Nogdorf said to Lester, “Those men didn’t seem to have made up their minds conclusively, but I’m pretty sure a few decisions were made. What do you think, Lester?”
“I’m not sure if you heard the two men talking about jamming telephone poles into the ground and building on top of them and all of the equipment they would have to buy,” Lester said, parroting Tom and Steve, not really understanding what telephone poles were, but feeling important telling him about this. “And, and, and they said the equipment would only be used once and that would be a waste.”
“I actually got back from Lily Hog’s house in time to hear the last part of the talk. She said to thank you for the batch of Lion’s Mane that you cooked up for her. I thought surely I would make it back here before the men arrived; but I didn’t miss much, did I?” Nogdorf asked.
“No, no, they had just driven up,” Lester said. “Say, do you have one of those fancy machines they were in? I sure would like to drive one of those.”
Nogdorf laughed a great big belly laugh at the thought of Lester driving a Mercedes. “Lester, you never cease to amaze me with the unusual things you come up with. I think, to sum it up, these men are seeing that reclaiming the land will be too big a chore and instead of making them a lot of money, will most likely bring them financial ruin. They will probably still investigate draining the swamp before they give up. Now, I think the only other route they may take, if the original workers we saw at the great forest flats tells them about us, would be to make this a tourist destination. Can you imagine? A rainbow rabbit and a wizard. I am only happy no one took our pictures so that they only have the workers' word for it. We need to consider an invisibility spell if we need to be around these people again.”
“I’m not sure what most of that meant, Nogdorf, but I sure do want to drive. Can my driving thing be rainbow colored?” Lester asked.
Nogdorf just shook his head. Once Lester got his heart set on something, it was hard to change the subject. “Say, did you tell the decorating team to set up for tomorrow? And could you please check on the progress of the clothing and the food?” Nogdorf asked.
“Don’t you think my time would be better spent working on the invisibility spell? After all, I am the Herbal Wizard,” Lester stated.
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“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t need your help in this,” Nogdorf answered.
“Ok, ok, I am going,” Lester answered in a huff. He stormed off, hopping in a zig-zagged line because he was so angry and distracted, thinking, “Doesn’t Nogdorf realize my job as Herbal Wizard is very important? Anybody could supervise, but only I can be the great herbal wizard. Why, I am healing creatures with alzheimers and deep wounds and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde symptoms. No one else around can do that.”
Steve and Tom called the laborers into the office who had been working at the site where they said the machinery had been shrunk. They wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on. Arnie, Jeff and Wallace came into the office looking scared. It was typical for laborers to be intimidated by the men who employed them; after all they had the power to take away their job.
Steve had ordered sushi and sake to try to help the men relax and burritos for any who didn’t eat raw fish. All of the men sat down at a smaller than normal table in the conference room. This cozy atmosphere and good food soon had the men talking about their recent fishing trips and trying to outdo each other with the biggest fish story. Arnie claimed his 10 foot pike that he caught in Lake Erie had to be the winner. Jeff said the big mouth bass he caught was the winner because it was a smaller species and even though it was only one foot long it was the winner. Then Wallace jumped on the bandwagon and said he went noodling in the Tennessee river and caught a three foot catfish with a two foot crappie in its mouth and that was the most unusual so he was the winner. Steve smiled and said, “I’ve got you all skunked. I went deep sea fishing and caught a huge blue marlin. When they weighed it at the dock, it came in twelve feet long and weighed 1,987 pounds.
They all laughed as they ate their ono dipped in soy sauce and wasabi. Tom said, “That is the biggest fish story I ever heard. You expect us to believe that?”
All of the men laughed again and Arnie said, “I think there is smoke coming out my ears and eyes. That green mayonnaise is nothing to mess with.”
The men roared with laughter and Tom explained to him, “That is wasabi. It is like Japanese horseradish and is meant to be stirred into the soy sauce. If you could eat that alone and be ok with it, I would worry about you.”
The secretary brought in more hot sake to the cheers of the men. Tom said, “I want to show you something.” He took the satchel from beside his chair and placed it on the table. Arnie, Jeff and Wallace didn’t know what to expect, but Steve eagerly watched as Tom drew out the first miniature machine. Arnie gasped as he recognized the machine.
“Do you guys know anything about these miniature machines?” Steve asked.
Arnie said, “Yes. We were driving them and went off to take a quick break and when we returned, not fifteen minutes later, we heard talking and hid behind a tree to watch.” Arnie, Wallace and Jeff looked at each other, obviously knowing how ridiculous what they were getting ready to say would sound.
