All that week, Dad worked on the Alien Chaser App problem. He went to Freddy’s house, and his Mom played piano while Dad recorded her playing “Home on the Range.” He didn’t explain his plan, but I trusted him to take care of the App.
Meanwhile, one day after school, Mom drove Bree and me to City Hall.
It is a big building with a dome. That is a huge half-ball thing on top of the building. The dome was full of stained glass, all red and blue and yellow. The sunlight came through the colored glass and made the inside of City Hall look like a party.
“Where do we get a permit for a parade?” Mom asked a guard.
“Follow the signs.” He pointed to an arrow that said, “Mayor’s Office.”
I was still looking all around City Hall when we went around the corner and I ran right into someone. We both fell in a heap. The man was bald, except his head was covered with a yellow rug or something. But my replicator would be sad to make fake hair that bad.
Mom helped us both up and said, “So sorry.”
But the man stuck out his chest and stood very tall. “Do you know who I am?”
Bree spoke in a choked voice. “Mayor Lucky?”
“That’s right. And this is my City Hall.”
Bree frowned. “My mother is a lawyer. She says that City Hall belongs to the people.”
“Yes, yes,” Mayor Lucky said. “But I run City Hall.”
Mom shook her head as if to say it was time to get down to business. “We were just coming to see you, Mr. Mayor. We need to ask for a parade permit.”
The Mayor sighed. “It’s the Friends of Police parade, right? Come this way.”
He led us to a big office door. He pulled it open and let us inside. It was a big room with lots of wood and huge chairs.
When everyone was seated, the Mayor said, “What will you do about the horse apples?”
“Um,” Mom said.
“I don’t want poop left all over my streets.”
“What?” I was confused.
“Horse apples,” the Mayor said.
“You know. Horse poop.”
“Oh,” Bree said.
“Look,” Mayor Lucky said. “I told Chief Glendale that the mounted police can be in the parade. But only if the horses wear diapers.”
“Diapers?” Bree sounded shocked.
“Yes,” Mayor Lucky said. “Horse diapers are bags that go under a horse’s tail and it catches the horse apples. But Chief Glendale said, ‘No.’”
Mom asked, “Is there any other way to take care of the horse apples?”
“Well, someone could follow along and pick up the horse apples.”
Bree said, “Oh, is that all? We can make sure someone does that. It’s like taking a baggie with you when you take a dog for a walk.”
Mayor Lucky shrugged. Then he reached into a drawer and pulled out some papers and handed them to Mom. “Here’s the application for a parade permit. If there’s even one horse apple left on the parade route, I will fine you $500.”
Mom flipped through the pages. “Ten pages for a parade permit?”
“That’s the short form,” Mayor Lucky said. “And I’ll need that by tomorrow. Paperwork takes a long time.”
“Yes, sir,” Mom sighed. “Let’s go, kids.”
But Bree went up to the Mayor and held out her hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you, sir. Someday, I will be the Mayor.” It sounded like her Mom’s lawyer voice.
The Mayor turned around, and the yellow rug on his head tilted to the right. He reached up and straightened it out. Then he looked at Bree’s hand.
He reached out and shook Bree’s hand. “Always a pleasure to meet a voter,” he said. And then he turned his back on her.
Bree grinned at me. And that made the sun come out and shine inside me. I was proud of her. That Bree. Someday, she was going to be a great Earthling Mayor.