The Micki Adventures

                                           By Linda Bindner

                                        Chapter 13: Surprises

        The candle had long since burned out.  The darkness was everywhere.  It surrounded them, and covered them, and filled them up.  They breathed it in with each breath.  Their exhales were the only reminder that they weren’t alone in the deep black.

        Micki had to wonder how Al was doing in this super-dense darkness, but she didn’t ask for fear of bringing up a dreaded subject.   Being locked in a cold, dark dungeon was unpleasant enough for her, but she couldn’t imagine how awful it was to be locked in as well as afraid of the dark.

        To keep her friend’s mind off their predicament, Micki proposed playing a game.

        “A game?” Al asked skeptically.  “How can we possibly play in the dark?  It’s not like we can see to play catch… not that we have a ball to play with.”

        “I don’t mean a sports game,” Micki patiently explained.  “How about a rhyming game?”

        “A rhyming game?”   The dark made Al’s tone of mistrust even more obvious.  “Rhyming how?”

        “Like I say a word, then you rhyme with how it sounds, then I rhyme something back, and so on.”
        “Okay.”  Al sounded less than thrilled.  But at least she wasn’t jumping at every shift of stone or drip of water any longer.

        “I’ll start,” Micki announced.  “How about the word… election.”

        “Mmmm… protection.”

        “Correction.”

“Rejection.”

        “Exhaustion.”

        “Okay, enough with the ‘tions,’” said Al.  “I’ll choose one.  Madge… as in the Queen.”

        “Badge.”

        “Gadge.”

        “That’s not a word!” Micki scoffed.

        “Is too,” Al defended.  “It’s the beginning of the word gadgets.”

        “Parts of words don’t count!”

        A silent minute went by before Al conceded, “Yeah, maybe ‘Madge’ wasn’t such a good word.”
        “Not much rhyme potential,” Micki agreed.  “Choose again.”

        “Tutor.”

        “Looter.”

        “Paluter.”

        “Manure Scooper.”

        Al’s laughter rang out in the tiny cell.  “Oh, good one, Princess!”

        Suddenly Micki’s stomach rumbled.  “Wow.  I guess it’s been a while since we ate breakfast this morning.  A lot’s happened.”

“I don’t suppose you have any food in another pocket you sewed to your pants?”

        “I didn’t think of bringing food,” Micki admitted.  “At least, not for us.  I assumed King Feston would feed us.”  Micki heaved a disappointed sigh.  “That was silly of me.”

        “You couldn’t have known what he’s like,” Al soothed.

        But Micki was unrelenting.  “No, I assumed a lot about this trip, and I shouldn’t have.  I don’t know how many times the Tutor has told me to never assume anything, but I do it anyway.”

        “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Al suggested.

        It was funny the way Al was scared of the dark, yet here she was comforting her.  “It’s nice of you to say that,” said Micki, “but by now I should know that a ruler never assumes.”

        “But you’re not a ruler.  You’re not even going to rule.”

        Micki hesitated.  “Let’s just say I hope I don’t ever rule.  If I do, that means that both Mom and Rachel are…”  She swallowed hard against that possibility.

        “They’d be dead.”

        Al’s gentle tone didn’t keep Micki from shuddering.  “Don’t say that.  Don’t even think about it.”

        “But you have to have at least considered it,” Al argued, her tone still gentle.  “What with all this Disease stuff that’s happening right now.”

        “Actually,” Micki whispered.  “It’s my greatest nightmare.”  The dark made confessing such a thing so much easier.  “I think about it when I can’t sleep.  It terrifies me!”

        “But you once said the idea of maybe ruling someday didn’t worry you.”

        Micki hesitated for one second, then miserably admitted, “I lied.”

        Surprisingly, that admission didn’t make Al mad.  She gave a light laugh instead.  “That’s what I thought.”

        Micki was astonished.  “You knew?  But I thought you didn’t.  You were so believable.”

