Next chapter anyone?
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Hey Arnold!, but I would like to. I mean, if stupid fucking Rocket Power has toys.....where's the love for Arnold???
The Search: chapter 5
Helga woke up to the sound of birds and the soft gurgling of the river. She looked over at Phoebe, who was still asleep in her own bed, and then quietly put her feet on the soft carpet. Helga stepped as quietly as possible over to the bamboo door that separated the two rooms. Holding her breath, she opened the door with a small squeak if the hinges. Her heart melted when she saw Arnold sleeping peacefully. She smiled briefly and shut the door, afraid that he would wake up at any minute. When Helga turned around, Phoebe was sitting up in bed, stretching and yawning.
"Good morning, Helga," she yawned again. "I believe that was the best sleep I've had in a while."
"Me too," she laughed nervously. "I was just up... to make us some coffee," she lied.
"It's too hot for coffee," Phoebe said.
"Yes, it's very very warm," she nodded. "What was I thinking?"
"Aren't you going to start the car?" Arnold asked Helga. They were still in the driveway of the house, sitting in the jeep. Helga was in the driver's seat and Arnold was next to her. Gerald and Phoebe were stuck in the back.
"Sure," she said. Helga stuck the key in the ignition and cranked it up. The engine roared to life and then settle to a quieter hum. "Which one is the... go pedal?"
"Go pedal?" Gerald said, leaning over her seat. "You mean the accelerator?"
"Yeah, sure! I was just kidding," she falsely laughed. "Jeez, lighten up."
"Hmmm," he said and exchanged glances with Arnold.
Helga put the gear shift into reverse and started to back up, but everyone screamed at her to stop.
"What?!?" she said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She looked over her shoulder to see an old woman walking behind the jeep.
"An old pro, huh?" Gerald mumbled.
"Condenar niños," the old woman yelled.
"What did she say?" Helga said angrily.
"I believe she said 'Damn kids'," Phoebe said.
"Bitch," Helga said with clenched teeth. "Can't she see I'm driving here?" Once she was out of the way, Helga continued backing up.
They reached the Manaus Department of Records by late afternoon. Helga had taken her time driving because this was about her third time ever behind the wheel. Everyone could tell.
"I feel like I should kiss the ground or something," Gerald said.
"Kiss my ass," Helga replied and locked the doors.
Inside of the big stone building, they were met by a guy at the front desk. He was tall, thin, and he looked tired and worn out. "Hola, cómo lata Socorro usted?" he said dully.
"Uh, do you speak English?" Arnold asked.
"Oh sorry," he said in a thick Spanish accent. "I'm a little tired this morning. My name is Luciano, can I help you with anything?"
"I was wondering if you could help us with locating a village around here," Arnold said and displayed the map in front of him.
The man shrugged and said, "I've lived her all of my life and I'm very familiar with these jungles and I've never seen any villages in that area."
"Are you sure," Phoebe asked. "There's roughly 803.5 square miles of unexplored jungle around that area."
Luciano looked at Arnold and he shrugged in return. "She knows her stuff."
"I'm sorry," he said and looked at the circled area on the map, "but I've even camped in that exact location. There's nothing there but trees and animals. Instead, why don't you go on a nice cruise on the Amazon River for your vacation and save yourself some time."
"No thanks," Arnold said politely. "We'll just have to look for it ourselves."
"Can I ask why you want that village?" he asked.
"We're looking for somebody," Gerald answered. "Two people in fact."
"My parents are in that area," Arnold said, folding the map back and putting it in his pocket.
Luciano scratched his chin for a moment and looked at his watch. "I see. Well I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
"Thanks for nothing, Pedro," Helga said as they walked back to the door. He watched them leave, but not before he made sure nobody else had heard their conversation.
Arnold sighed and looked up into the sky. "Maybe there's somewhere else we can look. Somebody has got to know something about that place." As he spoke he leaned on the side of a truck that was parked next to their jeep. It was a rusted Ford truck.
"Hey," Luciano called from the entrance. He walked to where they were standing. "I'm telling you, you aren't going to find a shred of evidence of that village."
"Why are you so sure?" Gerald asked, squinting from the sunlight.
"Because someone destroyed all the files for that particular village. And I helped them do it."
"She didn't tell me what she wanted it for. All I knew was that I was getting paid a lot of money for getting rid of a village that nobody had ever heard of anyway," Luciano was saying in between sips of his beer. "Government agents... go figure." Helga and the gang had followed him in the jeep to a bar in the city. It was a local tourist spot, but it served the best food of the bars in that strip of development. It was a little after lunch time, but the bar was slammed with people. Loud, Latin music was blaring and some of the people were even dancing to it.
