It was the next day already, and Alice still hadn't bitten. Of course the whole gang was waiting for something, but they were going to enjoy their brief freedom from her as much as they could. But, that day, the enjoyment pretty much consisted of their usual sitting around the Jones residence, doing all but nothing.
"Man, I'd love to have our instruments right about now," said Mike. "Davy, does your family hide instruments around here?"
"Yeah, they might," said Davy.
"Oh, oh, lemme look for them!" said Peter, bouncing up and down like an excited puppy.
"Peter, I think we all should look," said Cara. "This is a pretty big house."
"Oh, I'd love an adventure!" said Abigail. "I've always wanted a big house for this reason…think of all the fun!"
"Maybe we can just ask Davy's father or whoever is they have anything," said Mike.
"Oh, come on that'd make it too easy," said Micky. "We wouldn't want it to be too easy, would we? Come on, let's have ourselves a little adventure." The group split up at that point and went on to seek out any musical instruments that may be in the huge house.
The initial search was the easy part. Cara, Mike, Micky, and Davy, and Abigail found that there were many working instruments in good condition in the attic. "Woah, take a look over here!" exclaimed Mike, dusting off an old, while, hollowbody Gretsch guitar. "Man, I dig this! I wonder how long all of this stuff has been up here."
"I really wish I could play all of these," said Cara, looking through a pile of drums and percussion equipment with Abigail.
"It ain't that hard," said Davy, looking through rubbish to find a dusty old sunburst colored bass guitar. "Hey, Peter, come get a look at this! Peter…uh, Peter?" Davy waded through all of the junk in the attic over to everyone. "Hey guys, have you seen Peter up here?"
"He was just here a minute ago," said Cara. "I wonder where he'd run off to."
"I tell ya, this isn't the first time," said Micky, searching around everything. "That kid takes an awful lot of taking care of."
"So I've come to notice," said Cara bluntly. "Well, it's only a house, he can't have gone too far."
There was a slight pause, and then Micky and the others said, "Yeah, he went far, yeah…"
"Can't you boys have a little faith?" asked Abigail as they made their way out of the attic to the main room. "He'll turn up somewhere, there is no way he went out anywhere."
"You don't know Peter like we do," said Mike. Just then, the phone rang.
Bridget came rushing over. Could that be Alice already? Oh no, this was all happening so fast, she could barely breathe. She picked the phone up and answered with a nervous, "Hello? Oh…okay, here she is." She drew a sigh of relief—it was Peter, calling from somewhere in the house. "It's for you, Cara," said Bridget. "It's Peter."
Cara sighed and took the phone. "Hello?" she said.
"Hey Cara," said Peter on the other line, sounding pretty frightened. "I'm lost and don't know where I am and it's dark and I can't see anything and it's scary and—"
"Peter, calm down," said Cara. "Are you still in the house?"
"Yeah," said Peter. "But I don't know where…Cara you have to come and find me, I have no clue where I am, this house is freaking huge!"
"Okay Peter," said Cara. "Do you know where you are?"
"No, not a clue!" said Peter, on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. "Just a big huge dark room! I can't find the light switch, I can barely see my own hands!"
"Okay, well just stay where you are, we'll come and find you," said Cara.
"Thank you Cara, I love you!" said Peter.
"Love you too, and stay put," said Cara. She hung the phone up and looked at everyone else.
"Well?" asked Davy. "Where is he?"
"He's still in the house," said Cara. "He doesn't know where though."
"Only Peter could get lost…in a house he's been staying in for days," said Davy.
"Well in his defense, this is a pretty big house," said Abigail.
"That's true," said Davy, looking disappointed that Peter did indeed have a good reason as to how he got lost inside a house.
"Well, we better go find him," said Mike. The group went their separate ways to see where they could find the scared bassist.
Peter tried to stand as still as he could in that big, dark room that just so happened to have a phone in it. But it was hard to do when every slight shift of his body made the old wooden floor creak and there were weird, unexplainable shadows cast on the already dark walls. He sure hoped Cara and the others would come soon. He didn't know what floor he was on, what this room was even called…all he knew was that Cara told him to stay put. But this room was so scary…maybe if he went to a room that wasn't so scary, it would be better…but she told him to stay put…but if he moved, maybe he's find where they were! He could look for them too…but what if he just got more lost? Gee, there was a lot of thinking there.
