Chapter 6
The sun had set, leaving Oswald, Ortensia, and Mickey sitting in Felix's car as they watched the cat talking to a short rectangle of a man behind the counter.
"And you're sure they don't take our money?" Oswald asked.
Mickey, sitting in the passenger seat, shook his head. "Same with our cards. We'll just have to send him a money order when we get back."
"What for?" Felix asked as he opened the door to sit back in the driver's seat.
"Give me the receipt, we'll pay you back when we get home," Mickey offered, holding out a hand to the cat.
"Don't bother," Felix said, handing the mouse a key with a large wooden keychain. "They only had one room available. Guess we're gonna be bunk mates."
"You snore?" Mickey asked, seeing a number engraved on the wooden keychain.
"No, you?" Felix asked as he backed the car out of the spot and went around the motel loop.
"No, than we're good," Mickey said, letting out a laugh.
Felix pulled in front of a door with the number 4 on it and turned off the car as a soft snore sounded from the back seat. The two turned to look at the back seat to see Ortensia's head rolled back and her mouth open as she slept.
Oswald eyed the two in the front and said, "Don't. Say. A word."
"I've gotta call Minnie," Mickey said as he turned to open the door, letting himself out.
Felix opened his door to get out, leaving it open as he walked up to the door with Mickey to unlock it.
Oswald pushed the seat forward to climb out of the back seat, glancing up at the two to see Mickey was already holding his cell to his head. "Hey Mick," Oswald called out. "She's at my place, remember?"
"Oh right," Mickey said, lowering the phone as Felix got the door open.
Oswald shut the passenger door before walking around to the driver side. He leaned the seat forward and reached over to unbuckle Ortensia's seatbelt only for her to jolt awake at his touch. He froze at her wide eyed stare.
"Oswald?" Ortensia asked, just taking in her surroundings. "Oh, we've found a place to stop?"
"Yeah, come on inside so you can get some proper sleep," Oswald said, giving her a smile as he pulled himself out.
Ortensia let out a yawn before she was able to crawl out. Stepping away from the car she gave her back a stretch as Oswald closed the door. "How long was I out?" she asked before dropping her stretch to look up at the starry night sky.
"A couple of hours," Oswald admitted. "It's about midnight." He gave her a moment to look at the stars, a smile pulling on his cheeks, before saying, "Come on, let's go inside and sleep."
The two walked into the motel room, the lights on as Mickey talked on the phone. "Wait, what?" The mouse looked up as Oswald closed the door and said, "Hey, she's awake so let me put you on speaker phone." Mickey held the device flat in his hand and hit a button. "Okay Min, tell them."
"After you left, I asked Clarabelle about Mr. Shyster and if he's got connections with any politicians," Minnie said through the phone's speaker.
"Clarabelle?" Ortensia asked, looking up at Mickey.
"The Clarabelle that replaced the one you know," Mickey explained quietly.
"We're working on getting a new law passed that would prevent this whole mess from ever happening again," Minnie said.
"Just be careful," Mickey said to the phone. "You know I don't trust Mr. Shyster."
"I don't trust him either, but he's got connections," Minnie admitted.
"A little too late for us, but we appreciate it all the same," Oswald offered, smiling at the phone.
"With how many things the company's getting, it's bound to happen again," Minnie offered. She let out a laugh as she added, "Someone just woke up and wants to talk to you."
"Who?" Ortensia started to ask.
"Hey Mama," a young voice said from the speaker. "Hi Dad, hi Uncle Mickey."
"Junior, what are you doing up this late?" Ortensia asked.
"Yeah, are we gonna have to find someone other than Aunt Minnie to watch over you when we're gone?" Oswald asked, eyeing the phone in Mickey's hand.
"Don't blame her!" the bunny child exclaimed. "I was worried about you and couldn't sleep."
"Aw, you don't have to worry 'bout us," Ortensia tried.
"Yes I do! You all leave after the police show up and Minnie brought Pluto so I knew it was something big!" The bunny child sounded on the verge of tears.
"Oh, 32, don't cry," Minnie tried.
"32, listen to me," Oswald said. He waited a moment as sniffling could be heard through the phone before asking, "Are you listening?"
"Yes sir," the bunny child said tentatively.
"We're sorry we didn't say much before we left, it was kinda sudden," Oswald offered. "The police asked your uncle Mickey to help on a case and he needed us to help him."
"But Aunt Minnie said it was a long distance call," the child offered. "42 is always saying that's not a problem anymore."
"It is for where we had to go," Ortensia said. "We're over at Universal."
"Oh, is this from that big meeting Aunt Minnie had on the front yard?" 32 asked with a sniffle.
"That's the hope," Minnie said. The bunny blew his nose before she asked, "Are you okay now?" Silence filled the phone for a moment before she said, "Good, then tell them good night so you can go to bed."
"Good night Dad, Good night Mama, Good night Uncle Mickey."
"Night-night," Mickey offered as Oswald and Ortensia said, "Good night."
"Now you go on to bed, and don't wake your siblings," Minnie said. She waited a moment before offering, "Sorry, I must've missed him when I was tucking them in."
"It's okay, I know they can get ideas in their heads," Ortensia said with a laugh. "Thanks again for watching them on such short notice."
"I did that enough for whoever Mickey was watching over the years," Minnie said, laughing. "As well as Pluto."