"Couldn't we just go looking for the village?" Arnold said.
"No way buddy," he replied, slamming the empty bottle on the table. "Even an expert like me couldn't find that place without those files."
"Then what are we supposed to do without them?" Gerald asked.
"Well," Luciano said, "she said she wanted all of the files and I gave every last one of them to her. But what she didn't tell me she wanted... were the copies of those files." He placed a folder in front of them on the table. "Did I mention how much I hate government agents?"
"This is it!" Arnold said with a wide grin as he pulled a map out of the folder. It pinpointed the exact location of the village.
"What the hell is all this other stuff?" Helga asked as she thumbed through the rest of the papers. "Water storage? Health reports? Look at this one," she said and showed them a map with colored markings near the village.
"I have no idea," Luciano said. "I just filed the papers when they were given to me. That was my job." He picked up the new bottle of beer that was placed in front of him by a waitress and tilted his head back to drink. Something caught his eye and he started choking loudly.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Arnold asked.
"I cannot believe my luck," he breathed heavily. "Only I would be lucky enough to come to the exact same bar as she would."
They looked across the room in the direction in which he was looking and saw two men and a woman in suits at a table.
"I swear I have the worst luck in history," he said.
"I know a guy who's got you beat," Gerald said.
"You don't understand," Luciano said. "She's crazy, she said she would kill me."
As if to answer him, she looked over in their direction. She then resumed talking to the other men.
"Did she see me?" he asked frantically.
"I don't think so," Arnold said. "I wish we could talk to them and find out why they didn't want anyone to know about the village."
"I think we should leave," Phoebe said. "It's not safe for Luciano."
"I think she's right," Luciano nodded.
"But we need more information," Helga said.
"Okay," Arnold said. "Someone take Luciano back to the hotel."
"I'll do it," Gerald stood up. "But I'm not going alone."
"Phoebe, you go with Gerald," Helga instructed. "Football head, I've got an idea."
"What?" he said, but she grabbed his shirt sleeve and dragged him onto the dance floor. A loud, fast pace song started to play and almost everyone got up to dance. "Helga, what are you doing??"
"Shut up and dance," she said, putting his hand on her hip. "I have an idea. We need to get closer to their table," she said. "Come on Arnoldo, I know you can dance better than this."
Arnold sighed and swung her across the floor. He then pulled her back, closely, and moved over to the agents' table.
"Hey hey hey!" Helga shouted as they moved together. "Watch those hands pal..."
"Sorry," he said nervously. "Why don't you let me lead?"
"Because you don't know what to do," she barked.
The agents were a few feet away and they were deep in conversation. "I can't hear anything they are saying Helga."
"Okay, when I tell you to, I want you to dip me," she whispered.
"What??" he asked loudly. "I can't hear you!"
"I said, oh nevermind," she yelled. Helga held him tightly and leaned him backwards so that his head was conveniently placed within earshot.
"....checked all of the files and they are all there," the woman was saying. "It's like the village never existed...."
Arnold was pulled away after a few seconds by Helga. "Did you get anything?" she asked.
"No," he shook his head. "You go in this time," he said taking over. Arnold swung her again and pulled her back. He leaned her back into their conversation.
"Nobody is ever going to ask any questions," she said. "We don't have to deal with this anymore. The village has no contact with the outside world and we'll just wait until everyone dies off. Then we'll be completely through with this thing forever."
"What about tourists?" one of the men asked. "What if they find the village?"
"That's where the quarantine signs come in. They'll take one look at them and leave without any questions."
"So there are no problems?" the other man asked.
"No sir," she said. Suddenly, they all turned and looked at an upside down Helga.
"Oh ahhah... 'scuse me!" she said. Arnold snapped her back up quickly, bringing her face just inches from his.
Back at the table, Gerald shook his head. "What are they DOING?"
"Let's go," Arnold said as he and Helga returned. "We've got all the info we need. I think they know," he said.
"That was odd," the woman said, sipping on her margarita. She was about to return to the conversation, when someone caught her eye.
"We'll meet you at the hotel later tonight," Arnold said as he and Helga got into the jeep.
"Good luck man," Gerald waved good-bye. Helga backed up, hit a trashcan, and drove away.
Phoebe, Gerald, and Luciano climbed into the truck. They pulled away from the bar and headed in the direction of the hotel.
"Oh..." Luciano said in a worried tone.
"What?" Gerald asked and looked over his shoulder to see a black car following them.
"This is not good," Luciano murmured. He accelerated and in return, the other car did too. "I've got an idea," he said and swerved onto a dirt road that went into the jungle. The other car followed.
Phoebe, sitting in the middle, was thrown into Gerald with an soft "Oof..."
