Hey, Number 13, I Think You’re Fine. Hey, Chapter 13, You’re Just In Time
"Dear, are you sure this is the only way?"
"Yes, Tessie, this is it!"
"But did you have to bring the kids?"
"Oh, honey, you know that the kids love to see the city."
"Yes, but not when we’re going to war with some human!"
Thomas Twiddlebug stopped and pondered this. He sniffed and rubbed his eye. "My little babies are growing up so fast..."
Tessie Twiddlebug shook her head, and took her daughter by the hand. The Twiddlebug family continued into Twiddlebug Town Square, where Mayor Twiddlebug was addressing a large crowd of gathering Twiddlebugs.
"-and we’ll strike as soon as he revs up that large yellow monster!" Mayor Twiddlebug shouted.
The crowd cheered. Thomas turned to his family. "I’ll go tell the Mayor I’m here," he said, flying off towards the stage.
"-one brave Twiddlebug to step forth, and throw himself on the line for- ah! Yes! There, you sir! ...I say, who is that?" Mayor Twiddlebug peered at Thomas flying up. "Tarnation! It’s Thomas Twiddlebug! Get on up here!"
Thomas was confused at all the applause and cheering coming his way as he flew toward the stage. Mayor Twiddlebug put his arm around Thomas. "Ladies and gentlebugs! I present to you, General Thomas Twiddlebug!" Mayor Twiddlebug shouted to more applause. Thomas stared blankly into the audience. "Your flower box thanks you son."
"Thanks me for what?" Thomas asked.
"For volunteering yourself to be a general in our war against that awful human, Alex Hooper, and his big yellow monster," Mayor Twiddlebug said.
"For doing what?!" Thomas shouted.
"Yes! And here is your official Twiddlebug slingshot," Mayor Twiddlebug said, handing Thomas a shiny slingshot.
"Oh, it’s shiny," Thomas said.
"That’s how you can tell it’s official," Mayor Twiddlebug said. "So whadaya say, boy, ready to fight?" Mayor Twiddlebug asked.
Thomas gulped. "I guess so."
"Good ‘cause ya don’t have a choice," said the Mayor. "We strike at dawn!"
-~-~-~-~-
"How about there, Bert, they’re hiring!" Ernie pointed at a store.
"Ernie," Bert sighed. "That’s just another toy store!"
"I know," Ernie said. "That’s why I wanna work there!" He laughed.
Bert rolled his eyes. "I still say we should work at the library. It’s so nice and quiet."
"Yeah, and boring," Ernie said. "At a toy store we can play with fire trucks, and balloons, and-"
Ernie stopped, looking forward. Bert looked forward too. "What?" Bert asked. "What is it Ernie?"
"That woman just dropped her groceries all over the sidewalk," Ernie said, walking towards the woman.
"Ernie, c’mon, we’ve got to-" Bert started. It was too late, Ernie was already bent over, helping the woman with her things. Bert shook his head. "Sometimes, Ernie, you’re just too good of a person."
Bert bent over and started picking up some bagels off the ground.
"Thanks," the woman said, pushing her long brown hair out of her face. "I tripped on the sidewalk, caught myself, but, as you can see, I couldn’t say the same for the groceries."
Ernie picked up a box of crackers. "Oh, it’s no problem." He smiled at her.
"Yeah," Bert said. "At least you didn’t have eggs in any of those bags."
The woman giggled. "Hi, I’m Ashley."
"I’m Ernie, and this is my old buddy Bert," Ernie said.
"Pleasure to meet you," Bert said. "Now c’mon Ernie, we need to get back to finding a job."
"A job?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah, we just blew into town," Bert said.
"No we didn’t, Bert," Ernie said. "We took the bus." Ernie laughed.
Ashley laughed too. Bert lowered his eyebrow in annoyance. "Anyway, we better be moving on. Nice to-"
"Wait, wait," Ashley said. "I think I can get you guys a job."
"Really?" Bert asked.
"Oh, that would be great, Ashley," Ernie said.
Ashley nodded. "If you’ll come with me to take these groceries back to my house, I’ll tell you about it over dinner."
"Well, we don’t want to impose, or anything," Bert said.
"No imposition at all." Ashley smiled. "It’s not every day I get orange and yellow dinner guests."
"And it’s not every day we don’t eat dinner with someone who isn’t orange, yellow, blue, red, magenta, or some other color of the rainbow," Ernie said.
Ashley scratched her head with her free hand. "Sounds like a fun place. Tell me about it at dinner," she insisted, grabbing Bert by the hand, dragging him along with her.
