To Ling Chin: Thanks For Nothing! Naomi Claussen by ARthur

Chapter 4
Chapter 4

But which one? The girls didn’t have to wait long. Amanda emerged from the building and hailed a taxi. This prompted Ruby to direct Ryoko to "Follow that car."

In tailing the taxi, the girls missed Smee’s more exciting exit from the building with the schurk on his back. Tossing it to the curb, Smee sought refuge in a nearby New York Coffee Station, figuring that if he were to be chewed up by a schurk he’d at least enjoy one more Caramel Caboose before the end. The schurk, however, caught Amanda’s scent, and bounded in the direction taken by the taxi and the girl’s van.

Minutes later, Ryoko pointed to Amanda emerging from her taxi at the Lexington Avenue branch of Juggz, whose front sign trumpeted: "Truly Distinctive Waitresses. We make Hooters look like Training Bra City."

Zephyr divided the girls into two teams. She and Ruby would go in through the front door to create a diversion, while Ryoko, Naomi and Ling would sneak in the rear and search for the vessels containing the age vapors.

"Where’s my weapon," an eager Ling cried, jumping up and down like an excited little girl. Ryoko slipped her a mirror small enough to fit Ling’s dress pocket. "No! Something that zaps things," Ling protested to Ryoko, who looked back as if she would like to zap something too.

Reaching the velvet ropes at the front of the seating area, Zephyr and Ruby could see Amanda already seated and carrying on a very animated conversation with a bleached blonde waitress who matched the description Naomi and Ling provided. They had to get closer.

"Excuse me, this is Juggz, not American Girl Place. You two are going to have to leave," the well-endowed female maitre’d told the girls, pointing to a sign that warned, "No admittance to persons under 21."

"40DD?" Ruby suggested. Zephyr produced a large pin from her side purse and jabbed into the woman’s left breast, which created a muffled bang followed by rapid deflation of the mammary." As the embarrassed woman supported with her arm the portion of her blouse no longer filled to over-capacity by her inflatable bra, Zephyr turned to Ruby. "No. 34A," she said as the girls proceeded into the franchise eatery.

As the two girls walked between the tables, a particularly handsome young man rose from his chair. "Youch!" he screamed as he upended his avocado salad. "No flirting, especially the pinching of fannies," Zephyr softly scolded Ruby. "But he was soooo cuuute," Ruby protested.

Arriving at Amanda’s table, Zephyr greeted the blonde waitress. "So we finally meet, Teresa," she said with a forced smile. Taken aback, the waitress scowled. "I’m her. But who are you?" she asked.

"Those are the pests who visited my office this morning," Amanda apologized to Teresa.

"Our business here is only with Teresa," Zephyr sternly stated. Turning directly at Teresa, she said, "I believe you have something that belongs to our clients, a couple of sports bottles, and a Faberge cigar humidor. We demand that you return them immediately."

Teresa angrily turned to Amanda and admonished her. "If you weren’t a fallen-away Hedweigian, you would have done something at your office. Now you’re brought them to our coven location," she growled.

Zephyr was stunned. She always believed that there was something evil about restaurants that use over-endowed women to attract men for the purpose of selling them overpriced snack foods. But she never expected that the waitresses would all be… witches!

But that tiny exchange reconfirmed one bit of evidence. Amanda had in her office a tiny but vicious animal; perhaps a grown version of the one Naomi described at the warehouse. The woman caressing the animal was dark haired, just like Amanda. And now Teresa had admonished Amanda for being a non-practicing Hedweigian, just as she did at the warehouse. Naomi’s imprisoned age vapors had to be near at hand!

"I’ve heard enough," Teresa said, raising her right hand in a familiar manner.

"I wouldn’t attempt your signature spell in here, in front of so many witnesses," Zephyr grinned, as she watched Teresa back down.

Arriving at the back door of the restaurant, Ryoko and Naomi (in grade school uniforms) and Ling were confronted by two of the kitchen staffers. "We’re here to see our mothers," Ryoko said, only to get puzzled looks from the workers. "Yo quiero mamasita," Naomi said, securing happy looks from the workers, who non-verbally directed them to sit on a nearby bench.

Ryoko had earlier instructed the other girls that they would sneak off to comb the back area of Juggz only when the coast was clear and they wouldn’t risk to chance of being caught by workers – or worse, by Hedweigian witches. But Ling was itching to get started. She was certain that the sports bottles containing her age vapors were somewhere nearby. Then she could regain her former age of 34, instead of remaining a perpetual 8-year-old in size, whenever she wanted. But not right away. There were so many potential ways an 8-year-old girl could spy where a grown woman couldn’t.

While the two AAAARG girls monitored the movements of nearby female staffers, Ling crept off unnoticed to a nearby room filled with lockers. One was labeled as used by "Teresa Bell." Inside, she saw two sports bottles on an upper shelf. But while trying to move a bench over to reach the bottles, she heard three waitresses entering the room. So she hid inside Teresa’s locker.

With her ear pressed against three tiny slits in the door, Ling was able to determine that, based on the names posted on other locker doors, the waitresses were Petula Paan, Ruth Darger and Heidi Howe.

"My aching feet! One of these days, I got to check that Pocket Guide to Hedweigian Spells to see if they have one to soothe the pain after a long day on one’s feet," said Petula as she sat on a bench. "I know they have one for turning people into pigs and toads. I’d like to use one on the next man who squeezes my bum or breast, thinking its part of the service," added Heidi. "But Amanda warns us that would be bad for business," Ruth countered.

"Who is Amanda to tell us what to do? I mean, what’s a woman running a place like Juggz that exploits women and sex to sell over-glorified fast food?" Heidi added. "Yeah! She could have gotten us a more dignified place to base our coven! We’re trained experts in the techniques of Hedweigian magic. But Amanda cut classes; never won her bat wings. She even claims to have forgotten what little she learned from her Hedweigian education. Yet she orders us around like we were her inferiors," Petula growled.

"Amanda’s such a phony," Heidi added. "Oh, she had a daughter for appearances, because Hedweigian law required each woman to have at least one. She even enrolled the daughter in our training program. But while I hear the daughter’s talented, I’m sure Amanda is brainwashing her to laugh at us and our traditions. She’ll get the daughter to defect from supernatural to natural life; just you wait."

"If Amanda didn’t have Teresa protecting her, I’d give her something from my index finger," Ruth noted.

Her eyes growing larger, Ling couldn’t believe what she was hearing. "They’re all Hedweigian witches. This eatery is riddled with witches!" she thought as she repositioned herself to look out the vent slits. But she made a misstep, knocking a bag off a hook inside the locker. It made a thudding noise hitting the floor.

Pulling Ling from the locker, Heidi turned to the other witches. "We have a spy!"