May 14, 2000
Home, Washington D.C., 9:21 a.m.
Not all that long ago, in a place we all know and love, there was a family deciding where to go on their monthly road trip.
“Oh no, not again.” Mulder said, rolling his eyes in disgust.
“I need to see my family! There’s nothing more to it.” Scully demanded. She then proceeded to glare at Mulder in such a way that it made him shudder. He knew then that there was no way out of this. “Oh no…oh no…I’m not! I’m not going there!” Mulder continued to protest.
Just then, two girls came bounding down the large old steps. One was dressed in a slightly too short black and neon flowered dress with matching yellow and pink ribbons in her hair. She wore alien printed tights and nearly knee-high Doc Martens. This was Sarah.
The other girl was wearing a black skirt halfway down her thighs over purple and black striped stockings. Her clunky Doc Martens adorned her feet. She wore a velvet tank top that reached halfway down the skirt, which was maroon and black and looked extremely scary. A schmatta adorned her head, and her face was covered in glitter. This was Maggie.
“I heard Dad’s ‘terror’ voice, what’s up now, Mommalee?” Maggie asked.
“Dah-dee, where are you? Are you okay?” Sarah called from the other room. She eventually found her father, curled up under the dinner table rocking back and forth.
Once Sarah retrieved her other parent, the conversation started again.
“Mom, what did you do to Dah-dee?” Sarah asked.
“I just informed him of where we are going on our road trip,” Scully answered.
“Oh Mom, no…no, please not again!” The girls cried in unison.
“Yes, we’re going to San Francisco to see our relatives. I still have family besides you crazy loons and I want to go see them, dammit!” Scully said.
It was then that Sarah and Maggie screamed an ear-piercing horror movie scream and ran back up the stairs into their room. On the way, they knocked down a smaller girl; she appeared to be maybe 12 but was in actuality 16. She wore black from head to toe, had an evil glare on her face, and smelled of a science lab. The latex gloves she was wearing were stained with a strange orange substance and a vial of whatever it was had fallen and broken on the floor, leaking a strange unknown substance onto the carpet. This was Dani. She picked herself up and carefully wandered downstairs.
“Mom, what’s their problem?” Dani asked, knowing that something had to be up if Sarah and Maggs were screaming like that.
“I just told them about the road trip to see my family in California,” she said.
“Oh,” Dani replied, “that again. How is Dad taking it?”
Scully then pointed to the dinner table. Mulder was underneath it once again, but this time he was sucking his thumb and had a small stuffed ducky in his arms.
“Ouch, that bad, huh?” Dani said, wincing in sympathy for Mulder.
“Yeah, tell the rest of the crew. We need to leave in 1 hour,” Scully commanded, “1 hour! No sooner, no later, so I suggest you guys get moving!” As Dani turned to leave, Scully suddenly remembered something and shouted, “And don’t you dare bring that snake of yours!! Last time he almost ate Matthew and I don’t want to upset Tara like that again!”
Dani pouted as she slowly continued up the stairs.
Home, Washington D.C., 10:22 a.m.
“Go. NOW!” Scully screamed at her family from inside the van.
Everyone then proceeded to pile in. First came Dani, because she was the most willing. Then Missy and Samantha, because they were even smaller than Dani was and fit in easily. Next came Tča, who was carrying the baby, Charlie. Then Sarah and Maggie piled in, after throwing their father into the passenger seat and buckling him securely. Mulder rocked back and forth in a daze while everyone else silently thanked the Toaster for seatbelts to keep him from escaping…again. Scully then peeled out of the long spooky driveway and through the city, eventually getting out onto the highway. Along the highway they sped, until Dani spotted a strange figure.
“STOP!” she yelled.
The car stopped, causing a 13-car pile-up behind them.
“It’s Seifer!” Maggie squealed.
“Can he come to Cali-for-ni-a too? Huh? Huh? Please?” Sarah begged.
“Seifer hydroxide!” Missy squeaked
“Peroxide.” Dani corrected the little girl patiently. “O2, not OH-.” That was Missy’s first chemistry lesson, the one she would forget after about two point five seconds.