Ernie laughed. "Careful," Ernie called after them. "Bert’s nose comes loose from time to time!"
Bert shot a glare back at Ernie, then proceeded to talk to Ashley.
-~-~-~-~-
The bus pulled to a slow stop. Miles gently shook Gabi’s shoulder. She awoke slowly, rubbing her eyes. "Where are we?" she whispered.
"We just got into town," Miles said. "C’mon, let’s get our stuff and find a hotel to stay in tonight."
Gabi nodded. Next thing she knew they were walking down the sidewalk together, hand in hand, carrying along their suitcases.
"Man, it feels great to finally be out on our own, huh?" Miles asked.
Gabi yawned. "Yeah," she said. "But I miss Sesame Street."
Miles grew somber. "Yeah, I’m sure everybody does."
They saw a motel. Not just any motel, but a neon-light-sign-broken-down-door-motel. The vacancy sign flashed on and off, though it wasn’t supposed to.
Gabi squeezed Miles’ hand tight. "This is the only place left in town?" she asked.
Miles nodded. "C’mon, it doesn’t look that bad," he said. He looked up at the sign, it read ‘The Drop Inn!’ "It’s even got a cute name," Miles said.
The two of them started to walk towards the lobby door. Behind them, the top of the sign flashed on, revealing the hidden word. The sign read ‘The Don’t Drop Inn!’
Gabi and Miles looked around the dingy lobby, wallpaper peeling, windows cracked, floor an undescribable shade of gray.
Miles gulped, and rang the bell at the front desk. As he rang it, one of the desk lamps fell over.
The young couple looked at each other. Suddenly, a brown Grouch in a business suit popped up behind the front desk. "Yeah, what?" the Grouch asked.
"Uh, we’d- we’d like a room," Miles said. Gabi bit her lip, trying not to break down.
"Heh, no ya don’t," the Grouch said.
"Why not?" Miles asked.
"You haven’t actually seen our rooms, have ya?" The Grouch smirked.
"Well, no-"
"That’s why you want one. Trust me, ya don’t."
"Okay, we don’t want one," Gabi said. "We need one."
The Grouch snickered. "Suit yourself, skinny, follow me." The Grouch grabbed a key off one of the hooks behind him.
Miles and Gabi followed the Grouch to a room that looked to have once been room number thirteen. But the three had fallen off. "We’ve got two room number ones now," the Grouch said, unlocking the door.
He opened it, and Gabi shrieked. "Told ya," the Grouch said. "Have a rotten stay." He tossed the key to Miles.
They were afraid to walk into the room. It was green. But it wasn’t always green. Mold and mildew abound, dirt and dust, and most of all, trash.
Miles grasped Gabi’s hand and the two of them walked in. He set their bags on one of the two beds in the room. "Well," Miles said, looking the room up and down. "This isn’t so bad."
"You’re tellin’ me!" shouted something from under the blanket of the adjacent un-made bed. Another Grouch popped out from underneath. "I’ve been livin’ here for months, and room service still hasn’t brought me my sludge yet!"
Gabi screamed again. "Could you just leave?" Miles asked the Grouch.
"What’d ya say, mac?" the Grouch asked.
"SCRAM!" Miles shouted.
"That’s more like it!" the Grouch said, hopping out of the bed. "You’re becomin’ Grouchier and Grouchier every second you’re here! Ha ha! Sleep tight! The shovel’s under the bed!"
"What’s the shovel for?" Miles asked.
"Cockroaches," the Grouch said, leaving the room.
Gabi collapsed onto the bed and started crying. "I want to go home," she moaned.
Miles sat down beside her. "We can’t," he said. "There... there won’t even be a home for much longer."
Gabi sat up and latched on to Miles, crying on his shoulder. Miles wrapped his arms around her, and cried as well.
"I miss my mom and pop," he said.
"I miss my mommy and papi," Gabi whispered.
"I miss Telly, and Grover..."
"And Elmo and Zoe and Baby Bear..."
"Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster..."
"Rosita, Alan, Bob..."
"Everybody," they both said.
"S-Sesame Street," Gabi said, tears rolling down her face.
"Don’t worry, it’ll all work out."
Gabi and Miles sat up, and looked around. "Who said that?"
A Muppet cockroach popped up next to Gabi. "I did."
Gabi squealed, and swatted the cockroach out the door.
Miles grinned, and Gabi smiled. Then they both laughed.
"Sesame Street’s following us around," Miles said.
Gabi giggled. "Good thing, too."
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Also, it isn't really as big of a deal since it was never stated otherwise to my knowledge, but is Olivia Gordon's sister? This is really more for my own curiosity than anything else.
