Chapter Eleven part one
Beatrice:
Greasy and Psycho were the first weasels to greet me as soon as they unlocked the door and I walked into a blue-black hallway.
"Amazing backflip and hand-walks! I've never seen anyone do THOSE in a LONG time!" Greasy exclaimed.
That exclamation caught me by surprise and I was puzzled after being surprised.
"Wait a minute, how did you know that did a backflip and some hand-walks?" I asked. "You weren't the room when I did those things."
"HEE HEE! WE WATCH YOU, PRETTY GIRLY! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE! WE WATCH YOU FROM THAT LITTLE CAMERA!" Psycho exclaimed and giggled.
"Camera?"
"You didn't see the camera?" Wheezy asked with a raspy voice.
I shook my head no.
Psycho guided me inside of the room and pointed to a small, blurry, black box in the top right corner.
"Oh, man. I didn't see that." I said while squinting at the camera.
"We watched everything that you did and we never saw anything like that." Wheezy said and inhaled the toxins from the four burning cigarettes.
Smarty walked over to me while Stupid kind of dragged behind.
"All right, Birchwood. You 'vast' the first part of the challenge but I want to ask you something." Smarty said and crossed his arms.
"Go ahead and ask me and I'll reply." I said.
Smarty exchanges an evil smile with Stupid and Wheezy, and then, Psycho and Greasy. He looks at me and I give him a look that would say 'Really? Do you have to make things even worse by pausing and exchanging glances?'
"Are you scared of 'gloating' around in the water?" Smarty asked.
I frowned.
"No. I'm not afraid of getting wet or floating around in the water." I replied.
"Oh, really?" Smarty asked.
Greasy and Psycho move out of the way when Smarty grabs…a really large portion of a building made out of bricks with a wooden ladder leaning against it. A typical Toon trick, pulling things out of thin air (I don't think that the Toon Laws of Physics can be mixed with the laws of physics of the real world. I don't know. Can't the Toon Laws of Physics and the laws of physics of the real world can be integrated?).
"Walk under the ladder." Smarty said and then, he crossed his arms and tapped his right fingers on his left arm.
Without hesitation, I walked under the ladder.
"Walk under it again." Wheezy said after blowing a huge cloud of smoke.
I walked under the ladder again.
"Muchacha, why did you do that? Walking under a ladder is mala suerte, you know." Greasy said.
"Is what?" I asked.
"Bad luck."
"I'm not superstitious. Nothing can go wrong if a cat crosses your path or if you walk under a ladder."
"So, are you saying-?" Smarty began.
"I'm not scared or superstitious, Smarty. I never have and I never will."
"Well, what are you scared of?"
"I'm not going to tell you."
"Tell us!" Stupid and Wheezy exclaimed in unison.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head no.
"You can tell us, muchacha." Greasy said. "You can tell me what you're afraid of."
OH, HECK NO! I shouted in my head.
"If I tell you five what I'm afraid of, then you're going to use it in one of the challenges and try to scare me. My lips are sealed." I said.
"Does this scare you?" Smarty asked and took out a wooden fishing pole out of thin air with a wiggling pink worm dangling on a string. He gets the worm close to my face and I just gave him a look that would've told Smarty, "Really? Are you trying to scare me again?"
"Smarty," I began while untangling the worm from the string, "if you're trying to scare me, then you have to do better and not dangle worms in front of my face."
Smarty threw the fishing back and put his hands up in the air, as if he were surrendering. After putting his hands up, Smarty grabbed his hat, took it off of his head, and threw it down on the floor.
"You can't be afraid of nothing! You must be afraid of 'sumptin'!'" Smarty exclaimed.
I am afraid of something. I thought. But I choose to not talk about it.
"Everyone's afraid of something, Smarty, even the toughest people have something to be afraid of." I said. "But I believe that we're getting off track right now. I'm ready to move on to the next challenge and don't ask me if I'm scared."
That snapped Smarty back to reality.
"You sure that you're ready?" Smarty asked after picking up his hat and putting it back on his head.
I nodded.
"Follow us." Wheezy said.
"FOLLOW THE LEADER! HEE HEE!" Psycho exclaimed.
"Shut up, Psycho." Smarty and Wheezy said in unison.
As I followed the Toon Patrol, I began to think about Lexi before I was knocked out. I never actually heard Lexi speak verbally in my life. When she talks to me, she uses sign language. But when Lexi is scared, shocked, or anything related to those two, she uses her facial expressions. Sure, Lexi does make sounds but that's usually gasping or laughing and she rarely makes any other noises.
Then, I began to think about what happened in the first challenge. I never actually attempted to climb up while being upside down and despite of trying out many sports and hanging upside down from the branch of my favorite tree, I'm really not that flexible enough to climb upside down and climb. I can only do one backflip and that's it. I can't really tell if this sort of thing happens because of it's one of those days when you can do something that you don't always do real perfectly or maybe I don't think about anything and I just go ahead and start doing unexplainable things.
I feel like I'm a part of a strange dream. I thought. Many things happen and I have to experience most of them. I experience them but I can't explain on how or WHEN those things happen. Really, really, really bizarre.
After walking up a flight of stairs, Smarty told me that we were going outside to do the next challenge. I really didn't mind that. I needed to get some fresh air anyway because it was a little humid in the room where the first challenge started. I didn't say that to him. I just said, "All right."
"Birchwood, why did you come here?" Smarty asked after a brief pause.
"I came here because of Lexi, my little cousin." I replied. "I think that you already asked me that."
"You came all this way for your cousin?" Wheezy asked.
"Yes, I did but what I don't understand is why you kidnapped Lexi instead of me."
Smarty turns his head at me and frowned. I knew that he was going to do that.
"Why do you want to know, Birchwood?" He asked.
"Because I want to point out that you could've kidnapped me first instead of my cousin. Things would be a whole lot easier." I replied.
"*cough, cough, cough, cough*! That's what I told him!" Wheezy coughed.
Stupid turned his head to Wheezy and asked, "Who, me?"
"This isn't about you, Stupid." I said and turned to Wheezy. "But before you kidnapped Lexi, were you still thinking about kidnapping me?"
The Toon Patrol and I entered the main room.
"Yes, *cough, cough*!" Wheezy replied.
"But when I found the pipsqueak," Smarty jumped in and interrupted Wheezy, "I 'tot' of another plan. We decided to use your cousin as bait and we would take her to Toon Town if she lost the challenge. But when we found out that your cousin can't speak with words, we decided to take her to Toon Town until you came along."
"Lexi didn't do anything to you." I said. "Why did you kidnap her if she didn't do anything to you?"
To be continued…