"She knows," he said. "I knew I should have stayed home today!"
"What are we going to do?" Gerald asked.
"What CAN we do," he asked as he sped up down the jungle road.
"Turn down that road!" Phoebe yelled over the roar of the engine. Luciano did as he was told and slid left in the gravel to turn. "Do you know where this road goes?" he asked.
"No!" she said. Phoebe looked back to see the black car doing the same thing. "Okay, turn down the next road, but wait until the last possible second! And accelerate as much as you can!"
"Okay okay!" he nodded. Another road came into site, but it was more narrow and it looked like nobody had driven down it in a long time. The car behind them sped up so that her front end was practically touching his tailgate.
"Now!" Phoebe yelled. The truck swerved to the right at the last minute and they barely made it. Palm frond slapped the car as they turned down the road. They all looked back to see the black car turn, but fail to get onto the road. She spun a full circle two times and finally stopped.
"Yeah!" Gerald said and turned back around. "Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!" he shouted when he saw a fallen tree in their path.
Luciano pressed the brakes to the floor, but it was no use. They slammed into the tree with a terrible metallic crunch.
Meanwhile, back at home, Rhonda was having yet another party. "I'm so glad you could make it!" she said loudly as Stinky and Sid entered the room. When they had walked by, she whispered bitterly to Nadine, "Who the hell invited them??"
"They always come," she shrugged. "What's wrong with them being here?"
"I just think they are bad influences on Haro... uh, oh look it's Lila! Hello Lila!" Rhonda said, starting to sweat. Nadine shrugged again and greeted Lila with her friend.
"Any news from Arnold?" Lila asked politely.
"No, not a thing," Rhonda replied. "I haven't heard anything from them since they left."
"Well I hope everything is going okay," Lila said.
"I'm sure things are fine," she laughed. "Anyway, back to the important issue at hand, there's bottled water and food in the living room, so help yourself."
"Rhonda!" Harold said, bursting through the door. She gave him an icy stare as everyone turned to look at them. "Rhonda, I got a job," he whispered grinning.
"Not now, Harold," Rhonda whispered dryly. "Wait until nobody is around."
"Oh.. okay," he smiled. Harold walked away in the direction of Stinky and Sid.
"Harold," somebody called. He looked over his shoulder to see Patty standing out on the balcony. He smiled and turned to walk towards her.
"Where have you been," she asked. "I've tried to call you for a while and you never seem to be home."
"I wouldn't know why that is," he said slowly. He knew that he was usually with Rhonda.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine," Harold said. "So, uh, what have you been up to," he asked.
"What happened to us, Harold," Patty said. "We used to be best friends."
"I know," he said sadly. "Do you want to sit down and talk?"
"That would be nice," she smiled. "I have... some things to tell you."
"Like what?" he asked. They both sat down on two chairs facing each other.
"Well," Patty said as she looked down at her hands, "I know that you're not seeing anyone right now. And I'm not seeing anyone right now..."
"Oh," he said softly. "Patty, I can't."
"Why not," she asked. "Harold, I can't stay away from you any longer."
"I know," he said, "and I'm sorry if I led you on."
"I don't understand what happened. A few years ago, we would go out on dates every night and then all of the sudden, you just stopped. I kept waiting for you to call, but you never did. I've had this... thing for you for a while Harold. And I just never found the time to tell you."
He stared at her for a while and then looked away. "I'm sorry Patty," he said.
"Why??" she asked, anger laced her voice. "It's not like you're dating anyone."
"It's... it's complicated," he said.
"Why can't you tell me??"
"Because I just can't!"
Patty touched his arm and said, "You know I love you Harold. I've loved you for a while. I even failed two grades just so I could graduate with you. I beat up so many people for you because they were talking about you behind your back. I would do anything for you, Harold."
"I know Patty," he said. "But I just can't be with you."
"Looks like Big Patty and Harold are hitting it off tonight," Sheena said. Her, Rhonda, Nadine, and Lila were standing in a circle in the living room. Rhonda looked out on the balcony and her heart dropped.
"Well, they do look cute together," Nadine said.
"Yeah," Rhonda said. "One big, dumb, stupid person deserves another...."
Later that night, as the party still continued, Harold stepped out of the upstairs bathroom and into a dark, empty hallway. When he turned around, Rhonda was there with her hands on her hips. "And just what were you doing with that ogre," she snapped.
"Who, Patty?" he asked. "We were just-"
"Just what? 'Hooking up'? Are you going to meet up with her later on at McBurger's?"
"Speaking of McBurger's, that's where I got my job! I'm a fry cook!"
"Don't you dare try to change the subject," she said.
