Read Elixir for Free Online Page B

water to his buddy. He heads to the living room with the orange juice dangling from his hand, noticing Aunt Mary and a heavyset lady in a denim jacket on the couch watching a soap opera. “Hey,” Mary says to him.
    “Hey,” he says, admiring the sultry blond actress on the TV.
    Gaping at him, the other woman on the sofa says, “Hi there.”
    “Sean, this is Babs,” Mary says. “Babs, Sean. She’s my friend from book club. We’re heading over there in a bit.” He raises the jug as a hello gesture.
    “I’m a huge fan,” the lady says. “I saw every episode of you on Jeopardy! .”
    “Oh yeah?” He rubs the back of his neck.
    “Malone’s such a common name, but when I met Mary I had a feeling you two were related. Same...face shape. I thought maybe your mom at first. Then we got to chatting one day and sure enough...not mom, but still blood.”
    “We are,” he says. He turns to his aunt. “We’re gonna ride our bikes to the mall. Came in to let you know.”
    “Okay. I’m making pork chops for dinner when I get back. Say around—”
    “How do you remember all that stuff?” the woman asks him, cutting off Mary. “It just doesn’t seem possible.”
    “What stuff?”
    “From Jeopardy! .”
    “I don’t know,” he says, a tad defensive. “I just kind of do.” He unscrews the juice.
    She inspects him as he drinks. “I pictured you’d have a bigger head in real life. To store it all.” She pauses. “Your head’s pretty normal-sized.”
    “Yeah,” he says in a flat way, lowering the bottle.
    She pulls her phone from her purse and visits Wikipedia. “Let me try to stump you,” she says with excitement as she types.
    He rubs the back of his neck again. “I think we’re leaving soon.”
    “Hold on,” she says, oblivious to his discomfort. “I got one. What’s the capital of Uganda?”
    “That show was years ago—”
    “Did I stump you?”
    “I guess.”
    She pumps her fists in triumph, jean jacket squeezing her excess arm weight. “The girls at work aren’t going to believe this.” She peeks at his aunt, expecting her to be happy. Mary is straight-faced, aware of how much her nephew hates stuff like this. Sensing an awkwardness, the woman says, “I’m going to freshen up in the bathroom before we hit the road.”
    “No problem,” Mary says. The lady lifts her big body off the couch with a groan and lumbers toward the hallway.
    As soon as she’s out of sight Sean says, “Kampala.”
    “What?” his aunt asks.
    “The capital. Of Uganda.”
    “Why didn’t you say it before?”
    “I wanted her to leave me alone. She would’ve kept asking me stuff if I got it right.”
    She laughs, so does Kyle. “Well played,” she says, surfing the channels. “Sorry about all that.”
    “Ready to go bro?” Kyle asks.
    “Yeah.” As Sean returns to the kitchen a newscaster’s voice on the television grabs his attention. His brow creases. He turns to the screen, a live image of Mexico’s Church of Santa Prisca plastered all over it with the headline “Drug Lord Gunned Down Outside Mexican Cathedral.” He steps closer. “Don’t change it,” he says with alarm, a chill tingling his skin.
    A newswoman in a red blazer says, “...Who governed a narcotics empire estimated to generate north of four billion dollars a year. Salinas was anonymous for nearly eighteen months, no visuals or hints of his whereabouts until today. Multiple eyewitnesses confirmed the presence of three Mexican federal policemen engaged in gunfire this morning with him and associate Bertram Velasquez. Deaths have been verified for both of the men, with no reports of any police injuries. We’ve also learned however that Fernando and Natalia Flores were pronounced dead at the scene as well. Fernando was thirty-two, Natalia twenty-eight. A husband and wife from Taxco with no apparent connection to Salinas or his criminal network.”
    A photo of the Flores family appears, the victims standing in the Pacific Ocean