There was a gentle rapping on the apartment door which roused Owen out of his favorite chair.  He paused the tape in the VCR, telling Jim and Kenrick he’d be right back, and left the A/V room to answer.
     Robert was standing waiting, a clipboard and pen in his hands.
     “Were we being too loud?  We can turn it down…”, Owen stood out of the way so Robert could enter the room.
     “No, I haven’t had any complaints, I just wanted to come and do a check on your plumbing.  We’ve been having problems again.  Is this a bad time?”, Robert explained as he walked in.
     Owen breathed a sigh of relief, “No, I was just watching TV with a couple of friends.  You know where everything is.”.
     Robert let himself into the bathroom, the came out a minute later to check under the kitchen sink.
     “I don’t see any damage, but you might want to keep an eye out just in case.”, Robert said with a yawn.
     “Why don’t you sit down for a couple minutes.  You sound tired.”, Owen motioned towards the A/V room.
     “I’ve been at this all day.  I could use a break.”, Robert admitted.
     “I’ll get you something to drink.  Iced tea or lemonade?  I have cold water, too.”, Owen offered.
     “Lemonade, please.”, Robert said before yawning again.  He wandered off into the A/V room and sat down in Owen’s chair.
     “I don’t think we’ve met.”, he said to Owen and Kenrick, “I’m Robert Sinclair, one of the landlords.”.
     “Jim Roundell.”.
     “Just call me Kenrick.”.
     “Oh are you two related?  You don’t look at all alike.”, Robert asked.
     “No, why would you think that?”, Jim asked.
     “Sorry, just when Kenrick didn’t give his last name, I thought maybe you might be brothers or something.  Forget about it”, Robert stammered.
     “It’s okay, but now that I think about it, in the month I’ve known you, I’ve never caught your last name.”, Jim looked quizzically at Kenrick.
     “Umm, my last name, I never thought it was that important.  Umm, my last name is…”, Kenrick’s voice was nearly cracking.
     Owen rushed into the room with Robert’s lemonade, having heard the last few sentences of the conversation.
     “Sorry I took so long.”, he interrupted, “Should I start up the tape again.”.
     “Sure.”, Jim turned to the TV, forgetting all else.
     “So what are we watching?”, Robert inquired.
     “Fushigi Yuugi.”, Owen, Jim, and Kenrick answered in unison.
     “We’re having a marathon.”, Jim added.
     “Never heard of it.”, Robert settled into the chair and took a sip of the lemonade.

     Robert only stayed for a few minutes before he had to continue his rounds.  The marathon went on most of the day, ending when they reach the mid point on the series.
     Jim stood up, took a deep breath, and then retrieved his shoes from the front door.
     “This is great, we’ll have to do this again tomorrow.”, he joked as he put his shoes on.
     Owen laughed, but Jim suddenly turned a serious, “Owen, mind if we talk outside for a couple minutes?”.
     “Sure.”, Owen thought he knew what was coming, “Let me get my shoes.”.

     “How much do you know about Kenrick?”, Jim asked without a second’s hesitation when they got outside.
     “What do you mean?”, Owen was on the defensive.
     “He told me that Robert promised him the apartment when we first met, but they’d never met.  There’s something going on here, and I want to know what it is.”.
     “Maybe he just didn’t recognize him, I don’t know.  You’ve known him almost as long as I have, and you’ve never had a problem before now.”, Owen reminded him.
     “Until now, I’ve never had any reason to be suspicious.  I can believe about him losing his job and most of his money, maybe he has enough to contribute to the grocery bill and power, but there’s something wrong with this whole thing.”.
     “Jim, it’s nothing, okay.  He’s just not having much luck getting back on his feet.  He’s a good guy.”.
     “Then what’s his last name?”, Jim asked and stood staring at Owen.
     “Macinally.”, Owen called a name from his memory.
     “Okay, I’ll trust you.”, Jim nodded.

     “Umm, is everything okay?”, Kenrick asked nervously as Owen came back into the apartment.
     “Jim is getting kind of suspicious.  He wanted to know how much I know about you.  We’re going to need a better cover story than what we’ve got.”, Owen told Kenrick as he removed his shoes, “If anyone asks, your last name is Macinally.”.
     “Kenrick Macinally?”, Kenrick asked for confirmation.
     “It was the best I could come up with on the spot.  Smith would be too obvious.”.
     “It sounds good, but if Jim is getting suspicious, what should we do about it?”.
     Owen scratched his head, “I don’t know, but we can’t just say you’re the demon that lives in my closet.  I don’t think even Jim would understand that.”.
     “I could spend more time in the pocket dimension.  That’s what Phil had me do.”.
     “That could work, but if you come out at the wrong time, it could cause even more problems.  It’ll have to do for now, though.”.
     “Robert is going to be a bigger problem.”, said Kenrick.
     “You think so?”.
     “If Jim asks him about the cover story, that blows everything, and he’ll figure out what I am.  He’s not a stupid man.”.
     “You’re right.  We need to make sure he doesn’t find out.”, Owen stated, then corrected himself, “Either of them.  We don’t need Murray coming in here guns blazing.”.
     “So what do we do?”, Kenrick asked.