"Why does it even matter," he asked. "We're just friends."
"I don't think you should talk to her anymore," Rhonda said.
"You know Rhonda," he said, "ever since we started going out, you have been so mean to me."
"I have not," she said, dumbfounded.
"Patty DID ask me out tonight, but you know what I told her? I told her no. And when she asked me why, I didn't have an answer for her. I could have told her that I was with you, but I can't! You won't let me! I do so much for you and you don't even care. I had to lose forty-five pounds just so I could kiss you. I had to get a job so that you wouldn't be ashamed of me. Well, Patty wants me for who I am. But I love you Rhonda. I love you so much and it means nothing to you. You could have any guy in that room down there so why should you be stuck with me?"
Rhonda's jaw dropped. "Oh... my god. Harold Berman... is breaking up with me..."
"Why does that even matter?" he said. "Why are you so consumed by what other people think of you? They are our friends Rhonda, they won't care."
"You're not going to tell them are you??" she said frantically. Harold stared at her silently.
Then he said, "I should tell them. I should tell them everything about us. But I won't because I'm not that spiteful. I would never want to hurt Rhonda Wellington Lloyd's image because apparently, that's all she cares about. I'm going to leave now and I'm going to find Patty and apologize for earlier," he said and turned to walk away.
"Harold," she whispered in a small, pathetic voice. He turned around, but she couldn't speak. Her mouth opened, but nothing would come out.
"Good-bye Rhonda," he said and walked away. She stood there for a moment, still speechless and hurt. She didn't know whether to act like her usual self, a stuck up bitch, or to break down in tears. Rhonda walked quietly into her room to get away from the loud thump of the music and sat down on her bed.
She looked around her room, at her stylish clothes and shoes, pictures of her hanging out with all the popular people from school, expensive makeup from all around the world, and finally her eyes wandered to the homecoming queen crown. It was her prized possession. The little crown had sparkling diamonds covering shiny silver. But the diamonds were not real and they were glued to the silver crown. And it wasn't real silver either, it was fake too. All of it was fake. It was the perfect metaphor for herself and she knew it.
Downstairs, everyone was starting to drag. It was getting late and the hostess had suddenly disappeared.
"Have you seen Rhonda?" Nadine asked a group of people standing by the food table.
"I'm right here Nadine," Rhonda answered as she lightly walked down the stairs.
"Are you okay?" she said.
"No Nadine, I'm not. I have something to tell you. I have something to tell all of you," she said loudly so that everyone could hear. "For the past year... Harold and I have secretly been dating."
Everyone stared at her.
"I was mean to him. I treated him like he owed me something. I thought I was better than him and I was ashamed of him," Rhonda said, trying desperately to keep her voice steady. "But I hurt him too much tonight and now he's gone. And I just thought that I owed it to him to tell everybody."
"Why didn't you tell me," Nadine asked, breaking the silence. "I've been your best friend forever and you couldn't tell me?! We tell each other everything!"
"I'm sorry Nadine," Rhonda said. Nadine's words cut through her like a knife. She then looked down at her feet.
"Well Rhonda," she said, "you better go find him."
"What?" she said, looking up.
"I said you better go find him before you lose him forever."
"Turn... that way," Arnold said as he pointed to a path. They were deep in the jungle and totally surrounded by foliage. Helga turned the steering wheel and they headed down the path he had specified.
"Where are we??" she asked. "I think we're going in circles."
"We're not going in circles," he said. "We're almost there."
"Sure," she breathed. Sweat rolled down her face and she wiped it away quickly. It was unbearably hot. "We've been driving for two straight hours in this jungle and I've seen the same tree more than once."
"It's a jungle. Jungles have more that one tree."
"I'm telling you, we're lost," Helga said.
"Turn onto that path," he said. She did as she was told.
"These roads are getting worse by the minute. Soon we're going to have to get out and walk."
Suddenly, something far away gleamed in the sunlight and caught Arnold's eye. "What was... Helga, stop the car." He jumped out of the jeep and ran away from the road and deeper into the jungle.
"Arnold wait!" she called and stopped the jeep. She got out and started running after him.
He continued running, avoiding the trees and the ground plants as much as possible. Everything around him whipped by in a blur. He heard Helga call his name, but he kept running. Arnold's dream.
Up ahead, there was a wall of foliage. He burst through it and stumbled to the ground. Brushing himself off, he looked in front of him and froze. Helga came tumbling through the bushes, tripping on vines, and ran straight into Arnold, knocking him to the ground.
"What are you doing?" she shouted angrily. "I outta-" she started to say, but stopped.
There in front of them was an old, beat up plane that was overgrown with vines and covered in rust.
