"Are you sure about this?"
    I looked to my right, and smiled.  "Yeah.  Trust me.  Jenny's a really
nice girl, I'm sure you two will hit it off."
    Tom looked askance at me, as we walked down the hall.  "A nice girl, eh?"
    I chuckled.  "You know what I mean."
    He sighed.  "Well, that's the thing, you know?  I mean Gerald's nice, as
far as he goes, right?"
    "But boring, yes, I know."  I nodded.  "Just trust me.  They're really
different.  She's just your type."
    Tom looked up at me again, and grinned.  "You think so?"
    "How many times--"  I shook my head, and chuckled.  "Look.  I told you
about this book, right?"  I gestured with the papers in my left hand.
    "Yeah, I know.  And I'm really intrigued."  He shrugged.  "Just, I don't
know."
    "Yeah.  Hey, we're here."  I stopped in front of a door and knocked,
three times.
    "Who is it?" a female voice called.  Tom sniffed the air.
    "It's me," I yelled.
    "Oh!  Come in, it's open."  I winked at Tom, opened the door, and
stepped inside.
    Humidity washed over us as we entered the room.  I coughed involuntarily.
A pungent mist swirled throughout the room, obscuring the details of the
bookcases I knew to be stuffed with ancient tomes and occult objects, whee.
The mist smelled faintly of musty herbs, basil, sage, onion...
    ...Actually it smelled pretty good.
    A cauldron loomed out of the mist, presided over by a girl with dyed black
hair in goth clothing.  She looked up at us and grinned.
    "Hey there, Evan.  Who's this?"  She raised an eyebrow at Tom.
    "This is Tom," I introduced.  "He's in a class with Gerald."
    Jenny stuck out her hand to shake Tom's, and made a face.  "Gerald, huh?
I'm not related to him, really.  That's just a rumor."  She winked.
    Tom laughed.  "That's okay.  Nobody's perfect."  He looked around, then
leaned over the cauldron.  "I actually haven't gotten around to reading my
copy of 'The Book of the Law'," he stage-whispered.  "Don't let that get
around."
    Jenny giggled, then looked at me.  "So what's up?"
    "Oddly enough..."  I handed over the photocopies to her.  "I was actually
able to get a bit translated."
    "Oh, cool!"  She grabbed the papers and ruffled through them.  I counted
off seconds in my head.  A thousand six, a thousand seven--"Hey!"
    "Yes?" I asked.
    She stared at me.  "This..."
    I nodded, trying not to grin.  "Yes.  I'm afraid it's just a cookbook."
    "...But...But..."
    "I'm sorry," I said.  "Really, I am...I know how much you were looking
forward--"
    "But it *can't* be!" she wailed.  "I mean, look..."  She turned, rummaged
through some papers, and came up with a very arcane-seeming tome with a seven-
pointed star diagram on the front.
    I shrugged.  "Sorry.  I guess you can't judge a book by its cover."
    Jenny glared at me.  Then she pouted for a few moments.  Then,
fortunately, she seemed to brighten up.  "Well, now I know why it smells so
good."
    Tom suddenly started laughing.  We both stared at him.  "I'm sorry, he
gasped.  "It's just...you were saying, Evan, and..."  He stopped to try and
compose himself a bit more, and then grinned at us.
    "You can't judge a cook by her brother."

=====

by John Evans
jevans@alum.mit.edu

Thanks go to Ravi for his quick research into occult tomes. ^_^

The Sunburst Project, Week 2
http://www.chaoseed.com/btr/sbp/
3/23/00