        Al’s nonchalance penetrated even such cloying darkness.  “Alice always did say that I was a good actor.”

        Micki groaned in response.  “So I’m a not-so-good liar and you’re a really good actor.”

        “Well, acting is kind of like lying,” Al thoughtfully pointed out.  “So I guess you could say that I lied as much as you did.”

        “I guess,” Micki hesitantly agreed.  She wasn’t sure if she was convinced, or even if she should want to be.  She eventually added, “King Feston might have known all about our lying ways.”

“It’s actually why he threw us in here.”
        Al’s joking tone was meant to distract her, Micki knew.  She took a shuddering breath, the possibility of ruling and all that it entailed still consuming her, especially the fact that she couldn’t control it.  If it happened, it happened.  There was nothing she could do about it.

Just then, something the Tutor often said came to her mind: ‘A princess doesn’t worry about things she can’t control.  She just does what comes next, and gets the job done.’

Yes.  That’s what she needed to concentrate on.  She’d do what came next.

So… what came next?

Micki thought for a moment.  Well, first she had to take hold of her wild emotions.  In order to do that, Micki knew she would have to truly be determined.  Or else she would have to very convincingly fake it.  So she joked right along with Al.  “King Feston and Queen Madge are really in cahoots together.”

Al said, “This is really the Queen’s way of teaching you a lesson you’ll never forget.”

        Micki couldn’t help it; she laughed.  “Stop!  That’s just ridiculous enough to be true.”

        “For all we know, it really is true.”

        Micki laughed some more.  “I’m starting to feel desperate again!”

        “I always said that you had to be a little desperate to be a princess,” Al noted on a giggle.  “This is just you fulfilling your princessly duties.”  Fumbling, she took Micki’s hand in her own.  “And remember, Princess, if you end up ruling, you won’t do it alone.  You’ll have the Tutor!”

        Micki was fairly certain Al was poking fun at her when she said that.  In retaliation, she promised, “Then I’ll make sure to follow all his advice, especially if I get to see you in your underwear!”

        Al heaved a mock sigh.  “Then you’ll be disappointed.”  She leaned in close and whispered, “I’m not wearing any.”

        Micki broke into peels of laughter.  Al giggled along with her.  They leaned their heads together and let the tears stream down their faces as more laughter consumed them.

        “Oh!” Micki gasped, clutching her stomach.  “I can’t… breathe!”

        Al was laughing too hard to respond right away.  When she could talk, she predicted, “Maybe not, but… I bet that ruling… a country will never be... quite as terrifying… ever again!”

        They had resorted to rolling on the stone floor, laughing, when all of a sudden, Micki realized she could see Al.

        “Wait!” she said, half laughing, half yelling, surprised enough to sit up with a jerk.  “Wait!  I can… can see you!”

        Still giggling, Al also sat up.  “That’s it, Princess, you’ve finally cracked.  You have seen the light!”  She hooted at her own joke.

        “No,” Micki said, trying her best to calm down.  “That’s not what I mean.  I haven’t seen the light.  I can see a light.”

        That’s when Al stopped laughing, too.  “So can I!” she exclaimed, eyeing Micki up and down.  “You’re really dirty.”

        “It’s this floor,” Micki explained.  “I don’t think anyone has cleaned it in a hundred years.”  But her gaze was trained on the hole in the wall she and Al had opened earlier.  She pointed at it.  “Does it seem like the light is coming from there?”

        Al gazed at it as well.  “Yeah, now that you mention it.”  She crawled over the stone floor and stuck her head into the hole.  “Hello in th… ouch!”  She fell back beside Micki, rubbing her cheek just below her eye.  “Something hit me!”

        “Sorry.  That would be my finger.”

        The apologetic voice issued from just inside the hole.  The figure that followed it out of the hole was so dirty that they couldn’t distinguish its features in the dim light.  Longish hair that swung against this figure’s back was the only thing that let them know this was a person and not an alien bent on eating them.  Plus the fact that this figure spoke in an accented version of Ruralusian was another hint that a person hid under the dirt.

