Emily The Strange_ The Lost Days Part 23

We mobilized the councilmembers for a quick field trip down to the minipark, where we were able to show them, IN WRITING, in bra.s.s letters an inch high, our proof that Emma was indeed the owner of Blackrock's first and only cafe.

(I did have a moment of terror when I realized the bench now read "Emma LeStrange" and remembered my letter-flipping incident back on Day 6. But then I realized, if they were willing to accept an inscription on a park bench as proof of ownership, one wrong letter wasn't going to be the deal breaker.) The three of them looked at the bench, nodded, murmured a little legal talk, and then politely mentioned "compensation."

Schneider shook his head. "No more bribes, honorable councilmembers," he said. "It's not going to work like that anymore. Uh, besides which, we've got nothing to offer you."

There was a little more polite legal talk, and then the next thing I knew, everyone was handing around doc.u.ments, shaking hands, and signing off, and then I was the new legal owner of the El Dungeon, just like that.

"Hey, Schneider," I said when the councilmembers had left us there at the minipark. "What just happened?"

"You got lucky, kid," he said. "Attikol did talk to them about a payoff. But he never came through, and what do you know, rumor has it that he's low on money. So, even though your evidence was kind of pathetic, you really had no compet.i.tion. So you won this round. But like I've said, I really doubt that a question over legal ownership will keep him from knocking this building over if that's what he wants to do. I hope you have a plan."

Yeah...me too.

Later Poor golem! Poor poor poor poor golem!

I am a very bad golem-commander!

Raven broke all her fingers, wrists, elbows, and shoulders working on that evil bolt down in the closet. Had to work very hard to repair her. Thank goodness for the local deserted hardware store and its well-stocked Dumpsters. She said it did not hurt, but still. Am feeling like a big jerk.

I feel bad for even calling this good news, but she DID get the bolt open. I wish I knew how to reward her.

One down, two more locks to go.

Later Still no ideas on those locks, but I've built the amplitudinal sandstorm generator as per Aunt Emma's specifications. Since I have no lab to work in, I had to just move aside some furniture and use the El Dungeon. Installed the completed device in the middle of a deserted intersection, just for fun. And cranked it up. Should see results some time tomorrow. Am going to spend the night pondering the further details of my plan for convincing Attikol to leave here forever.

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Day 28 umlaut brought me a note from Jakey this morning. Here it is:

Whats up Earwig how are you. I would come see you but I am scared to get larginitus. Are you better yet? I am so borred. We haven't done a show in like three days because everyone left town. I think we are going to leave town soon too. Attikol is almost done with his chalenge. That bayje building where you are staying is the last one and he will probly get it moved today and then he is going to ask Raven to come with us. And I know you didnt want to come with us last time I asked you but where else are you going to go if you dont have your memery back? And there is going to be nothing left here pretty soon. Well just wanted to say hi or bye or whatever. I hope you are OKYour frend fiend frend fiend friend Jakey friend Jakey

That was pretty depressing by itself, but then Molly Merriweather marched in with her suitcases and her big smile and her positive, can-do att.i.tude and that made it even worse.

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MOLLY:.

Man, where is everyone? This place is dusted!

ME:.

Told you not to come.

M:.

Yeah well, let's solve that mystery of yours so we can move on to a new town, 'K? And don't worry, I won't say the code word this time!

ME:.

[Suddenly unable to breathe.] CODE...WORD? WHAT...CODE...WORD?

M:.

The one that made your memory come back. Oh, right. Of course you don't remember that.

ME:.

[Ears buzzing. Hands itching to grab Molly and shake the code word right out of her.] WELL? What are you waiting for?? Tell it to me right now!!

M:.

No way, man. You got really mad at me last time.

ME:.

But...I...I did?

M:.

Yeah, you said I was never supposed to know it in the first place. You made me swear on my ponies that if I ever saw you again, I wouldn't tell you your real name, or the code word, or, uh, whatever other stuff it was you needed to forget.

I put my head in my arms and sent powerful thought waves of aggravation toward that version of Myself who put me in this impossible situation. I was vaguely aware of Molly saying a bunch of "Hey, girl, I'm here for you" and "It's all gonna work out fine." It was enough to make me promise myself never to show weakness in front of her again.

So I forced myself to recover from my three minutes of despair and get back to business. Unfortunately, it was not really possible for me to get back to business with Molly in the picture, asking questions about who was the hottest guy in town, and offering ridiculous non-solutions like "Hey-let's ask Ripper what he thinks we should do!!" Eventually I had to admit defeat. So I made another promise to myself: I would do my best to neutralize whatever crazy plans she came up with, or die trying. Then I handed over my notebook and told her she had an hour to come up with something quality or she was off the case.

At least she's a fast reader. Within twenty minutes of flipping the pages and saying "Hmmm" and "Uh huh, huh," she tossed the notebook back at me.

MOLLY:.

So, can you program Raven to say whatever?

ME:.

Probably. Yeah.

M:.

Well there you go. Just get her to embarra.s.s Attikol in public. You know, insult his manhood or whatever. He'll never show his face here again.

ME:.

[Very sincerely. Lying my cheeks off.] Molly, thank you. That is an amazing plan. I owe you everything.

M:.

Hey, no prob! Let's go check out your cool van, huh? We can drive around town and see what's going on.

Fine. Change of scenery. Cats and Molly and Raven and I closed up the cafe, piled into the van, and rolled out.

We had been in the van only a couple minutes when I heard Raven say, "Sandstorm."

"Huh?"

She pointed off toward the edge of town. "Sandstorm."

She was right, my sandstorm was building up, maybe a mile away. It was nice and easy to see, what with so many of Blackrock's buildings lying in ruins. I thought we'd probably have an hour, maybe two, before it hit us.

We rolled on. I stayed hidden in the back while Molly sat up front and took in the "sights" of Blackrock. That took about three minutes. We had seen all the rubble we needed to see, and were trying to turn down the alley behind the El Dungeon, when we were stopped at a construction roadblock. Molly leaned out the window to chat with the construction crew.

MOLLY:.

Whatcha doing?