Stu sat in the living room of the new house, it was amazing. It was a huge upgrade to what they’d had before, and it was more impressive the longer they were there. Marrow walked into the living room with Stu and found a perch. Stu said, “Thanks for the new house, this is something else Marrow.”

  Marrow said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You are just a tenant on the books; I can’t help it you turned out to be a blue blood.”

  Looking around Stu thought this was almost like a dream. Truly this is something else, thank you Chaos. Without her.. He wouldn’t be here.. His thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing. Looking down it was Broth, he answered it saying, “Broth buddy! Good to see you are still alive!”

  Broth was soft spoken on the phone, but he let Stu know that things were back to work. He also needed more blood as soon as possible along with any new samples he could provide. Stu let him know they would be by shortly. Hanging up he looked at Marrow saying, “You have impeccable timing, were going to the b.”

  Marrow stretched, then said, “I normally do.”

  Looking at marrow suspiciously, Stu asked, “Did you know he was going to call at that moment?”

  Marrow looked at him saying, “Know? Not really, just good timing I suppose..”

  Stu squinted at him, trying to figure him out. He finally said, “That answer was less than satisfactory.”

  Marrow said, “Really? Well, I suppose we should get going. It would be rude to be te for a meeting with a distinguished scientist.” Jumping off the perch and leading the way he said, “Come on.”

  Stu shook his head, damn cat.. He hollered, “Prosperity, we have business!” She appeared in the doorway literally running into the living room.

  Prosperity asked, “Where are we going, the b?” Stu nodded and they met Marrow in the car. Fortunately, they were now much closer to that college that had the name so hard to remember. The other bonus was that going during the day meant that it was less suspicious.

  They arrived in no time, and it was a good thing too, Marrow wasn’t used to riding in vehicles; he didn’t handle it well. He would have thrown up if the drive had been one more mile or had one more turn. Normally, he was pure white, but he somehow looked lightly green all over when Stu let him out of the car. Marrow asked, “How do humans stand riding in those things?”

  Stu ughed leading the way to the b taking notice the whole college was here today, and it was kind of reassuring. Walking into the b, Broth looked a lot better than the other night, he’d even gotten a shower it looked like. He looked up from a ptop saying, “Hey Stu, and a cat? Hey man you can’t bring your pet in here.. this equipment is sensitive and cats can really fuck it up..”

  Stu took a deep breath, “Listen Broth don’t worry about the cat for now. First off what do you remember about the st time we spoke?”

  Broth looked like he was thinking very hard, then he said, “I was hallucinating pretty hard.. I’m not really sure.. I mean I thought you cut your wrist and then the blood was human. Man, I was wasted! Something about you being a god too.. My bad man, I’m chill today!”

  Stu said, “Alright, well.. I’m not a god..”

  Prosperity walked up and said, “But I am a god. The god of prosperity to be exact, but you can just call me Prosperity.” She smiled wide.

  Broth looked at Stu like he was messing with him. Stu talked to him like he was a child, speaking clearly and slowly, “It’s true, and my cat here, is actually a talking cat.. He is a judge for a tournament of gods.. That I happen to be involved in.. As a representative of humanity..” He looked at Broth taking it all in with disbelief. He continued, “That’s not all Broth, but my judge here would like you to come work for us full time.. Now, I’m going to let the cat talk to you about this, his name is Marrow.. Don’t freak out, okay?” Broth was wide-eyed now and nodded.

  Marrow hopped up on a desk turning to Broth, he said, “Hello Broth, I’m Marrow, nice to meet you.”

  Broth was still wide-eyed as he slowly took a deep breath. Then without warning he let out a loud shrieking sound like a super high-pitched girl screaming for her life. He was instantly silenced with a single quick punch, as Prosperity knocked him out cold. Stu and Marrow both slowly looked at her and she said, “What? He would have gotten everyone’s attention.. At least I did something!”

  Stu looked down at Broth on the floor. He said, “He’s a scientist Prosperity, he needs what few braincells he has left. When he wakes up try not to knock him out again.”

  Marrow jumped down off the table and poked Broth. “You mean; if, he wakes up.”

  Stu looked at Prosperity, he shook his head disappointed. She yelled, “What? Oh, come on! I didn’t even mean to knock him out! I just meant to give him a little sp; it’s not my fault he has a gss jaw!”

  Marrow was still staring at Broth. He said, “Wow, he’s still out.. What should we do with him? We can’t just leave him here he could die, and we can’t let an asset this valuable die.. Should we take him with us?”

