To whom it may concern

Marshall heard the door open, but didn't look up from the heavily-annotated Reader's Guide to the Sorcerer's Bible open on the kitchen table in front of him.

"Hey guys," he said, his tone distracted. "How was grocery shopping?"

"Fine," said Simon. "We bumped into Miss Holahan at the Eerie Nursery and Garden Centre. She mentioned she might have a job for us, so I told her to drop by this afternoon if she was free."

"Did she say what it was about?" asked Marshall, pushing his notebook aside.

Dash shook his head.

"She had the Slightly Smaller Miss Holahan with her," he said. "Couldn't get into the details."

Marshall blinked.

"The what?"

Simon sighed.

"Her toddler, Mars. The one you can never remember exists?" He turned to Dash. "And I'm pretty sure her kid isn't called Slightly Smaller Miss Holahan."

"Are you sure?" asked Dash, locating a family-sized bag of World o' Stuff-brand Corn-Flavoured Corn Chips from the pile of shopping bags and opening it. "Has she ever told you? Teller can't remember it at all, and I saw it half an hour ago and couldn't tell you what it looks like."

He stuffed a fistful of chips into his mouth and plunged his hand back into the bag before continuing.

"For that matter, are we even sure it's a kid? Could be a clone. Lady spends all that time at the Garden Centre, sounds a bit plant-persony to me. Kid could have budded right off her neck."

Marshall's eyes went wide.

"A plant person!" he breathed. "One that reproduces via sprouting! Some new kind of spriggan, or..."

He pushed back from the table, knocking his chair over in his haste.

"Do you think she'd let me take some cuttings?"

"I think I should handle this meeting alone," said Simon .

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

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