Chapter 10, Team Butler and Christianson
"Come on you two, let's head inside." Said Bob to Chris and Patti, as they stood outside the door of his house.
"Ok, we're right behind you." Said Chris, as he and his little sister Patti, followed Bob into his house.
Upon arriving inside the house, they heard some music from downstairs in the basement.
"What's that?" Patti asked.
"Hmmm, my parents must be downstairs working." Replied Bob.
"Let's go check it out!" Said Chris excitedly.
"Nah, I don't like to bother my mom when she's getting ready for a big show. She's performing at the county concert hall tonight." Said Bob.
"Awe come on, can't we at least meet her?" Patti asked.
"Oh, ok, come on then." Said Bob reluctantly, as he headed down the basement stairs, with Chris and Patti, following behind him.
On their way down the stairs, they found two yellow puzzle pieces.
"Look sis, puzzle pieces!" Exclaimed Chris.
"And here's another one!" Exclaimed Patti, as they picked up their puzzle pieces, and met Bob at the bottom of the stairs.
"Wow! I see you two already found your puzzle pieces!" Said Bob.
"Yeah, we found them on the stairs on our way down here." Replied Chris.
Bob then beckoned Chris and Patti to follow him into another room, which had a brown upright piano in the corner, and in front of the piano, was Susie, practicing her scales and warming up for that night's concert.
"Mom!" All three of them cried upon entering the room.
Susie stopped her warm up exercises, to look up, to find her son, and two other kids she did not recognize.
"Mom, I'd like for you to meet Chris and Patti Butler, they're apparently, your kids from another universe, that's twelve years ahead of our time." Said Bob.
"Wow! It's nice to meet you!" Said Susie, shaking Chris and Patti's hands.
"Are you a chorus director?" Patti asked.
"No, but I am a famous singer, and tonight, I'm going to be performing several songs from my latest CD at the county concert hall." Susie replied.
"Wow neat!" Exclaimed Patti.
"Our mom, is also named Susie, and she too is a singer, but she uses her talents to teach others to sing." Explained Chris.
"Yeah, she teaches chorus at Pleasant Valley High School." Said Patti.
"Pleasant Valley High School?" Susie asked in confusion.
"That's apparently a school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where Chris and Patti came from, am I right?" Asked Bob.
Chris and Patti nodded.
"Oh, cool!" Said Susie.
Just then, Stephen walked into the room, carrying some sheet music.
"I found your sheet music dear." Said Stephen, as he set it down on the music stand of the piano.
"Thank you!" Said Susie.
"Hi dad." Said Bob.
"Hi son." Said Stephen.
"Who are you?" Chris asked.
"Hi, I'm Stephen Christianson, Bob's dad. And who are you?" Stephen asked.
Susie went on to explain that these were her children from an alternate universe, that existed, twelve years in the future.
"Wow! So am I your dad in that universe as well?" Stephen asked.
"Nope, our dad is a guy named Sean Butler, he's known our mom since some Valentine's Day dance in middle school, when Cupid kept hitting everybody with his hacky shack." Explained Chris.
"But mommy tells us they didn't start dating until they discovered they attended the same college." Added Patti.
"And while our mom is the chorus director at Pleasant Valley High, our dad is the band director there." Said Chris.
"Oh wow, how neat! Well, I'm no band director, but I do assist Susie with her singing. I'll accompany her on the piano, help produce the sheet music, stuff like that." Stephen explained.
"Oh wow! Neat!" Exclaimed Chris and Patti in unison.
"So, grandma Lucy and grandpa Randy are upstairs preparing dinner, if you care to introduce your friends to them." Said Stephen.
"Grandpa Randy and grandma Lucy? Hey! Those are our grandparents on our mom's side too!" Said Chris.
"They are?" Bob asked.
"Uh huh? Our grandmother use to be a doctor, and our grandfather use to write stories for The Dummi Bears, until the year 2040, the year I was born. That's when they retired, and moved from Yucaipa, California to Sunnyville, Florida to retire, and have lived there ever since." Explained Chris.
"Ah, cool! Well, my grandparents have retired too, but they still live in the house they've been in ever since my mom was three-years-old. Still sleep in their bedroom too, while mom sleeps in her room with dad, and I, have my uncle Edwin's old room, as my uncle Edwin, uncle Buster, and aunt Elisa, all moved out years ago." Explained Bob.
"We've met our uncle Buster, uncle Edwin, and aunt Elisa, but with them being scattered across the country, we don't see them very often." Said Chris.
"Come on guys, let's go see grandma and grandpa!" Said Patti, as she ran back towards the basement stairs, and headed upstairs to the kitchen.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" Patti cried, upon entering the kitchen, where she found Lucy and Randy, chopping up some vegetables.
Lucy and Randy looked up from what they were doing, shocked to see a small little girl, call them her grandparents.
Bob and Chris rushed upstairs, to discover this, and Bob explained what was going on, and how they were on the search to find some puzzle pieces, so they could send Chris and Patti back to their universe.
"Wow! A fascinating story! It's too bad I retired from making the Dummi Bears years ago, as that would make for a very interesting episode of the show!" Said Randy.
"Well, you could always write Dummi Bears fan fiction." Said Patti.
"Heheha, why would I want to write fan fiction for them, when I wrote for the Dummi Bears originally." Said Randy.
"Good point grandpa." Said Bob with a smile.
"So, would you be interested in staying for dinner? I'm preparing a vegetable beef stew tonight that's out of this world!" Said Lucy.
"Thank you, but no thanks, we'd kind of like to find our puzzle pieces, and get back home." Said Chris.
"Ok then, you three be careful, and good luck getting home Chris and Patti." Said Lucy, as she turned back to her chopping.
"Don't worry grandma, we will." Said Bob.
As the three of them walked out of the kitchen into the living room, Bob spotted a puzzle piece on the top of the television.
"Hey! The third puzzle piece!" Said Bob, as he ran to the TV and snatched it up, putting it into his pocket for safe keeping.
Then, behind where he picked up the puzzle piece off of the TV, Bob found a double deck of Uno cards, and stuck them into another one of his pants pockets.
"Are we ready to go to the park now?" Patti asked.
"Yes, we are, come on, let's go." Said Bob, as he headed for the front door, Chris and Patti, following behind him.
"So, do your parents always work downstairs in your basement?" Chris asked.
"Yes, that's where my mom practices for concerts, and where my parents, write and record their music." Explained Bob, as the three of them, headed to the park.
After they arrived at the park, they ran into Rosemary, George, Abbigale, Darin Barrow, Kelly, Keith, Danielle, Megan, Benjamin, Melenda, Charles, Rachel, Adam, Emily, Darin Pickles, Keenan, Abbie, Casey, and Cassi, and Bob asked if everyone would like to sit down at a picnic table, and play a game of Uno, until Camden Frumkin and Zabria Cowhoon showed up. Everybody said yes, and so, everyone crowded around a picnic table, and Bob shuffled the deck of Uno cards, and handed seven cards to each player. Once everybody had their cards, the twenty-two of them played Uno, while they waited for Camden Frumkin and Zabria Cowhoon, to arrive.