Chapter 24
Wembley rolled over underneath his blanket and yawned. He had no desire to wake up after what he’d just experienced.
He was a hero after all. (At least that’s what everyone kept telling him.) Heroes should be able to pick their own sleep schedules. They shouldn’t have to wake up because their roommate was already wide awake and strumming his guitar in the corner of the room.
Though waking up meant breakfast, and he was kind of hungry. Maybe, as a hero, he could get someone to fetch breakfast for him.
No, he couldn’t do that. He may have been a hero, but he certainly wasn’t bossy.
Or was he? He wasn’t too sure what his personality entailed anymore, now that he was no longer a wembler.
Though, in hind-sight, not being able to decide if he was or wasn’t bossy anymore was wembling…
Everything was getting back to normal.
Wembley finally sat up in his bed, which was simply a hole within a cave wall. He stretched his arms out wide and yawned, the sleeves of his maroon pajamas dropped down near his shoulders. "Morning Gobo," he said cheerfully, scratching the back of his head.
"Good morning, Wembley," Gobo said, sitting with his legs propped up on a rock wall, holding his guitar on his lap. "Did you sleep well?"
"Mm-hm," Wembley said. He reached his foot over to the ladder leading from his bed to the floor and climbed down. "What do you have planned for today, Gobo?" Wembley asked as he searched through his wardrobe consisting of only banana tree shirts.
"Well…" Gobo said hesitantly. "I was going to sneak through the Gorg’s garden to go see Madame Trash Heap, but now I can just stroll right through. Then I was gonna help Mokey grab a radish for Boober to bake into a cake, but Junior already put ten of ‘em by the hole leading outside!"
"Huh," Wembley said, pulling the banana tree shirt over his large nose, "well now that all of that is done what’re you gonna do?" he asked.
"I don’t know," Gobo said, "I don’t really know what I can do."
Wembley pondered this. "Well… your Uncle Matt and Cantus are around, that’s pretty rare, maybe we could spend some time with them."
"That’s a good idea Wembley," Gobo said. "I think I’m starting to like this new, decisive you."
"Me too!" Wembley said happily. "At least… I think I do."
Gobo smirked and hopped up off his chair, tossing the guitar on his back. "C’mon Wembley, let’s go see what the others are up to."
"Okay Gobo," Wembley said, starting to follow his best friend out of their cave. "Boy, it always feels so funny not needing to go up to Doc’s apartment and check for a postc—"
"Doc!" Gobo shouted, spinning around suddenly, knocking Wembley on his tail. "We just ran right through his apartment yesterday without even explaining what was going on!" Gobo said.
"Oh yeah," Wembley said, pulling himself up off the ground. "Well, maybe we should just—"
"We’ve gotta get up there and apologize," Gobo said quickly, "c’mon Wembley."
Wembley nodded. "Coming, Gobo!"
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Red tugged at the green leaf with all her might. She grunted as she tugged and eventually fell to the floor. "Urgh," she grumbled, "I tell ya, Mokey, it’s nice that Junior brought us these radishes and all, but why did he have to pick the biggest ones?"
On the other side of the radish Red was tugging at, Mokey was gently trying to push the radish through the cave. "Oh Red, you’re so silly," Mokey chided. "Junior’s just trying to show us that he and the other Gorgs really do care."
Red pulled herself up with the radish leaf and tried to pull it again. "I understand that," she said through her grunts, "but how to they plan to show us they care for the pain we’re experiencing?"
Mokey shook her head and gently shoved the radish. The red vegetable moved suddenly, with the force of Red’s pulling. It quickly began to bounce down the cave with Red still holding on to the leaf for dear life. "MO-KEY!" she shouted.
"Red!" Mokey called after the radish. "You come back here with that radish, right now!" Mokey blew her steam out of her nose and started to give chase to the radish and Red.
"Whoa, WHOA!" Red shouted as she bounced through the caverns. "Ha ha," she laughed suddenly, "this is actually kinda fun! Whoopie!" she shouted.
Meanwhile, in the cavern a little down the way, Boober had strung a makeshift laundry rope across two rocks and was beginning to drape his nice, clean, moist socks upon it. "Finally," he said to himself, "I’ve got some peace and quiet to concentrate on tube socks." He sighed happily. "This is my Perfect Harmony."
Boober’s ears pricked up as he heard a faint noise echoing down the cavern. "What is that?" he asked no one. Unfortunately for him, someone answered.
He screamed as a radish with a Fraggle on top of it bounced down the rocky hall. Boober noticed the bouncy orange pigtails of the Fraggle atop the vegetable and groaned. Red stuck out her hand from atop the radish and grabbed onto Boober’s tail, pulling him onto her new ride as she passed.