“At least you’re not an alien,” Micki said, relieved.

        “Of course I’m not,” said the figure from where it had landed.  It reached back into the hole to speak to someone.  “We can’t see in here.  Give me the lantern.”

        It pulled a lighted lantern from the hole, and held it aloft as another figure slowly emerged head first.  Once it stood beside the first figure, it looked around.  “Wow.  We haven’t been down here in a long time.”

        “A long, long, long time,” agreed the first while Micki and Al stared at both of them with mouths gaping open.

“What’s it like to be locked in here?” the second figure curiously asked them.  “Are you going crazy yet?”

        Before either Micki or Al had the chance to respond to such insane questions, a third figure crawled from the hole.  It landed on the floor in a heap and stared up at the low ceiling.  “I always thought you could see strange shapes in the ceiling stones,” it thoughtfully said.

        A fourth figure hurtled out of the hole and landed right on top of the third figure.  “Oof!  Kendra!” it cried, followed by a string of words and throat clearings in what Micki had come to realize was Hammish.

        “Remember!” the first figure said.  “We agreed to talk only in Ruralusian.  It’s rude to say things they can’t understand.”  It pointed a finger at Al and Micki still staring in open mouthed astonishment.

        “You’re right, we did agree,” said the fourth figure, then turned to face Al and Micki.  “To translate, I said, ‘Kendra, move your fat lump of a body before I move it for you!’  I thought about kicking her out of the way, but I couldn’t get up fast enough.”

        “Wow!” Micki blurted, “I don’t even talk to Rachel like that, and she drives me crazy on a regular basis.”

        “Rachel is..?” it asked with a tilt of its head toward Al.

        “No, this is Al,” Micki said, indicating her.  “She’s my very good friend.  Rachel is my older sister.  She’s still in Ruralusia.”  A thought suddenly occurred to Micki.  She pointed to the Kendra figure lying contentedly on the floor.  “Since you talk to her the way you do, is she your sister?”

        The fourth figure opened its mouth to answer, but was overridden.  “You have to understand about Kendra,” said the second figure, her tone apologetic.  “No matter where she is, she’s always in the way.”

        “It’s amazing how she does it, really,” said the first one.  “It’s like she knows where you need to stand, or climb, or crawl.”

        “Or land!” said the fourth figure, rubbing its shoulder.  “I just want everybody here to know that because Kendra was in the way… again… I had to turn aside at the last minute to land on my shoulder if I didn’t want to crush her.”  Then she grumbled, “Sorry for being so mad.”

        “Wait!” Al loudly demanded, staring in great confusion at first one then another of these strange beings.  “Who are you?  What’s going on?”

        “Oh,” said the first, as if Al’s questions had reminded it of a secret mission.  “I’m Kallie, and these are my sisters, Kimmie and Kale.”  She pointed to the second and fourth figures.  Last, she gestured to the one on the floor.  “And you’ve already met our sister Kendra.”

        Kendra rose and brushed at her dress.  “Hello.”

        That’s when Micki realized that the fourth person, Kale, was wearing pants.

        “Hey!” she exclaimed, suddenly excited.  “You four were in that room when we first got here and met the King.  I recognize the one wearing pants.”  She turned to Kale.  “I like your pants.”

“I like your trousers, too,” she said to Micki and Al.  “I suppose all girls in Ruralusia are smart enough to wear trousers instead of dumb dresses.”  Her final words were addressed to her sisters, all three of whom were quite obviously wearing long dresses.  As if to emphasize her point, Kale brushed at the knees of her pants.

        “What are you doing here?” Al again demanded, her eyes narrowed now.  “Is this an invasion?”

        “Maybe an invasion of the four ‘K’s is a Hammondy tradition,” Micki joked.

“No, it’s not an invasion,” Kallie said.  “We’re here to talk to you.”