“Shiny Toaster fires!” Samantha giggled.
The older Mulders looked at her. “WHAT?!” They screamed. Samantha realized she has just combined the wrong words into a sentence and quickly added, “Microwave flame burst!” Everyone nodded in satisfaction at this.
“So can he come, Mommalee? Please?” Maggie and Sarah begged in unison.
“Fine, just so long as he has cool shoes,” their mother said.
“Oh, he does…” Dani remarked, getting all dreamy eyed.
So Seifer joined the others and the road trip continued.
Toaster only knows, USA, 2:01 p.m.
“Why do you get to drive?” Mulder asked as Scully made another (wrong) breakneck turn.
“Because, you’re crazy and will get us lost,” Scully answered.
“I never thought your little feet could reach the petals,” he said under his breath. Luckily for him, Scully didn’t hear.
Dudley, Iowa, 4:04 p.m.
“Mommy, are we lost?” Missy squeaked from the back seat.
“Yes dear, Mommy made a wrong turn just outside of D.C. We’ll be back on track in about a day or two,” she responded.
“Uh-oh Mommy,” Sam said, not to be outdone by her sister. “I see cows!”
“ELSIE!” The older Mulders screamed. Maggie, Dani, and Sarah were about to recite their favorite monologue, but Mulder, coming to his senses for the second time since the trip has started held up a hand.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said. “I’ve heard that thing so many times I could scream it to the heavens myself!”
This scared them, so they pondered the meaning of jelly doughnuts instead.
“So Mommalee, where exactly are we?” Maggie asked, after she got tired of thinking about jelly doughnuts.
Scully pulled the car into a dusty old parking lot just as it ran out of gas. A very strange old man stepped out from the front porch of the building and spoke.
“Welcome to Dudley, Iowa and the 4th Largest Plastics Museum in the World! Come in, come in!”
“I think not.” Sarah said. “Lets all split up and look for gas and a way to San Fran. Deal?”
“That’s a Roger Davis!” Responded all that could.
“Dani and Seifer, you head north, maybe you’ll find some civilization once you hit Minnesota. Tča, take Charlie and head to the south, that shouldn’t be too difficult for you. Missy and Sam, head west, and Sarah and I will go east. Okay?” Maggie said.
“Okay!” they all said in unison.
“EW-2-1-BREAK!” Sarah called, and they all took off in their respective directions, leaving their parents to deal with the spooky guy and the car.
Nowhere, Minnesota, 6:13 p.m.
Dani and Seifer went north towards Minneapolis. They caught a ride on a chicken truck that took them up to some place called Albert Lea.
“Albert Lea, Minnesota. How exciting.” Dani said sardonically.
“Hey, wasn’t he some detective guy a long long time ago in a current UFO hotspot?” Seifer asked, not quite sure of himself
“Wrong Albert, but nice try anyways. Oh well, at least this place is big enough to have running water. And if they have running water, they should have a phone somewhere.”
“Just so long as it’s not tapped.” Seifer said, “Then I’ll be happy.”
“But they’re all tapped!” Dani protested.
“They are not!”
“Are too!”
“Are not!”
“Are too!”
“Hey, who’s the one with the fan club here?”
“Just because you have a fan club doesn’t mean you’re always right!”
They continued to argue over these points while starting on a mission to find a phone by knocking on random doors (since the town was too small for a phone booth), hoping there would be someone home. They eventually found one, Seifer won the argument, Dani sulked, and they both checked in with Sarah and Maggs.
Nowhere, Illinois, 6:13 p.m.
Sarah and Maggie were sitting and having Frappuccinos with this guy named Tobias. Tobias was a guy who knew computers inside and out, but had more fun studying magic. He had lots of talent with it, but he never seemed to find any practical use for it, unlike Dani, who seemed to use it all the time. No one knew about Tobias’ past, and, at the moment, no one cared either. Sarah and Maggie were just happy to be able to crash somewhere. Just then, Sarah’s cell phone rang.
“You get it,” Sarah told Maggie, handing her the phone.
“You get it,” Maggie told Tobias tossing him the phone.
