Another song is introduced in this chapter but you don't need to listen to it while you read; it's only one verse.
…
Perry was sitting at his desk in his office, typing. It was a nice summer's day outside but Perry was nice and cool inside with the air conditioning on.
Someone knocked at his door. He turned and smiled when he saw Sylvia, holding Nicky in her arms.
"So…you know I only have a few days left in America, right?" she said hesitantly.
Perry's smile vanished and he nodded sadly.
The last two weeks had been amazing. He'd spent so much time with Sylvia and Nicky that he could barely remember a time in which he didn't have her.
Apart from E-Day last year, of course.
He didn't really want her to go back home. He would really miss her but he knew that her place was in England, in BOWCA. With her brothers.
"Anyway, it's such a nice day, I thought we could go outside."
Perry froze. His heart rate accelerated. He began breathing faster.
"Perry?" said Sylvia's concerned voice from somewhere in the distance.
She placed her hand on Perry's shoulder and gently massaged it. This calmed Perry down a lot, and he looked up into his concerned mate's face. "Sorry," he said. "It's just that…that's exactly what Edith said in the morning, before…"
"Oh!" Sylvia covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," Perry said hurriedly. "You didn't know."
Sylvia took her hand away from her mouth and gave Perry a smile. "I was going to suggest a picnic but it's so hot out there so why don't I bring the picnic in here?"
"Okay," smiled Perry. "We can do that."
"Pinic!" yelled Nicky.
Sylvia grinned and handed her son to Perry. "I'll just go get it."
"Wait, you actually made up a picnic basket?" Perry was surprised.
Sylvia grinned. "I came prepared. I didn't want you to be kept waiting if you said yes."
Perry shook his head in amazement. "You're amazing."
"I know. Watch Nicky for me while I go down."
Five minutes later, Sylvia was back with a wicker picnic basket. She placed it on the floor, sat down next to it, and began unpacking things. Perry sat down on the floor next to her and put Nicky in his lap.
Sylvia first unpacked three plates. She put two in front of Perry and one in front of herself. Then about six plates of various foods followed it. Perry took a small egg mayonnaise sandwich and ate it whole.
"Oh, wow…that's delicious!"
"Songwriting isn't my only talent, you know."
"No, apparently you can also speak almost every language on this planet and decode almost any code on this planet."
Sylvia looked at him, amused. "How'd you know that? I never told you."
"I heard Major Monogram bragging about you to Carl the other day."
Sylvia chuckled. "Typical. Well, it's true."
"How did that happen?"
"Well…" Sylvia hesitated. "To tell you the truth…when I was younger, I wanted desperately to be an OWCA agent but I had a lung problem that prevented me from doing any physical exercise."
"That's why you tired so easily that first day," realised Perry, his eyes widening. "I am so sorry-."
"Hey, you've apologised for that twenty times now," Sylvia laughed. "It's fine. Anyway, it got so bad that there was a period where I couldn't even walk a few steps without getting as breathless as a normal person at the end of a marathon. I was receiving treatment for my condition but I was afraid that I would never be up to full strength, so I used half of the 15336 hours that I was stuck in bed for to learn linguistics and coding, things I was always good at."
Perry was doing a mental calculation in his head. Math wasn't his strong point but he managed to work it out. "You were stuck in bed for a year and three quarters?" he burst out.
Sylvia nodded. "Counted every hour," she said, eating a cheese-and-pineapple-on-a-stick. "I put all that energy in to learning linguistics and coding but I managed to recover from my lung condition anyway. That's when I started dancing. I thought it was too late for me to learn martial arts well enough to be an OWCA agent, but a few months ago, Inspector Initials told me there was a trip to America going and it would help me train. The rest you know."
"I had no idea you had such a rough time," Perry said sympathetically.
"It was made better by all my songs," Sylvia said. She ate two sandwiches in a row. "I hadn't actually made a CD by then but I had a lot of time to compose. Half of my 15336 hours were spent on linguistics and coding, the other half was on composing. It was during that time that I made You'll Be In My Heart, Try Everything, I Know How The Moon Must Feel, and Try. Oh, and a song you haven't heard yet, called Find Yourself. Actually, that one needs a voice like yours. I think you'd suit it."
"Find Yourself?" repeated Perry. "Can you sing a bit of it for me?"
Sylvia smiled and sat upright. "It's not supposed to be in a feminine voice like mine, but okay."
She did a couple of vocal warmups and then she began to sing:
When you find yourself
In some far off place
And it causes you
To rethink some things
You start to sense
That slowly you're becoming someone else
And then you find yourself
When you make new friends
In a brand new town
And you start to think
About settlin' down
That was all she managed before she began coughing violently. It wasn't choking, so Perry knew it wasn't caused by any food or anything. He quickly rubbed her back and held her hand until it stopped about a minute later.
"Does that happen often?" Perry asked worriedly.
"Yeah but I haven't had it that bad since my condition stopped."
"This might be serious," said Perry doubtfully. "Maybe I should take you to Apollo, just in case."
"I'll be fine," wheezed Sylvia.
"Mummy!" shouted Nicky.
Sylvia picked the baby platypus up and tickled his stomach, making him giggle. "Mummy's okay," she told him.
Then she passed him to Perry. "I just want to go outside for some air."
"Want me to come?"
"It's fine, Perry. I'm just out of breath."
Sylvia got up and walked unsteadily towards the door. She made it a metre out the office before she suddenly collapsed. Perry plonked Nicky on his desk and ran towards his mate. She was gasping for breath.
"Sylvia!" Perry shouted in panic.
He looked up and saw a duck agent and a cat agent watching him nervously.
"Get Apollo!" Perry yelled at them. "NOW!"
…
*le gasp*