Chapter Six


Meg: (holding JWJ in a chokehold) Okay, now apologize to all of the Socialists!

JWJ: Why? It's like Communism, and we all know how that turned out!

Meg: It was a good theory.

JWJ: Do you want the world to end up like the book Nineteen Eighty-Four?

Meg: You've never even read that book! You only know what it's about because I read it and told your best friend about it!

JWJ: Well, look at what a dork you are then for reading a stupid book like that anyway!

(RAEB grabs Meg while Emma grabs JWJ)

RAEB: Okay, that's it. We've decided that we're going to kick you two out of the author's notes if you ever get into another fistfight.

Meg: You can't do that! These are my stories!

Emma: (grinning) Yeah we can. All we need is a certain rat...


The next morning Basil and I went back to Rahle's shop, where we found him in a fit of anxiety.

« Où est-il? Non, pas ici. Non! » we heard him mutter from behind the door.

Basil banged impatiently on it for over five minutes before the little French mouse opened it. "I can't find it!" he cried as we pushed our way past him.

"What is it that you're looking for?" I asked.

"Mind your own business!" he snapped at me.

I looked around the room. Costumes had been torn from their respective crates and thrown about the room. If possible, it was in more disarray than we had left it the night before.

As Rahle threw clothes aside Basil said, "Rahle, I want you to practice fitting Meg up. I have business to do."

« Oui, oui, » Rahle said distractedly. Then his head shot towards Basil as realization hit him. "Pardonnez-moi? You're leaving her with me?" he said, pointing at me.

"Yes Rahle."

"For how long?" the mouse exclaimed.

"Six hours, maybe eight."

I laughed silently to myself as Rahle exclaimed, « Huit heures! Non, c'est impossible! » (Eight hours! No, it is impossible!)

Basil bowed to me. "I do apologize, Mrs. Havers, for leaving you here."

"Apologize to her? Apologize to me!" Rahle said. "I can't work with her around! She will break everything in the shop!"

"Maybe she can help you find whatever it is you're looking for," Basil said to him. Then he whispered to me, "It's in that rolled-up Persian rug in the corner. Bonne chance," he added as he left.

Rahle glared at me as he relocked the door. "Well, help me find it then!"

I calmly walked over to the Persian rug, reached into it, and pulled out a bottle of wine. "Is this it?"

"Saperlipopette, now there are two Basils!" Rahle said, shaking his head in disbelief. "One is enough." He came over to me and snatched the bottle away. "Give me that."

I started to laugh.

"What is so funny, mademoiselle?"

"Oh, nothing," I said innocently.

« Huit heures! En huit heures, je serai fou de tous les étrangers! » (In eight hours, I will be crazy from all the strangers!) he said in French as he stormed up the attic stairs.

I could not help laughing at Rahle. He was one of the strangest people I had ever met. Basil told me that he did not trust strangers, which was why he kept such a tight security on his projects. "Once he gets to know you he will be more friendly," Basil had said the night before. "But he has an inflated ego, so try to respect his work."

I went up into the attic, only to be chased out by Rahle, who told me that he would "deal with me later." I came back down and looked glumly at the distorted room. I wondered how long I would have to wait for Basil. He had gone to find Lacasa, the Colhart manor.

Rahle came pounding back down the steps. "You there! Help me find my Cleopatra wig!" He disappeared back up the steps.

It took me about forty-five minutes to find it. After I gave it to him, I began to put clothes back in the boxes and somehow straighten up the mess. It gave me something to do.


Rahle came back down around one o'clock. I had lunch waiting for him on a table. He stopped and stared at the room, his mouth hanging open.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"You can't find anything in here," I said matter-of-factly. "And I had nothing to do. So I straightened all the costumes and put all the makeup together, and found the mannequin heads for all the wigs."

"But my system! You have ruined it! And what is this!" he said, motioning to the fish and bread on the table.

I smiled. "I thought you might be hungry."

He bit his lip, trying hard not to smile. "For that I forgive you, but just this once," he said, tucking in.


I went down to the wine shop to get some more wine when I saw Colhart being shoved by two more mice up the stairs. I gasped. One of them was Rafael, Ratigan's henchman! I hurried back the way I had come.

"Rahle!" I gasped as I burst into the room, "You have to hide me!"

"Where is the wine?" he asked.

"No! There's some mice who work for Ratigan on their way up here."

"So?"

"So! If they find me here, they'll take me to Ratigan. And if I get kidnapped, Basil will never buy another thing from you ever again!"

« Mon Dieu! » Rahle jumped up from his chair. "I will hide you in a chest."

"For how long?" I asked. "I'd suffocate! It's hot enough as it is."

