Excerpt: Mr Smythe.

As I sit here I still cannot fathom what transpired over the last few weeks. I am just a regular man with no special abilities to speak of, but I was part of a mission that I still have difficulty understanding. This is a story of a man, but this man is not me. It is my partner, my advisor and my friend. His unusual gifts were not known to me immediately, but believe me when I tell you this is not a fantasy. The reality of this journey is something you must believe. It started 3 weeks to the day, on a Sunday, of all days.

The bang on the door wouldn’t stop. I hurried to find out what the issue was. As I opened the door a figure pushed by me and straight to the parlor of my Partner Mr. Smythe. I stared at the “Hours of Business” sign on the door quite annoyed at this vagrant trespasser. I slammed the door and hurried to catch the intrusive man.

“Mr. Smythe?” the man said without as much as a how do you do.

“Yes,” was the reply from the man in the large chair, who was my Partner Mr. Smythe.

I had been in business with Mr. Smythe for 4 years. I considered myself a close confident and to be honest, his only confident. I moved in shortly after our business took off over those years have seen not one other person visit for my partner. The other odd issue is that I do not know his first name. In truth I have begun to suspect he doesn’t have one to go with the last name Smythe. This mystery was never an issue to me.

“We require your assistance,” the rather nervous gentleman continued.

I interrupted, as I usually did, “my good man, you do realize this is Sunday. Our business hours are clearly posted on the door. If I had known you would burst in I would never have opened our door.”

“Calm yourself, Mr. Thompson,” the sound of his voice calmed me immediately. He was a calm man, my Mr. Smythe.

Before I continue I will mention that the type of business we are in is, collecting. We collect valuable items and sell these items to the highest bidder. We sometimes do specific retrievals for select clients. We are not adventurers, but rather researchers. We have people find the items based on our analysis. How I began this was an accident. To this day I accept my position, but the fact is I got it by noticing the weather.

I was innocently standing on a corner waiting for the horses and buggies to pass. I was knew to this metropolis and rather concerned about what I would be doing once settled in. This is when a tall rather striking gentleman stood beside me. He held his hand out as if testing for rain. I jokingly replied that the rain would come in a few moments. Well to my surprise it did and the man seemed overly excited over my precognition. It was nothing of sort of course, but this gentleman went on and on.

Mr. Smythe invited me to tea and by the time the afternoon was up I was his partner. By the time the week was up I was living in his home and we spent our days studying all sorts of texts and documents. He believed I had an intuitive mind and luckily enough he was correct. But I am digressing form my tale.

The man walked up to my friend and looked down on him. He was dressed in a suit that was quite out of date. The pants of this suit seemed too short for his lanky frame. It gave him an awkward look. The sleeves of the jacket were also slightly short. I do give attention to details. When he spoke again it was not a language I was familiar with. I speak 7 languages, but none of that helped in my comprehension of the conversation going on between them. I was able to read the body language and realized that the lanky fellow was beyond agitated. He almost seemed to be begging and yelling at the same time.

Mr. Smythe was his usual nonchalant self in his responses and offered no body language to hint at his responses. The banter went on for some time. I just watched the two go back and forth, slowly getting dizzy from trying with all my faculties to understand the gibberish. Finally the man shrugged, turned and left through the door of the parlor and out the door to the street. I sat and waited.

“Well my friend,” Mr. Smythe began, “it seems we are needed yet again.”

“And what mysterious object shall we be researching this time?”

“My sister,” he said without a hint of emotion.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” I stated.

“Ah Mr. Thompson, there are many things unknown about me in this world.”

“I have no doubt of that my friend.”

Mr. Smythe turned his face to me and smiled, “if you are up to it, you may find out more than you wished to know.”

I am not sure why I had a shiver, but I think it was caused by my talent to understand most things quickly. My mysterious friend was about to become not so mysterious. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that.

He excused himself and left the parlor rather suddenly. I sat there thinking about various things. Why would we be asked to find his sister? We had never searched for a live person before. We specialized in antiquities and rare objects. The information to find these items was all documented, but never pieced together. All we did was put it together. I was not sure how we would research a missing person.

I went out briefly and purchased several newspapers. I had already begun to think about how I would apply myself to finding a missing girl. I read through all of them looking for some crime I could solve from the reports. I never really thought of myself as a sleuth, I am a voracious reader and problem solver, but my problem solving comes from the amount of information. I can piece together thousands of documents and see similarities immediately. It’s like the children’s match game. When the similarities are all together it defines locations. In the case of a crime, there just wasn’t enough information for my skills to be of use. I was quite distraught by the time Mr. Smythe returned.
“I feel like I will not be able to assist you on this one,” I blurted out with much anguish.

He laughed, “My friend you will definitely help me on this one.”

I was touched by his faith in me, but the truth needed to be said.

“I have tried all afternoon to piece together crime reports and solve a few missing person cases, but I can’t. I just do not see how I can help you find your sister?”

“She’s not missing, she’s just lost.”

Now I am an educated man and this statement befuddled me to no end. I stared blankly at Mr. Smythe trying to put some understanding between us. It was no use I literally just uttered the sound.

“Huh?”

His laughter was infectious and made me smile. He walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. I felt reassure d immediately.

“This is not an adventure in books. This time we need to do a bit of travelling. Are you up to it?”

I would have followed this man to the moon and he knew that. I nodded.

“Excellent! So pack a bag Mr. Thompson, we leave in the morning.”

There was so much more I wanted to ask, but he disappeared once again to the third floor loft. He jokingly called it the Keep. I wandered around bothering the house maids until I too was ready to sleep. I packed a few things quickly and turned in for the night.

