Chapter Six: Stakeout Fail! Part Two

((At the same time Mavis is talking to Carl in the previous chapter))

Elise's POV

"Bwaaaah!" Mistel 'calls' from his little spot on the floor in my relatively small office. I've situated him up with various stuffies of some sort and also some animal figurines I've had since childhood.

Currently, he is being my go-to art critic.

"Okay, how about this?" I show the outline sketch of a statue, the form being a laying down Arabian Oryx (1).

"Gaaaah!" is the response.

Urk, foiled again…

By now you are asking yourself what is she doing, asking her year-old nephew for art advice when she should be WORKING?

Well, I'll tell you: A few days ago, I went to visit my grandmother Eda (2) and like nearly every other time, I vented to her about my business dealings, primarily with O'Hare. Though she usually lets me vent without saying much except for her opinion, she gave me an idea. When the Civil Rights Movement was going on, she put up these different coloured wooden and plastic animals in her farm's field that was closer to the roads. I don't how many people got the REAL message or not, but she said she would leave them up for the people who DID.

Then it hit me! No one outside my family knows what O'Hare is doing to me and my business! I have to find some way that will let him know EXACTLY where I stand! I'm going to make a statue of…of…

"Gaaga ba." Something that is NOT an Arabian Oryx, so says Mistel. I'd chosen them because they became extinct in the wild about five years before I was born and the first that were released back into the wild about five years after I was born because I remember being fascinated as to how people could once mistake them for unicorns! (3)

However, I really didn't need Mistel's 'art advice' on this; it didn't take me long after I got home that day to dream up some horrible event ending in someone's impalement. *shudder* So, I had to think of something else. I really wanted to stick with mammals but couldn't think of any other candidates until I read about tarpans (4) and that led me to the Przewalski's horses, whose own reintroduction started when I was around eight (5).

"Errwee! Errrrweee!" Mistel waves his little arms like a propeller. I know what he wants and what he's trying to say. He wants to play with this now-hardened clay figure I had made in my high school art class, and he's trying to say its species' name: earwig. And not just any earwig, either. I'd made it in the form of the St. Helena Earwig, the largest earwigs on Earth…or at least, they WERE, before they all died out. Supposedly. Some still think they live on, as remains of one were found four years ago (6).

Sheesh, I gotta stop this! I think; I don't wanna be a debby-downer while my nephew is visiting. I know, I'll read to him. *face palm* Duh! I've been so in the dumps lately I've forgotten why all these children's books suddenly reappeared on my personal bookshelf!

"Hey, kid, let's choose one…" I say, picking up Mistel and hovering him across the books until he finds one he likes…and secretly praying he does NOT choose the one at the very end.

Thankfully he propels his arms at the one before it, and that ends up being Dr. Seuss's The Butter Battle Book. Not exactly one I would have chosen or one that he would even understand but oh well. I grab the book and sit at my desk with Mistel in my lap.

"On the last day of summer,

ten hours before fall…

my grandfather took me

out to the Wall.

For a wh-" (7)

Riiiinnnnng!

Wow, I actually managed to get pass the first four lines! And yes, that was total sarcasm! I pick up the phone.

"Coca-Cola bottling plant, Elise speaking." And then I have to move it away from my ear as one of my irate suppliers starts in with his frustration at the unforeseen price uptick O'Hare has thrust upon us.

In life, you need to learn to pick your battles and how to react to things in a relatively mature way. As much as I loathe O'Hare, fighting this one won't make us every good so I explain that THIS time we should just let the matter drop and my supplier calms down and apologizes for yelling.

"No need, no need. This whole thing is such a-" I cut off because I notice this girl in the bushes right outside my office window. From what I can see of her, she's wearing all black and she has brown hair. She also looks like she's talking to someone.

Is she SPYING on me?! I think with revulsion. Okay, O'Hare has DEFINITELY crossed the line this time! I'm going to report this at once but first I'm gonna send that girl packing. I finish my phone call and head out – Mistel was already taken out by my aunt when I started talking on the phone.

I know a way to get to where she's sitting from behind. I walk through most of the plant and nearly run into Rod, who smiles shyly at me. When I get outside, I peek around the corner. I can see the girl a few feet away. I tiptoe as quickly as possible while also keeping close to the building. As I get closer, I can hear bits of her conversation with someone who is apparently named Carl.

She cuts off as she looks up towards my now-empty office window. Perfect timing.

"HEY!"

…

Mavis's POV

The instance I hear someone yell—right behind me, no less!—I make a squeal-like noise, jump forward and WHAM! Right into the telephone pole!

I can feel myself shaking, or is it the pole? Whatever, I'm only vaguely aware of the person talking to me. I somehow manage to get my bearings straight and staggered around so my back is at the now I'm face-to-face with Elise S. Hilliard herself.

This mission is not going so well… I think.

"What are you doing here, looking all suspicious? If you're trying to 'expose' something, you can forget that right now because there's nothing TO expose."

