Arthur's piano, Francine's drums, Alan's cello, and April's saxophone lay dormant as the quartet members forgot about music for the moment, preferring to discuss the secret they had just learned about April.

"If you have a plan to save your parents, I want to help," offered Francine, who sat next to Arthur on the couch.

"I know you do," replied April. "And if I need your help, I'll ask for it."

"You're living with Augusta now," Alan mentioned. "Is she your partner in whatever scheme you're hatching?"

"I'd rather not answer any more questions," said April flatly.

"When we first met, you said something important was about to happen," Francine recalled. "Then you left town just before the city was cleansed, and you came back right after it returned to normal."

"It has something to do with Augusta being transformed and getting her powers," Alan hypothesized. "She tried to wipe out all the evil in the world once, and you want to help her try again. Is that it?"

April didn't say a word, but her face manifested great discomfort.

"But that makes no sense," Fern remarked to Alan. "Why would she need to get rid of all the world's evil just to save her parents? Why not just go back to the day before they were killed, and warn them of the danger?"

"You're right, that doesn't make sense," Arthur chimed in. "Unless the whole world is trying to kill her parents."

"Or maybe a part of the world," Fern suggested. "Like a hostile country."

"Or some kind of secret spy organization," Alan tossed out.

Suddenly Francine was looking as uncomfortable as April.

"What I really want to know is why she didn't die of AIDS," said Alan, pretending as if April were elsewhere.

"Maybe they found a cure," Arthur answered. "Or maybe she never had it to begin with."

"Maybe she faked her death, then started calling herself April," Fern proposed.

"I think we should drop the subject before we put ourselves in danger," Francine spoke up, but the others seemed to ignore her.

"And another thing," Fern continued. "There are two Sue Ellens now--April, and the nine-year-old Sue Ellen who's supposed to be in Karjakistan, but isn't."

"Yeah, where is she?" Arthur inquired of April. The cat girl only scowled at him.

Alan turned to Francine. "You have Sue Ellen's memories. Do you know where the Armstrongs moved to?"

"No, I don't," replied the anxious-looking Francine.

"That's strange," remarked Fern. "Why would they move away without even telling Sue Ellen where they're going?"

"Maybe they were running from something," said Arthur.

"Or someone," added Alan. "Whoever killed Sue Ellen's parents in the future must have been hunting them for years."

Fern shrugged. "But why? Who would want to hunt down and kill a diplomat and his family?"

"Unless...he's not really a diplomat," suggested Arthur.

April's eyes flashed with repressed anger. "This is pointless," she growled, rising to her feet. Arthur, Fern, Alan, and Francine watched as she plucked up her saxophone case and marched out of Arthur's house in a huff.

Now all eyes were on the visibly distressed Francine.

"You may as well tell us," said Alan with a menacing air. "Fern will figure it out eventually."

"Thanks, Alan," said Fern, blushing.

Finally Francine leaned forward as if to speak.

"I'll tell Arthur," she said softly. "He's the only one I'll tell."

Taken aback, Arthur followed Francine as they walked up the staircase and into the upstairs bathroom. Once inside, Francine closed the door and cranked the shower to full blast.

Then she kissed Arthur again. And Arthur kissed back.

"I can't believe I'm really in love with a girl," Arthur remarked. "This is so cool."

"It's not so cool when the one you love doesn't return your feelings," Francine told him.

"I'm sorry," Arthur answered meekly. "I guess I wasn't ready before."

They gazed into each other's eyes for a few long seconds, then Francine took a deep breath.

"I love you, Arthur," she said tenderly. "But if you ever tell another soul what I'm about to tell you, I'll kill you."

Arthur grinned. The roaring water from the showerhead nearly drowned out Francine's words.

"Sue Ellen's dad is a spy," she told the boy. "He works for the CIA. I don't know who exactly is after him, but it's some kind of enemy intelligence network. April knows more than I do, but she's not talking. And that's good, because the people who murdered my...Sue Ellen's parents in the future are utterly ruthless. If Sue Ellen hadn't changed her identity, they would've killed her too."

