Page 30 of The Nowhere Witch

“That’s it? I get kicked to the curb because he says so?”

He turned, nearly pleading now. “You need to understand, I’m a low Middling man. I survive by staying out of everyone’s way, and you’re just too much trouble. You don’t just have one side after you, but two now. I can’t take the heat. It’s not my fault you’re a Nowhere witch and no one wants you.”

The Nowhere witch. I’d thought Whimsy witch had been the bottom of the barrel, but the more I heard that name, the more I wanted to punch someone.

He pointed to the wood stove. “Leave the keys there on your way out.” He looked at the couch as he was leaving. “I’ve got an exterminator coming. You’ll see who’s boss tomorrow, dust bunny.”

There was a squeak in the corner, like the thing had understood every word. What was an exterminator? I didn’t think it would be the same type of profession I was familiar with in Salem, unless it was mob slang.

The door slammed shut and the monkeys rushed over.

“Well? What are we going to do?” Speak No Evil asked.

“We just got evicted. What do you think?” I asked.

“Oh no,” Speak No Evil said.

“Really?” Hear No Evil asked.

I went and grabbed my bag of clothes, the ones I hadn’t unpacked because I didn’t have a bureau or trunk yet.

Speak No Evil called his two brothers over for a huddle. “We should’ve stuck it out over at the factory. Now we’re homeless. Why’d we go with the Nowhere witch? No one wants her, and now we’re outcasts with her.”

“This was a big mistake.Big,” See No Evil said.

“How was I supposed to know no one likes her?” Speak No Evil complained.

Hear No Evil was just listening on.

I’d lumped them all together before, but Speak No Evil was now my least favorite. Good. They could leave. I didn’t need homeless speaking statues in my life. I had enough problems.

“Hey, you little jerks, I didn’t invite you here. You crashed my place.” I shoved a lime-green sweater in my bag.

The three of them looked taken aback at my comment.

“Why are you so sensitive?Welike you,” Speak No Evil said. “It was just a point of debate that a person no one likes might indicate problems.”

I shook my head and continued gathering up the few things I’d accumulated.

The three monkeys walked back over.

“So where are we going?” Speak No Evil asked.

“It’swenow?”

“We”—Speak No Evil motioned to the three of them—“took a vote. It’s still we,” he said, motioning me into the circle, while smiling as if he’d granted me a huge favor.

I shoved the rest of my things into a bag without answering. There was nowhere to go but the broker house or Zab’s. I couldn’t keep putting Zab out. He’d already put me up once and then found me this place, and if Hawk wanted me back at the broker house, which he clearly did, I wouldn’t get another place.

Tossing the bag to the side, I sat on the couch. When that became too much to handle, I lay back and stared at the ceiling. The blank space was about all my brain could handle at the moment.

The monkeys were right. No one liked me. The only reason I cared was because I didn’t know where to go. I was the Nowhere witch. No one wanted me.

I’d already put Zab out enough. Musso had a wife I’d never met, who probably wouldn’t want a Nowhere witch either. Couldn’t imagine anything but an awkward greeting there. It was too cold to sleep outside, and I’d never even seen a cardboard box in Xest anyway.

Hawk had left me no choice.

I closed my eyes, and the air filled with a screeching and banging blend that could make your ears bleed. I squinted one eye open to see the monkeys on a toy band kit that they must’ve found for the sole purpose of torturing me.

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