2. Kathryn Kint is confused
"Normal did what?" bellowed John Wylie. He wasn't a large man by any stretch of imagination[1]. In fact, it was safe for most people[2] to describe him as a small man - a very small man, indeed, since it would be quite a stretch for him to reach three feet. But he sure did have a pair of lungs on him. A stranger who heard him, but hadn't seen him, would have sworn that he was a giant of a man because of the way he could roar.
He was roaring now and Kathryn Kint looked at him in consternation. She had been with Wylieworks for just a couple of months and she still wasn't used to the constant furies of her employer, which came and went like people through the turnstiles at the magway station.
"I ... I ... I really have no idea what he did, John," she said, hesitating. She wondered how best to phrase things since she didn't want him getting worked up again. "I came back from visiting my mother for the weekend and Normal was gone! There was no message. He hadn't said anything to the neighbours ..."
"I'm not worried about that idiot husband of yours, Katy! Tell me what happened to your dog!" snapped Wylie, pacing the room as if he was determined to wear out a groove in the floor.
The walls of the small room were covered in posters. What space there was left was taken up by life-size cutouts of people. In his line of business at Wylieworks, Wylie dealt with a lot of people and he liked to surround himself with little bits of memorabilia from them. This would certainly have been fine if Wylie got bigger offices, but in these cramped quarters, Kathryn was beginning to feel uneasy under the accusing eyes of all those people, pleading to be let out.
"Ringo? It's sweet of you to be concerned. It really is." She paused, unsure how she could verbalize it. "He's gone, John! Ringo's gone!" she burst out, distraught. "I don't know what happened to either of them! At first, I thought maybe Normal had taken Ringo out for a walk or something. Not that it's likely ... he just hated my baby. He says Ringo's unclean and full of germs. Now they're both gone and I have no idea where!"
If Kathryn had been a different kind of woman, she would have burst into tears at this point. But Kathryn was made of sterner stuff, and while her lower lip did tremble a bit, that was the only indication of what she was feeling. She was an attractive woman, if you liked thin-faced blondes with sharp features who could melt you with a smile or reduce you to cowering in terror with a withering stare. But at the moment, smiles and withering stares were the furthest things from her mind she was worried about her baby. Of course, she was a little uneasy about her husband's absence as well.
[1] Of course, throughout history, there have been more Herculean efforts of stretching the imagination than a simple adjustment for a vertically challenged guy. "Honey, I spent the whole night working at the office" tops this list.
[2] Unless they happen to be leprechauns, gnomes, elves, brownies (not the chocolate kind, the other kind) or really, really short people well below three feet in height.
