Servitor
an excerpt

It was pretty much always cool to go with Dad when he had a window to mess with. Sometimes Sean bitched a little; like Eddy said, it was healthy for parents to think that when you tagged along, you were doing them a big favor. But today Sean hadn't bothered to complain. Dad knew he'd never turn down a chance to go to Arkham and maybe cop a couple new books of arcane lore.

Besides, it was the fifth of July -- vacation was just starting, and starting right this year, not too hot, not too humid, and nothing but a few high clouds way out over the ocean. Sean had on his favorite Miskatonic University T-shirt, the totally official gray one with the college seal on the front. Eddy had exactly the same T-shirt, but she'd refused to wear it: It was geeky to wear a college T-shirt within a hundred miles of the college. As if her "I like π" T-shirt wasn't the ultimate in ubergeek fashion. He could have busted her so bad for it. He didn't really care, though. Once they had gotten off Route 128 and onto the little coastal road between Gloucester and Kingsport, Dad had rolled down the windows to let in the salt breeze and the sound of breakers. A perfect summer day, a ride to Arkham, Dr. Peppers and Italian grinders in the cooler. It was like, idyllic. Who'd want to start a fight and screw everything up?

"Did you bring your cell phone, Sean?" Dad asked.

Kind of a useless question at this point, but Sean dutifully felt in his pockets and rummaged through his backpack. "I guess not," he said.

Dad looked into the back seat, eyebrows up. "Guess not?"

"Know not, now."

"No problem, Mr. Wyndham," Eddy said. "I brought mine."

Dad's eyebrows climbed higher. Luckily, he had to look back at the road, and even more luckily, a huge refrigerator truck was bearing down on them, a little over the median line, so that Dad had to swerve the Civic onto the gritty shoulder between the blacktop and the seawall. You had to hand it to him. If he swore, it was so far under his breath that Eddy's virgin ears (and Sean's) couldn't be offended.

"That was a close one," Eddy said, though if she'd even glanced up from the copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom she'd been reading the whole trip, Sean hadn't noticed it.

"Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger," Dad said. "Sean, what's the good of a cell phone you leave at home?"

So the truck had merely delayed the lecture. "I had it in my pack yesterday. I figured it was still there."

"I told you to recharge it last night, before the trip."

"Right. I did, Dad."

"So it wasn't still in your pack. It was on the charger."

It was time to derail this conversation. "I guess it's still on the charger. Not lost or anything. And Eddy's got hers. Hey, Dad, you know who Dr. Arkwright really is?"

Dad gave a soft snort. He knew he was being shunted off track, but maybe he felt the perfection of the day like Sean did. In any case, he let the forgotten phone go. "Let's see. She’s the woman whose windows I’m going to evaluate. But that wouldn’t get you all excited. So she must be some kind of an FBI undercover agent or terrorist spy or something."

"She's really Dr. Armitage. I mean, her father or grandfather or great-grandfather or something was Dr. Armitage. You know, Henry Armitage, in 'The Dunwich Horror.' It's in Uncle Gus's article and all."

"Okay. I'm confused now."

"Lovecraft," Eddy said, as if that explained everything.

Sadly, it wouldn't explain everything to Dad. Sean elaborated: "You know, Uncle Gus's article about who's really who in Lovecraft. Because Lovecraft would change the names in his stories if the characters were actual people. Dr. Henry Armitage was really Dr. Henry Arkwright, who was librarian at Miskatonic back in the twenties. Really."

"Dim dawn is breaking," Dad said. "Dr. Helen Arkwright is related to Dr. Henry Arkwright, who was Dr. Armitage in the story. How's that exciting?"

Eddy looked up long enough to roll her eyes in commiseration. "Well," Sean said. "Maybe she knows about it."

"About what?"

"What really happened in Dunwich. With the twin spawn of Yog-Sothoth and all."

Dad laughed. "Remind me to thank Gus again for getting you into Lovecraft. I suppose you want me to ask Dr. Arkwright about the twin spawn? Seems a little personal for a first meeting."

"You think?" Eddy said.

It was a pain when Dad and Eddy double-teamed him. "I don't want you to ask her anything," Sean said. "It's just cool, the connection."

Had he sounded hurt or something? Dad turned and smiled at him. "No, you're right," he said. "It is cool."

It was also a pain when Dad didn't give him a chance to sulk. But Sean smiled back. The clouds over the ocean were further off than ever, and they were already in Kingsport, rolling down a long slope to the bridge that spanned the mouth of the harbor. Even though it was midweek, about a million sailboats were on the water, everything from Sunfish to the sloop Miskatonic, which carried tourists along the coast between Newburyport and Gloucester. Across the bridge, the coast road headed skyward as it climbed the cliff-faced hills north of Kingsport. Sean leaned over Eddy to see the weirdly even steps of the cliff called the Causeway and, just visible beyond them, the riddled tip of Father Neptune's nose.