– CHAPTER FORTY –
They are all looked around.
“So what happened to him? Where is he?”
Cody shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll be back. He’s Mr. Shama right?” Parker gazed around the room. “I don’t want to stay around here. Why don’t we go look for him? This is dumb.”
Parker walked over to the door where Mr. Shama had exited. He tried the door handle and discovered it was locked.
“Hey, what’s this? This door is a severely locked door.”
“What do ya mean it’s locked?” Cody asked.
Keegan tried the door handle.
“Hey, Parker’s right. What about the door we came in?”
Jackie answered in a quiet voice. “I tried that. It’s locked too!”
The children all looked at each other. Suddenly, there was the sound of keys in one of the doors. The lock clicked and the door slowly opened to reveal Datslob standing there with a grin on his robot face. He looked at the kids. The kids looked at him.
“Hi.”
Keegan was the first to speak.
“What do you mean “HI”? Where’s Mr. Shama?”
Datslob leaned against the door. “Mr. Shama has given me the job of making sure you dudes get home ok.”
Jackie placed her hands on her hips. “What do you mean “get us home”? What’s going on here?”
Datslob repeated. “Mr. Shama has asked me to get you guys home safe and sound.”
Parker looked bewildered. “But you …… you’re Reywal’s guy - aren’t you?”
Datslob grinned his robot grin. ”Yes, well. Kind of. Just between you and me, Reywal dude thinks I’m kind of dumb. He built me to help him do bad things but Mr. Shama was able to show me what can be done for good. He also showed me how to get Reywal to sign the Robot Bill Of Rights so he can’t take me apart though he is always saying he will. So he’s kind of stuck with me.” Datslob gestured with hands apart.
“So you see, I’m kind of a bad guy’s, good guy helper. Now Mr. Shama wants me to get you guys home, as your parents are probably worrying about you. So, he gave me the keys to his van and asked me to drive you.”
Cody frowned.
“Hold on. Mr. Shama called our parents and said we were with him. Didn’t he?” “Not exactly. You see, he needed to get you guys out of the way for his battle with the Moa Constructor to recover the Great Harmonic. See, with the Great Harmonic and Greanwold and the other Minosaurs, he then has the power to get out of his time warp and take over earth. There may be a nasty things happening and he wanted you guys out of the way. So. Lets go. Your parental units are probably worried by now.”
Datslob walked across the room to the other door, opened it and stood aside as the kids filed out. He locked the door and led the kids over to the van. He opened the van doors and the kids climbed in except for Parker who stood at the van door.
Lisa gestured to Parker. “Well, come on Parker. Get in.”
Parker held a finger up to his lips and winked. The other kids looked at him and frowned. He winked again and turned to Datslob.
“I left my back pack in the room Datslob. Can you unlock the door for me so I can get it?”
Datslob obligingly stepped out of the van and walked over to the door and unlocked it for Parker. Parker suddenly grabbed the keys from Datslob’s hand, pushed him through the door and quickly locked it. He ran to the van, jumping into the drivers seat. He inserted a key in the ignition, started the van, put it into gear and the van sped up the driveway erratically with doors flying back and forth until with a slam they closed. The van disappeared up the road. Datslob banged on the door at Reywal’s castle with both fists. After a minute he stopped, pulled his Discman from his utility chest, placed the headphones over his ears, shrugged his shoulders and boogied to the music. He had a very short attention span.
Meanwhile, Mr. Shama’s van was swaying to and fro and the kids had big grins on their faces. Keegan was the first to speak. “Parker. That was so cool. How did you learn to drive? “
Parker had an intense look on his face as he struggled with the wheel. “Real easy man. I didn’t spend all that time at the video arcade for nothing.” All the kids laughed uproariously.
“Actually.” Parker continued. “My uncle always lets me drive his truck on the farm so this is a piece of cake.”
“Well, what are we gonna do now?” Keegan asked. “Are we going to help Mr. Shama find Greanwold?”
Parker glanced at Keegan. “ That’s my plan dudes. Does everyone agree?” All the kids give another cheer. Cody punched Parker on the arm and grinned. “Way to go man.”