June 25 2014

Chapter 20: Parrot's life for me

It was clear that Baloo wouldn't listen to Ignatz even if the parrot would know the winning numbers for an upcoming lottery, so I gave up on trying to convince him to do otherwise and instead focused on calming Rebecca down. Losing the crystal glass cargo had been a big setback for her.

"I'm going home!" she declared before I could say anything to cheer her up. "That cargo was worth a fortune and now I have to apologize and make it up to our customer and I can not do it in this state of a mind." And with that said she took her coat and stormed out of the office. I sneezed again and went to get the broom and feather duster. "Well, if Becky quit for the day I might as well start cleaning now and go to bed early" I muttered to myself and started sweeping the floor.

When I was done with the cleaning I decided to go to the kitchen in order to make myself a sandwich before going to bed. On my way there I stopped to look out from the window; Baloo and Kit were still on the dock, the older bear was reading a newspaper and the younger one was talking with Ignatz. I let out a sigh. If only Baloo and the bird would get along we could go to hunt treasure but no, the two were like a cat and a dog, no hope for co-operation between them.
As I sat in the kitchen eating my baloney sandwich I tried to recall the episode with a parrot in it. All I could gather up was a set of images from the show. I remembered a parrot, a treasure and air pirates but not how they linked in the episode. My memories about the show were fading fast and my cold didn't help remembering them any better. After some time I gave up and headed for the bed, hoping that my cold would go away while I slept.

...

"LIS, WAKE UP!"

"Can't I sleep in peace for once?" I whined and looked at Baloo who had almost pushed me off my hammock. "What is it?"

"It's Kit! He's gone!" I rubbed my eyes and looked at his worried face.

"What do you mean he's gone?" He handed me a piece of newspaper. On top of the text was Kit's handwriting:

Gone to Tucker forest for treasure.
Don't wait up.
Yours truly
Kit

"Tucker forest?" I looked at him. "Where's that?"

"It's north from here."

"But how could Kit get there?" I asked as I got up from my hammock.

"He probably hitchhiked a lift with his airfoil and some rope. That blasted bird filled the boys head with that treasure story an' lil' britches believed it."

"I think Ignatz was honest about the treasure"

"Never mind, we have to get Kit back before somethin' happens to him".

"Okay, you get Sea Duck ready to fly. I'll change clothes and go with you looking for Kit"

Baloo nodded and hurried out.

"Why does all the crap go down while I sleep?" I asked myself as I took my pajamas off.

...

Baloo swore he would turn Ignatz into a feather duster if Kit wasn't alive and well once we'd find them. I would have wanted to point out that if he had listened to Ignatz we wouldn't be in this situation, but after seeing Baloo's expression I decided it was best to keep quiet till we'd landed.
The Tucker forest was a fir tree forest and it didn't look like a place one would go to after dark. Nevertheless Baloo landed the Sea Duck on an opening in the middle of the forest and the two of us stepped out. The cool night air made me sneeze and I could hear how the sound of it echoed in the dark forest for a second before fading away. I shivered, not because of the cool air (I had my jacket on) but because the forest looked eerie and like a place one could easily get lost in.

"KIT!" Baloo yelled, but no-one answered. I started calling Kit too, but the forest was silent as the grave. After a few moments we heard the sound of wings flapping and Ignatz appeared from the darkness of the forest.

"Kit! Kidnapped! Pirates!" the bird screamed.

"Pirates again?!" I yelled. "Why do they always have to bug us?"

If anything happens to that boy I'll brake every bone in your head!" Baloo yelled at Ignatz. "NOW WHERE IS HE?"

Ignatz sat on a branch just high enough so Baloo couldn't reach him before talking; "Look, stop wasting time. I know where Kit is and I have a plan!"

"You have a plan! Listening to you got Kit into this mess!"

"You not listening to me got Kit into this mess!"

"He's right about that, Baloo" I said and he looked at me if I had betrayed him.

"You're on his side?! I oughta- I oughta-" Baloo tried to say what he was ought to do but then he seemed to realize that it was he who had screwed up. "I oughta kick myself in the pants but my legs aren't long enough." he sighed.

"Plus you're not wearing any pants" I added.

"I volunteer to kick him."

"Shut it, Ignatz. Baloo, listen to him, it's the only way to help Kit."

"Alright, but if those yahoos do anything to Kit I'll-" But we didn't get to hear what he'd do, because he was cut off by the sound of laughing. We recognized it was Kit's voice and hurried towards the source of it, while I wondered why the heck he was laughing in a situation like this.
I got the answer for my question soon. Kit was tied on a tree trunk and Mad Dog tickled his feet with a feather while Dumptruck watched. Karnage was there too, supervising the tickling torture. We were hiding behind a bush where we could see them.

"Well, it's good that they torture him with a feather instead of something else" I muttered.

"I can't stand it, we have to do somethin'" Baloo looked at Ignatz. "You're in charge so charge".

"Not so fast twinkletoes." Ignatz said. "What we need is a diversion."

"Now where are we gonna get a diver-"

"ACHOO!"

My sneeze had been so sudden I didn't have a change to stop it. My heart skipped a beat when I heard Karnage's voice;

"Who is there?!"

"Well, there you go, a diversion" Ignatz said and I wanted to strangle him.

Author's note

You know the chapter is good when the title is a pun. And speaking of the chapter, this is THE 20th CHAPTER OF THE STORY! (WOHOO!). Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing this story :)

Now I have some other stuff to do, so the next chapter won't come out till July. Enjoy the cliffhanger, MUAHHAHHAHHAA!

See you then.