“Um, hello?” Tobias said answering the phone after almost dropping it when it was tossed his way.
“Hey, is Sarahbelle there?” Dani asked.
“Yuppers,” he said and handed the cell phone to Maggie.
“Hi there, sugar,” Maggie said to Dani, “what can I do for you?”
“Where are you?” Dani asked.
“Nowhere, Illinois. You?”
“Nowhere, Minnesota. Where are you headed?” Seifer said, grabbing the phone from Dani.
“Chicago.” Sarah said after grabbing the phone from Maggs.
“We’re going to Minneapolis. Have fun…oh, and don’t take any more hostages to the mall, okay?”
“Awwwww…” Sarah and Maggie said together. They could see Seifer glaring at them all the way from Minnesota. “Oh fine, we’ll talk to you later. Byers.” They hung up. Tobias looked at them.
“Hostages…?” He asked, now slightly afraid of his guests.
“Don’t ask.” Sarah and Maggie told him in unison.
Nowhere, Nebraska, 6:13 p.m.
Missy and Samantha waddled out onto the yellow line in the middle of a road. Since they had suddenly turned four after being two, they didn’t quite know how to use all their motor functions correctly all the time, so at least one was out of whack each day. Today it was walking. Tomorrow it would be…well, who cares what it would be tomorrow? Anyways, because they loved their sisters so much, they decided to imitate them, using their waddling to imitate ducks and they started quacking loudly at the passing cars. One car even whizzed by them so fast that it knocked them to the ground. After being knocked to the ground, they looked at each other, tears in their eyes.
“Danihydroxide Sarahlee-Maggsbelle Tča-char!” Missy cried “Yo soy un boo-boo!”
Samantha couldn’t be outdone by her sister, no matter what the circumstances, so she screamed “Ayudamos, Tostadora, ayudamos!” to the sky.
They sat there just screaming random things in between sniffling, honking, quacking, and mooing until an over-protective motherly-type lady drove along in her old Cadillac. Realizing that there were two little children in the road, she stepped on the break petal and didn’t cause a pile up behind her, just gridlock. She flew out of the car and swept the two twins into her arms. The twins stopped crying and shouting and wrinkled their noses at her strong perfume, starting to cough instead, and then look at her with glaring eyes and adorably pouty faces.
“Oh you poor dears! Who could’ve left you out here in the middle of nowhere to meet your doom at such a young age? This shouldn’t be allowed! I’ll just take you all the way back home to Omaha where you’ll be safe tonight, okay sweeties?”
Missy and Sam exchanged a look and then bit the lady’s arms.
Nowhere, Kansas, 6:13 p.m.
Tča walked up and down the same street over and over, trying to make Charlie stop crying. She briefly wondered why she had gotten stuck with him, but then remembered that she was the only one with maternal instincts that wasn’t also riddled with insanity. She sighed, wondering if she would ever figure out how Maggie’s mind worked.
Charlie stopped crying and a man started walking down the street towards them. Tča quickly walked in his direction and was about to stop him for directions to the next hotel, when someone suddenly grabbed ahold of her shoulder and spun her around, waking Charlie up and making him cry.
“Excuse me miss, but it’s past curfew. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you and your baby down to the station for the night.” Tča tried to protest, but she was pushed into the back of the cop car before she could speak another word. Giving up, she tried to coax Charlie back to sleep on the long, lonely ride to jail.
Dudley, Iowa, 6:13 p.m.
“I can’t believe you lost the kids! Mulder! How could you do such a thing?” Scully ranted.
“But I didn’t, I mean, they were right here! I thought I heard Sarah yell something about the cardinal directions…but I don’t know,” he said.
Scully then picked up her cell phone and proceeded to try and call Sarah.
“I’m sorry, you are out of range. Please try back again.” Her cell phone said.
“Bloody hell!” Scully cursed, “Mulder, what are we going to do now?”
Just then, the even stranger wife of the strange old man came out and asked in a northern hick type voice, “Would y’all like to have dinner here, and maybe spend the night? It’s a long way to the next town and, well, we don’t get much company ‘round these parts.”
Mulder jumped at the opportunity to talk to anyone other than his wife. “Yes, thank you!”
