As they stepped inside, they all stared about in wonder. Never had they imagined such machines. Electronics and appliances fascinated them all.

"Let me show you all to the bathrooms so you can clean up and then I will show you what all these things do. Legolas don't touch anything till I tell you what it is." she said

As they took turns bathing, she washed their clothes. The washer held such fascination for some that she had to coax them away. After all were clean and dressed they gathered in the living room. She explained what each device did and how to use it. Each had his favorite.

The Hobbits were fond of the kitchen appliances. Pippin made a whole loaf's worth of toast. Frodo microwaved every leftover in the fridge. Sam used the food processor to chop every vegetable available. Merry set to making fruity mixed drinks for everyone in the blender.

Legolas liked the stereo best. It had lots of buttons for him to push. He amused himself changing the radio station continually and popping in CDs and tapes.

Gandalf was consumed by the Play Station game of Resident Evil. He kept muttering to himself and cursing the zombies.

Gimli was strangely intrigued with the vacuum cleaner. He vacuumed the whole house and had started over again.

Boromir promptly sat down at the telephone and started dialing random numbers. He'd just laugh in amazement when people answered. Someone must have said something rude to him because he shouted, "Gondor will avenge that curse!" and slammed down the receiver.

After that he sulked and watched Aragorn flip through the TV channels.

"Let me have that controller" Boromir said to Aragorn.

"No. I got to it first."

"You are going to quickly to see what is showing." Boromir complained.

"It is nothing good just those advertisements."

"How can you tell? We may be missing something useful. Must you be in charge of everything? Someone is heir to a throne and he becomes a control freak."

Suddenly Aragorn happened upon The Playboy Channel and all squabbling stopped. Even the whirring of the blender ceased.

"Let's watch that, eh?" Pippin called from behind his stack of toast.

"I don't think so." Cheryl said switching the TV off. "You can do that on your own time. Let's get on the Internet and try to find the way to Mordor"



Of course she had answer a million questions as she booted the computer and signed onto the Internet. Finally they were able to get down to business and search for info on Mordor. They were not able to see anything. Frodo and Merry spent a very long time studying various maps, but eventually they all agreed that Mordor was not to be found.

"What are we going to do?" Aragorn asked.

"That will require some careful consideration" said Gandalf "First, we need to go look for the door back to Moria."

"There was no door back where we emerged" said Boromir.

"Well I guess we need to get settled in this land until I can find someone of wise counsel to aid us."

"How we will we survive?" Frodo cried flinging himself down on the sofa. "I wish the Ring had not come to me and none of this happened"

"Don't you worry." Cheryl said patting him. " I can help"

"What do we need to do?" asked Aragorn

"Well I guess first you need to get money."

"We have gold," said Boromir "since the coin of Gondor is snubbed here."

"Well you can sell the gold coins," she said.

"And I have a ring I can sell" Frodo said popping up

"Not so fast young one" Gandalf said

Frodo sighed and flung himself down again.

"Will you tell us how to get your American money?" Aragorn asked.

"You've got to get jobs"

"Jobs?" they exclaimed



Suddenly they heard a loud meow and a screech from the porch. The rushed outside. Legolas darted around the corner and returned holding two creatures. One was a yellow striped cat and the other was Gollum.

"What are you doing here?" Frodo cried

"Seagull followsss his preciousss. Bad mean catsss attacks us."

"That's my cat" Cheryl said taking it.

"And this is Gollum" Gandalf said. "I guess he's with us."

"No" Frodo said. "We ought to leave him out here alone in this strange place. He is nothing but trouble to us."

"Frodo perhaps he will be useful to us." Gandalf said. "Bring him inside Legolas."

"Putsss us down, nasty elf"

Legolas carried Gollum inside and dropped him on the floor.

Cheryl felt sorry for the little guy and gave hum what the Hobbits had not eaten.

"Nice lady, feedsss Smeagol. Not mean like rude cross Hobbit"

"So now you better tell us how to get these jobs" Aragorn said putting his feet up.