Micki frowned.  “Talk about what?”  A million questions zipped through her mind.

But before Kallie could respond, Kendra quietly commented in a slow, lilting voice, “I don’t think we’ve been down here since Mother died.”

 That statement put a halt to Micki’s questions.  Two of the sisters had already said that they hadn’t been here for a long time, but they hadn’t said a word about a mother dying.  She was strangely saddened to hear of such a sad event.  “Your mother’s dead?”

Kendra nodded, still looking at everything in the room, only half paying attention to what she was saying.  “When we were six.  There was an accident.  With the vehicles.”  Her gaze turned to Micki.  “I’ve always said that vehicles are more dangerous than they look, but nobody listens to me.”

Her dreaminess had only increased as she spoke.  Micki could easily understand why nobody listened to this strange girl.  Few would have the patience.

“Kendra,” Kimmie gently admonished.  “We’re here to talk about what’s happening now, not what happened five years ago.”  She turned decisively to Al and Micki.  “You need to forgive Father for his bad manners from before.”

        “He’s usually not as rude as that,” Kallie agreed.

        “Father wasn’t just rude,” Kale said next.  “He was downright mean.”

        “Now Kale,” Kallie said, “remember how the Tutor told you not to be so judgmental.”

        “Oh, stop it,” Kale said, her tone impatient and curt, as if they had talked about this many times before.  “The Tutor’s not here.”

        They had a Tutor?  Micki had time to wonder if he or she was anything like hers when Kallie eyed Kale into silence.

        “The point,” Kallie severely said, “is that Father isn’t usually like that.  He’s just been so worried about The Virus lately that he’s not himself.”

        “The Virus,” Micki said.  “By that you mean The Disease.”

        “The Sickness,” Kimmie explained.  “It’s already caused the death of so many people.”

        “Only a few survive,” Kendra said, her voice sad now, as if she felt each death personally.

        “But it’s why we’re here,” Kallie reminded in a fierce voice.

“Wait,” Micki ordered, blinking and shaking her head, still confused.  “Before we get distracted by talking about The Disease...  You four are sisters, right?  So are you two sets of twins?  You look so much alike.”

        “Especially all covered in dirt,” Al added.

        “We are four sisters,” Kendra absently said, as if it was an unimportant detail, gazing some more at their surroundings.  “I don’t remember it being so cold down here.”

        Kale heaved an impatient sigh.  “She means to say that we’re sisters who are all the same age.”

Micki’s forehead wrinkled in more confusion.  “So you’re not twins, or triplets, you’re…”  What was that called?  “A foursome?”

“Quads?” Al guessed.  “Tetras?”

All six girls looked at each other, their empty expressions loudly conveying that none of them knew.

Finally Micki announced, “I guess that’s not important right now.  It’s more important to know that you’re all princesses of Hammondy.  And I’m a princess of Ruralusia.  And Al is the princess’s best friend.  So… why are you here?”

“I told you,” Kallie answered.  “To talk to you.”

“And to break you out,” Kimmie added.

Micki jumped up.  “You mean there’s a way out of the dungeon?”

“Of course there is,” Kendra dreamily announced.

Micki shook her head as if to shake her brain.  “Of course, you’re right, Kendra.”  It made sense that there was a way out of the dungeon if the four Ks had gotten in.

“But it’s not like we can cut up our skirts again and escape out the window.” Al protested, also rising.

“We loved the way you did that before.  That was so clever of you!” Kallie said, looking at Micki and Al in admiration.

“Then we had to watch while Father had you thrown in here,” Kimmie said sadly.

“But it was a good thing he did put you in the dungeon,” Kale interjected persuasively.  “We knew you could get out of here.”

“Father will burst a blood vessel when he finds out you were laughing when we found you,” Kallie said, laughing herself.

Micki smiled back.  “We were playing games.”

“A rhyming game,” Al added.

