[Part the first... wherein Rex Mason goes missing, and we discover some new features of Sarah's Diner...]
Setting: Sarah's Diner.
Most of the patrons had gone home
for the evening. The kitchen was
quiet. The lab rats had finished
cleaning up from the 'Sarah's Diner is Drowning in Books' awards party. The party decorations had been taken down,
but the pictures and framed book covers had not yet been put back on the
walls. A maintenance crew was due in the
morning to paint the walls and strip and re-wax the floors, so most of the wall
hangings and moveable furniture had been taken out of the diner and stored in
the cavern out back.
Sarah's mini-onions were banished
to their dormitory tower – those bare rooms, with just a few remnants of The
Pink. Most of the mini-onions sat
huddled in the common room of the dorm plotting their next color and literary
outrage, but no-one could come up with a rhyme for 'orange.'
Yes. It was a Stark and Dormy Night!
A phone rang out.
Someone screamed!
…actually, it was more like a
snore, interrupted by the ringing phone.
Sean the young/old/curly Wolf – aka Wolfie – answered the phone. "Sarah's.
"… No, Sarah's gone home for
the evening. She said she had to
proofread Eric term paper. It's on
Shakespeare and Robert has been teasing him with 'Six Degrees of Bacon.' Laura, nope, she took off early with a bunch
of new recipes. Dom?" He cocks his head and listens to the faint
sounds coming from below. "Sorry, she's 'occupied.' Chief Dragon lady? Nope, studying for her certs.
"Look, Donna, I know you've been
mad at me, but I thought we settled that?
Besides, there's no one else here to answer the phone. Well, Speaker to Lab Animals is here – at
least - *one* of him is here, but he's writing.
You'll just have to talk to me.
"Rex? No, of course not. Look, Speaker's here to supervise the
cleaning crew, and I'm supposed to lock up after that.
"No, Speaker's giving me a
ride.
"French.
"Yeah, lifted my wallet
again. No license, no driving. Fortunately Speaker's got family in Texas.
"I don't know, haven't seen
him in… I don't know… hours!
"I'll check – 'Speaker?' "
The portly man in the back booth
looks up from his laptop." 's up, Wolfie?"
"When did you last see
Rex?"
"Well, he tried to talk to that
young trucker gal, then she got scared by The Drool, Rex tried to convince me I
needed powered armor for LabRats™ Cleaning & Demolition, Inc., but when I
said no, he headed off toward the restroom muttering about trying to find
someone that would appreciate his genius.
I figured he went home to Donna."
"This *is* Donna."
"Oh. Well, tell her 'Hi' for me, and that the Lab
Rats *loved* the Camembert, but stay away from Uzbekistan."
"Huh?"
"Long story. But I haven't
seen Rex since right after I got here."
"I'm sure I don't want to
know." Sean takes his hand off of
the mouthpiece and speaks into the phone.
"Rob says, 'Hi,' something about Camembert and Uzbekistan, and that the last he
saw Rex was a couple hours ago…
"Unh unh. No, we haven't seen any Cherenkov radiation –
he didn't go FTL from *here*. Sorry,
wish I could help. I suppose he *could*
be at the Tavern. Call Eeyore. You too.
'Night. Bye." Sean hung up the phone. "Sweet lady. I wish I understood what she sees in Mason,
though." He looks up to see s2la
packing up his laptop, and about half a dozen black and white laboratory rats
slipping down into various pockets in his lab coat. "The lads all done? Good.
I appreciate the lift."
As the two men walk out, set the
alarm and lock the front door, Sean can be heard to ask: "Have you got any nice poisons I can
booby-trap my wallet with? I *swear*
I'm gonna kill French…"
-----
[To be continued... tune in next time when we will discover the Diner's New Makeover, find out Who's in the Kitchen with Laura, and ask the all important question... What's for Lunch?]
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