what elephants know

Chapter 4

“Ahhhh – choo!”

Three more hard sneezes followed that one. Daniel had been sneezing for almost a month, ever since he got back from Africa.

I must have inhaled a head full of dust while I was there.

Very likely since he’d spent half his time crawling around under old deserted buildings. The final battle with Devilin had also brought down a truckload of dust from the Council Chamber rafters.

And I sucked up all of it.

“Ahhhh – shoo!”

Daniel went looking for yet another box of tissue for his irritated nose.

“Ahhhh – shoo!”

“Daniel, for goodness sake,” Emma called out from the bathroom where she was getting dressed for work. “How long is this going to keep up? What did the doctor say?”

“He figures I ran into something I’m allergic to,” Daniel said nasally. He was tearing through the linen closet looking for tissue. “He says I should be fine in a couple of days. I just have to keep taking those pills until I get whatever it is out of my system  . . . . Ah, ah . . .”

Sneezes erupted from him before he could finish the sentence. His entire body shook and he was left with a strange light-headedness.

Emma came out and glared at him.

“So, take one already,” she said. “You’re going to blow your brains out at this rate.”

He honked his nose while admiring Emma’s nightgown.

It’s good to be home!

It was good to be home alone.

Daniel grinned as he located the elusive box of tissue. His son wouldn’t be home until Friday. David was spending some time with his father in Washington, and thanks to a rather large donation Marcus had made to the zoo, Daniel also had the week off to stay home and play with his lovely wife.

Except she was in no mood to play.

“Unlike some people, I have to go to work.”

“Why don’t I have everything ready when you get home, sweetheart? Everything you need – a warm meal, a cold bottle of champagne, and a hot man.”

Daniel tried to carry off the sexy, but the sneeze at the end killed the effect.

“How about a warm meal, a cold bottle of champagne, and a hot bath?” Emma said.

She went back into the bathroom. “And take your pill!”

Daniel knew he had no counter, so he went off to the kitchen to find his prescription. He was ripping open the tissue box when another fit of sneezing sent him groping for a more readily available paper towel.

My nose is running like a faucet.

Daniel pressed the towel to his nose and continued to blow and sneeze for almost a minute.

“Daniel!”

“I’m trying to take it!” Daniel reached for another paper towel.

What’s up with my nose?

Before he could blow, he stopped, as the stream flowed steadily without any assistance. Daniel lowered the now soaked paper towel and gasped. It was soaked with blood.

“Emmmmmmma!”

Tags: Daniel, elephants, fantasy, fiction, novel, writing

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Book 2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.