To be continued...
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Hey Arnold!, but I would like to. I mean, if stupid fucking Rocket Power has toys.....where's the love for Arnold???
The Search: chapter 5
Helga woke up to the sound of birds and the soft gurgling of the river. She looked over at Phoebe, who was still asleep in her own bed, and then quietly put her feet on the soft carpet. Helga stepped as quietly as possible over to the bamboo door that separated the two rooms. Holding her breath, she opened the door with a small squeak if the hinges. Her heart melted when she saw Arnold sleeping peacefully. She smiled briefly and shut the door, afraid that he would wake up at any minute. When Helga turned around, Phoebe was sitting up in bed, stretching and yawning.
"Good morning, Helga," she yawned again. "I believe that was the best sleep I've had in a while."
"Me too," she laughed nervously. "I was just up... to make us some coffee," she lied.
"It's too hot for coffee," Phoebe said.
"Yes, it's very very warm," she nodded. "What was I thinking?"
"Aren't you going to start the car?" Arnold asked Helga. They were still in the driveway of the house, sitting in the jeep. Helga was in the driver's seat and Arnold was next to her. Gerald and Phoebe were stuck in the back.
"Sure," she said. Helga stuck the key in the ignition and cranked it up. The engine roared to life and then settle to a quieter hum. "Which one is the... go pedal?"
"Go pedal?" Gerald said, leaning over her seat. "You mean the accelerator?"
"Yeah, sure! I was just kidding," she falsely laughed. "Jeez, lighten up."
"Hmmm," he said and exchanged glances with Arnold.
Helga put the gear shift into reverse and started to back up, but everyone screamed at her to stop.
"What?!?" she said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She looked over her shoulder to see an old woman walking behind the jeep.
"An old pro, huh?" Gerald mumbled.
"Condenar niños," the old woman yelled.
"What did she say?" Helga said angrily.
"I believe she said 'Damn kids'," Phoebe said.
"Bitch," Helga said with clenched teeth. "Can't she see I'm driving here?" Once she was out of the way, Helga continued backing up.
They reached the Manaus Department of Records by late afternoon. Helga had taken her time driving because this was about her third time ever behind the wheel. Everyone could tell.
"I feel like I should kiss the ground or something," Gerald said.
"Kiss my ass," Helga replied and locked the doors.
Inside of the big stone building, they were met by a guy at the front desk. He was tall, thin, and he looked tired and worn out. "Hola, cómo lata Socorro usted?" he said dully.
"Uh, do you speak English?" Arnold asked.
"Oh sorry," he said in a thick Spanish accent. "I'm a little tired this morning. My name is Luciano, can I help you with anything?"
"I was wondering if you could help us with locating a village around here," Arnold said and displayed the map in front of him.
The man shrugged and said, "I've lived her all of my life and I'm very familiar with these jungles and I've never seen any villages in that area."
"Are you sure," Phoebe asked. "There's roughly 803.5 square miles of unexplored jungle around that area."
Luciano looked at Arnold and he shrugged in return. "She knows her stuff."
"I'm sorry," he said and looked at the circled area on the map, "but I've even camped in that exact location. There's nothing there but trees and animals. Instead, why don't you go on a nice cruise on the Amazon River for your vacation and save yourself some time."
"No thanks," Arnold said politely. "We'll just have to look for it ourselves."
"Can I ask why you want that village?" he asked.
"We're looking for somebody," Gerald answered. "Two people in fact."
"My parents are in that area," Arnold said, folding the map back and putting it in his pocket.
Luciano scratched his chin for a moment and looked at his watch. "I see. Well I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
"Thanks for nothing, Pedro," Helga said as they walked back to the door. He watched them leave, but not before he made sure nobody else had heard their conversation.
Arnold sighed and looked up into the sky. "Maybe there's somewhere else we can look. Somebody has got to know something about that place." As he spoke he leaned on the side of a truck that was parked next to their jeep. It was a rusted Ford truck.
"Hey," Luciano called from the entrance. He walked to where they were standing. "I'm telling you, you aren't going to find a shred of evidence of that village."
"Why are you so sure?" Gerald asked, squinting from the sunlight.
"Because someone destroyed all the files for that particular village. And I helped them do it."
"She didn't tell me what she wanted it for. All I knew was that I was getting paid a lot of money for getting rid of a village that nobody had ever heard of anyway," Luciano was saying in between sips of his beer. "Government agents... go figure." Helga and the gang had followed him in the jeep to a bar in the city. It was a local tourist spot, but it served the best food of the bars in that strip of development. It was a little after lunch time, but the bar was slammed with people. Loud, Latin music was blaring and some of the people were even dancing to it.