"Hey, I don't want to take my dog out into the middle of who knows where Africa," Mickey defended. "Same with the kids. Morty and Ferdie've already seen the wrong end of the gun more than once."
"Some guardian you are," Felix joked from where he sat on the edge of the bed.
"Who was that?" Minnie asked.
"Oh, sorry, Felix is here with us," Mickey offered, throwing a glance over his shoulder. "He's been a big help."
"Thank you, Felix," Minnie said.
"You don't have to," Felix said, brushing off the idea.
"Yes I do," Minnie said.
"Okay then, you're welcome," Felix said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Mickey.
"I'd better let you get some sleep," Minnie said. "Tomorrow Daisy's gonna come over to watch the kids so I can go with Mr. Shyster and Clarabelle."
"Good luck," Oswald offered.
"And you too," Minnie said in return. "Good night."
"Good night," rang from the three of them before Mickey ended the call.
Felix rose to his feet and headed to the bathroom, saying, "Being around you lot for too much longer's gonna be painful." He closed the bathroom door behind himself before anyone could respond.
"Let me guess, his family's all gone too?" Oswald asked, dropping down on the other bed.
"You should remember, kids are the first to get cut," Ortensia reminded in a quiet voice as she kept an eye on the closed bathroom door. "And it's not like Universal to save anything they don't want."
-.-.-.-
"I need more than six hours of sleep," Felix said from the passenger seat.
"Drink your coffee," Mickey ordered, glancing down at the speedometer as he noticed how much above the speed limit he was doing on the long desert road heading east.
"Has Woody sent any word?" Ortensia asked.
"He sent a text while you were getting us breakfast," Mickey offered. "No sign of the Professor. At least it seems like we're on the right track."
"Too bad we don't have KITT," Felix said before taking a sip from his coffee.
"KITT?" Oswald echoed.
"Oh, an old NBC show," Felix explained. "The car, KITT, was an AI and could drive itself. Could also get some top speeds. We'd already be there with that car."
"Hey, I'm just thankful we've got your car," Mickey said. "So how much farther out is this old shooting location?"
"It was around lunch by the time my group got to the ghost town," Oswald said.
"Yeah, about four hours from the motel," Felix added.
"Surely that's not the same motel," Ortensia stated.
"The building looked the same," Oswald said, looking out the window to see Felix's reflection in the side mirror.
"It had to've been renovated," Felix pointed out. "They didn't have indoor plumbing in those days."
"Do not miss those days," Ortensia said with a laugh.
"You're telling me, I'm still tried of that bed pan gag!" Oswald exclaimed, turning to his wife.
"I'd forgotten about that!" Mickey said with a laugh.
"I wasn't even talking about that," Ortensia said with a smile. "I was remembering the long ordeal of getting the kids ready every day."
"I'd forgotten about that," Oswald realized. "Yeah, really don't miss those days."
"Hey, isn't that his car?" Mickey asked, getting the two in the back to look between the front seats. He slowed the car to a stop to look at the old four door, the hood left open.
"You don't think he would've left the photo album, huh?" Oswald asked.
"Guess I'd better check," Felix said, sitting his coffee on the dashboard. He unbuckled himself and stepped out, leaving the door opened as he walked over to the car. He looked through the driver side window before trying the door handle. Pulling it open, Felix leaned in to start rummaging through what he could see, his tail flicking in frustration. The trunk popped open moments before Felix left the cabin to look in the back only for him to slam the lid back down. Quickly he shut the driver door, leaving the car the way they had found it, and sat back down in his car. Shutting the door he buckled himself back in and grabbed his coffee as he said, "Nothing. Just some notebooks and invention doodles." Mickey pulled the car out of park and continued down the road as Felix added, "Though it looked like something big had been stored in his trunk."
"So he could have another vehicle," Mickey guessed.
"That's what I was thinking."
"Any idea what he could think the picture would tell him?" Ortensia asked.
"I don't even remember the pictures in that album," Felix admitted.
"He seems to have heard us talking about Hells Heels," Mickey pointed out. "If anything, he'd probably believe your bag is somewhere in the old ghost town." He glanced up in the rear view mirror and caught sight of Oswald. "One day you've gotta show me this movie at least."
"I've told you, I'm not proud of those," Oswald admitted, looking out the window at the passing desert.
"You think I'm proud of some of my older stuff?" Mickey said with a laugh. "And you know people will still be watching Plane Crazy years from now because of what Walt started about archiving everything."
"I still like some of your older stuff. I think it's the Circus Kid?" Felix said, trying to remember. He shook his head as he offered, "Sorry, I barely remember the names to my own stuff."
"I did a few in the circus," Mickey admitted. "Which one?"
"You're selling hot dogs and Minnie's boss gets mad at you in the night," Felix offered.
"Oh, that's the Karnival Kid," Mickey realized, smiling.
"That's one of those you redid of mine, isn't it?" Oswald asked, eyeing the back of the mouse's head.
Mickey let out a sigh as he said, "I can't help Walt liked some ideas enough to reuse them."
"Mickey, he's just pestering you about it," Ortensia said, giving her husband a glare.
"What? You wanted me to accept he's my brother, that'll include some pestering," Oswald defended with a smile.
"Mickey, your family's weird," Felix mumbled, getting a laugh out of the mouse.
"But I wouldn't trade them," Mickey said with a smile.