"C—Cara?" he called out, just to see if someone was there. No answer. He was all alone up there. Or down there. Wherever he was…it was just him. "G—guys? Where are you?" No answer again—just the echo of his scared, shaky voice that was cracking like a twelve-year-old boy trying to call that cute girl who sat in front of him in science class. He bit his lip and waited.
"Hey, Peter?" Cara called as the group walked through the house in search of the missing member.
"Peter!" Davy also called.
"Come on Big Pete, come on out," said Mike.
"Peter, hey, Peter!" called Micky.
"Peter, come on out!" shouted Abigail.
"I swear to God, this guy is gonna be the death of all of us he is!" said Davy. "Ya know Cara, his birthday's in a few months, I think he could use a leash."
"You get it for him then," said Cara, peeking through a door. "He's your bassist."
"Yeah, well, he's your boyfriend," said Davy.
"True," said Cara, giving up in that room since she didn't see Peter anywhere inside. "Come on, let's try another floor, this one's completely empty." As the group went up a floor, Peter was peeking out of the confines of the dark, scary room.
His eyes traveled down the hallway, and he ducked his head back in again. If he moved, would it make a difference? They didn't know where he was yet anyway. Slowly and cautiously, he stuck the tip of his foot out of the doorway, his whole body soon after. After a couple seconds of nothing happening to him, he said, "Well, that wasn't so bad!" bouncing a little and grinning, very satisfied. But at that very moment, a small, very fast cat darted across the hallway right under Peter's feet yowling in surprise, causing him to yelp and fall to the ground loudly.
A floor below, the others heard a cat yowling and a falling man.
"Was that a cat?" asked Micky.
"Yeah, forgot we had that cat…" said Davy.
"Well, we know one thing," said Mike.
"What?" asked Abigail.
"That was probably Peter," said Mike. The group rushed up the next flight of stairs to where they thought Peter may be.
Of course, Peter had to be Peter and wander to yet another room when he go up from his cat-induced fall. Rubbing his back free of any pain, he ventured into the next room. It wasn't as dark as the first one, but it was still weird. Sort of like a storage room. He bit his lip again and looked around. He still didn't hear anyone coming over to get him; they probably weren't even on the right floor yet. Nevertheless, he still called out a hopeful, "Guys!" which echoed through the whole room. "I'm scared…" he whispered, in hopes that it could possibly be heard, but mostly because, well, he was terrified.
Looking around some more, he came across a large wardrobe. "Gee, I wonder what's in there?" he asked himself. He crept over towards it carefully and reached out his hand to the handle. Of course he knew he shouldn't be opening the wardrobe, but hey, he couldn't help himself. He grabbed the handle and pulled.
The rest of the group got up to the floor where they heard Davy's forgotten cat trip Peter. "Man, he should be right here!" said Cara.
"He should," said Micky. "But he's Peter. He's always wherever he shouldn't be…let's just think…" Of course, there was a loud, very loud crash and lots of yelling, screaming, and cursing from the room across the hall, all coming from a very familiar voice.
"He's in there," said Mike, pointing in the direction.
"Yeah, has to be," said Davy. The group rushed over to the room where they heard the crash, and sure enough, under a pile of assorted rubbish that couldn't be made out because of the lack of light, there was Peter Tork, looking a mixture of guilty and relieved.
"I knew you all would find me!" he exclaimed at the sight of his friends.
"Well, we didn't," said Cara. "Come on Peter, get yourself out of there."
"I can't…" said Peter. "I'm stuck…"
"Oh, for the love of…hang on Peter, we'll help you out of there," said Mike. He waded through whatever Peter was trapped in and yanked him out of the junk.
"Wow, thanks everybody!" said Peter. "Man was I scared, first it was dark, and then a cat ran me over, and then…"
"Man Pete, what the hell is all of this?" asked Micky. "Is there a light in here?"
"Yeah," said Davy, flicking a simple switch. Light soon flooded the room with great welcome.
"Ah…" said Peter. "That would've made it a little easier."