Scully glared at him.
“Well then, grab your things and come right in!” the crazy old lady said.
So they did. When Mulder saw the kitchen table, heaping with piles of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, he just about died of joy. He was at the table ready to eat in about 1.121 seconds. The others had just sat down around the table when a bunch of spooky guys in level 5 decontamination suits came barging in.
“Drop that fried chicken immediately!” He shouted. Everyone dropped their chicken, except Mulder, who was about to take a bite of it. So Scully knocked it away from him, making Mulder very upset. “I’m afraid this site is a biohazard. We have recently learned that the last shipment of plastics to this museum was riddled with deadly levels of radiation.” One of the guys dressed in what looked like a moon suit said.
“Yeah, whatever he says.” Muffled another.
It was then that even more spooky men came and carried all four of them out of the museum. They eventually learned that their vacation plans had to be changed due to the fact they were to be quarantined in Des Moines for a week. Fun fun fun.
May 15, 2000
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 10:13 a.m.
Dani and Seifer checked out of their motel and caught a ride with some trucker guy up to Minneapolis. Once they got there they decided that they needed some more money in order to survive on their own. Seifer suggested that he start juggling on the busy sidewalk and Dani should stay there and collect the money that people tossed at him. This may have sounded like a good plan, but they realized all to soon that it wouldn’t be quite that easy.
“Dani, it’s dead.” Seifer said, with tears in his eyes.
“What’s de- Oh Toaster, Seifer…I’m so sorry…” Dani said as Seifer showed her what was wrong. One of Seifer’s precious juggling balls had developed a hole and had bled to death. Both of them bowed their heads for a moment of silence in memory of the poor ball. After the moment was over, Dani perked up tremendously.
“Don’t worry, Seifer, I’ll get you another set!” Dani squeaked as she ran off. A minute later she reappeared, her hair frazzled, and one hand had a small scorch mark on it. “There you go!”
“Thanks Dani, but where-” he was cut off.
“Don’t ask,” she said, “juggle.”
And so he did. They made lots of small children smile and made lots and lots of money in shiny nickels, but the happy mood changed when the police approached them.
“Where did you get those juggling balls young man?” the officer asked.
“Danibelle.” Seifer responded, pointing Dani out of the crowd.
“And where did she get them?” the officer questioned.
“I dunno,” Seifer said, shrugging and catching a ball behind his back at the same time.
It was then that another cop took Dani by the collar of her little black shirt and demanded to know where she gotten them. Apparently, these particular balls were ‘stolen juggling balls’, and Dani’s answer as to where she got them wasn’t quite sufficient enough to get her and Seifer off the hook, so the police officers arrested them and took them off to the precinct for further questioning.
Anytown, Illinois, 10:13 a.m.
Sarah and Maggie had found the password to Tobias’ computer and were fooling around on it when he came out for breakfast.
“How do you two get up so early?” he asked with a yawn.
“It’s natural!” Sarah said, in a very perky tone.
“Whatever.” He said, “What are you two doing to my computer?”
“Hacking into secret government files and looking for the conspiracy about extra-terrestrial life.” Maggie said.
“Oh,” Tobias responded, not sure if they were kidding or not. “Well, just don’t turn my house into another alien abduction site, okay?”
He didn’t get a response.
“Okay?” he asked a bit more urgently.
“Sure, fine, whatever.” The twins replied in eerie unison.
Soon, however, it was time for Sarah and Maggs to leave. They decided that it would be a good idea to walk to the bus stop down the street and then go to Chicago by bus. They said their final good-byes to Tobias and just as they left, several black minivans filled with Spooks came up and surrounded the house.
Sarah and Maggslee ran.
Bellefleur, Kansas, 10:13 a.m.
“He’s not my baby!” Tča screamed.
“Then who’s is it?” A really spooky social worker asked.
“My mother’s!” Tča screamed again, loosing it.
“And where is your mother?”
“Hell if I know!”
“Take them away.” Said a dark man smoking a cigarette.
A nasty smelling lady came and took Tča and Charlie to a room with lots of other juvenile delinquents. They found an open bed, sat down, and Tča started to cry as Charlie sucked his thumb in content.
