He knew what he must do. All of the Bachelors must be initiated into the Society of Shells. He immediately got to work with the passion and furore of a man whose very life depended on it. He sat at the desk for almost two days, getting up only four times, once to get a glass of water, once to use the toilet and twice to stretch his legs. The other Bachelors found his behaviour very curious but Jimboy told them he was okay and that he would explain everything shortly. Meanwhile, he employed into his services and entrusted with his plan, two of the Red Owls.
The first was Barlow, a young man who bore the resemblance of an Edwardian fireman. He had the job of collecting additional Shells, for he had quite an acute eye for the shinier, more decorative ones. At times Jimboy grew concerned that Barlow was paying too much attention to the material look of the Shell and was forsaking its inner magical qualities. He had trouble in getting him to realize that each Shell was equal and it worried Jimboy to hear him mutter under his breath nonsensical and fragmented sentences about Silver Shells and how he was going to find them soon. Barlow’s main skill however was his buffing of the Shell. This became widely recognized as the Barlow buff.
The second helper was R-Bizzle, although she was very busy, it pleased Jimboy that she found the time to visit his workshop on a regular basis, commenting on his progress and suggesting various techniques that he might try. R-Bizzle is credited with the emergence of the second model of Shell necklaces, the difference being in how the Shell is attached to the string.
Soon all the Bachelors were wearing a Shell necklace. They were shown the secret hand gesture and had repeated the oath to one another. Although some of them, such as Loukie, laughed off Jimboy's insistence that the Shells were magic, they still showed good heart and agreed to be initiated. Once the necklace was on though and the oath had been said, there was no question from any of them that the Shells were indeed imbued with magical qualities.
Now they were ready to go to battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment