Chapter 14: Caught

Danny’s teeth were chattering.  It was summer and yet, the building was freezing.  He didn’t want to be here.  Danny glanced back at his friends.  They didn’t seem like they were having a good time either.  Tommy was rubbing his hands over his arms, trying to keep himself warm.  Chuckie was shivering violently with fear.   Sam was walking slowly down the hall, her eyes darting around nervously, hanging onto Phil and Lil by the hands.  Phil and Lil kept glancing at each other, both on the verge of crying.

     ‘Man you guys,’ Danny thought,  ‘why did you even want to come here in the first place?’

     Suddenly, Danny froze in his tracks.  A small ‘ping’ had caught his ear.  Normally nobody would have heard something as silent as a ‘ping’ bounce against their eardrums, but since Danny’s parents were ghosts hunters, he figured it was a good idea to always keep your eyes and ears open.

     The babies had stopped too, trying to figure out what was going on with their friend.

     “Danny,” Sam started, “are you-,”

     Without turning around, Danny quickly said, “You guys, get down.”

     “But Danny-,”

     “I said get down Sam.  All of you.  Now.”

     “But why do we need to-,”

     “NOW!”

     Sam did not argue after that.  She, Danny, and the babies dropped to the ground.  Soon enough a huge explosion came from behind them.  Everybody, but Danny, screamed.

     “W-What was that?” Chuckie asked in a scared voice.

     “A grenade.” Danny answered, sitting up cautiously.  “Someone must know we’re here.  We have to be more careful.”

     As the babies started to stand up, a misty spray slowly started spreading down the hall toward them.

     “Hoo?” Steve asked puzzled. 

     “Is it just me,” Phil asked, “or is anybody g-getting…. sleepy?”

     “Y-Yeah.” Lil replied.  “I guess it’s n-nappy time.”

     Phil and Lil slowly lowered themselves to the ground, lie on their sides, and closed their eyes.

     “Oh no.” Danny mumbled, sleepily.  “I t-think that grenade had some laughing gas in it.  It’s m-making us all t-tired.”

     Chuckie yawned.  “H-How come we’re not l-laughing instead?”  He was starting to head toward the ground.

     “No.” Danny cried.  “C-Chuck, don’t fall asleep.”

     But by the time Danny got the last raspy word out, Chuckie was already fast asleep.

     “Hooooooo.”  Steve was starting to fall into dreamland too.

     “Tommy, Sam, Steve,” Danny started, “t-try not to fall asleep.”

     “I’m trying to f-fight it off Danny.” Sam mumbled.  “I’m fighting.  I’m fighting.  I’m l-losing…” 

     She fell against the floor and went to sleep.

     Tommy turned his head slowly toward his playmate.  “I c-can’t f-fights it anymores Danny.  I n-needs to rest.”

     “Tommy, no.”

     “I’m s-sorry, D-Danny.”  He collapsed, fell on his back, and slept.

     “Hooooooo.”  Steve fell asleep on Danny’s shoulder.

     Danny strained to keep his eyes open.  He had to stay awake.  He was on his own now.  Soon, Danny saw one, no, two shadows coming down the hall toward him.  They were coming closer, and closer, and closer.  Pretty soon Danny could see the shadow’s creepy, glowing red eyes.

     That’s when Danny blacked out.

L                                    L                                    L                              L

     Tommy slowly opened his eyes.  He had just had a great dream.  He dreamt that he was in his backyard and it started raining.  Normally Tommy didn’t like rain because that meant he couldn’t go outside and play.  But this was different.  Instead of rain falling from the sky, there were Gummie-Dummie Bears!  That was Tommy’s favorite candy after Reptar bars.

     Tommy was enjoying the delicious treats, until a loud noise disrupted him.  It was probably just his Dad working on a new toy again.  When Tommy’s eyes were completely open, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

     That’s when Tommy remembered what had occurred earlier. 

     He was in a huge, dark, damp basement. There were different weapons of all sorts sitting on many shelves, along with a huge machine with giant letters on it that Tommy couldn’t read.  A pipe was hooked up to the wall connecting the machine to a metal frame with a swirling, glowing green vortex.

     “The ghosty portal!” Tommy whispered, excitedly.  “We founded it!”

     Tommy tried lifting himself up, but he couldn’t.  He looked down at himself.  He was tied to a chair with bright green cables that seemed to glow.  Tommy sighed and looked to his left.  Sam, Lil, Phil, and Chuckie were sitting in the chairs tied up with the same green cables that had kept Tommy from escaping.  They were all still asleep.

     Tommy glanced at his right.  Danny was tied up and asleep also.  Tommy thought about letting his playmate rest until he woke up.  But what if the ghosts came?  He couldn’t take any chances.

     “Danny.” Tommy said softy, nudging his friend.  “Danny, peas wake up.  We founded it!”

     Danny grunted and slowly opened his eyes.  “Tommy?” he asked, yawning.

     Tommy nodded.  “Yes.”

     “What’s going on?”

     “I don’t eggzactly knows.  But those bad ghostys took us right where we wanted to goes.”

     “What are you talking about?” Danny asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

     “Look!” Tommy pointed to the ghost portal.

     “Whoa!” Danny cried, excitedly.  “Good going Tommy!”

     “Ah, it was nothing really.” He paused.  “Hey Danny, how did we gets in here anyways?”

     “I don’t know, but-,” Danny gasped.

     “Danny, what’s wrong?”

     “You just reminded me of something!” Danny exclaimed.  “Just before I fell asleep, there were two shadows coming toward me.  They must’ve been S.T. and his ghost friend.  They probably took us down here and tied us up so we could watch their evil plan unfold right in front of our faces!  The question is,” he continued, “what are those two planning to do?”

     Tommy looked to the ghost portal on his left.  “Well,” he said, studying it carefully, “there’s the portal, which is connected by that tubey thing that goes into the machine, and there’s two other tubey things.  One goes into that wall on the left, and the other is just laying theres.”

     “Hmmm.” Danny paused for a moment.  “That machine is going to open the portal, so that means the pipe on the left generates the machine which means the power source must be in that room.  Then the other pipe….” Danny gasped again.  “Tommy, they’re gonna let all the ghosts out!”

     Tommy gaped at Danny, his eyes wide with fear.  “They-They can’t do that!  What’s gonna happen to our homes, and our famblies, and our friends, and Reptar?  Think of all the ascared peoples there are gonna be!”

     “I know.” Danny sighed.  “But we’re not gonna let that happen.  You wake up the others, I’ll get Steve to-,” Danny cut off, his eyes darting around the room.  “Uh, Tommy?”

     “Yeah, Danny?” Tommy asked, trying to shake Sam awake.

     “Where’s Steve?”

     “Huh?” Sam mumbled, rubbing her eyes and blinking.  “Danny?  Tommy?  W-What happened?”

     “We’ll explain as soon as you wake up the others.” Danny answered.  “We need to get out of here as soon as possible!”

     “What?  Why?”

     “Just wake up Lil, and tell her to wake up Phil, and he’ll wake up Chuckie.  We’re kind of tied up at the moment.”

     Sam nodded and started shaking Lil.

L                               L                                L                            L

     “Come on you guys!” Danny cried, dashing down the hall.  “It can’t be too far now!”  After Danny had explained the whole theory to his friends, he eventually found a big, rusty old nail nearby that could free them from those glowing green ropes.

     Danny had searched for his blue gym bag before they had left, but he couldn’t find it.  And honestly, Danny really didn’t care.  That bag had caused him many misfortunes all through preschool and kindergarten.  He was actually glad that it was gone.  The only thing Danny was worried about was what the ghosts were planning to do with the bag and all of the useful weapons that were in it.  But he would worry about that later.  Right now, he and the babies had to get to the main power source.  All they had to do was follow the giant pipe down the halls and they would get to the room soon enough.  All they had to do was keep running.

     In just minutes, Danny and the babies turned into a doorway with the huge pipe connecting to a small glass dome.  Steve was looking at them with his wide eyes, flapping his wings wildly while jumping up and down, and hooting loudly as if crying for help.

     “Be quiet, Steve!” Tommy whispered, sternly.  “We can’t let the ghostys find us heres!”

     “How are we gonna gets him out of theres?” Phil asked.

     Danny shook his head.  “I don’t know Phil.  We’ll think of something.”  He started pulling on the glass with all of his might. 

Suddenly, a robotic voice came out of the bottom part of the dome.

    “KEY CODE PLEASE.”

     “Key code?” Sam asked.  “What’s a key code?”

     Danny looked at her and shrugged.

     “KEY CODE PLEASE.” the robotic voice repeated.

     Danny glanced down at the bottom of the dome, and sure enough there was a small keyboard in front of him.  He sighed deeply.  Did villains always have to make things so complicated?

     “Okay.” Danny mumbled, aloud.  “So, we have to enter a password in order to set Steve free.”  He turned to his friends.  “Got any ideas?”

     They were all silent for a moment.

     “Um, a ghost?” Chuckie finally responded.

     “A machine?” Sam asked.

     “A portal?” Lil suggested.

     “One of those tubey thingys?” Tommy said, hopefully.

     Danny shook his head and sighed again.  “No.  None of those would work.”

     They all thought for a few more minutes.

     “I gots it!” Phil suddenly exclaimed.  “The password is Reptar, the biggest, bestest dimnosaur in the universe, that smashes cars, eats buildings and-,”

     Phil cut off, noticing his friends were looking at him strangely.

     “What?” he asked.  “I’m only trying to help.  After all, it was a good idea!”

     “Yeah,” Lil whispered, so only Sam could hear, “now all we need to do is to learn how to spell all of that!”

     They both snickered.

     “Come on, you guys!” Danny cried.  “We don’t have much time!  We’ve got to focus!  Now, if I was a villain, what would I put as a password to lock a dome with a power source in it?  It would be something that I would expect the least.  Something really mysterious.”

    Danny thought for at least two more seconds, and grinned.  He leaned toward the keyboard and read aloud the letters as he typed:

“O- W- L”

     Danny pressed the enter key on the keyboard, and a few seconds later, the dome lifted up over Steve’s head.

     Steve flew onto Danny’s shoulder.  “Hoo!  Hoo!” He was glad to be with his friends again.

     “You’re welcome, Steve!” Tommy answered happily.

     “Now come on!” Danny cried, quickly walking toward the door.  “Let’s get out of here and destroy that machine once and for-,” he gasped.

     The babies shrieked loudly.  A lot of scary things had happened to the six of them before, but nothing quite like this.  Standing right in front of them were two ghosts, grinning evilly.

     The ghost on the left leaned toward Danny and whispered loud enough so the rest of them could hear.  “Very clever, Daniel!  Now give me my pet!”

Rugphan

Chapter 13: Across the Lake

     “What?!” Danny exclaimed.

     “It’s true, Danny!” Lil cried.  “Sam was the one who figurered it out!”

     “Actually,” Sam stated, “Chuckie was the one who came up with a good solution.”

     ‘Chuck?!’ Danny thought, glancing at Tommy’s best friend.  ‘He’s just full of surprises today!’  “How did you come up with an answer like that?”

     “I didn’t really.” Chuckie said quietly, his cheeks turning red.  “I just told Sam to look up Mr. S.T. Sohg’s name in the phone books cause that’s what my Daddy does when he wants to find peoples names.”

     “We quickly thought about this,” Sam continued, “and decided go check the phone book by the payphone near our parents’ cabins. And get this, S.T. Sohg’s name wasn’t even under the S list!  We tried other sources too.” she stated.  “He wasn’t in the old newspapers that were out for recycling or in Jazz’s famous people books.  He isn’t even in any of the magazines with Vlad!”

     “So we gots to thinking,” Tommy added, “what if S.T. Sohg isn’t real?  What if he was something else other than a human bleeding?”

     “Then we all gatherered in our cabin,” Phil explained further, “and put all of the puzzle pieces together.”

     “And we camed up with this.” Lil finished.  She reached onto her diaper, pulled out a small, folded, rectangular piece of paper, and toddled over to Danny.  He took it with both nervous and eager anticipation.

     Danny slowly opened the piece of paper.  He really didn’t want this to be true.  I mean, S.T. Sohg?  The kind and friendly man that gave Danny and his friends a chance to fix their summer?  He was holding Vlad hostage?  It couldn’t be true.

     On the small piece of paper, in Sam’s neat handwriting, stood one word:

GHOSTS

     The big letters staring back at Danny confused him.  “It’s the word ghosts.” he said dumbly.  “How is this helpful?”

     “Hold it up to the windlow.” Tommy answered.

     ‘The window?’ Danny thought.  ‘How is that gonna help me?’  But he did what he was told, and slowly walked toward the busted up cabin.  Danny held the piece of paper up to the window.  What he saw shocked him.  The word that stood in front of him now was:

STSOHG

    “See, Danny?” Sam asked nervously.  “S.T. Sohg isn’t real.  He’s a ghost.  He’s been taking advantage of Vlad and us this whole time, and we didn’t even know about it until just now!”

    But Danny barely heard her.  Sam and the babies were right, S.T., or whoever he was, was taking Vlad captive.  S.T. was no friend.  He had never wanted to help Danny or Vlad.  All S.T. wanted was to get some help from the best, well known ghost hunters in the world and their kids.  Danny felt like he was going to throw up, but he held back. 

     “Wait a minute!”

     Danny’s friends lifted their heads up to look at him.

     “What is it, Danny?” Chuckie asked.

     “I just thought of something!” he answered.  “If there are ghosts here, there has to be ghost portal near the camp!”

     After a few seconds of silence, Tommy exclaimed, “You’re probably right Danny!  That’s why the ghostys keeps coming here!”

     “Okay,” Sam stated, “so we know now that the ghosts are coming from a portal.  The question is, where is it?”

     “Well,” Danny explained, “my Dad says anything ghosts require usually comes from a huge power source.  But there’s nothing electric around here, so I’m not sure where we should look first.”

     The babies were silent for a moment.

     “You know,” Chuckie said after awhile, “I think someone would want to build a portal where no one would eggspect to look or somewhere that they wouldn’t wanna go to.  And that lake looks pretty yucky so-,”

    “Wait a minute!” Danny cried once again, “So you’re saying you wanna go across the lake and see if we find anything suspicious?  Are you really Chuckie Finster?”

     “Hey,” Chuckie said, shrugging, “it’s not that I wanna go to where all of the ghostys might be comin’ from.  You told me the firstest day we met that life’s all about taking risks.  And I’d better start taking them, one step at a time!”

J                                 J                                J                                  J

     Danny was surprised that Chuckie was going to take a huge risk like this.  Normally he would’ve panicked and said something like “I’m not sure if this is a good idea you guys!” or  “No way!  I’m not gonna do this!”.  Then once the babies started off for their new adventure, Chuckie would hesitate and then run after them calling, “You guys, wait for me!”  But this time, he was actually ready to go some place without worrying what was going to happen.  And Danny thought that this was the wrong time for Chuckie to think so.

     “Chuck,” Danny hesitated, “you’re taking a huge risk here.  All of you guys in fact.  I’m not sure if this is the best idea.”  He turned around and entered the boys’ cabin.  The babies followed.

     “Danny,” Tommy asked his playmate as he slipped his feet into an orange jumpsuit, “what are you doing?”

     Danny zipped the jumpsuit up comfortably around his neck.  “I’m going across the lake to save Vlad.”

     “HOO!?” Steve cried.

     “By yourself?” Sam asked, with a scared look on her face.  “Danny, you can’t!”

     “I don’t want to do this as much as you don’t want me to, Sam.  But Vlad was like a brother to my Dad and Mom.  And he still is!  Don’t you guys get it?  If Vlad never comes back, my whole family will be devastated!”

     “We gets it all right, Danny.” Phil answered.

     “We just don’t wants you to goes and risk your lives!” Lil said finishing Phil’s statement for him.

     “Please let us goes with you, Danny!” Chuckie pleaded.  “We promless we won’t be in your way.”

     Danny put his hand lightly on Chuckie’s shoulder.  “I know you guys wouldn’t be, Chuck.  But this is something I have to do on my own.”

     Danny quickly walked over to the small refrigerator near his bed, opened it, and grabbed three juice boxes that were still kind of cold.  He put them in his blue gym bag with all of his ghost equipment and zipped it up.  Danny was about exit the cabin, until Tommy stopped him.  “Danny, wait!  Peas don’t goes!”

     Danny froze, but didn’t turn around.  He couldn’t bear looking at his playmate for possibly the last time ever.  Danny especially didn’t want Tommy-or his other friends for that matter- to see him start crying.  Tears were already brimming in Danny’s eyes.  But he held them back.

    “You’ve always told us to stand up for what we believes in.” Tommy started.  “You tolded us that whenever bad things happen, we’ll makes it through together.  All of us babies believes that.  And we always will.”

     Danny slowly turned around to glance at his friend.

     “You’ve taughted us a lot of stuffs, Danny.” Tommy continued.  “And we can’t go on learning new stuffs without you.  I may not knows much, but I know leaders and fighters-,” he paused for a moment to find the right words and then explained, “Leaders and fighters always stand by their friends’ side.  At least,” Tommy added, “that’s what I believes.”

     Danny looked into his playmate’s eyes.  He could tell by Tommy’s expression that he really didn’t want Danny to go across that creepy, murky, lake by himself.

     ‘That’s probably Tommy’s worst fear.’ Danny thought.  ‘Losing someone he cares about.’

     Danny suddenly thought back to two weeks ago.  Dash almost beating up Danny and his friends on the last day of school, Tucker spending his summer in California, Speedy dying, Angelica trying to anger Sam, Tommy up in the luggage holder on the airplane…Then it hit him.  Danny really didn’t want a perfect first summer; he had only wanted to make sure his friends didn’t get hurt with all of the excitement.

     ‘Wow.’ Danny thought.  ‘I guess I’ve spent so much time with my parents in the past five years I’ve become a little overprotective.’  He glanced at his friends.  They all looked like they wanted to join in this adventure together, like they always did.  Danny sighed.  He wasn’t sure what to do….

L                               L                                L                               L

     Once he reached the other side of the lake (which wasn’t a very pleasant boat ride for him by the way), Danny quickly hid behind a bush nearby, for Chuckie was right.  There was something suspicious here, and that was the building standing right in front of him.

      It was a very tall, dark brick building.  There were barbed wires covering the many square windows and a huge gate surrounded the giant building.  Plus, there were two huge guards in big metal suits standing in front of the entryway with spears.  Their guard dogs stood boldly in front of them, ready to attack anyone who got in their masters’ way. 

     “How did we not notice that before?” Sam asked.

     Danny shrugged.  “I guess none of us ever bothered to look across the lake.”

     “I can see why.” Lil said holding her nose.  “It’s stinks over here!”

     “Sorry.” said Phil.

     “You guys,” Danny whispered sternly, “be quiet!  We can’t just let the guards see us.  We have to get inside that building!”

     “G-Goes inside?”  Chuckie whispered, fearfully.  “Are you crazy?  We can’t goes in there!”

     “We have to Chuck.  It’s the only way this camp will ever be safe again.”

     “Hoo?” Steve asked.

     “Yes, Steve.” Tommy said, looking at the owl on his left shoulder.  “He’s sure.  But, Danny’s right.  We can’t just walk through those doors.  I gots a plan!”  He paused. “Danny,” Tommy asked, “do you gots any more of those jumpy suits?”

J                                   J                                    J                              J

      Tommy’s plan was a brilliant one.  The only problem was that Danny wasn’t sure how they were going to convince the guards that they were grown-ups. After all, they were only two and a half feet tall.  Or at least Danny was anyway.

        He sighed, pulled the hood of the jump suit over his head, and secured the red goggles over his eyes.  Danny had used these goggles before when he had first met Tommy.  When you put them on and pushed the little red button on the left side, the goggles, along with the person who was wearing them, turned completely invisible.  If you pushed both buttons, you could see things before the event that occurred happened.  Danny had brought it on the trip with him because he would never know if he might need them.

     Danny turned to his friends.  They were all wearing orange jump suits and goggles just like his.  “Are you sure you guys want to do this?”  Danny still didn’t think this was a good idea.

     “Are you kidding, Danny?” Sam asked.  “We’re here, we’re wearing jump suits, and we have a plan to get inside the building already.  We’re not backing out now!”  The babies nodded in unison.

     Danny gripped onto his sky blue gym bag that he carried ghost equipment in, and sighed again.  “All right then.” he said nervously.  “Let’s do this.”

     Danny lifted the bag over his left shoulder, with Steve on his right, and headed toward the building.  His friends followed.

     Right on que, the guards spotted them.  “HAULT!  WHO GOES THERE?”  The guards dogs started growling.

     “You called for an exterminator?” Danny asked uncertainly.

     “What?” one of the guards asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

     “I asked if you called for an exterminator.”

     “No.”

     “I beg your pardon?”

     This time the other guard spoke.  “My brother said no, we did not call for an exterminator.  Move along now.”

     ‘Brother?’ Danny thought trying hard not to laugh.  “I’m sorry sir, but my address paper says you called for an exterminator.  It says right here:  Lake Eerie, across the lake, brick building, cockroaches and rats everywhere.”