Omaha, Nebraska, 10:13 a.m.
“Here they are.” The crazy mommy-like lady with bandaids on her arms said to the cop.
“Great, I’ll have their pictures up all over America by 5 tonight.”
Missy and Sam looked confused.
“They can stay at the local children’s center for the night.” The cop said.
“Mommy?” Missy said.
“Please tell me dear, what about your mommy?” The cop asked.
Sam stuck her tongue out and gave them the raspberries.
“I wanna go home!” Missy called.
“If you would tell us where home is, or what your names are, we could find your mommy and get you there.” The motherly like lady said.
Both Sam and Missy gave them the raspberries.
May 16, 2000
Minneapolis, Minnesota 12:02 a.m.
“Seifer?” Dani asked.
“Um…yeah?” he said.
“Are you awake?”
“Duh.”
“Are you – ” Dani cut herself off, hesitating, but then decided to continue. “Are you scared?”
Seifer opened his mouth to answer but he was cut off.
“Will you just shut up and go to bed?!” Some random juvenile murderer yelled at her.
Dani shivered and curled into a small ball. The room suddenly felt about twenty degrees colder then it had a minute ago.
Chicago, Illinois 8:12 p.m.
“Wow, that was a rush,” said Sarah as she and Maggs walked into a small internet café in the middle of the city.
“Sarah, let’s get out of here. I don’t think that I like this running from the government stuff.” Maggie responded.
“But I really enjoyed the shopping here!” Sarah said.
Just then, someone turned a TV up in the background. On it was a picture of Tobias getting hauled off by some government agents, quickly followed by a picture of them fleeing from the scene. They were about to walk discretely out of the café when suddenly photos of two young girls that were getting reunited with relatives in San Francisco flashed on the screen. It was Missy and Sam. They’d made it!
“Wow, you know Maggs, I think you’re right. It’s time to get out of here. First thing in the morning,” Sarah said.
“California here we come!” Maggs chirped.
Bellefleur, Kansas, 11:21 p.m.
“Okay Charlie, here we go!” Tča said under her breath to the sleeping baby in her arms.
Together they crawled out of the window to the shelter and ran across the lawn, away from evil questioning people. She knew in her heart that they were trying to do well, but right now, all they were doing was stopping her. She had barely any money, but managed to find a truck stop and got a little something to eat. From there she found a nice lady trucker that was going to Nashville. Being the hick that Tča was, she instantly decided that this was where she wanted to go on vacation.
“So, what are you doing here in Bellefleur, Kansas?” the truck driver, whose name was Bess, asked.
“I got separated from the rest of my family. Y’see, we were going from D.C. to San Francisco but my mother made a wrong turn and we ended up in Iowa and from there we decided to split up to find gas and a place to stay and the two of us ended up here,” Tča said, totally exhausted.
“Well, I’m sure there’s a good chance that you can meet up with your family once you’re in Nashville. At least they have a decent airport,” Bess said.
“Yeah, thanks. I really appreciate this.” Tča said as she started to doze off right where she was sitting. Charlie started to fuss and then it was time for the EW of them to set off for Nashville.
May 17, 2000
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 6:02 a.m.
“What do you mean I have to get up?” Dani grumbled.
“We’re in the Juvenile Detention Center, Dani. Here we are nothing but slaves.” Seifer said prophetically.
“We need to get out of here.” Dani said insistently.
“Of course, how else with will get to San Francisco?” Seifer replied. “Got any ideas?”
Dani was saved from responding by the cop who shouted at them. “You two! Out! Some weird detectives want you in for questioning again!”
And so they left for the questioning room. Once inside they found a tall lanky man with dark hair and a short red headed woman. The man started to talk to Dani about how he believed her, how he thought that her story about the juggling balls magically appearing out of nowhere right when she needed them was the truth, and that this was all some elaborate hoax against her by the government. The woman thought that Seifer looked demonic in the orange jumpsuit that he was wearing. Seifer thought that Dani was really creepy right then. Dani just wanted to go home.
