Chapter Ten

There was a knock at Harry's bedroom door.

"Come in," Harry, Tawny, Emily and Gilbert said in unison.

The door opened and Martha came into the room. "Which one of you ordered pizza?"

"Me," Gilbert said. He set his laptop down beside him and stood up. "Thanks, Martha."

"You ordered pizza online?" Emily asked.

"What?" Gilbert asked. "I'm hungry."

"It would have been nice if you had stuck to our project."

"We can't work on empty stomachs." Gilbert left the room.

"What exactly is it you all are doing up here?" Martha asked.

"Well, um…" Harry started. But he was at a loss for words. He wasn't sure if he should tell Martha what they were doing and he didn't have a cover for it. Fortunately, Tawny helped him out.

"It's research," Tawny said.

"On what?" Martha asked.

"Donald." Tawny turned her laptop around to show Martha a Donald Bradley fan site. "Thought it might help him remember something."

"Oh," Martha said. "Alright, then. Just, take a break from it every now and then. I don't want you all to strain your eyes."

"Alright, mum," Harry said.

Martha shot him a smile and then left the room. Harry turned to Tawny.

"Thanks for that," he said.

"Improvisation is my fortay," she said. "But you know, your mum is right."

"Yeah," Emily said. "We'll eat and then get back to it."

Tawny looked over at Harry. "How you feeling?"

"The same," Harry replied.

"No offense, Tawny," Emily said. "But you don't need to ask him every ten minutes."

"Sorry. Just a bit worried."

"We all are."

Then Gilbert returned with two pizza boxes in one hand and a bottle of Pepsi cradled in the other.

"Lunch is served," he said.

Everyone put their computers aside and sat in a circle on the floor around the pizza. All at once, they each grabbed a slice of pizza. As he ate, Harry looked out the window. He saw that the sky was gray and storm clouds threatened a downpour.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Harry said.

Tawny looked out the window. "They said on the news that there was a chance of a storm."

"Let's just hope the power stays on," Gilbert said.

"Shush!" Emily snapped at him. "Don't jinx it."

HP

Later that evening, a thunderstorm had started. Rough winds shook the branches of the trees and rain came down heavily, pelting the Bradley house. Inside, Harry, Tawny, Emily and Gilbert were still on their quest for the fan fic.

All of the sudden, there was a loud crack of thunder and all the lights went out. Tawny and Emily screamed.

"Calm down," Gilbert said. "The power's out."

Harry heard a jingle in the dark. Then he saw Gilbert shining a tiny flashlight that was attached to his key ring.

"Can we still use the computers?" Harry asked.

"For a few hours," Emily said. "They'll run off of the battery power."

"They're useless if we don't have Internet access," Tawny said.

Harry looked at his computer and saw that the web page he had been looking at was now a "cannot display web page" message. He looked up at the others.

"The Internet is down," he said.

"The power's out," Tawny said. "That means their no power to the modem or the wireless router. Without them, we can't access the Internet on our laptops."

Harry stood and paced the room. His mind raced, trying to come up with some alternative for accessing the Internet.

"What about a dial up?" Harry asked. "We can connect the laptops to the phone lines."

"That would only work for one computer," Emily said.

"Wait a minute," Gilbert said. He picked up the phone on Harry's desk and put it to his ear. Then he set it back on the cradle. "The storm knocked out the phone lines, too."

"There's got to be another way," Harry said desperately.

"There isn't," Tawny said.

"No! There's got to be something. Think."

"Harry, there's nothing we can do. We'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"And then what? I could disappear! I'd be totally erased. We've got to find that bloody fan fic!"

Harry punched the wall. He turned and slid to the floor. He put his head in his hands and started to cry. Tawny came over to where he was and pulled him into a comforting embrace.

"It's OK to be scared," Tawny said.

"I'm fucking terrified," Harry sobbed.

"Harry, we can't control the weather. We can keep looking tomorrow."

"We're losing time on this. I could disappear any minute."

Emily stood and came over to where they were. "We are not going to give up. We are going to keep looking."

"What happens if we don't find it?" Harry asked.

"At least you'll know we did all that we could," Gilbert said.

"What do you say to making a promise?" Emily asked. "We promise not to give up on Harry. To keep searching for that fan fic until we find it." Emily stuck her hand out.

"I promise," Gilbert said and he placed his hand on Emily's.

"I promise," Tawny said, adding her hand to the others.

Harry wiped some tears away and put his hand in. Then they all shared a group hug.