Thursday at 7PM I parked the Eagle on the rise at the edge of town and waited for Dwight to show up.
From up there I had a view of the valley. Route 94 curved around the Galleria and the water tower, then headed west into the night. All the lights were off in the county office building, except for one or two and the first floor.
The Nowhere Road from Base Camp, the portal that led to the next dimension, the bridge that connected to the tunnel—nobody knew it was down there because it was camouflaged and classified as Top Secret, but was all discovered by Uncle Brucker and me.
We followed the homing rat. We made the reverse map and discovered the rift between dimensions. We notified the General through the LL.
General Hardesty’s Army Engineers dug the rift out and widened it, covered it with camouflage, self-reflecting mirrors, and other high tech military trickery. With the aid of Dwight and my reverse map, I will sneak into the rat dimension and make my way through the camouflage and mirrors and the trickery, and find my Uncle and take him back home.
It’s 7:25. Where’s Dwight? I sat in the car and studied the reverse map and waited for Dwight. I practiced my Rat Talk. Chi-‘za-ba. Out of the way, Ratso! Tze’-che-te. Get packing!
Dwight had tuned in the TV, and by adjusting the contrast and light he chased away some of the static, and we got a better look at my Uncle. I didn’t ask Dwight, he volunteered to go with me. If he doesn’t get here in the next few minutes, it will be too dark to make our way through the woods and I’ll have to abort until tomorrow.
I put the Eagle in first and I was ready to drive off when I heard footsteps on the sidewalk. Dwight came out of the bushes, and Renata was with him.
“What are you doin’ here?” I asked.
“She’s goin’, I’m not.”
Dwight turned and showed me the left side of his face. Whoever was looking for him, found him, and I didn’t want to know why. His left eye was black and blue and swollen shut, and it made him look tough and dumb. Tough enough to take a punch, but too dumb to avoid it.
“I’ll fix the timer and start it up for you,” Dwight said. “Don’t wanna go into no extra dimension lookin’ like this.”
“That’s why I’m goin’,” said Renata.
“You don’t want to go, and I don’t want you with me,” I told Renata.
She showed me the name tag she made just for me, and it was fancy and beautiful and it looked like it belonged to somebody important. The name WALT stuck out the top in neat letters like the Eleventh Commandment. Blue ribbons with sparkles and green ribbons with stars hung halfway down my chest.
The rats don’t care much for awards and diplomas, but they do have a lot of respect for a fancy name tag or an important-looking badge or an impressive business card.
“I won’t let you go without me,” she said.