"Couldn't we just go looking for the village?" Arnold said.
"No way buddy," he replied, slamming the empty bottle on the table. "Even an expert like me couldn't find that place without those files."
"Then what are we supposed to do without them?" Gerald asked.
"Well," Luciano said, "she said she wanted all of the files and I gave every last one of them to her. But what she didn't tell me she wanted... were the copies of those files." He placed a folder in front of them on the table. "Did I mention how much I hate government agents?"
"This is it!" Arnold said with a wide grin as he pulled a map out of the folder. It pinpointed the exact location of the village.
"What the hell is all this other stuff?" Helga asked as she thumbed through the rest of the papers. "Water storage? Health reports? Look at this one," she said and showed them a map with colored markings near the village.
"I have no idea," Luciano said. "I just filed the papers when they were given to me. That was my job." He picked up the new bottle of beer that was placed in front of him by a waitress and tilted his head back to drink. Something caught his eye and he started choking loudly.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Arnold asked.
"I cannot believe my luck," he breathed heavily. "Only I would be lucky enough to come to the exact same bar as she would."
They looked across the room in the direction in which he was looking and saw two men and a woman in suits at a table.
"I swear I have the worst luck in history," he said.
"I know a guy who's got you beat," Gerald said.
"You don't understand," Luciano said. "She's crazy, she said she would kill me."
As if to answer him, she looked over in their direction. She then resumed talking to the other men.
"Did she see me?" he asked frantically.
"I don't think so," Arnold said. "I wish we could talk to them and find out why they didn't want anyone to know about the village."
"I think we should leave," Phoebe said. "It's not safe for Luciano."
"I think she's right," Luciano nodded.
"But we need more information," Helga said.
"Okay," Arnold said. "Someone take Luciano back to the hotel."
"I'll do it," Gerald stood up. "But I'm not going alone."
"Phoebe, you go with Gerald," Helga instructed. "Football head, I've got an idea."
"What?" he said, but she grabbed his shirt sleeve and dragged him onto the dance floor. A loud, fast pace song started to play and almost everyone got up to dance. "Helga, what are you doing??"
"Shut up and dance," she said, putting his hand on her hip. "I have an idea. We need to get closer to their table," she said. "Come on Arnoldo, I know you can dance better than this."
Arnold sighed and swung her across the floor. He then pulled her back, closely, and moved over to the agents' table.
"Hey hey hey!" Helga shouted as they moved together. "Watch those hands pal..."
"Sorry," he said nervously. "Why don't you let me lead?"
"Because you don't know what to do," she barked.
The agents were a few feet away and they were deep in conversation. "I can't hear anything they are saying Helga."
"Okay, when I tell you to, I want you to dip me," she whispered.
"What??" he asked loudly. "I can't hear you!"
"I said, oh nevermind," she yelled. Helga held him tightly and leaned him backwards so that his head was conveniently placed within earshot.
"....checked all of the files and they are all there," the woman was saying. "It's like the village never existed...."
Arnold was pulled away after a few seconds by Helga. "Did you get anything?" she asked.
"No," he shook his head. "You go in this time," he said taking over. Arnold swung her again and pulled her back. He leaned her back into their conversation.
"Nobody is ever going to ask any questions," she said. "We don't have to deal with this anymore. The village has no contact with the outside world and we'll just wait until everyone dies off. Then we'll be completely through with this thing forever."
"What about tourists?" one of the men asked. "What if they find the village?"
"That's where the quarantine signs come in. They'll take one look at them and leave without any questions."
"So there are no problems?" the other man asked.
"No sir," she said. Suddenly, they all turned and looked at an upside down Helga.
"Oh ahhah... 'scuse me!" she said. Arnold snapped her back up quickly, bringing her face just inches from his.
Back at the table, Gerald shook his head. "What are they DOING?"
"Let's go," Arnold said as he and Helga returned. "We've got all the info we need. I think they know," he said.
"That was odd," the woman said, sipping on her margarita. She was about to return to the conversation, when someone caught her eye.
"We'll meet you at the hotel later tonight," Arnold said as he and Helga got into the jeep.
"Good luck man," Gerald waved good-bye. Helga backed up, hit a trashcan, and drove away.
Phoebe, Gerald, and Luciano climbed into the truck. They pulled away from the bar and headed in the direction of the hotel.
"Oh..." Luciano said in a worried tone.
"What?" Gerald asked and looked over his shoulder to see a black car following them.
"This is not good," Luciano murmured. He accelerated and in return, the other car did too. "I've got an idea," he said and swerved onto a dirt road that went into the jungle. The other car followed.
Phoebe, sitting in the middle, was thrown into Gerald with an soft "Oof..."