To their surprise, the tall lanky man got them out of there. Seifer thought that it was due to the fact that when he was talking to the man he waved his hands in Jedi fashion and thought ‘You will let us go, you will let us go.’ Dani thought that it was just a lucky break, but anyways, they were in Minneapolis, free, and with the money that they had collected, so they decided it was time to go have some fun.
Chicago, Illinois, 7:40 a.m.
“Paging Joe Ridley, Joe Ridley please come to the Gateway Airlines counter, you have forgotten your cat.” the speakers screeched.
Maggie and Sarah were in the airport, not going home, but going to join their sisters and extended family in California, but before they got on the plane, they decided that they needed a bagel and a Diet Coke.
“Maggie – ” Sarah was cut off by another announcement.
“Paging Dennis Gullie, Dennis Gullie please come to the Gateway Airlines counter, you’ve forgotten your voodoo doll.”
Sarah just looked at the airline attendant who announced that, shrugged, and then continued her sentence from before. “You go get the DCs while I get the bagels,” Sarah said. “That way one of us won’t forget the other and we won’t have to get into any more cop trouble like Dani did back when Charlie was born.”
Maggie nodded, remembering the situation. “No killing people in public, check!” She shouted, scaring many of their foreign-bound people in the airport around them. Apparently the woman in the bakery with the bagels heard her too because she gave Maggie two bagels free of charge. The vending machine had heard as well and gave Sarah two DCs for the price of one. Sarah and Maggs ran back towards each other with their incredibly inexpensive purchases and exchanged gifts.
With bagels and Diet Coke in hand, they linked arms and skipped merrily down the concourse to catch their flight.
Nashville, Tennessee, 10:31 a.m.
Bess drove straight to Nashville and let Tča and Charlie off at the fair grounds. There was a rodeo going on and Tča saw the opportunity not only to get Charlie his first cowboy hat and boots, but to make some money as well. She decided to enter in the pig-roping contest, ladies junior division. Tča, being a chick-roper in her spare time, had to adjust a bit to pig roping but still won first place. It was then that the rodeo manager confronted her.
“Excuse me Miss, what is your name?” he asked.
“Tča.” Tča said.
“Well then Tča, how would you and your young’n like to come travel the rodeo circuit with us?” the manager asked.
“Well,” Tča said, “I don’t know, I would sure like to, but I have my family, and school, and…”
“Say no more Miss, just come with us to our next stop, it’ll be the best rodeo experience ever!” the manager said, with way too much excitement in his voice.
“Where is that?”
“San Francisco,” he said.
Tča’s eyes lit up, “Alrighty then! When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow,” he said, “Y’all take care now, ‘ya hear?
“We sure will! Did you hear that Charlie? We’re going to get to the family soon…” she said, more to reassure herself than baby.
San Francisco, California, 6:19 p.m.
“Well Sarahbelle, we finally made it!” Maggs squeaked as the cab pulled away from the house of Bill, Tara and Matthew Scully. Their grandmother’s car was in the driveway and they could hear happy sounds coming from the backyard.
They made their way around the back to find Missy and Sam playing with little Matthew and all of the adults staring and cooing at them. A sudden rush of guilt came over Sarah and Maggs; how could they not have wanted to come here? A mutual decision was made that the family can’t be that bad because they rescued Missy and Sam. Maggie was about to change her mind when Sarah called out:
“Hi there, everyone!”
There was a rush of hugs and sloppy kisses.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 8:01 p.m.
Dani and Seifer finally arrived at the Mall of America and decided that it would be a good time to get some ice cream. However, Dani insisted on getting gourmet ice cream since she’d given up eating the plain stuff a long time ago. Seifer reluctantly let himself be dragged to a Friendly’s ice cream stand, but refused to conform and got plain a vanilla ice cream cone instead of one of their more extravagant flavors. Dani got a mocha swirl.
“I just don’t understand it. Life would be so much better if they just stuck to vanilla and chocolate.” Seifer said.
“What, not even a chocolate-vanilla swirl?” Dani questioned, taking a lick of her cone.
“No, no, that would make things too complicated. All life needs is just vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream.” Seifer responded philosophically.
