedtime," she warned,
and tried to lay him down. He twisted and screamed again.
"Oh, Sebastian!"
It was then that the idea struck her. Many years ago
she had done this trick for her baby cousin. It worked
wonderfully well.
She stepped back from the crib, opened her arms, called
to Sebastian and then rose into the air, entirely visible.
She did a slow roll, then a cartwheel, and then stood
on her head.
The little boy held the bars of his crib and watched.
She flew around the crib, under it even, and occupied
him for fully fifteen minutes. Her cousin had found
the spectacle so draining she had fallen asleep right
away.
Sebastian was not of a like mind. When Sue finished
her act he began to scream in terror, pausing only to
scream considerably louder when she tried to comfort
him. He kept up the noise until his mother returned,
and then Sue had her to comfort her, too.
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