I love Neil's character, a lot. Just so much sass in one little person. Oh, and this is a lot longer, but well worth the read. (I promise!)
"I never told anyone, but... I've always thought they were lighthouses."
"Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene, I presume?" Lily, the nurse, asked as the guests were brought into the common room. She looked young, and thin. Her hair was neatly kept tied up and her complextion glowed with the light, worried sweat upon her brow. "Thanks for coming on such a short notice."
"That's okay, I tend to be bad at predicting deaths as well." Dr. Watts blushed. Dr. Rosalene smacked at the back of his head. She glared at him before asking Lily some questions.
"Are you the patient's daughter?"
"Oh no, I am just his caretaker," she said. Two kids came running from upstairs, and as quickly as they came they had ducked into a room off to the side of the house, "And these are my children, Sarah and Tommy.
"It's not exactly a nine-to-five job, so Johnny lets us live here." Lily mentioned.
"I suppose this 'Johnny' is our man?"
"Johnny?" Dr. Watts began, "Listen, if it's a kid we're dealing with, I don't think we're the ones you want." Lily reassured them that he just preferred to be called Johnny. She told them that he was upstairs with his medical doctor and had them follow her to his room.
"Okay, they're gone!" Sarah called out to Tommy.
"Whoever gets there first gets to play the melody!" The small kids ran out of the room and raced, only to have Tommy beat Sarah there.
"No fair! You pushed me."
"Did not!"
"Whatever, you get the boring two notes anyway." They began to play.
"Those kids are pretty good for their age." Dr. Rosalene inclined, hearing the piano from upstairs.
"Hey, you're the one who said there was no time to waste." Dr. Watts complained, "And incidentally, I'm the one who is carrying the weight of a small meteoroid."
Dr. Rosalene scoffed and entered Johnny's room. He laid ill in his bed, his doctor carefully monitoring the machines beside him. Lily was waiting at the foot of the bed. They began to set up the equipment.
A while later, after a brief power outage, the machine was set up and ready to go.
"So, you two can grant him any wish, huh?" Lily asked.
"To try, at least."
"But we always succeed, because we're awesome." Dr. Watts stated in a cocky manner.
Dr. Rosalene glared once again at Neil. "So, what's the wish?"
Lily became quiet. "The moon," she muttered, "He wants to go to the moon. Can you do it?"
"It depends." Dr. Rosalene was flabbergasted.
"She meant to say yes," Dr. Watts directed.
Puzzled, Dr. Rosalene asked Lily to tell her more about the doctor. Lily, only working for Johnny for two years, didn't really know much. He rarely spoke. She did know that he had worked as a craftsman for most of his life, and his wife passed away two years ago. She suggested that the two look around his house for some more information.
Dr. Watts volunteered to search the home. "I once played Sherlock Holmes in a high-school musical."
"I remember you playing Watson."
"Same thing." He left the seat of the machine and began his way downstairs. Lily told him to have her children show him around.
He found Sarah and Tommy at the piano. "Hey, your ma told you to show me around the house."
"Okay, maybe we will," Sarah said, turning back to the piano. "I think we just need a little convincing, that's all! What do you think, Tommy?"
"Yeah!"
"Alright, what do you punks want?"
"We want, one trillion dollars!" Tommy squealed. "Or the candy canes mom hides from us."
"There is a giant candy cane on top of the shelf that we can't reach," Sarah added. "It's in the kitchen. Ma put it there to save for when we do chores."
"Get it for us, and we'll give you a tour through the hose!" Tommy exclaimed.
Dr. Watts, being lazy, came up with a way to trick the kids into helping him. "Plotting to eat stashed candy is a serious crime, you know. I heard you can get six years for that."
The kids became panicked! "Oh no! What do we do, sis?!"
"We're sorry! We didn't know!"
"Uh huh. Well, if you show me around this place now, I'll keep my mouth shut." Stupid kids. Dr. Watts thought.
It had worked and the two agreed to help him around the house. Tommy decided to begin the tour with a room the had called the 'funny room.' But they needed the keys to unlock the room in the basement.
"The old man keeps them hidden inside a book in his study," Tommy told Dr. Watts. He walked into the study and to the farthest bookshelf, looking for the thickest book.
