I Found A Knife
A Story site from EldonHughes
Willie & Frank--
Shakespeare?
In Nano-Time
Chapter 18 --
Reunion & Farewell
It was easy
enough to find the keyboard they'd asked for, and to load the conversion
program on to a laptop.
Now we were on the third floor of the Olin Library, wandering the
stacks, trying to pay attention, without attracting any.
“It’s
been three months,” I said.
I felt a bit silly. “I’m nervous,” I admitted.
“Me
too,” Jennifer said.
“Three months. Where
have they been?”
“Heck,
this is The Shakespeare Collection,” I said.
“Willie
always did have a sense of humor,” she agreed. “How do
you know the email came from Willie?”
“Some of
the words in the list were slang.
Frank doesn’t like slang.”
“How is
this supposed to work, anyway?” Jennifer asked.
“It’s
pretty clever. The
program will take input from both keyboards, regular letters from
the laptop keyboard and the word conversions from the flexible one.
It’s basically the same as the word pad, just less words.
They picked out the words, so they must have something
specific to say.”
Suddenly
there was a thud. A
book had fallen from a shelf in front of us.
There, on the shelf where the book had been, was Willie.
“Willie!” I said. “Where’s Frank?”
I looked around the shelves.
No Frank.
“Where is he?”
“Jake,”
Jennifer said. “He
might have a better time telling us if you set the laptop down.
I put
the laptop on the floor and powered it up.
I placed the keyboard on the floor so that its length ran
against the bottom bookshelf.
As soon as the program came up I typed;
WILLIE!
WE’RE SO GLAD TO SEE YOU.
HOW ARE YOU?
WHERE’S FRANK?
He moved
up and down the keyboard.
It wasn’t as easy to use as the word pad had been.
It took some time for him to answer.
GLAD TO
SEE YOU TOO. BOTH OF YOU.
I AM FINE. HOW
ARE YOU?
WE’RE
GOOD, WILLIE. WE’VE
MISSED YOU VERY MUCH.
MISSED
YOU TOO. I THOUGHT YOU
MIGHT HAVE SOME QUESTIONS.
WELL
SURE, I typed.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LAB?
DID YOU OPEN THE CAGES AND DOORS?
HOW DID YOU GET OUT OF THE LAB?
WHERE’S FRANK?
Willie
read it all and shook his head.
Ok, maybe too many questions at once.
He
started moving across the keyboard.
WE
OPENED EVERY THING. WE
WERE PLANNING TO ESCAPE.
BUT NOT SO SOON.
WEASEL CAME AND WE HAD TO GO EARLY.
IT DID NOT WORK VERY WELL.
NOT ALL GOT OUT.
NOT ALL WERE SAVED.
Not all were --- Frank!
WHERE’S
FRANK? THE OFFICER SAID HE SAW TWO MICE IN THE BASEMENT.
WASN’T THAT YOU AND FRANK?
WHERE’S FRANK?
IS HE OK?
IT WAS
FRANK AND I IN THE HOUSE.
WE OPENED THE CAGE AND RAN AWAY.
WE DID NOT PLAN TO.
THE MAN SCARED US.
FRANK IS…
He
stopped and walked back and forth along the bookshelf.
I couldn’t tell if he’d forgotten how the words were mapped,
or was just thinking.
He walked back to the keyboard.
FRANK IS
NOT AS HE WAS. HE CAN'T DO AS
MUCH AS HE USED TO.
Jennifer
reached forward and typed.
YOU MEAN HE CAN’T WRITE ANYMORE?
IT DOES NOT MATTER. HE DOES NOT HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT TO WRITE.
“Aw
crap,” I said, and typed.
IS HE IN PAIN?
NO, NOT
VERY OFTEN.
HOW
ABOUT YOU? ,
Jennifer typed. HOW ARE
YOU?
I AM
FOLLOWING ALONG. MUCH LIKE HIM. FRANK DEVELOPED
FASTER THAN I. IT IS
RIGHT. OUR ENERGY COMES
AND GOES. HE HAS LOST
INTEREST IN FOOTBALL AS
TIME GOES ON.
YOU
SHOULD COME BACK TO THE LAB WITH US, I typed.
WE CAN HELP.
Like I have ANY idea how we’d do that.
NO.
WHAT WILL BE IS WHAT SHOULD BE.
WE WOULD RATHER THAT THAN THE CAGE.
I WILL CARE FOR FRANK UNTIL HE NO LONGER NEEDS ME.
AND THEN FOLLOW AFTER.
Jennifer
leaned over the keyboard. THEN
COME HOME WITH US. WE
WILL CARE FOR YOU THERE.
THANK
YOU. NO.
YOU SHOULD CARE FOR EACH OTHER. THAT IS WHY I WANTED TO SEE
YOU. YOU SHOULD STOP
LOOKING FOR US. STOP WORRYING FOR US.
IT IS TIME YOU LOOKED FOR EACH OTHER.
Huh??
LOOKED
FOR EACH OTHER?
Willie
shook his head. NOT THE RIGHT WORD.
AFTER. LOOK AFTER EACH
OTHER. YOU HAVE MORE
REASON TO BE TOGETHER THAN SOME OLD MICE.
He
stopped. I could see he
was getting tired.
After a minute he went back to the keyboard.
LET US
TRY THIS. JAKE.
DO YOU LOVE JENNIFER?
I looked
at Jennifer, and never took my eyes off of her as I answered.
YOU BET
I DO.
He
chirped and typed.
JENNIFER. DO YOU LOVE
JAKE?
She
smiled and typed. YOU
BET I DO.
Willie
chirped again and typed.
GREAT. GO AND MAKE A HOME.
REMEMBER US BY PUTTING CHEESE PIZZA AND DRINK OUT EVERY HOLIDAY FOR OTHER
MICE. OK?
I looked
at Jennifer. “Um..
Okay.”
She
nodded and said, “Okay.”
And then she kissed me.
“I’d
better tell him, too,” I said.
“I think
he got the idea,” she said.
There were tears on her face.
Willie
was gone. The only
words left on the screen were:
FARE
WELL.
We went
home. It was tough driving and wiping tears out of my eyes.
~~~~~~~~
A
light snow was
blowing outside the library.
Winter winds have a way of making everyone huddle together
against the chill, even mice.
“So,
How’d they take it?”
“Very well, I think.
They’re nice kids. They
deserved this.”
“Yeah,
closure is good.”
“Yeah.”
“So,
how’s your kids, Willie?”
“Good,
starting Chemistry 101 next week. Yours?”
“Romance
languages.”
“You
want to catch the show at the Fox?
I heard Cats was
back in town.”
“Sure. I
got time. Story’s lame,
but the music’s good.”
“Hey
Willie, you remembered about the pizza, right?”
“Damn
straight.”
Available Tales
--"Willie & Frank"
~~~~
I Found a Knife
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