"Hey, guys, look at all of this!" exclaimed Micky.
"Yeah, what is all of—" started Abigail, but then she caught on, like the others. The stuff that fell out of the wardrobe when Peter opened it were nothing but even better musical instruments than what they had found in the attic! Newly polished guitars and basses still in their cases, drums, cymbals, other percussion, just about everything, and they were all brand new and in great condition.
"Wow Peter," said Mike. "Ya know, it was a good thing you got lost."
"Oh, shove it," said Peter.
"I take it you all can use this stuff, right?" said Cara, looking at an expensive-looking Rickenbacker guitar.
"Darn-tootin'," said Mike. "Come on guys, let's bring this stuff downstairs, and no getting lost again this time—that means you Peter."
"Yes Michael," said Peter bashfully, taking hold of Cara's hand. No…Mike thought. No, just no, don't look at it, he's just holding her hand…no more putting the moves on Cara, no way no how!
"You okay Mike?" asked Abigail, noticing the odd faces of strain he was making,
"I'm good, let's get going," said Mike. Everyone making sure that they were all together this time, they headed back downstairs to the main room, their normal spot.
"Oh, you found him?" asked Bridget as they finally got back.
"Yes my dear, it was a dangerous and treacherous task!" said Micky in his dramatic, thespian manner. Bridget giggled. Oh, how Micky loved making that girl giggle.
"What's that you have there?" asked Bridget again, noticing the instruments.
"Oh, well we found—well, actually Peter found a room with all of this stuff in it," said Mike. "And after all, we are a band, who plays music, so why not play?"
"Did someone say music?" asked Beryl, who came running into the room along with her sisters.
"We love music!" exclaimed Lynda.
"I see you found father's secret stash!" said Hazel.
"I didn't know he had it!" said Davy. "And girls? Since when did we have a cat?"
"Oh, we got him last year," said Hazel.
"I knew I didn't remember him," said Davy.
"Let's play a song guys, I didn't have all of that crap fall on me for nothing!" said Peter.
"Oh, my instruments!" exclaimed Harry, running out with Grandfather Jones. "How in the world did you find them? I would've taken them out for you if you had only asked!"
"Oh…" said Mike, looking around at all the others, particularly Peter, who looked mildly upset with him. "Well, the point is we have em, and—and well—we're gonna play some music!"
"Ah, my grandson the music maker!" said Grandfather Jones as he sat down next to Bridget. "You know Miss Carrow, you will have a fine husband in him, mark my words!"
"Right," said Bridget, glancing over at Micky, who was setting up his drums. "A very find husband, yes…" She was stuck wondering if any of them would be alive for the "wedding" once Alice got her way, if she did.
"Oh, boy have I missed this!" said Abigail exuberantly as she and Cara went and sat on the other side of Bridget. "Hey, you boys can play what you were gonna play for me at my birthday party before that psycho bitch kidnapped me!"
"Hey guys, let's do 'Take a Giant Step'," said Micky, sitting down behind the drum set for the first time in a long time.
"Hey, good one!" said Peter, finishing up tuning the bass he found.
"I think ya'll will like this one," said Mike. "All right Mick, hit it!" Micky counted off with his sticks, and the song started. It was a nice, mid tempo tune, very melodic. As usual, Micky's voice was smooth and sweet, each syllable sung caressed with the greatest care. Bridget wasted no time to leap out of her seat and rush to the piano. She picked out the key easy and was playing along in no time. She was very impressed with the boys, especially Micky. If only she were allowed to love him how she wanted.
The song ended, and the Jones family, along with Cara, Abigail, and even Bridget from her piano applauded loudly. "I guess getting lost in your house was worth it Mr. Jones!" said Peter.
"You—you got lost?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, but it's okay, these guys found me!" said Peter.
"I guess you all are lucky to have each other," said Grandfather Jones.
"Are you kidding? We'd be lost without each other," said Davy.
"Hence why I let you stay in America," said Grandfather Jones.
"Play more!" shouted Abigail, making Cara jump and flinch. The boys laughed and went into another song. As Bridget played along to this one, almost all fear of what Alice would do to her and these amazing new friends left her mind—music just did magic, she guessed.
