Part 11
by Jeanie TTF
jeanie7777@yahoo.com

*****

Giles had run as far and as fast as he could, to the corner of the street, when he ran smack dab into a large, cold figure.

"Pardon me, I wasn't loo..." Giles looked up then and saw that the form was quite assuredly the embodiment of the Devil himself. He stood there, mouth agape as Willow and Xander tried to explain the situation to him.

"Giles, this is... well you know who this is... and this, is Mr. St. Michael. These two are a bit perturbed by a small weather fact they think Xander and I caused..."

"Yeah," Xander quipped. "They think we caused Hell to Freeze over..."

"This is the first occasion in millennia that I have had to don long sleeves!" grumbled the Devil.

"How is that our fault?!?" Xander whined.Everyone stared at Xander.

"And WHO is my one true love? Why won't anyone tell me???" Xander begged.

*****

Oz pulled into the market parking lot, narrowly missing a purple Saab with his front fender.

"This should only take a few minutes" said Irv. He proceeded to disentangle himself from the seat belt, all the while muttering about newfangled inventions. Once they'd exited the van, the two walked swiftly to the meat department of the market.

"I need fish." Stated the deity.

"Well sir, we have Salmon, Cod, Trout, and there's a special on Catfish..." claimed the clerk.

"I'll take two of each please."

"The clerk packaged the fish and then claimed,"that'll be $14.92 please."

Irv looked at him and stated "Do you have any idea who I am?! I created the universe. I created the fish! You'd think that would make me exempt from paying for it..."

"I'm sorry sir," mumbled the clerk. "But everyone, even luna... um creators of universes, have to pay..."

Irv grumbled some more, then fished {no pun intended} out the correct change from within his beard.

Oz and the clerk just stared agape at the sight of this old man pulling things out of his beard as if it were a bottomless purse.

"Don't suppose you have an axe in there Irv..." Oz inquired.

"No, I don't. Here you go child." He said as he handed over the correct change. "Thank you for the fish." With that, he promptly turned and headed for the door, leaving Oz to follow in his wake.

"Um... Irv?" Oz prodded. "How exactly is this fish going to solve everything?"

*****

"Sandra." The Mayor spoke to Faith, "you must instill a modicum of respect and cleanliness in these masses of hell... They need a good role model." He said while brushing her hair in a fatherly manner.

"By being called Mommy?! Faith cried.

Not even she was sure if the wail of anguish was because of the oddity of the situation or because the brush Mayor Wilkens held had just met a large knot in her hair.

*****

Part 12