“What about the people who don’t like either? Would they just be forced to give up ice cream all together?”
“Well, yeah. All we really need are our chocolates and vanillas and those who can’t be one would just have to stay confused for the rest of their short, pathetic lives.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “You know, sometimes I wonder about you.”
Seifer just shrugged and took a lick of his vanilla cone. As they were passing the big inflatable Snoopy, Seifer stuck his foot out into Dani’s path and she tripped and fell, her ice cream cone flying into the air behind them.
“Hey! What was that – ” Dani started, picking herself up. Then they both heard a loud *pop!* and the sound of an air escaping from a confined space. They slowly turned around, and found that Dani’s ice cream cone had had a mind of it’s own and had zeroed in on the big inflatable Snoopy, which was quickly drooping to the ground due to air loss through a puncture wound.
“Uh oh…” they said in unison as they saw the two interrogators from before pull their guns and start running toward them. Dani and Seifer ran.
“Quick, in here!” Seifer said, grabbing Dani’s wrist and pulling her into Hot Topic, where they blended in perfectly with the strange conglomeration of people in there. The sight of the law officials spooked two nine-foot-tall employees who took off running in the direction of the girl’s bathroom, followed closely by the officers. Dani and Seifer quietly snuck back out the way they had come and left the mall – fast.
They started for their hotel, but then decided that it would be nicer to just sleep in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. So they packed their things and hitched a ride on a Jell-O truck to the airport. They slept at Gate 12 on the blue concourse. Anyway, they slept.
May 18, 2000
Nashville, Tennessee, 6:01 a.m.
Tča had hired a babysitter for the day and was having an early morning training session for today’s rodeo. She came in first again that day and won all sorts of cool stuff, including a new cowgirl outfit. She was glad that the rodeo closed in Nashville today and couldn’t wait to see her sisters in California. She had to wait all day, but eventually they packed up and headed towards the west.
San Francisco, California, 9:58 a.m.
Dani and Seifer finally arrived in California. Amazingly enough, their plane hadn’t crashed, they were totally in one piece, and even had all their luggage. They took the public transportation to the military base on which Dani’s Uncle Bill lived, and from there it was just a short walk away. They almost died from heat stroke on the way, but none-the-less, there they were. Dani and Seifer were so glad to see Sarah and Maggs and Missy and Sam again they almost forgot to greet the other part of the family. Sarah and Maggie were glad to see Dani again. Seifer was glad to be around anyone but Dani. Dani wondered where Tča was.
May 19, 2000
San Francisco, California, 4:47 p.m.
The rodeo pulled in and Tča won the pig-roping contest again for the last time and then she left to try and find the family. Once she did, she was sorry.
“Oh what a little sweetie!” All of the relatives swarmed baby Charlie, but not one word was said to Tča.
It was then that Dani came over and they hugged each other. Dani then invited Tča over to play croquet with the rest of the immediate family (and Seifer). Seifer won, as always. Now the only people they were missing were their parents. No one seemed to know what had happened to them, so everyone was a bit concerned…but they didn’t let that get in the way of their fun.
May 21, 2000
San Francisco, California, 3:27 p.m.
It was then that the rest of the family showed up. Mulder and Scully came to the reunion, a little bit pale and more than a little bit late. They were forced to tell the whole story about the plastics and the radiation and all the other strange things that had happened on their part of the trip. Then they forced everyone else to tell their parts of the vacation trip story.
“I think that you win,” Sarah said to Dani and Seifer.
“No, you definitely do!” Maggie said to Mulder and Scully.
“I think that Missy and Sam did, plus they got all that national TV exposure!” Tara Scully said.
“I dunno, I think that they are all pretty good, but all I know is that we have to get back by tomorrow at noon. I have a test or something,” Maggs said.
Tča started to walk off into a corner of the yard, but she tripped and made a large ‘jingle’ noise. Tča was then forced to show off her victory medals and was pronounced the winner of the ‘coolest vacation contest’.
Tča might have gotten stuck babysitting, but the fact that everyone had decided that she was the winner almost made up for it…almost.
Take one baby step back
Take one giant step back
