A Practical Guide to Sorcery for Night-Shift Workers novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Teacher's Desk
Anselm did not argue.
He undid the button of his left cuff and folded the sleeve back to the elbow.
On the inside of the cuff, a small square of gray thread showed against the lining.
It was a pocket, stitched shut on three sides, about the size of a marble.
Duane Pettibone bent over it and looked for a long time.
He pressed the cloth between two fingers.
"Empty," he said.
"Yes," said Anselm.
The room was so quiet I could hear the lamps hum.
"My aunt sewed it," Anselm said. "It held a glass bead she charged for me."
"For five years I squeezed it under my hands and called it a cast."
I stopped breathing.
Nobody had told him to say it.
He said it to the whole room, in his dry, steady voice, with his sleeve rolled up.
"I did not use it tonight," he said. "It's in a drawer at home. I wanted you to know that I know what it was."
Duane straightened up.
He wrote four lines on the clipboard, slowly.
"I'm required to note a nonstandard garment feature," he said. "I'm also required to note that the instructor stated it voluntarily."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet. The retest stands."
"I understand."
"I'm not certifying the bead, Mr. Corday, and I'm not certifying the back row."
"I'm certifying what you can do in a room with two people in it."
He tucked the clipboard under his arm.
At the door he stopped and looked at the eight of us, one by one.
"You may all tell the county that the class was well run," he said. "I'll be telling them that as well."
He went out, and his footsteps went away down the hall.
For a moment nobody moved.
Then one of the bakery workers, the one with flour on both sleeves, said, "We kind of figured."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of A Practical Guide to Sorcery for Night-Shift Workers are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend