|
STUFF LITTLE STEPHANIE IN THE INCINERATOR [ part 10 ] It was two days later when the will finally got read. Stephanie, in a fresh school uniform, and Gregg, were they only ones in the mansion�s salon besides Mr. Howell, the lawyer. �It�s a good thing you showed up when you did,� remarked Gregg. �Or our goose would have been cooked.� �When I heard about the girl missing from the school and learned her name was Stephanie, I put two and two together,� the lawyer replied. �I�m glad I brought the police with me. No offense, but I didn�t like the look of some of your relatives.� �Well,� said Gregg, �they won�t ever bother us again. Maude and Susan should have never tried to shoot their way out. As for Ted, well he shouldn�t have resisted arrest. That really annoyed the cops. Now he�s in that hospital, a vegetable for life.� �A few hundred blows to the skull with a police batons will do that to you,� agreeded Howell. �Now as to the will. Stephanie, of course, gets everything. However, it wasn�t hard to convince the court that you, Gregg, as her only living relative - and given that you were willing to sacrifice your life to save hers - should be her guardian.� They signed the necessary papers and Howell closed his briefcase. �What are you two going to do now?� �Well, Miss Prudence�s Academy is in summer recess, so Stephanie and I will stay at the mansion here and she will go back to continue the her education in the fall,� said Gregg. �It will give us the summer to go through the place and decide what we want to do about it.� �I want to turn it into a museum to preserve my grandfather�s work,� declared Stephanie. �A museum?,� said Howell. �Well you may certainly have something here that will bring in the tourist dollar. That�s for sure. Well, good luck, you two.� After he was gone they sat in the salon. Stephanie climbed into Gregg lap and snuggled up to him like a kitten. �If we are going to turn this place into a museum, you have better get busy, � she said with a giggle. �You are going to have to go through all of my grandfather�s machines here and determine how they work and what needs to be fixed-� �Stephanie, there are hundreds of them. Besides I�d need somebody to test them on�� She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, �Silly, that�s what you have me for! And for the machines I�m too big for, Miss Prudence will lend us one of her first graders for the summer to use for testing. She has a lovely red-haired thing named Lindsey. The girls from Miss Prudence�s academy will get some benefit from this too. I want this to be a living museum were things actually work. I want the girls from the Academy to have a place to come whenever they needed some extra-special discipline.� She put her arms around his neck and pressed her tiny face close into his neck. �I was thinking about starting this afternoon. I found this interesting little machine on the fourth floor. Maybe we should see what it does.� Gregg tilted her head back and looked into her soft, brown eyes. �Stephanie are you sure you want to do this? We don�t know all that much about these machines. It could be dangerous.� She gave him a kiss. �Of course! That�s what make it fun. Just promise me one thing.� �What�s that?� �If there is an accident and something goes wrong, don�t stuff me in the incinerator.� He laughed. �It�s a deal.� |