Inkling

1.8 Mistakes Better Kept to Oneself

2:45 A.M.

Sophia Jennings was, simply put, a very rich woman. Her father, Steven Jennings, was the son of an escaped slave who fought her way to the North, everything else be damned. Steven built a lumber empire from scratch, worming his way into the ranks of the white workers who thought him just very tan; and the black workers who saw in him a man with a chance. The lumber workers resented working for black bosses but if there was one thing Steven Jennings learned in his life, it was that money may not buy happiness but it sure as hell bought power.

Power meant living in a large, white house with columns underneath a large balcony which overlooked the entire city. There were so many windows that, on a cloudless day, there was no need for any other type of lighting. Each bedroom had a balcony with an iron wrought fence twisting into a unique and intricate design. The Jennings House was, quite literally, on top of a hill as if to overlook their kingdom. Max had always shied away from the Jennings House, it made him feel very small and very dirty. Especially as he stood on the large marble front steps, looking up at the his red waistcoat unbuttoned and rumpled, his coat lost somewhere during the night. Mud smeared his once shiny tan shoes, and a dusty, no doubt crooked bowler hat atop his head.

It was with a rather significant burst of courage that Max knocked on the large, mahogany door in front of him.

A disgruntled looking maid opened the door and, after a moment's consideration, closed it right back up again.

"Wait!" Max called, sticking it foot forward just in time to get it slammed in the door. With a gasp three octaves higher than his speaking voice, Max swore like a sailor stuck in the body of a child.

"Erica?" Sophia's voice drifted around the corner, sounding as if she had just woken. "What is going on? It is not even three in the morning."

"Sophia," Max squeaked, hopping up and down on his uninjured foot.

"Max, by the heavens what are you doing out there?" Sophia waved the maid away and pulled Max inside. "Darling you are positively covered in dirt and scratches." Her soft, dark hands brushed over the cuts and bruises on his face and then his hands, concern consuming her entire body. He was so entranced in her touch that he hardly noticed she was wearing a night dress and a red silk dressing gown, her long, wild hair loose and cascading down her back.

"You are pure magic, Sophia." Max swayed a bit, exhaustion having set in.

"My goodness Maxwell are you drunk?"

"Only very." Max grinned, somehow thinking that would make it better.

"Tell me what happened right now or I'm putting you on the couch and fetching my father." Max's eyes widened in fear at the very thought of Sophia's father seeing him in such a state. He started speaking so fast the words nearly became one.

"I got drunk and turned someone into a toad and I could not tell anyone about it because it is slightly illegal and the old leafs do not tend to believe: "Oh yeah I accidentally turned a man I did not like before ever talking to him into a toad my apologies." So naturally I went to Mr. Marcus Holmes for help but he was dead and I heard a bang and nearly thought I'd broken the dead man's knee but it was a gang of thugs, no doubt the fellows who killed poor Mr. Holmes, and now they think I am in possession of something they want but I do not even know what they are after and of course they did not believe me when I told them I was only there because: "I accidentally turned a fellow into a toad and I cannot turn him back because I do not know how I did it in the first place and I need Mr. Holmes' assistance but that will clearly not be happening so I'll just be on my way" so they chased me and now I am here. Help me."

Sophia stared at him for a good long while. She opened her mouth to speak several times before closing it again. Finally she sighed long and hard before raising her hand and smacking Max, but it was clear her heart was not into it.

"You are the stupidest, most troublesome person I have ever met in my entire life, you do know that, yes?"

"I assumed as much." Max spent the next several minutes with his hand to his cheek, still feeling the sting.