By this time, Arthur's eyes had widened almost beyond the rims of his glasses.

Meanwhile, Fern and Alan stood in the living room, discussing other facets of the situation with April.

"You know a lot more about Augusta than I do," said Fern. "What powers does she have? What's she capable of?"

"Back when Augusta was still Angus, and Dudley was still Dolly," Alan recounted, "we all went on a trip to Salem. Prunella and her mom were there, and Nadine and her mom. It turned out Angus was really an alchemist--sort of a scientist, but one who studies magic. He told us about something called the gift of the Wicasta. It's only passed down to girls, and they can use it to do magic and become witches. Dolly was the only one left with the gift--all the others were executed during the witch trials. Angus needed Dolly's help to create something called a Cleansing Stone, which could change the amount of good or evil in a person. He hoped to use it to make everyone good and create a perfect world. But Dolly stole it and drained the evil out of the whole city, except for me and Prunella."

"So that's why we all started being nice to each other," Fern mused.

"And that's when we realized that good and evil are subject to conservation laws," Alan went on. "In other words, you can move them or mix them up, but you can't create them or destroy them. The Cleansing Stone didn't work like Angus expected--it sucked all the evil out of the people of the city, and put it inside of Dolly, making her about a hundred thousand times more powerful and evil than she was before."

Fern grimaced. "So that's how I ended up as half of a two-headed person with Buster."

"Prunella managed to destroy the Cleansing Stone before Dolly could use it on the rest of the world," Alan proceeded. "If she hadn't, Dolly would have become unstoppable. So Dolly wanted to capture Angus and force him to create a new stone. When she finally caught him, she turned him into Augusta and gave her the Wicasta gift so that she could create the stone without Dolly's help."

"I remember that part."

"So do I," Alan continued. "I thought it was the end of everything, but Prunella had one last trick up her sleeve. She tricked Dolly into trying to turn her into a boy, but she deflected the spell with a magic mirror, and Dolly turned into Dudley. Since boys can't possess the Wicasta gift, he was no longer a threat."

"And what about Augusta?"

"I'm getting to that. Angus was one of the greatest alchemists ever. He knew pretty much everything. Augusta has all that knowledge, and witch powers to boot. She can control good and evil just by thinking. If she decides to take over the world, nobody will be able to stop her."

"Why not?"

Alan thought for a second, then asked, "Do you remember how you felt when you were cleansed?"

"Yes," Fern answered. "I was happy all the time. I didn't want to hurt anybody."

"Now," Alan went on, "suppose the police, or the army, tried to capture Augusta. She would use her powers to cleanse them, and they would feel happy and not want to hurt her. Meanwhile, all their evil would go into her, and make her more powerful."

Fern became lost in thought, pondering what Alan had told her.

"Then we'd better pray she's on our side," she finally said.

At that moment the upstairs bathroom door opened, and Arthur and Francine descended the stairway, gazing at each other affectionately and mysteriously.

"Out with it, Arthur," said Alan when the two had reached the first floor. "What did she tell you?"

"Trust me," came Arthur's reply, "you don't want to know."

As Alan stared at the silent, grinning Francine, a memory from the previous year struggled to resurface. Despite its vagueness, he somehow felt that it would explain the riddle at hand. He stared at Francine some more.

Then it hit him.

"Francine will become a master spy called The Wraith."

When Jason, his son from thirty years in the future, had revealed this to him, he hadn't understood it. Francine, a spy? Why not a professional soccer player, or a sanitation engineer like her father? What would attract a girl like her to the field of espionage?

It was all clear now...

"I trust you didn't hear anything," said Francine to Alan and Fern.

"Of course we didn't," replied Alan knowingly. "You don't think we would...spy...on you, do you?"

Francine's jaw plummeted.

Arthur gritted his teeth.

Fern wondered what was going on.

The monkey girl's expression morphed into one of defeat.

"Okay, Alan," she muttered. "Your turn in the bathroom."

TBC