Cold comfort

Mirabell says my costume is a surprise. I don't like the sound of that. The boys in the cast get to find their own costumes, more or less. Duncan looks pretty good in his kilt, for one thing. We got a new Donalbain today. The old Donalbain finished probation, and so now Officer Luggsworth's little brother Brent is in the cast. Duncan wasn't happy about that, since he and Luggsworth have some issues. I looked in on Duncan after Macbeth killed him. He seemed so happy.
Dinner was quiet. My father's at the office doing the accountant thing, and my mother got a phonecall during the meal. "Oh yes, Nigel, I'll tell Don about that. He's in the office now, if you want to drop everything off." It was Mr. Anderson, leaving a message for my father about his tax documents.
"Have you ever felt compelled to do things you don't want to?" Arne asked after dinner. I said no. "Well, do you want to?" He's planning a hypnosis trick, since he's getting bored with what he does on the sunset circuit. "They keep calling me Malcolm--I don't get it," he said. Then he said, "I've got some hush-hush work on the side, anyway. Top secret." Charles Wallace asked him what it was. "Damn! Well, you tortured it out of me. I'm watching some crazy guy in a Bushwhacker. It seems he's been stalking the brother of someone at the Memorial Home, and they want to know why. I can't understand why anyone in an obvious car would stalk some old guy's house, but go figure." Then Arne ran out and took off in his car. Much later, my father came home and said to my mother that it had to happen that the year he does the Anderson's taxes for free, they have foreign investments. My father really gets wrapped up over accounting.