     “What?!” the first guard exclaimed.  “Let me see that!”

     Danny handed the paper to the guard, and he read it thoroughly.  Once he finished, the guard started questioning Danny.  “So, you’re exterminators, eh?  Are you sure you guys are qualified for this job?”

     “Of course I am!  Here’s my card!”  Danny pulled a small square piece of paper out of his right pocket and handed it to the second guard who read:

“Jimmy Johnson and Jenny Johnson

“We eliminate!  We exterminate!”

1-800-222-4444”

     The guard looked up from the card and glanced at Danny’s right shoulder.  “What’s the owl for?” he asked suspiciously.

     “Oh, you mean James here?  We take him anywhere where there’s rats.  He just can’t get enough of them!”

     “Hoo!” Steve replied, happily.

     “And where’s Jenny Johnson?” the first guard questioned.

     “She’s right here!” Danny answered, pointing to Sam.

     “It’s a pleasure doing business with you sir!” she exclaimed, holding a hand out to him.

     “Look,” the first guard suddenly cried, “I’ve had enough of this!  We didn’t call one, two, or-,” he paused and counted them, “six exterminators!”

     “Plus,” the second guard added, “our boss is in there, and he would tell us if an exterminator was coming before hand!  And how come you’re so short, and your little friends don’t talk?”

     Not knowing what else to do, Danny cried, “Sir, I am offended!”

     “Excuse me?”

     “Excuse you!” Danny was yelling now.  “I have been doing this job for over twenty years!  These people are young trainees and they’re very shy!  Plus, Jenny and I are really forty years old, we just look five!”

     “I’m sorry sir!  I-,”

     “Just open those doors and let us do our job.” Danny said, madly.  “You’re lucky we don’t sue you!”

     “I’m sorry sir!  Go right on in!”  The guards stepped aside and the six of them entered the building.

     Once they were safely inside and out of the guards hearing range the babies pulled down their hoods.

     Danny chuckled softly.  “Dummies.” he mumbled happily.

     “C’mon Danny!” Tommy cried, shaking his arm.  “We gots to get outta here!  The ghostys might comes here soon!”

     Danny nodded, looking down one of the dark, damp halls.  If S.T. and his ghostly minions caught them before they even took one step forward, Dash’s message would only be clearer and more to the point.

     And Danny wanted to prove him wrong.  “You’re right Tommy.” he answered.  “We’d better get going.  Now, stay close behind me and whatever you do,” Danny continued, “don’t touch anything!”

     They silently marched straight down the hall.

J                                   J                                     J                                    J

     Meanwhile, the guards outside were talking into their walkie-talkies.  “Yes, boss.” the first guard was saying.  “They said they were exterminators.  They wore the uniforms, they had the phone number, the papers, everything.”

     “And,” the second guard added, “those guys also had the owl.  We had to let them pass.”

     “Hmmm.” said a deep voice coming out of the second guard’s walkie-talkie.  “Did you see what those ‘exterminators’ happen to look like?”

     “Well,” the first guard thought for a moment, “they were all pretty short, the two who own the business seemed older than the others, and, uh…Oh yeah!  The trainees didn’t talk at all.”

     “Is there anymore information you can give me?” the man asked.

     “Yes, boss.” the second guard replied, proudly.  “The business man said he and his twin sister have been doing this job for a little over twenty years, but they just look like they’re five.”

     “Wait, what did you just say?”

     “I said-,” but the second guard didn’t even get a chance to answer the question.

     “YOU IDIOTS!” the deep voice yelled.  “THOSE WEREN’T EXTERMINATORS!  THAT WAS JACK AND MADDIE FENTON’S SON AND HIS PLAYMATES!  YOU LET THEM INTO THE BUILDING?!  DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE KIDS WILL DO IF THEY FIND OUT WHAT WE’RE DOING IN HERE?!”

     “We’re s-sorry boss.” the first guard said, shaken.  “W-We- We didn’t mean-,”

     “YOU BONEHEADS APOLOGIZE ALL YOU WANT!  NOW I HAVE TO GO AND FIND THEM MYSELF!”

     “What do you want us to do, boss?” the second guard asked.

     The man sighed.  “You two will stay in your spot in case other little children want to come and inspect the building!”

     “Will do, boss!”

     The two guards went back to their job, like what had just occurred never happened.

Rugphan