An excerpt from THE END OF ORDINARY

“Seriously?” Micah said. “This is the lair?”

“I told you,” Marta said. “It’s not a lair. It’s a juice bar.”

We were on the second floor of her house, at the end of what seemed at the time like miles of corridors and columns and arches and lots and lots of locked doors. The door in front of us, though, was unlocked and slightly ajar.

“You’re sure he’s here?” Micah asked. “I mean, shouldn’t he be in a darkened study or something?”

Marta pressed her fingers to her eyes.

“Right. With his henchmen. Should he be smoking a cigar?”

“Do you have a cat?”

They both turned to look at me.

“A cat?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s better than a cigar. He should be sitting in a big leather easy chair, petting a cat.”

“No,” Marta said. “We do not have a cat. We also don’t have any leather easy chairs, as far as I know. Dad’s probably sitting at the bar, reading some crappy sci-fi novel on his tablet and drinking a smoothie.”

Micah shook his head.

“That’s not gonna work for me.”

Marta turned to look at him.

“Not gonna work for you?”

“Right,” Micah said. “I can’t beat a guy up while he’s drinking a smoothie.”

“No beating,” I said. “I thought we were clear on that.”

“Right. Right.”

“Look,” Marta said. “We’re just …”

“Marta?”

We all turned to look at the door.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Would you like to introduce me to your friends?”