  Stu asked, “How? There are people everywhere. We wouldn’t get three feet before people freak out. How do you kidnap a grown man from a college?”

  Prosperity said, “That’s easy..” She looked around the b. Coming back with a bnket, a pair of sungsses, a wide brimmed dy’s hat, a chalk eraser, and a bnket. She said, “Put him in the wheelchair.” Stu did and she took the chalk eraser dusting Broth’s face white, then putting the gsses and hat on him, throwing the bnket over his p. She said, “Final touch!” Pulling some lipstick out of her purse and making Broths lips red. She looked up saying, “Alright, let’s take grandma home, she’s tired.” He was an ugly dy, but you couldn’t really argue with the disguise.

  Stu asked, “Where did you learn to do that?”

  She ughed saying, “In the Sixties I did a few government contracts to get info on a blue blood.. It was all a waste of time obviously, but I did learn I was really good at extraditing people from hot zones..” She giggled going to open the door.

  Stu watched saying, “She’s Fucking scary sometimes..”

  Marrow stared saying, “Truly terrifying..”

  They made their way out of the b walking past students everywhere. Prosperity even stopped once to go and pretend to take care of grandma by giving her a drink. She was truly scary when she was good at something. They walked an unconscious Broth straight out to the car, got him inside and left without a single suspicious person. Finally on the way back, Stu breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  No sooner than he breathed, Broth came to and looked around asking, “Where am I?” He looked around seeing he was in the car with us and that same shriek pierced the air, silenced instantly as he slouched in his seat.

  Prosperity sat beside him, fist raised in front of an unconscious Broth, unapologetically. Stu yelled, “Prosperity!”

  She looked into the mirror saying, “That time it was right in my ear! He scared me! It was involuntary!”

  Marrow looking very green in the front seat said, “I appreciate it.. Even if I might .. puke..”

  Stu sternly said, “Don’t you dare puke in my car! I can’t pull over with an unconscious…” The sound of a cat getting sick filled the car. Stu said, “Goddammit..”

  Marrow still green said, “I’m sorry. I’ll pay for it to be cleaned and the next one too..” The cat puked again.

  Stu cracked his window. Almost back, just a little further.. Pulling into the driveway he flung Marrow’s door open and he jumped out puking again. “It’s always something with gods and judges, isn’t it?”

  The girls came outside to greet them and instead were treated to getting Broth inside. Once they had him inside on the couch they tied a cloth around his mouth like a gag to reduce his screams when he woke up.

  Miracle was checking on him when he woke up. He looked up at her slowly removed the gag and said, “Well, hello.. my name is Broth..”

  She looked unimpressed saying, “I know, we’ve been waiting on you to wake up, and just so we’re clear, I’m with Stu..”

  Chaos growled from the other side of the room where the others were sitting. Broth looked over. Seeing Stu, he asked, “Did you knock me out?”

  Prosperity said, “Yeah that’d be me and my master says I have to apologize.. So even though you screamed like a girl in my ear, I’m sorry…”

  Broth asked, “Master?”

  Stu jumped in saying, “She normally doesn’t say it that way, but she’s just upset I ordered her to apologize to you. I know, it’s a lot to take in.”

  Broth looked at him asking, “Your.. her master.. and she’s a god? Plus, the cat talks… Okay.. I did too many drugs, I get it…”

  Marrow jumped up on the couch with him, “Quite the contrary. Not only are you brilliant but while you were using it seems you accomplished more in less time than most people we employ. Therefore, your drug use is an acceptable term for us if you work as our scientist. We only ask that you mind your health, so we don’t lose out on your talents.”

  Skeptical Broth said, “Yeah, I don’t know..”

  Marrow said, “That’s a shame.. We really thought we’d get you on board. Well, you are free to leave anytime. Would you mind please returning the first months’ pay we pre-deposited in your account?”

  Broth nodded at the cat pulling his phone out and tapping on it for a moment before saying, “Whoa! Um, that’s a lot of money… you said a month?”

  Marrow shook his head saying, “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to feel like we’re forcing you into this, but it would have been per month, of course that’s had you been interested.. Oh, you don’t want to change your mind do you?”

  Broth was rubbing his head looking at his phone screen. “That’s a lot of money… Do you have a b?”

  Marrow grinned, “With only the best equipment and a full staff already apprised of the situation with you. Drug use included.. So, are you interested?”

  Broth looked up confidently saying, “Oh, fuck yeah.”