"She knows," he said. "I knew I should have stayed home today!"
"What are we going to do?" Gerald asked.
"What CAN we do," he asked as he sped up down the jungle road.
"Turn down that road!" Phoebe yelled over the roar of the engine. Luciano did as he was told and slid left in the gravel to turn. "Do you know where this road goes?" he asked.
"No!" she said. Phoebe looked back to see the black car doing the same thing. "Okay, turn down the next road, but wait until the last possible second! And accelerate as much as you can!"
"Okay okay!" he nodded. Another road came into site, but it was more narrow and it looked like nobody had driven down it in a long time. The car behind them sped up so that her front end was practically touching his tailgate.
"Now!" Phoebe yelled. The truck swerved to the right at the last minute and they barely made it. Palm frond slapped the car as they turned down the road. They all looked back to see the black car turn, but fail to get onto the road. She spun a full circle two times and finally stopped.
"Yeah!" Gerald said and turned back around. "Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!" he shouted when he saw a fallen tree in their path.
Luciano pressed the brakes to the floor, but it was no use. They slammed into the tree with a terrible metallic crunch.
Meanwhile, back at home, Rhonda was having yet another party. "I'm so glad you could make it!" she said loudly as Stinky and Sid entered the room. When they had walked by, she whispered bitterly to Nadine, "Who the hell invited them??"
"They always come," she shrugged. "What's wrong with them being here?"
"I just think they are bad influences on Haro... uh, oh look it's Lila! Hello Lila!" Rhonda said, starting to sweat. Nadine shrugged again and greeted Lila with her friend.
"Any news from Arnold?" Lila asked politely.
"No, not a thing," Rhonda replied. "I haven't heard anything from them since they left."
"Well I hope everything is going okay," Lila said.
"I'm sure things are fine," she laughed. "Anyway, back to the important issue at hand, there's bottled water and food in the living room, so help yourself."
"Rhonda!" Harold said, bursting through the door. She gave him an icy stare as everyone turned to look at them. "Rhonda, I got a job," he whispered grinning.
"Not now, Harold," Rhonda whispered dryly. "Wait until nobody is around."
"Oh.. okay," he smiled. Harold walked away in the direction of Stinky and Sid.
"Harold," somebody called. He looked over his shoulder to see Patty standing out on the balcony. He smiled and turned to walk towards her.
"Where have you been," she asked. "I've tried to call you for a while and you never seem to be home."
"I wouldn't know why that is," he said slowly. He knew that he was usually with Rhonda.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine," Harold said. "So, uh, what have you been up to," he asked.
"What happened to us, Harold," Patty said. "We used to be best friends."
"I know," he said sadly. "Do you want to sit down and talk?"
"That would be nice," she smiled. "I have... some things to tell you."
"Like what?" he asked. They both sat down on two chairs facing each other.
"Well," Patty said as she looked down at her hands, "I know that you're not seeing anyone right now. And I'm not seeing anyone right now..."
"Oh," he said softly. "Patty, I can't."
"Why not," she asked. "Harold, I can't stay away from you any longer."
"I know," he said, "and I'm sorry if I led you on."
"I don't understand what happened. A few years ago, we would go out on dates every night and then all of the sudden, you just stopped. I kept waiting for you to call, but you never did. I've had this... thing for you for a while Harold. And I just never found the time to tell you."
He stared at her for a while and then looked away. "I'm sorry Patty," he said.
"Why??" she asked, anger laced her voice. "It's not like you're dating anyone."
"It's... it's complicated," he said.
"Why can't you tell me??"
"Because I just can't!"
Patty touched his arm and said, "You know I love you Harold. I've loved you for a while. I even failed two grades just so I could graduate with you. I beat up so many people for you because they were talking about you behind your back. I would do anything for you, Harold."
"I know Patty," he said. "But I just can't be with you."
"Looks like Big Patty and Harold are hitting it off tonight," Sheena said. Her, Rhonda, Nadine, and Lila were standing in a circle in the living room. Rhonda looked out on the balcony and her heart dropped.
"Well, they do look cute together," Nadine said.
"Yeah," Rhonda said. "One big, dumb, stupid person deserves another...."
Later that night, as the party still continued, Harold stepped out of the upstairs bathroom and into a dark, empty hallway. When he turned around, Rhonda was there with her hands on her hips. "And just what were you doing with that ogre," she snapped.
"Who, Patty?" he asked. "We were just-"
"Just what? 'Hooking up'? Are you going to meet up with her later on at McBurger's?"
"Speaking of McBurger's, that's where I got my job! I'm a fry cook!"
"Don't you dare try to change the subject," she said.
