AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you TheRanger101 for the review. Glad you liked last week's chapter :) Acacia will return later on.

Also this week, you get two chapters. They tell pretty much the same events, but from different points of view (first the humans, then the rabbits).

Chapter 58: The Other Hazel.

"[...] the game starts to feel like trying to operate a loom in the middle of a swamp while getting attacked by mosquitoes that keep saying the word "moist" in the voice of a celebrity you don't like."

-schadd, Witch

Fredrick was wandering throughout his junkyard, his mind filled with conflicting thoughts. The inspector was late, and at this rate he would not be able to attend Daisy's graduation. Should he wait just a few more minutes, or should he just let Lionel-Hector deal with the inspector? Neither choice was appealing.

He had yet to reach a decision when he suddenly saw a car near the edge of the pit where the junkyard was built. This was not an old, broken-down car like the many he had scrapped, but a new model, clean and shiny, and there was someone getting out of it. This could only mean one thing. He ran towards the dirt trail leading outside the pit; building a proper staircase was something he had delayed far too long.

As he got closer, he looked at the inspector. She had blonde hair and brown eyes; her T-shirt was black with white stripes, and her name tag was unusually imprecise, reading only "Hazel C."

-"Greetings, ma'am," he said. "My name is Fredrick H. Chesterflooz, and I'm the owner of Gryphon Junkyards Inc."

The two shook hands.

-"Good day," Hazel said. "Sorry I'm late, but with this fog I had to be really careful when driving. I'm ready to start the inspection whenever you are."

-"Good. Right this way."

Fredrick walked towards the tortuous path leading to the bottom of the pit, with Hazel following. Halfway through the descent, she asked:

-"Is there any other way to the bottom?"

-"Not yet..."

-"No guard rails, unstable soil, this doesn't look very safe."

After both had reached the bottom of the pit, Hazel took out her clipboard and started scribbling rapidly.

-"Hiya inspector!" came another voice. "I'm Lionel-Hector Appleby, and I work here."

Hazel raised her eyes, and shook hands with the employee. He had a painfully firm handshake.

-"So," Hazel said, "first I need to see your scrap metal dealer license, to make sure this is in order."

-"I'll go get it," Fredrick said.

-"Don't bother, here it is," Lionel-Hector said, as he handed Hazel a piece of paper, which she spent a few moments reading.

-"But this license expired four months ago!"

-"Mr Appleby!" Fredrick shouted in anger. "The license was renewed, I'll go get the paperwork, I'll be right back. In the meantime, LH, perhaps you can show Ms C around the junkyard?"

With that, he walked inside the building, to search for the right piece of paper.

It took a while for Fredrick to find the license. It was supposed to be right there on his desk, but earlier he had put all papers inside the drawer without sorting them. When he finally found it, he made his way out of the building, and heard the loud rumbling of an engine. He honestly hoped it was not what he thought it was. He ran towards the crane, and saw Lionel-Hector sitting inside the cabin, with Hazel standing a short distance away.

-"What are you doing?" he shouted.

-"What?" Lionel-Hector turned his head to look at him. "Oh, I'm just showing Ms C the crane here."

-"But it's broken. You know how it has a tendency to suddenly drop."

Just as he said that, the crane's wire suddenly unrolled, and the hook crashed to the ground.

-"I know," Lionel-Hector said. "But if I just pull this switch here," he did so, "it goes right back up. See?"

-"Wrong switch! The one you just flipped closes the hook. Pull the other one!"

-"Oh." Lionel-Hector said simply, as he pulled the correct switch.

-"This seems like a security hazard," Hazel said. "How long has this been broken?"

Fredrick was about to reply, but Lionel-Hector gave the worst possible answer: the truth.

-"Several years..."

Eventually, it was time to inspect the main building. Hazel was walking through the office, and was paying close attention to Lionel-Hector's desk in a far corner.

-"What is this?" she asked, pointing at an object on top of the desk.

-"It's a typewriter," Lionel-Hector said.

-"I know, but what is it doing on your desk? Don't you use computers?"

-"I..."

-"Wait. What's that noise?"

Everyone remained silent for a few moments, but no noise was heard.

-"Well, whatever it was, it's gone now," Hazel said. "Now what were you saying?"

-"I'm..."

-"We have computers, that typewriter is just a silly project he's been working on for months now," Fredrick said, before his employee could make the situation even worse.

-"I see," Hazel said. She walked around the desk, before she suddenly noticed that part of the typewriter wasn't the same colour as the rest. "Looks like it's rusting."

-"Oh dear, I thought I had already sorted that out," Lionel-Hector said matter-of-factly. He pressed one of the keys, but its mechanism fell apart. Several other keys soon followed.

-"...whoops."

-"Wait. There's that noise again," Hazel said suddenly.

The three stopped to listen. This time, everyone heard a soft splashing sound.

-"I'll go see what it is," Lionel-Hector said.

-"You're not going alone," Fredrick said sternly. "I'm coming with you."

Fredrick and Lionel-Hector ran out of the building, leaving Hazel inside. She sighed, and took more notes on her clipboard, before following the two men outside. It did not take them long to pinpoint the source of the noise: the crane was still functioning, the hook had just fallen inside a large barrel on the edge of the pit, and was now being raised again.

-"LH!" Fredrick shouted. "Why didn't you turn it off after you were done with it?"

-"...whoops. Don't worry, Sir Fred, I'll turn it off now, see?"

Lionel-Hector jumped inside the crane's cabin, and pulled the switch.

-"It's not working."

-"That's because you pulled the wrong switch again! You just opened the hook."

-"I don't know who came up with the placement of these switches, it's so illogical."

He tried to pull the second switch, but instead he ripped it off the control panel. He awkwardly stared at it for a few moments before turning to Fredrick.

-"What do I do now?"

Fredrick could not stay calm any longer. He picked up the first object he could find (which happened to be an old blender) and threw it onto the crane, shattering the cabin's windshield. Lionel-Hector jumped out of the cabin, and walked over to Fredrick.

-"What did you do that for? You could have killed me!"

Hazel watched the argument from a distance. The two people in charge of Gryphon Junkyards Inc where plainly incompetent. While she hadn't toured the entire junkyard yet, she already knew what her report would say. She simply walked out of the junkyard through the same, unstable dirt path she had taken when she had arrived.

Fredrick and Lionel-Hector kept arguing for a while, until Lionel-Hector said:

-"Can't you see we're making a poor impression on the inspector?"

-"The inspector? Oh no, I forgot all about her."

Fredrick ran back inside the building, but Hazel was not there. He went back outside just in time to hear her car's engine.

-"She's gone," he said simply. "She's gone! Do you realize what this means?"

Fredrick broke into a jig, and soon forced Lionel-Hector to join him.

-"Why are you so happy, sir Fred?"

-"Don't you see? Now that the inspection is over, I can go to my daughter's graduation without worrying about anything!"

Fredrick ran towards the path as fast as he could, while Lionel-Hector stayed behind, staring at his employer in shock. A few moments later, he heard the hook crash into the barrel again.

-"But what about the crane?" he shouted.

-"I'll deal with it when I come back!"