Boober scrambled to grab onto the back of Red’s sweater and gripped it with all of his might. "Red, you are positively nuts!" he shouted.
"Have a little fun, will ya?" she said.
"Fun does not involve broken bones!" Boober barked.
The radish continued bouncing through the cave and came up towards the side where Gobo and Wembley’s room was.
Alas, that was also where Gobo and Wembley were.
Boober noticed this as the radish approached the shocked Fraggles and stuck out his hand, grabbing onto Wembley, pulling him up too. "If I have to go through this, so do you!" he snarled.
"GO-BO!" Wembley cried. "Help- me-!"
Gobo couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. He shook his head quickly and began to run after the rolling radish.
"Gobo, wait," Mokey called after the Fraggle as she ran towards him; "did you see a giant radish rolling through here with a Fraggle on top?"
"No," Gobo said, "but I did just see a giant radish rolling through here with three Fraggles on top. C’mon, we’d better chase after them."
Mokey and Gobo darted after the radish as it neared the opening to the Great Hall. Fraggles were plentiful, as usual, singing, dancing, and playing games. They all darted out of the way fast enough to avoid the seemingly rubber radish as it bounced toward the Fraggle pond, and stayed out of the way as Gobo and Mokey ran after it.
The radish bounced high into the air and the three Fraggles atop it screamed loudly as they spun in a one-hundred eight degree turn and plummeted directly into the water of the Fraggle pond.
Gobo and Mokey were splashed with the water from the pond as they skidded to a halt at the edge of the pond. Mokey pushed her soaked hair out of her eyes and looked down into the water as two petrified Fraggles and Red surfaced with the radish still beneath them.
"Ha ha," Red laughed wildly, "Gobo, you have got to try that! Whoo! I think I’ve found a new Fraggle Olympic event!"
Boober spit water out of his mouth and grabbed his dripping hat off his head. "I think I’ve found the radish for my cake…"
Wembley shook himself to get the water off. He looked around him at his four best friends in the entire world and began to laugh uncontrollably.
Laughing has always been infectious.
Gobo fell to the floor and started cackling madly with Red and Mokey following him and Wembley. Boober frowned, and then looked down into his hat. A small fish flopped around in the tiny pool of water built up inside of it. Not even Boober could help but laugh hysterically now.
If this is what Perfect Harmony was like, the Fraggle Five were certainly glad they’d reached finally reached it.
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"Well I’m certainly glad you didn’t stop to explain things to me, Gobo," Doc said quickly. "It sounds like you had some very perfect timing."
The Fraggle Five sat in a circle with Sprocket as they told Doc their story. (They had drip-dried on the trek to the apartment.) Gobo nodded in response to Doc’s statement. "Yup," he said, "and now we have some very Perfect Harmony."
Doc chuckled warmly. "Yes, and I’ve made sure that no one from ‘Outer Space’ threatens that Harmony ever again."
"Good," Boober said, "the less time I have to be out here, the better. It’s filthy in Outer Space."
Sprocket looked up and licked Boober’s face. Boober’s expression turned to complete disgust as he tried desperately to wipe the germs off his face. "Blech, yuck, that is just disgusting," he said.
The Fraggles, Doc, and Sprocket all laughed together as Boober scrubbed his face with his scarf.
Gobo stood up from the floor and smiled at Doc. "Well Doc," he said, "thanks for having us, but we’d better be getting back. Cantus wanted to meet with the Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs at the same time before he left, so we’ll need to get back for that."
Doc nodded understandingly. "Thank you, Gobo, for stopping by to see me," he said.
"No problem," Gobo said, "I’ll be back tomorrow, anyway."
Doc smiled. "Wonderful," he said.
Mokey, Wembley, Boober, and Red made their way back into Fraggle Rock. Gobo stood and rubbed Sprocket’s nose. "See ya, Sprocket ol’ buddy," he said. "Stay out of trouble, okay?" Sprocket nodded and licked Gobo, who giggled and hugged the dog’s leg. "Bye Doc, bye Sprocket!" he said as he headed towards the Fraggle hole.
"Goodbye Gobo," Doc called after his Fraggle friend. When the Fraggles were gone, Doc sighed happily. "Perfect Harmony," he said to Sprocket, "doesn’t that just sound fantastic?"
Sprocket nodded and Doc rubbed the top of his dog’s head. "Maybe someday, Sprocket, we’ll learn what it’s like to have Perfect Harmony too," he said.
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