Fictionarium Ch. 8 Episode 4- The Piney Spot At the Center

 The best laid plans are often made by mice, and not men.

images from pixabay

An obscure gravel road, overgrown and thick with weeds, seemed to mark the midway point between the towns of Hill Valley and Lakeland, and with the windows up, Mels car parted the tall briars and grass slowly as she drove into it's thickness, until the forest's shade took over and thinned the undergrowth enough to see around. The rocky ground was visible now, and with the highway already out of sight, she turned off  the car and looked at Daniel.

"I believe we are parked right on the crease!"

Mel's Wild Tales

The previous evening, Daniel and Arlo had listened as Mel tried to explain why she had torn away so quickly earlier, and why she had come ripping back into Lakeland in such a rush afterwards.  

They had been quiet while she described the secret rooms in her house, and they had stared blankly as she told them about what was in one of the hidden rooms: a machine gun. They had nodded supportively as she explained how she had decided to go test the gun out, and how she had then changed her mind about it. 

They had listened carefully to the details of Mel's encounter with the police on her front porch, and their looks of disbelief were only interrupted at the mention of Officer White, when Arlo had at last looked up sharply with some concern.

Having finally gotten some serious attention from one of them, she had playfully held up one finger, and then she had opened her backpack, gently pulling out the old map.

Now she had their full, serious attention.

 Before she had left her house in such a hurry, Mel had liberated the old map from it's dusty perch on the long table in the secret room, and had noticed that after folding it along the original creases, that one corner had been nibbled away by some ancient brood of mice, so that now, when she opened the fragile folds, the exact center of the map was missing a bit of parchment.

Utilizing the well-lit 'Map Room' at the Lakeland library, they had been able to get a good look at the remaining parts, and it had turned out to be an old map of the Lakeland/Hill Valley duplex, with some surrounding forest marked in faded green ink.

  
It had been hard to take Daniel very seriously so far that evening-- he was still wearing a bee costume from an earlier event that he had attended, and for Daniel, 'Honey Day' in Lakeland lasted all day, and went on 'til midnight. One of his wire antennas had come loose, and he was using it as a pointer on the map, and as Mel watched the end of the wire move around on the map, hopping over the mouse-chewed hole in the middle again, she had said, rather whimsically, "To me… the most interesting part of this map is here." Daniel gave her his detached antenna, and she dangled it like a plumb bob over the missing middle portion. 

 
 "When it was folded, the mice had four corners to choose from… they would have instinctively gone for the most delicious corner."

Arlo puffed. He didn't seem impressed with such methods of investigation, but Daniel had laughed and nodded so hard that his little plastic bee wings on his shoulders flapped just for a second in agreement.
Daniel had then insisted that they go and investigate the area that the mice had found so tasty, in the morning on the following day. (Later admitting that he really just wanted to go for a ride in Mel's car, presuming that he could fit in it!) 

Mel had agreed, and he was able to fit in the car the next day with little problem.

Her car had gone as far off-road as she dared take it, and she and Daniel climbed out of the low vehicle. They both leaned down and picked up one of the enormous pine cones which were strewn over the ground and looked at each other with a chuckle. Ahead, a small pine tree was growing from the middle of the road, but beyond that, the forgotten lane began to curve up a rocky slope, where more small trees had found ways to start growing in the middle of it. 

 Aside from a little peewee saying it's own name repeatedly in a nearby glade, the forest was quiet. Daniel sat on a patch of pine needles and seemed to be smelling the air while Mel walked up the slope ahead a little to see if she could see more. A wild blueberry bush leaned out of a crevasse at her, but the animals had found it first, and only a few dried berries remained on it's branches.  

Daniel had been trying all morning to piece together all that Mel had told him about her experiences from the previous day. 

 
"Did I hear you say last night that you found TWO secret rooms in your house?"

Mel found her own patch of pine needles and sat down on it.

 She had found another room in her house, and she described it briefly. It was in the basement, and seemed to be part of the original plans of the house, possibly a bunker, or just a good hiding place. It had originally been hidden in the back wall of the basement's storage section, but the wood panel secret door had been broken, and it's poor repair was what caught Mel's eye. She had opened it, but had found nothing inside of interest, and with the room itself being the most curious part, she had fixed the door and returned it to it's original hidden status, just for fun.

Mel had already built a little teepee made of pine needles in front of herself while she sat, and she looked up into the tall trees, changing the subject. "I know Connie can handle the Bean House for a few days or so, she's got that."

Daniel listened as he does, and so she continued.

"I kinda miss my house already. I need to, go back there? I mean… I guess. I usually know exactly what to do-- I'm good at that-- but, I don't know what to do. This is all just... too much."
She asked, as casually as possible. "Do you know if Arlo is going back… to Hill Valley?"

Daniel laughed now-- he was enjoying the peace of the piney spot, but he could tell the cops had spooked Mel a little, and her voice was always more intelligent than fearful, so maybe she had good reason to be cautious. 

 
"I don't think either one of you knuckleheads know what you want to do! No... just hang around Lakeland another night or so, and figure it out, like you do… you ARE good at it, you just need a break."

He looked over at Mel's car and then back at her. "Are you going to drive your car in the parade, and… can I drive it?"  

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thanks for reading this episode of FICTIONARIUM
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