I awoke to the sound of cooing pigeons on the sill of my bedroom. Those flying rodents were a pain, but no amount of yelling, banging, or threats of violence could ever remove them from my sill. I had decided it was better to live with it than to fight it, and so my sill is a filthy display of pigeons and droppings. Yes a pain indeed.

As I came down the stairs I was immediately greeted by several suitcases at the door. I turned to see Mr. Smythe standing at the front window. He didn’t turn around. He seemed lost in thought. I turned back and hurried to my room, the menial attempt at packing was wholly inadequate. I quickly gathered all the important items I could and shoved them into my large case. I went to the bathroom and grabbed my razor and brush. I was back down the stairs within 30 minutes.

“Didn’t realize I meant we were leaving today?” Mr. Smythe said to the window.

“Sorry my friend,” I felt a bit guilty.

“No need!” he said turning back to me with a smile.

“You will like my sister. She is much prettier than…what was her name?”

“Leah, her name was Leah,” she was a woman I had a brief relationship with.

She broke it off because she found Mr. Smythe creepy. I had no time for such an insult toward the man who trusted me enough to employ me and house me. There are few good people in this world and Mr. Smythe is one of them. I enjoyed Leah’s company, but was glad to see her go.

“My sister will like you, but do not allow yourself the indulgence,” he said with an uncomfortable grin.

“I…I would never be so bold…” I began, but he interrupted.

“My sister can be, what’s the word, aggressive…if she likes you.”

I was a bit dumbfounded by the entire conversation, but that was not unusual when it came to Mr. Smythe. I nodded and proceeded to put my back with his multitude of chests and cases. This was the first time business had taken us out of the comfort of London and I was a bit excited. It had been a while since I had seen the countryside.

“So where are we going?” I am not sure why I thought the trip would be to the countryside. When he answered me I was completely taken back.

“Japan.”

My first thought was, that’s why so many cases. My second was, that will take months. It officially became a real adventure and I was as befuddled as ever. Mr. Smythe did not look Japanese. I immediately imagined some explorer from Italy landing on the Isle, falling in love with some beautiful Asian pearl and settling in the land of the rising Sun. That would at least explain Mr. Smythe.

The door rang and I moved to answer it.

“Wait!” Mr. Smythe yelled.

He moved very fast. In seconds he was in front of the door. He leaned with his back against the wall, peering out the small window. He waived his hands to me to get down. As soon as I did shots rained through the door. They landed everywhere. I have never been more frightened in my life. Suddenly my life as the Business partner of a calm man named Smythe took on a different appearance. Maybe Leah saw something I had not.

It took a rather long time to load the buggy. Realizing that the carriage ride itself was only a short jaunt to the docks, I was getting nervous. I will admit something to you all now and I hope you do not think ill of me. Up until that moment I had never been outside England. No, never visited France, I hadn’t even been to Scotland or Wales. I am not adventurous by nature, but I will try once the situation arises. Standing on the dock staring at the large boat, I was desperately trying.

The docks are a seedy and mysterious place. Most only know of the hustle and bustle. I have over the last four years, discover an underbelly that defies all justice. The dealings in the dark shadows of ships are evil, ranging from extortion to murder. If this part of life was not terribly important to our success as a business I would turned my back and never look back. As it were, I am friends with a multitude of notorious men and these men were the ones that would probably kill someone for a few shillings.

“Arr Calvin,” a crackling voice boomed.

“Captain Doakes, how nice to see you. I heard you were…”

“Mutiny’d and cast a drift?” the old salt replied.

“Yes,” I said with a smile.

I like the old captain. He is as evil as the rest, but has an honesty that gets hi in trouble. It is always good to have an honest man as a friend, especially when the honest man is a criminal.

“What’s the word,” I said flipping him my customary coin.

“Ah, young Calvin, you best be distancing yourself from dear Mr. Smythe. A bounty been placed on his head. It be worth ten thousand pounds.”

“Ten thousand pounds!” I was shocked. That amount of money was enough to have the entire docks descend on us. I turned and jogged over to Mr. Smythe.

“Bounty on your head?” I asked in a way that would require some response.

“Yes, expected dear friend.”

“Are you going to explain any of this?” I blurted out.

“Yes, we have a long voyage ahead of us and we will need to pass time. Between the attempted assassinations I will try to explain my situation and my interesting and annoying families…oh duck.”

“Duck?” I said confused.

“DUCK!” he yelled pulling out something shiny from his cloak.

The knife flew by my ear, very close to my ear. I had no time to think or react. I turned to see a large man slowly falling to his knees, a knife lodge in his right eye. I don’t remember Mr. Smythe practicing knife throwing while I have known him. Obviously his past was more interesting than his present.

“Well, that was interesting,” He said in his calm way.

I have to say that my nerves were not getting used to this knew and exciting life. I stared at the dead man with a large amount of shock. I then looked around the shadows of the ships, the crowds meandering here and there thinking at any moment another assassin would pop out and try to kill Mr Smythe. It was getting to be a bit much.

“Right,” mr Smythe said, “time to board. I have managed to get us passage on a lovely ship. Our comfort is guaranteed!”

I watched him move toward our ship and felt a bit odd. This man I revered and trusted for four years, but I knew nothing of him. My loyalty blinded reason and now the number of questions I had was close to exploding my head right of my shoulders. I moved to catch up to him. Once I had I silently followed. He had promised to tell me all, and I had to trust him.

You may not understand this about me. I am simple in many ways. I do not read fiction, never have. I believe in facts and figures. Mr Smythe had been an excellent partner and never given me reason to doubt his integrity. I weighed the variables and he still merited my trust. He had also in one morning, saved my life twice. That had to be worth something.