Pen to the Paper 26: The Announcement

“Where Uncle Bub go?” the toddler asked Roses as he approached the toddler. This was Sunday October ninth, when the announcement should have been made, but your marvelous host was a no-show.

“I’m not sure, little buddy. That’s who we are looking for… I think.”

“Bub? I mean, I guess it could be him,” Rosemandle said. “Not too long ago, he got trapped in a closet for a week… or so word on the street is. Maybe we should check?”

“Well, there must be something more. Willow and Nick are almost always here if he is not… so where could they be? Certainly not all three of them are stuck in a closet,” Roses pointed out.

Rosemandle furrowed her eyebrows. “It isn’t completely illogical to think so, though,” she added. “I say that that should be our first step.”

“But you are overlooking a major detail. Caleb’s nephew—or we assume this is his nephew—is here. That can’t be a coincidence. Maybe he’s a clue.”

Rosemandle lowered herself to my nephew’s level. “Hey, do you know where Cal—Uncle Bub is?”

The toddler pointed to a set of tire marks on the stage. “Oh, well that was easy.”

“A car!” he said. “Red car! Vrrrrrrmmmm!” my nephew took off running in the direction the car went, Roses and Rosemandle following closely behind.

*****

It took a week of searching and several calls to the police, but the duo finally were onto something. My nephew had been dropped off at the police station where, later, his parents picked him up, worried sick about where he had been. The cops, however, were too busy to look for a host notorious for being stupid, so they gave the Rose Crew—name still being workshopped—a few resources and sent them out on their own.

The clues led to a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Literally one single trailer in the middle of Death Valley. They highly doubted that this was it, but they had come too far to question the data now!

Walking up to the screen door, its fabric falling off, Roses looked at Rosemandle and said, “Hey, I’ve always wanted to say ‘FBI! Open up!’ then kick the door down… do you think that maybe I could—”

Rosemandle giggled. “Be my guest,” she replied.

Roses eyes lit up. “ROSE CREW! OPEN UP!” he yelled. When no one answered, he slammed his shoulder into the door. At the same time, the door was pulled open, and he went stumbling across the floor. He made eye contact with Caleb and said, “ ’Sup.” Trying to play it cool, he propped his chin on his fist.

“Well, it appears you guys followed the clues and found me! Congratulations! I knew you could do it!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Rosemandle said. “This was all a game? Do you know how dangerous it is to leave a toddler in the middle of an arena for twelve hours alone? Not to mention, his parents were worried sick about him… and to put a cherry on top, we spent an entire week outside of work, buying tickets, and driving all over the place in search of you.”

I looked at her for a second. “So, maybe I didn’t think this through all the way—”

“And where are Nick and Willow?”

“On their honeymoon,” I said.

“Oh, snap. They’re getting married?” Roses311Sublime asked.

“Well, they are married, but yes.”

“Sorry. Bumped my head pretty good on my way in.”

I pulled him to his feet.

“So, I suppose you guys want to know who won.”

“Yep. After all that trouble, I think that's the least we deserve, but yes.”

“Alright, so, third place is your post, Rosemandle. I loved One Freezing March Day… It was cute.

“Second place is Moki_mori’s A connoisseur.”

“Cun oy seer?” Roses asked. “I may have bumped my head, but I don’t think that is a word.”

“It’s a spelling aid. Anyway, it was also cute. I enjoyed it.

“First place is RayBug63’s post My Fault. I thought that it was really good! A little sad, but also redemptive in a sense.

“And, Roses, your post Nice Apartment is an honourable mention. I am excited to see where you take the story next!

“Now, you guys really need to work on your team name.”

“And you need to stop putting yourself, others, and children in danger,” Rosemandle said

"I can't make any promises."