     “Julie, I need a favour.”.
     Annoyed, Julie told him, “Owen, I’m not going to call some girl you like and tell her she has a secret admirer.  We’re not in Junior High.  Go talk to her.”.
     Owen paused for a moment, before correcting her, “This isn’t about Beth.”.
     “Oh, you finally talked to her?  How did it go?”, Julie interrupted.
     “I haven’t had a chance yet.  Can you…”, Owen started.
     Julie interrupted again, “She lives in the same building and you haven’t had a chance?  Just go to her door, knock on it, and ask her out.”.
     Owen started again, “Julie, can you…”.
     “Why are you still on the phone?”, Julie asked him, “Go talk to her!  I’m hanging up!  No excuses!”.
     “No!  Don’t hang up!  I need…”, he was cut short by the click the line being disconnected.
     Kenrick stuck his head into the room, “Who was that?”.
     “My closest friend at work.”.

     “That’s everyone I know that Jim doesn’t.  It’s not easy to talk people into doing a favour for you when you can’t explain why.  It’s not like I can just say ‘I need you to do something for me to help my best friend from finding out my roommate is a demon’.  People just don’t take that sort of news well.”.
     Owen was alone in the apartment, Kenrick having gone into the closet half an hour earlier.  He wandered around, muttering out loud to himself, not really caring at that moment if anyone could hear him.
     “Everyone I know except…”, Owen suddenly stood still, then smacked his forehead.  He ran to the phone and dialed a series of eleven numbers.
     “Andy, sorry to phone so late.  I need a favour…”.

     Jim, Owen and Kenrick sat in the A/V room, watching the second season of Fushigi Yuugi.  Owen kept his arm carefully positioned so he could keep an eye on his watch without Jim noticing.
     Owen suddenly reached out his hands in front of him in a long stretch, raising them to the ceiling slowly.  Kenrick stood up and excused himself to the washroom.
     Two minutes later, almost like clockwork, Owen’s phone rang.
     “Jim, would you mind, I’m too comfortable to move right now.”, Owen said as he sank into his chair slightly.
     Jim stood up, said “Sure.”, and dashed off to the phone.
     “Hello, Owen’s apartment.”, he answered the phone.
     The voice on the other end belonged to a middle aged woman, “May I speak to Kenrick Macinally, please.”.
     “Just a moment.”, he said as he held his hand over the receiver, and called out, “Kenrick, you have a phone call”.
     “I’ll just be a minute, can they hold?”, he called back from the bathroom.
     “He’s indisposed at the moment.”, Jim told the woman, “Can you hold?”.
     “Would you just give him the message that Katherine Roth considered his resume, and while we consider it impressive, we can’t afford to fly him in to San Francisco for an interview.”.
     “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.  I’ll give him the message.”.
     “Goodbye.”.
     “Bye.”, said Jim as he hung up the phone.

     “There’s nothing here in his field, is there?”, Jim asked Owen as they walked to his car.
     “No, we’ve been getting calls like that all month.  You just happened to be here for this one.”.
     Jim opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat.
     He opened the window and said to Owen, “Sorry I doubted him, it was just…”.
     Owen shook his head, “Don’t worry about it.  You were right to be concerned, you didn’t know.  I’ll see you tomorrow?”.
     “How about a Hayao Miyuzaki marathon?”.
     Owen gave a double thumbs up, and Jim started his car.
     “See you tomorrow, then.  Bye!”.
     “Yeah, bye!”, Jim replied as he drove off.

     “Well?”, Kenrick asked as Owen walked in the door.
     “Just a minute.”, Owen told him as he picked up the phone, and dialed his cousin.
     “Hello?”, Andy answered.
     “Hi!”.
     “Owen!  How did it go?”.
     “Tell Tim his mom was great!  I wish I could explain, but you three are lifesavers.”.
     “How could I not help my favorite cousin?  Do you have a while to talk?”.
     “Keep it under three hours, and we’ll be fine.”.
     Owen gave Kendrick a thumbs up while he settled down for a long conversation with his cousin.

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