"Why does it even matter," he asked. "We're just friends."
"I don't think you should talk to her anymore," Rhonda said.
"You know Rhonda," he said, "ever since we started going out, you have been so mean to me."
"I have not," she said, dumbfounded.
"Patty DID ask me out tonight, but you know what I told her? I told her no. And when she asked me why, I didn't have an answer for her. I could have told her that I was with you, but I can't! You won't let me! I do so much for you and you don't even care. I had to lose forty-five pounds just so I could kiss you. I had to get a job so that you wouldn't be ashamed of me. Well, Patty wants me for who I am. But I love you Rhonda. I love you so much and it means nothing to you. You could have any guy in that room down there so why should you be stuck with me?"
Rhonda's jaw dropped. "Oh... my god. Harold Berman... is breaking up with me..."
"Why does that even matter?" he said. "Why are you so consumed by what other people think of you? They are our friends Rhonda, they won't care."
"You're not going to tell them are you??" she said frantically. Harold stared at her silently.
Then he said, "I should tell them. I should tell them everything about us. But I won't because I'm not that spiteful. I would never want to hurt Rhonda Wellington Lloyd's image because apparently, that's all she cares about. I'm going to leave now and I'm going to find Patty and apologize for earlier," he said and turned to walk away.
"Harold," she whispered in a small, pathetic voice. He turned around, but she couldn't speak. Her mouth opened, but nothing would come out.
"Good-bye Rhonda," he said and walked away. She stood there for a moment, still speechless and hurt. She didn't know whether to act like her usual self, a stuck up bitch, or to break down in tears. Rhonda walked quietly into her room to get away from the loud thump of the music and sat down on her bed.
She looked around her room, at her stylish clothes and shoes, pictures of her hanging out with all the popular people from school, expensive makeup from all around the world, and finally her eyes wandered to the homecoming queen crown. It was her prized possession. The little crown had sparkling diamonds covering shiny silver. But the diamonds were not real and they were glued to the silver crown. And it wasn't real silver either, it was fake too. All of it was fake. It was the perfect metaphor for herself and she knew it.
Downstairs, everyone was starting to drag. It was getting late and the hostess had suddenly disappeared.
"Have you seen Rhonda?" Nadine asked a group of people standing by the food table.
"I'm right here Nadine," Rhonda answered as she lightly walked down the stairs.
"Are you okay?" she said.
"No Nadine, I'm not. I have something to tell you. I have something to tell all of you," she said loudly so that everyone could hear. "For the past year... Harold and I have secretly been dating."
Everyone stared at her.
"I was mean to him. I treated him like he owed me something. I thought I was better than him and I was ashamed of him," Rhonda said, trying desperately to keep her voice steady. "But I hurt him too much tonight and now he's gone. And I just thought that I owed it to him to tell everybody."
"Why didn't you tell me," Nadine asked, breaking the silence. "I've been your best friend forever and you couldn't tell me?! We tell each other everything!"
"I'm sorry Nadine," Rhonda said. Nadine's words cut through her like a knife. She then looked down at her feet.
"Well Rhonda," she said, "you better go find him."
"What?" she said, looking up.
"I said you better go find him before you lose him forever."
"Turn... that way," Arnold said as he pointed to a path. They were deep in the jungle and totally surrounded by foliage. Helga turned the steering wheel and they headed down the path he had specified.
"Where are we??" she asked. "I think we're going in circles."
"We're not going in circles," he said. "We're almost there."
"Sure," she breathed. Sweat rolled down her face and she wiped it away quickly. It was unbearably hot. "We've been driving for two straight hours in this jungle and I've seen the same tree more than once."
"It's a jungle. Jungles have more that one tree."
"I'm telling you, we're lost," Helga said.
"Turn onto that path," he said. She did as she was told.
"These roads are getting worse by the minute. Soon we're going to have to get out and walk."
Suddenly, something far away gleamed in the sunlight and caught Arnold's eye. "What was... Helga, stop the car." He jumped out of the jeep and ran away from the road and deeper into the jungle.
"Arnold wait!" she called and stopped the jeep. She got out and started running after him.
He continued running, avoiding the trees and the ground plants as much as possible. Everything around him whipped by in a blur. He heard Helga call his name, but he kept running. Arnold's dream.
Up ahead, there was a wall of foliage. He burst through it and stumbled to the ground. Brushing himself off, he looked in front of him and froze. Helga came tumbling through the bushes, tripping on vines, and ran straight into Arnold, knocking him to the ground.
"What are you doing?" she shouted angrily. "I outta-" she started to say, but stopped.
There in front of them was an old, beat up plane that was overgrown with vines and covered in rust.
To be continued...
