Chapter 5 - Cubert's Return
On Monday morning, Cubert still hadn't returned home yet.
"Oh, Sweet Zombie Jesus! I called the cops last night, and they still haven't found my little boy!" yelled Farnsworth, walking up and down the room, fuming.
He was hoping a randy female cop might turn up to investigate the matter, therefore he wore his crazily patterned fluorescent yellow T shirt - the same design as Cubert's swimming trunks, and to get her to really notice him, he put on an extra-tight pair of shorts, to get her to search for his gun.
As the crew all sat round the lounge table, Bender wondered and hoped whether any gruesome curse of some sort had come back to haunt Cubert for his past. He sniggered to himself whilst he crossed his fingers under the table, wishing for the worst.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and young Farnsworth rushed to answer it in a flash, where he found two police men standing there: no date for today, bang goes the gun search! The two uniformed men didn't even have Cubert with them, either.
"Haven't you located my little angel yet?" grumbled the very angry, worried father.
"We found a 12-year-old boy joy riding in the streets of NNY in a stolen police car this morning. He was barefoot and rather confused, so we took him around to several other parents, who also had reported missing children of a similar age and sex, but unfortunately he didn't seem to belong to any of them.
"If you can give us a correct description of the child we have in our police car, then he's all yours. If not, then we'll pressgang him into the military, who might find him of interest."
Farnsworth had seen Cubert yesterday morning, just before he disappeared, therefore he could describe everything about him in perfect detail. "He's got bright-orange hair, and last time I saw him, he was wearing swimming trunks with a design exactly the same as this" he pointed at his T shirt. The prof then called Fry to join him at the front door. Then, sticking one of his fingers directly onto Fry's nose, pushing it upwards, he blurted, "My son looks exactly like this!" He hoped that some sort of likeness could soon be established.
The policemen looked them both up and down and conferred with each other for a couple of minutes, then decided that they both agreed on this matter: the child in their car looked a little like both Farnsworth and Fry to them. Brothers in the same family usually look-a-like, so the boy they found could be the son of either of them. Besides, the father had also identified the only piece of clothing the little boy in their car was wearing too.
One of the policemen walked back to their car and returned carrying Cubert in his arms, all wrapped up in a thick, soft lamb's wool blanket to keep him warm.
Fry gave a groan of displeasure as he made his way back into the lounge to pass the "bad" news back to the rest of the crew members. Bender was the most displeased of all of them, though, cursing under his breath and giving Nibbler an unwarranted kick when Leela wasn't looking.
The prof, though, was delighted by the safe return of his son. He grabbed Cubert with great joy and began to smother him like a bear with hugs and kisses. "Where were you? I was worried sick that you'd fallen into the sea and drowned yourself or something."
Farnsworth then carried his son off to the bathroom, where he cleansed all the blood from any open cuts on his body, covering the wounds in antiseptic. After that, he put him to sleep, hoping that later in the week, when Cubert may have recovered a little more, he may be willing to explain to them what had happened.
The next morning, Cubert had such a splitting headache from his alcohol-induced hangover, that he had actually forgotten most of yesterday's main events.
Farnsworth walked into the clone's cabin, and sat onto the stool next to his bed like last night. He then waited for him to say something about his ordeal. "Well, is there anything you'd like to tell me?" he asked.
"I'm sorry," replied Cubert. "I don't remember much about what actually happened. I have a few vague memories, though, of a man getting me drunk and abducting me, but that's about it. "
Farnsworth didn't pursue his youngster any further, as he realized that all sensitive matters like this one must take a little time before they're finally solved.