"Guys!" Ohlm shook Otis and Olympia. "GUYS! Wake up!"
"Whuh... Whut... What?" Olympia blinked and yawned. "Ohlm?" She bolted upright. "OMIGOSH, I FELL ASLEEP!" She looked around frantically. "Did I miss her? Is it over? Am I fired? What..."
Otis snorted awake. "Uhm... Uh. Sorry. Must've dozed off for a second."
The two partners shifted position on the park bench where they'd fallen asleep.
"The villain you're supposed to meet isn't here yet!" Ohlm explained. "But she's due any second! Ms. O sent me to check on you! And you were both SLEEPING?"
Removing her glasses, Olympia rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry. Just haven't been getting enough rest, I guess." She slid her glasses back on and shook her head to clear out the cobwebs in her thoughts. "I've been having the weirdest dreams..."
Otis' head snapped around to look at her. "WHAT?" He coughed. "What... kind of dreams?"
"Nightmares?" Ohlm shuddered.
"Not exactly," She dabbed at a bit of drool on her shoulder. She wasn't sure if it was her own or her partner's. "Just... strange dreams. All last night, I kept dreaming about toast."
Ohlm wrinkled his nose. "Toast?"
Otis shrugged. "I often dream about toast."
Olympia stared at him. "You dream about toast?"
"I like toast. It's like bread, only crunchier."
Doctor O sprung up from behind the bench. "Did you say you've been having odd dreams?"
Otis and Olympia started. Ohlm yelped and jumped back about a foot.
"How do you DO that?"
"I'm a doctor. I go where I'm needed." Doctor O turned to Otis and Olympia. "Now, what's this about Olympia having odd dreams?"
"Uh, yes," Otis responded. "We both have, actually."
"Otis!" Olympia exclaimed. "You've been having weird dreams too? What about?"
Otis' face reddened. "I... don't want to talk about it."
"But how can we..."
"I said I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay, okay..." Olympia held up her hands.
"Hhm." Doctor O leaned down and looked closely at each of them. "Can you tell me who Edna May Oliver is?"
"Sure," Olympia responded. "She played Betsy Trotwood in MGM's 1935 film version of David Copperfield." She covered her mouth in shock. "How... How did I know that?"
"It's one of the symptoms," Doctor O replied briskly. "You and your partner are clearly suffering from Dream Transferitis. It's an odd illness that often appears in office environments and other places where people work closely together."
Otis nodded. "So I'm having her dreams and she's having mine?"
"Not exactly. It's never a straight trade. She may be having your dreams but you're not having hers."
Otis raised an eyebrow. "Then... Whose dreams am I having?"
Olympia looked over. "And who's having my dreams?"
"Probably someone back at headquarters," Doctor O took out a notepad. "We'll have to go back and find out who else is having the wrong dreams."
Grimacing, Otis got up from the bench. "Why is it never simple?"
"Hold on, hold on!" Olympia interrupted. "How do we get his dream out of my head and back into his?"
"You just touch foreheads," Doctor O told them.
Otis and Olympia looked at one another. Awkwardly, they bent forward, each one shifting around until their foreheads met. There was a bright "DING!' sound.
"We had a similar outbreak last year," Doctor O went on. "I had Oscar's dreams for a week." She shuddered. "I'll never be able to watch 'The Gamesters of Triskelion' again."
Olympia's eyes went wide. "You had this LAST YEAR?"
Doctor O nodded.
"Were Olive and Otto in it?"
Doctor O nodded. "And Ms. O as well. Fortunately, that means we're all immune now."
Olympia looked around. "WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THIS?"
"We couldn't figure out a way to work math into it. This year, however," Doctor O reached into her pocket and produced a gadget. "I've developed this handy chart to organize the data."
She fired the gadget, projecting an image of a small chart. One column listed, OTIS, OLYMPIA, OWEN, OCEAN. Another next to it listed, OTIS.
"The first column is all the agents who have reported dream problems. The second includes all the agents whose dreams have been located." She clicked another button, changing it so Otis' name was next to Olympia's. "That means Olympia had Otis' dreams. The other agents' dreams haven't been found yet, nor do we know whose dreams they're having instead."
Olympia studied the list. "Owen and Ocean also have Dream Transferitis! Maybe Otis has one of their dreams."
Otis shook his head. "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... don't think so..."
"Well, we'll never know until we check!" She grabbed Otis' arm, then dropped it. "Oh, wait! We need to meet that villain first!"
"It's okay, guys!" Ohlm waved them away. "I got this."
Olympia winced. "Why am I not reassured?" She followed Otis and Doctor O to the jump-tubes. "We'll be back as soon as we can!"
Ohlm nodded and watched them leave. He then took their place on the bench and pulled an apple out of his pocket to snack on.
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He was about nine bites in when there was an explosion of multi-colored fog in front of him. Maniacal laughter echoed through the park.
"YAHHAHAHAHEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A purple-haired woman in a bizarre, shimmering costume stepped through the fog, adjusting her gimmicked gloves.
"YES, Odd Squad! It is I! The purloining princess of preserves, the criminal queen of condiments, the malevolent mistress of marmalade, the sinister siren of breakfast spreads, JAMIE JAM!"
"Yeah, hi." Ohlm took another bite of the apple, then started fishing around his pockets for his notepad and pen. "Where'd you get the smoke bombs?"
"Todd's garage sale." Jamie Jam adjusted her cape. "I also got the fishphone and a copy of How To Work With Difficult People. Anyway, down to business..." She struck a pose. "THAT'S RIGHT, Odd Squad! I, Jamie Jam, have a nefarious plan that's... jam-packed..." She paused to emphasize her play on words. "With odd evil! I am plotting to jam up a local site and I DEFY you, Odd Squad, to stop me!"
"Uh-huh," Ohlm scribbled on his notepad. "Could you slow down a little, please? And how do you spell 'nefarious'?"
"Never mind!" She snapped. "As is my wont, my trademark, my modus operandi, my... gimmick, if you will... I shall provide you with a clue to my proposed target! And I CHALLENGE you, Odd Squad, to decipher it!"
"Uhm-hmm..." Ohlm nodded, still writing. He looked up. "Are you sure jam's a condiment?"
"It DOESN'T MATTER!" She composed herself, then resumed her rant. "My clue is cleverly concealed in this knock-knock joke!" She sneered. "Knock knock!"
There was a very long pause.
"KNOCK KNOCK," she repeated.
Another long pause. Then, finally Ohlm looked up again from his notepad. "So, is this another 'knock knock' or are you repeating the first one?"
Jamie Jam growled. "It's a knock knock joke! Don't you know what a knock knock joke is?"
Ohlm looked around. "Sure I know what a knock knock joke is!"
"GREAT!" Jamie shouted. "KNOCK KNOCK!"
Ohlm considered a moment. "So far, it's not that funny..."
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