"What on Earth are you talking about?!" I say, but with more franticness than I would have liked. "I'm just taking, pictures, yeah, that…And NOT being suspicious!"

NO ONE would buy that and Elise looks at me with a real deadpan yeah, right expression on her face.

"You're hiding behind a bush, taking photos and talking to someone, and you just jumped up and yelped, that's totally suspicious." She lists as I face palm myself because she is so right about it being suspicious.

"Yeah…." I wince.

"What are you doing here? I can tell you right now that what you've been sent on a wild goose chase-"

"Mavis? Mavis, come in!"

Carl! You might have just saved my bacon! I ignore Elise's baffled look and lean in to talk to Carl.

"Mavis, what's happening there?! I heard you yelp and-" Carl cuts himself off as I turn the communicator around so he could see Elise.

There's an awkward ensuing pause.

"Wh-who's that? HOW are you doing that?!" Elise finally asks.

"This is Carl. He's our intern." That's the only real introduction I can think of.

"Um…..hi." Carl greets nervously, and puts me on stand-by.

"What is this?" She sounds mad and also a little frightened. Thinking quickly, I bring up the picture of her plant's renovated 'front yard' with the benches and the statue of the horse species I still can't quite pinpoint and show it to her.

"Is this your plant?" She stares at the picture for a second or so and her expression changes from anger to surprise and concern. "But it's different…and the date is all wrong. It's five years…away?"

I nod. "This isn't a mistake or some doctoring of photos. I'm Mavis, Mavis Monogram. I come from the future."

She looks me up and down. "That might explain your clothing…" she mutters.

Figures I had to pick today to wear my futuristic clothes.

"But why are you here?"

"If I told you your plant was the ground zero of something-" the words 'ground zero' get her attention right off the bat- "what would you think?"

Elise blinks. "I would say either I should feel for you for having to hear that or you're a nut for believing it. What would this 'ground zero' be?"

"A mind-control device," I bring up all the smuggled papers Farren and his people managed to get to, "sent throughout the world is various soft drink forms. Starting with YOUR plant."

Despite this being my first time seeing it, I bring up a photo taken of her factory sometime further in the future; I'm guessing in the 2060s or 70s. What I see is just as appalling to me as it is to her.

The air around this part of town is darker, and is being made darker by the smog coming from the plant. The plant itself is dirtier as is the area around it. The big walls that once surrounded the north part of town have been taken down and essentially everything even resembling Thneedville the way it is now is gone. The little horse statue had been torn off and lies tossed aside on the left side of the entrance. Its head has also been removed.

Elise grabs my arm and pulls the photo up closer so fast I almost lose my balance and fall on top of her.

"What is this?!" She demands angrily. "What happened to my plant?!"

"It's what GOING to happen to your plant if I don't find out who's behind it." I'm about to take a really big leap of faith here and….

"But I can't do that if I don't have help."

Elise looks really conflicted. I don't think she entirely believes me just yet but at the same time, can't ignore what she's just seen.

"Okay…..I'll go along with this." She says. Huh? Does that mean she'll help?

"But I better know who YOU are and what's really going on and if you really ARE from the future. And if you are, I feel so bad if THAT'S what humanity has to look forward to for everyday wear."

This is gonna be a long mission… I think as I follow her.

…

#1: The Arabian Oryx is an endangered antelope from the Middle East. Once extinct in the wild, they have been saved and are continuing reintroduction due to Operation Oryx, started in 1980 when Elise is around three-years-old.

#2: In keeping with Elise and family being based off characters from 'Harvest Moon: Story of Seasons', Eda is based off Madam Eda, your 'mentor' in the beginning of the game.

#3: Yes, Arabian oryxs were once thought to be unicorns who had lost one horn. You can read about this myth on their Wikipedia page!

#4: Tarpans, AKA the Eurasian wild horse, is an extinct species of wild horse. The last one died in captivity in Russia in 1909, although some dispute whether or not this was an actual tarpan.

#5: Przewalski's horses are relatives of tarpans who are native to central Asia's steppes and they're the ONLY KNOWN TRUE WILD HORSE LEFT. They've never been domesticated and were also once extinct in the wild until they were put in captivity and reintroduced, starting in the mid-1980s when Elise would be a preteen.

#6: For those of you hate bugs, you'd REALLY be creeped out at the sight of the St. Helena Earwig. They were once found on the island of St. Helena and were the largest of all earwigs at three inches long. But none have been seen since the 1960s but remains were found on the island in 1995, four years prior to this story.

All information for the animals mentioned in this chapter come from Wikipedia, the DK Eyewitness series book on 'Endangered Animals', and the IUCN's Red List's website.

#7: These are the opening lines to Dr. Seuss's 'The Butter Battle Book', published in January of 1984. It warns about the dangers of nuclear war in the form of two sides (the Yooks and the Zooks) who argue over the 'proper' way to spread butter on bread.