There was a loud banging on the door. "Mr. Rahle?"

Rahle ran to the door and locked it. "How about the attic?" I suggested.

"And let you see my top-secret projects? Non!"

"Rahle? Are you there?"

« Donnez-moi une minuit! » (Give me a minute!) he yelled at the door. He shoved me into a room that was more like a closet. A bed, washstand and bureau took up pretty much all of the available space. "Stay here!" he commanded, slamming the door.

I held my ear against the door and listened as Rahle opened the front door. "Who are you?" he snapped.

"We're sent by Professor Ratigan. He wants-"

"I have never seen you before in my life, you strange persons!" Rahle said. I giggled. I guess Basil was right when he said that Rahle did not trust strangers. « Une minute! C'est vous, monsieur? Comment-allez vous? » (One minute! It is you, mister? How are you?)

"Shut up!" the unknown mouse barked. "You are not to speak to him, Rahle."

"I know him! Come in, Monsieur Colhart."

"This isn't Marcus Colhart. This is his brother."

I peered through the keyhole. Landon Colhart was alive? Rahle's back was to me, blocking Rafael and his companions from view. "Why you bring strange persons here?" he asked suspiciously. "I never dealt with his brother."

"Colhart wants you to make a mask that will stay on this mouse's face permanently."

"What, a mask that he cannot take off? You need a doctor for that, not an artist!"

"You can't do it?"

"Of course not!"

"Shit," the mouse snapped.

Rafael said, "All right, Ratigan wants-"

"I never see you before!" Rahle repeated.

There was a rustling of paper. "There," Rafael said. "Do you believe that Ratigan sent me now?"

"Fine. Come in, and do not touch a thing!"

I saw Rafael roughly push Colhart into the room, but I only caught a glimpse of him as he passed. The other one walked in behind them.

I heard something that sounded like metal clink on wood. "What are you doing?"

"This one's a troublemaker. I just have to keep him like this for awhile," the other mouse said.

Rahle's tone of voice was sharp. "Then don't bring your troublemakers with you when you want my service!"

"All right!"

"What does the professeur want?" Rahle asked.

"Look at this photograph. He wants a wig that looks like this," Rafael said.

"This? The one of the girl?"

"Do you have a wig like that?"

"Oui, but it has just been sold."

"What! Who bought it?"

"None of your business, you ridiculous English-type!"

There was a long pause. "How long will it take you to make another wig like it?"

I heard Rahle mutter to himself. "Give me one week!"

"One week? Ratigan wants it in four days."

"Six days."

"Four."

"Six! I charge less for the professeur."

"Fine. Whatever."

"Now leave!" Rahle said.

"Ratigan also wants to know if his mask is done yet."

"I was working on it when you persons interrupted me!"

"So it's not done?"

"No! Come back tomorrow!"

"Let's go Charlie," Rafael said. The click of metal was heard again. "Have it ready tomorrow!"

Rahle swore to himself as he locked the door behind the three mice.

I timidly opened the bedroom door. Rahle noticed me and widened his eyes as he approached me. He grabbed a handful of my hair. "I give you, mademoiselle, fifty francs for the hair."

"I kind of like it the way it is, Rahle."

"No! Much better shorter."

I pulled out of his grasp and sat on the couch. "No."

He sighed, clearly disappointed. Then he said, "You tell Monsieur Basil about the idiots who come today, and I tell those same idiots about you and Monsieur Basil being here."

"Deal," I said indifferently with every intention of breaking that promise as soon as Basil came back. He had to know that Landon was still alive.

"Fine. Now I turn you into Monsieur Basil, no?"

Finally I thought to myself as Rahle ran upstairs to get the mask. I then saw a photograph that had not been on the floor before. It was a photograph of Ratigan and I, taken when he had kidnapped me the first time. I grabbed a fistful of my hair and, with a sick feeling in my stomach, understood why Rahle had asked me for it.


Leigh: Why does Ratigan want a wig that looks like Meg's hair?

Meg: If I answered that, I'd ruin the story. Wait, I don't think I'm going to answer that at all. Just assume what you want to about that.

Leigh: (smacks Meg) You moron!

Sarah: Je sais, je sais. And Rafael and Charles tried getting a permanent mask on Landon? What are you trying to do, remake "The Man in the Iron Mask?"

Meg: NON! Sarah, Leigh, et JWJ: Fermez les bouches!

Sarah: (aside, to Meg) JWJ didn't say anything.

Meg: (aside, to Sarah) He still needs to shut his mouth.

JWJ: Hey, did you just SWEAR at me?

Sarah: (grinning evilly) Maybe she did.