Scene 77

I turned to leave the room, but stopped at the door. “Miss Pleater,” I started to say, but stopped when I turned my head and saw she was no longer in the room.

“Dave!” I heard Mike call out from the other room.

I rushed out of the library and found him in the hallway. “What is it?”

“Someone came into the compound, so we’re holding him.”

I hurried to the foyer with Mike to see who was being held. When I saw the man, I recognized him instantly. He looked a bit wild and was stripped of everything but his boots and McDonald tartan kilt.

I almost laughed at his appearance. “Ron, what in the hell happened to you? You look like a wild man!”

The man looked up at me in disbelief. “David, it is you!” He rushed over and grabbed me in a bear hug. “We all thought you were dead. Jamie told us you had been hit by lightning and vaporized when the storm hit.”

I finished the hug and pushed him away. “That’s not what happened to me. I guess what looked like a lightning strike to you was the Pleaters pulling me away.”

“Pleaters? Like in Miss Pleater?”

“It’s a long story my friend, and one we don’t have the time to tell right now. Why are you here? Where is everyone else?”

His expression showed a great loss. “Most of them are gone, changed by the storms. I’ve been trying to find others. But then this unusual woman told me to come back here and I would find you.”

“Unusual, how?”

“Well, she looked a lot like Miss Pleater, but she was dressed all in leather, like a biker, and her hair was dyed pink at the tips.”

I smiled and nodded. “One of the Pleaters, it looks like they’re still sending me assistance. What else did she say?”

“That I was supposed to help you get to the storm front.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go.”

“Wait just one minute!” James exclaimed. “You want to go back out there? Out there in the forest, with dinosaurs running around, and then back into the storm? Are you crazy?”

“It is his quest!” Deena chimed in.

“We must thwart the evil-doers.” The Wrecker smiled in anticipation.

Gerald only grinned with an animal-like expression.

“We have to do it, James,” I answered him. “It’s the only way to save all the worlds.”

James could only stammer in disbelief. He pointed at Ron. “But, he’s an old wild man. How can he possibly get us there?”

I turned to contemplate Ron’s appearance. He was getting old and he did look a bit wild. But I could still see a craftiness in his eyes when he smiled back at my gaze.

I nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, he does look a bit rough around the edges, and then some. But the Pleaters wouldn’t have sent him to us if he couldn’t do the job. We’re going.”

James looked around at all of us and could see we were all determined. He threw up his arms in exasperation. “All right, I guess there’s no talking sense to you. I’m certainly not going to stay here alone.”

I patted him on the back and laughed. “That’s the spirit!”