The next installment of ‘The Creativity of Logan
Manchester’! And ha, ha, ha, I’ve just figured out how it’s going to end. Hang
on and find out, or I’ll be away laughing on a fast camel.
The next day, the four met up at the local café to go over to
Logan’s. Saraha was still angry that the ‘crap document’, as she had insisted on
calling it, had wrecked her flute. The tree house was going to be searched
thoroughly for any inkling of where this sketchy report could be.
They walked over to Logan’s house, on 28 Elm Lane, and promptly
went into the backyard. The tree house was small, and for Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P
and Logan, it was a tight squeeze. To search it was harder, so they agreed that
they should search in shifts. Because Logan knew the tree house best, he went
first, but nothing was found.
Saraha rolled her eyes; “We’re going off on a whim – nobody
knows where the crap document is, and never will. Your father was humoring you,
face it, Logan.”
Flo P who had taken up to standing up for Logan, who couldn’t
for himself, said, “Of course it’s in here, Saraha – don’t be so mean. Can’t
you see what Logan’s going through?”
“No, I can’t,” she grumbled, and watched Flo P climb the ladder
for her fifteen-mintue shift.
Alas, nobody found anything. The problem was – there was not
much area to search. They tried looking down cracks and under the windowsills
and under the shingles on the roof, but this yielded nothing, at least until it
was Ji-Ji’s turn. Instead of searching, she sat in thought.
“Alright,” said Ji-Ji’s soft voice from the tree house. It was
situated in a large Lunk Tree, the most common type of tree in the town, and it
was very, very old, and very, very big. “There’s a way to do this. We know
where we’ve searched, and that’s all the obvious places. I think I should try
the unobvious places. Where would be an unobvious place? The tree itself…”
“But that’s not the tree house. Mr. Manchester specifically
said the tree house,” called up Flo P.
But Ji-Ji wasn’t talking to them, she had been talking to
herself. They could still hear her in the growing darkness.
“I’ll go get a flashlight,” whispered Logan, and scurried off.
Ji-Ji’s voice was still talking. “…Then the only other place
could be the floorboards. In
the floorboards? That’s a place.” Ji-Ji began knocking around. Finally, the
knocks stopped, and Ji-Ji said to her friends, and Logan, now returned with the
flashlight, “I may have found it! Run; get a hammer and a crowbar or whatever
plies off wood! Oh – and a saw!”
Logan ran off to find the tools, and Saraha and Flo P stuck
their heads in the tree house to see what Ji-Ji had found. Ji-Ji was
triumphantly pointing to a board.
When Logan got back, the crew hammered and pulled and wrenched
at the board, until it finally sprang loose (though this took an inordinate
amount of time, as Logan was very inept at using tools).
They had just managed to get it off and bring the small board
down to saw it in half when Mrs. Manchester came out. “Logan!” she said,
surprised, as he had brought friends home for the first time in his life. “Now
who are you three?”
“I’m Flo P,” said Flo P. “And this is Saraha – ” she indicated
to Saraha “ – and Ji-Ji – ” she indicated to Ji-Ji.
“Hello, Mrs. Manchester! I’m pleased to meet you! I’m the
director of Tongues of Acid,” Ji-Ji said, leaping to her feet.
Mrs. Manchster looked pleased with Logan’s friends, after
Ji-Ji’s usual overly enthusiastic greeting. “Can I get some dinner for you?”
she asked.
“I have to go home, soon,” said Saraha. “But thank you.”
“Us as well,” Flo P said.
“I hope to see you around,” said Mrs. Manchester, and went
inside the house.
“Alright,” said Saraha, back to her brisk manner. “I do have to go home soon, it’s not like I
didn’t want to eat your gross food, Logan, so let’s continue. I’ll saw.” She
grabbed the saw and began to saw the board in half, and they saw Ji-Ji had been
right; it was hollow.
Finally, when it was done, Saraha took a rolled yellow
envelope, the size of an ordinary large yellow envelope in which you keep
important documents. She handed it to Logan.
Logan unrolled it, and undid the clasp at the top. He reached
in and pulled out a thin booklet of light-blue colour. On the front was labeled the words, ‘The
Walrus Operation.’
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