Kimmie was laughing too.  “I didn’t know rhyming games could be such fun.  You’ll have to teach us.”

“Maybe later,” Kallie said.  “Right now, we have to talk about The Virus.”

“The Disease,” Al translated.

“What is there to talk about?” Micki asked.

Kale put her hands on her hips.  “The doctors here can’t figure out what causes it, how to cure it, or even how to treat it.”

“Neither can our healers,” Micki exclaimed in irritation.

“So,” Kallie said, “I propose that our doctors work with your healers, and they work with the other medical people in all the other countries so that way, they can hopefully find a cure!”

Kimmie added, “Only if we all work together can we beat this thing.”

“Yes,” Kendra dreamily said, “it’s not like The Virus cares what country you’re from.”

“Or what language you speak,” Kimmie said.

“Or if your ruler is female or male,” Kale said.

“So,” Kallie broke in, “we’re here to lead Princess Em and her friend out of the dungeon and back to the throne room, where we can all figure this out together.”  She turned back to the hole she’d come through.  “Follow me.”  She dove headfirst into the hole.

Micki looked at Al, and Al looked back.

Kimmie disappeared through the hole after Kallie.

Micki nodded in understanding. “There’s a way through the wall of the other room just like there is in this one, isn’t there?”

Kale grinned.  “How else do you think we got in here?”

Micki was astounded and aggravated at the same time.  “So we could have gotten out of here if we’d only looked hard enough?”

“Yeah,” Kale said as Kendra crawled through the hole.  “Follow me.  It’s easier if you go head first.”

Kale disappeared, taking the light with her.

Al would probably be glad to get out of this dark cell.  Micki gestured towards the hole.  “After you.”

Much more awkwardly than the other four girls, Al pushed through the small hole, and Micki followed a moment later.  They landed on the floor of the next cell.  The four Hammondy princesses waited for them to rise to their feet, then Kallie dove through a duplicate hole in the far wall of this second cell.

“Wow, how many holes do we have to crawl through?” Micki asked as they lined up to take turns.

“This is the great secret about the Hammondy dungeons,” Kale said in a low voice.  “They’re all connected so no one can really get locked in, but it’s amazing how few prisoners ever realized that.”  She giggled, sounding like Al, then disappeared through this second hole.

Shrugging, Al and Micki followed.

They crawled through three more holes.  They were all completely covered in dirt and tiny bits of stone when they broke through into a corridor that was well lit.

The light made everything seem so much cheerier.  Micki felt her spirits rise instantly.  Things didn’t seem nearly so gloomy.  Or so impossible.

Together Micki and Al and the four ‘K’s all scampered up the long staircase that led to the upper part of the palace.  They stood outside the throne room again only minutes later.

“Okay,” Kallie whispered conspiratorially.  “Hammondy and Ruralusia, united.  Agreed?”

“Agreed.”  The other three Hammondy princesses nodded with Micki and Al.

“Let’s hold hands,” Kimmie suggested.  “That way, Father won’t be able to ignore us so easily.”

“Good idea.”  Kallie grabbed Kimmie’s hand, and Kimmie took Micki’s, who took Al’s, who took Kale’s, who turned to find Kendra examining the wall.  “Kendra!”  She held her fingers towards her sister.

“Oh!” Kendra exclaimed in delight.  “We’re holding hands!”

Kale said, “Holding hands is a great way to show that we’re all friends.”

“How nice!” Kendra said.  Beaming, she wrapped her fingers around Kale’s.  “Ready!”

Kallie nodded.  “Let’s go.”  She threw open the door and the six girls paraded into the room in one long line.

King Feston and his advisors were still crowded around the maps spread on the one table in the room.

“Father,” Kallie called.  “We have an idea.”

But before Kallie had the chance to explain any further, another figure appeared from behind King Feston.  A familiar figure in a long dress, wearing a circlet of silver to hold back her hair.

Micki gaped.  “Mom!”