Dusk had arrived. Alan waited until his mother was occupied in another room, then quietly opened the front door and slipped out. He had escaped undetected.

Down the street he strolled nonchalantly, hoping no one would find it suspicious that he was unaccompanied. As far as he knew, his parents' overprotectiveness had not yet become common knowledge.

Upon arriving at the Prufrock house, he rang the doorbell. "Come in, Alan," Rubella welcomed him.

"I need to talk to Prunella," he said earnestly.

"She's in the living room."

Alan found the rat girl in front of the TV, with the mindless stare of someone who had lost the will to live. "Prunella," he called to her.

She turned her head and scowled darkly.

"Can we go to your room?" Alan requested. "I have something to talk to you about. It's important."

"It better be," Prunella grumbled.

Once they were inside the bedroom on the upper floor, Alan made his case. "Tegan wants to meet with us. I think she knows a way to cure you."

"Really?" said Prunella expectantly. "When?"

"Now."

Prunella glanced around uneasily. "Uh, that's a little soon. I'll have to ask Rubella to drive me."

"We're not driving," Alan told her. "We're taking the bus. And we're going alone."

"Alone? But it's getting late."

"All the more reason for us to leave right away."

Within moments Prunella had put on her jacket and joined Alan at the door. "I'm going to Alan's for just a second," she informed Rubella.

"Be careful," Rubella cautioned her.

They started down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. "This is dangerous," Prunella protested mildly.

"Life is dangerous," was Alan's response.

----

Teenage Prunella stood on the doorstep at Alan's house, wishing she were anywhere else. How could she face, let alone forgive, the boy who had wrecked her life?

The door was opened by a young bear man wearing reading glasses. His cheeks were covered with peach fuzz, and the sloppiness of his hair and clothes suggested that he didn't get out much. Prunella saw anguish in his eyes as he looked upon her.

"May I come in?" she asked politely.

Alan didn't speak, but stepped aside to allow Prunella entrance. The inside of the house was for the most part how she remembered it.

"Why have you come?" Alan inquired, his tone devoid of happiness.

The boy was so miserable, Prunella felt compelled to say anything that might brighten his day.

"Alan...I'm cured."

She could almost hear the weight falling from Alan's shoulders and landing on the floor.

"Cured? How?"

"Augusta did it. She gave me a stone, I put it under my pillow, and the next morning I could remember stuff."

Seemingly too embarrassed to look Prunella in the face, Alan turned aside. She saw a tear roll down his cheek.

----

Alan and Prunella disembarked the bus near the intersection of 18th and Harvard, near downtown Elwood City. The library was three blocks away, and they walked the distance quickly. Alan checked his watch. It was five minutes to eight.

"This is where we're supposed to meet her," he told Prunella. The library was closed. The only light was from the lamp posts surrounding it. Night was creeping across the sky.

"What a lovely evening," Prunella commented. "I hope what you're saying is true. I hope I won't forget this day."

Alan didn't speak, but only watched and listened. He hoped with all his heart that he hadn't raised the girl's hopes for nothing.

It was eight o'clock. A soft voice called out from behind the library building. "Psst. Alan. Prunella."

It was Tegan's voice, but Alan didn't see her face. He grabbed Prunella's hand, and led her to the semi-darkened alley behind the building.

"It looks scary," said Prunella fearfully. "What if it's a trap?"

They took a few steps into the alley, and Tegan's outline became visible. "Hello, Alan," she welcomed him. She wore the neuroblocker barette on her head.

"Hi, Tegan," Alan returned the greeting.

They were a few feet from the smiling girl when Alan felt a hand gripping his shoulder. He gasped and twirled. A short cat man had surprised them from behind.

Mansch. He might have known.

----

Alan struggled to contain his emotions as Prunella cradled him in her long, lanky arms. They were leaning against the back of the couch.

"I was afraid you'd be like that forever," Alan sobbed. "I'm so glad you have your life back. I'm sorry for what I did to you, Prunella. I'm so sorry."

"I forgive you," said the rat girl gently. "Now that I have my life back, you can have yours back too."

"Oh, thank you." Alan tightened his grip on Prunella's back. "Thank you for forgiving me."

They embraced long and hard. After Alan had released her, Prunella carefully pulled off his reading glasses and wiped the tears from them with a handkerchief.

"When I first asked Augusta to help you, I wasn't sure if she could pull it off," Alan related with a sniffle. "I was desperate. I would have done anything to make things right. And I almost did."

----

Alan recoiled in terror from the goateed face of Raymond Mansch. Prunella, never having met the cat man before, could only gape in confusion.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Alan," said the expert thief. "I'm here to help you."

"Why should I trust you?" Alan snapped. "You're a crook. You kidnapped Fern."

"You're not exactly an angel yourself, young man," Mansch chided him. "You erased Tegan's memories of her time with you."

Shame welled up in Alan's heart. He still regretted what he had done, but his parents had insisted it was necessary.

"Listen to him, Alan," Tegan urged him. The sound of a cat screeching echoed through the alley.

"Whatever crimes I may have committed," said Mansch, "they pale in comparison to what the government is doing to the Brainchildren--separating them from their families, locking them away from the rest of the world, preventing them from using their gifts. Yes, Alan. My friends and I broke into Ballford Prep and freed them."

The news startled but didn't surprise Alan. "Why didn't my parents tell me this?" he wanted to know.

"You're a Brainchild too," Mansch went on. "The only reason your parents haven't locked you up is because your powers only work when you're with Tegan. They want to keep the two of you apart at any cost."

Alan's mind became restless. What if Mansch was speaking the truth? What if his own parents were misleading him?

"Besides Tegan, there are three other Brainchildren with me," Mansch told him. "Your old friend C.V., and a boy and girl whose powers you'll have to see to believe. They're all very grateful to me for springing them from that prison of a school."

"I think you're just interested in power," Alan accused him.

"No, Alan," Tegan claimed. "I've been in his mind. He only wants to protect us until we can protect ourselves."

"Excuse me," Prunella chimed in, "but what do I have to do with any of this?"

"That's the best part," Tegan replied. "Mansch helped me relearn my new powers after Alan erased my memories. I can use them to cure you. I can absorb your memories of the day when you go to bed, and put them back in your head when you wake up."

Prunella gaped in amazement and turned to Alan, as if seeking a verification from him that it was possible.

"There's a catch, isn't there?" said Alan suspiciously.

"Of course there is," Mansch acknowledged. "Can you guess?"

Alan's body shuddered. Dark sentiments filled his heart. He knew what the catch was.

"You want me to join you."

----

"It was the hardest decision I ever made," teenage Alan recalled. "But in the end, I knew I had to choose my parents over a known criminal."

"Did you ever see Tegan again?" Prunella asked.

"No." Alan shook his head.

"Still, you made the right choice," Prunella assured him.

She leaned forward to embrace him again, but as her arms touched his shoulders, the boy and girl blinked out of existence.

----

"Join me, Alan," Mansch urged the boy. "It's the only way to help Prunella. It's the only way to be with your sister."

Alan's mind raced. He didn't want to turn his back on his parents, yet Prunella was staring him in the face, as if pleading with him to make the decision that would allow her to live a normal life again.

"Well?" said Mansch impatiently. "Are you in or out?"

Alan gritted his teeth. He put forth his hand, and Mansch eagerly shook it.

"I'm in."

----

to be continued