Dusklight: "The tale of a girl who fell in love with a zombie who
emitted the smell of daises when showered with gentle sunlight."
The key was found shoved between the 4th and 5th chapters. The man sure knows where to hide things. The group traveled to the basement.
"This is the basement! We play hide 'n' seek in here!" Sarah happily stated.
"Turn on the light before you trip over something," Tommy added.
It was dark, but Dr. Watts managed to stumble his way towards the light, only to turn it on and cause a huge strike of blinding light. He noticed an old cardboard box on top of a bookshelf. Curious, he discovered it was filled with a dusty pile of Animorphs books, an old science-fiction collection. He found the locked room next to the shelf and slowly unlocked it, opening the door to reveal a seemingly empty room.
He turned on the lights to reveal a room filled with origami bunnies. Other than that, a small stuffed platypus was sitting atop an old box. What a hideous little creature. He took it and left the room.
"Did you see it?" Sarah asked almost as soon as he left the room.
"What do you kids know about all those rabbits?"
"Nothing!" Tommy answered. "The old man didn't want anyone to go inside, so we never told him."
"There's more of them, actually!" Sarah quickly added.
"Where?"
"Inside the abandoned lighthouse! It;s just beneath this cliff," they told him. "Wanna go see? We have the keys."
"Let me guess: You aren't supposed to go in there either." These kids were some trouble makers. They laughed. "Remind me to never keep any locked cabinets around you two." The left the basement and strode out of the house, making their way through the wind to the lighthouse.
After a short walk, they finally reached the lighthouse. To reach the doors though, they needed to head south. They headed down the path that the doctors had taken to the house.
"Oh no! My novelty beach ball!" Tommy proclaimed, "Someone broke it!" It was the "security system" that they had deflated on the way up.
"It was stupid anyway," Sarah said, kicking the deflated ball over the cliff.
"But... But it's the bestest novelty beach ball I've ever had!" Tommy began to cry. "Oh, who could've been so cruel!?"
"Uh, don't worry. Dr. Rosalene'll buy you another," Dr. Watts shrugged, "Just ask her afterward. We kinda need to get going now, though."
They continued down the path, towards the wrecked car.
"Who's the dummy that crashed the car?" Tommy asked.
"Uh, that was Dr. Rosalene. Yeah." They continued towards the lighthouse again when suddenly, a squirrel attacked Dr. Watts. He went to attack the animal, only to be scolded and threatened by Sarah and Tommy. They named the squirrel Teddy and continued to the lighthouse.
The moon was just rising and the waves were beginning to calm once they reached the base of the lighthouse. The pale cobblestone was barely visible, even on a clear night like tonight. Dr. Watts went to push open the small wooden door when something caught the corner of his eye. He walked over to the small monument, carved out of gray marble.
"In memory of River E. Wyles"
"Must be John's wife." Dr. Watts stood there for a moment, thinking.
"Come on! Let's go! The lighthouse is right there!" egged on the kids. Dr. Watts turned and entered the lighthouse. It was empty, except for the few flights of stairs. They started up the steps until they reached the top, filled with the same paper bunnies as the room in the basement.
Why does he like to make paper bunnies? I don't understand. Dr. Watts roamed around the small space, and stumbled across a different origami bunny. Tommy and Sarah claimed it wasn't there when they were up here last week. This bunny was two different colors, unlike the rest. The silence was broken by a phone call from Dr. Rosalene. They quickly headed back to the house.
"What the cactus were you doing?!" Dr. Rosalene questioned as Dr. Watts entered John's room.
"Burning ants with a magnifying glass," Dr. Watts snapped back sarcastically. Dr. Rosalene glared. "God, it's hard being a smartass nowadays."
"Your helmet's on the couch. Get it on, were going in." A helmet had already been placed on John, and Dr. Rosalene was quick to get back to the machine and put on hers. Dr. Watts walked over to the couch and placed his helmet on his own head.
"Wait!" Lily called, "How do you do it?"
"We don't do anything, it's mainly the machine," he said, "We just travel to the earliest memories and transfer his desire of going to the moon." He sat back down and put on his helmet.
"Alright, here we go."