The Lonely Whelk (26 page)

“
Can you tell me what
happened at the Globe, hm?” Mr. Oliphant asked. He was very
curious. After all, the whole incident had been very
hush-hush.

“
I stole the pencil but it
was the wrong one. Then my own family betrayed me! I am glad I am
here. It’s better than out there, although I do miss my pillows.”
He tapped his finger on the table. “There were lots of monkeys,
too. Evil ones. Brown and grey with big white mustaches. The big
black man picked me up, but it didn’t hurt. It just hurt when my
own nephew punched Maddy. The gall! To punch a girl! And a
beautiful one, at that!”

Mr. Oliphant nodded and scribbled,
delusions of monkeys,
in his notebook.

“
How did the whole incident
make you feel, hm?” he asked.

“
Mad. Sad. Frustrated. But
mostly mad.” He nodded rapidly. “Definitely mad.”

Mad
, Mr. Oliphant scribbled in his
notebook.

“
Has anything interesting
happened this week?”

“
Oh yes!” Maxwell replied.
“John came to visit.”

“
Oh really?”

“
He said that I was right
and he was wrong and that I deserved the pencil after all these
years.”

“
Did he, hm?”

“
Maddy said he was lying,
but I think he was telling the truth. You know why?”

“
Why?”

“
Because he brought me the
pencil. But the nurses won’t let me have it. They said I can have
it when I’m better. But they don’t understand that it will help me
get better! It’s magic, you know!” Maxwell was getting more and
more animated. He waved his hands in the air and spoke
loudly.

“
I think having it nearby
will be very helpful for you,” Mr. Oliphant said.

“
That is probably true,”
Maxwell answered, calming down slightly.

“
Well, Mr. Dippings,” Mr.
Oliphant said, “I think you had a traumatic experience, but I think
you are going to do very well here.”

“
I never want to leave,”
Maxwell agreed.

“
We are going to try to
help you get better,” Mr. Oliphant said.

“
And Maddy,
too.”

“
Of course.” Mr. Oliphant
scribbled,
what to do about Maddy?
in his notebook. “I will
see you next week, hm.”

He stood and the nurses guided him to the
front door of the asylum. He was glad they had put Maxwell in one
of the nicer ones.

As he walked down the steps, he glanced at
the looming building behind him and shrugged. Perhaps he should
have called the police after all.

E
PILOGUE

The crew cheered when she stepped out of the
shop holding Squeak. She turned around just in time to see it
vanish from behind her, without a noise or a flicker. One moment it
was there, and the next it was gone.

Pilgrim gasped. “What happened to Hazel?” he
asked.

“
She’s back where she
belongs,” Holland stated calmly. She held out Squeak to McGraff. “I
want you to round up any of the other monkeys that are remaining
and shut them down. The override code is two seven one one eight
zero seven bravo. Have Henry run a virus scan on all of them. We
can’t have this getting out of control again.

“
Lieutenant Song, please
begin rounding up a team to evaluate the condition of the
arboretum. We will need to begin producing live food as soon as
possible, as well as harvesting what is already growing.

“
Pilgrim, I want you to
come with me. Everyone else, please continue with your assigned
duties.”

“
Yes, sir!” her soldiers
replied. They saluted sharply and then hurried off into the depths
of the ship.

When everyone had gone, she turned to
Pilgrim.

“
Pilgrim,” she said, “for
the next four hours, you are in charge. I am going to my quarters
where I am going to have a hot bath and a vodka on the rocks. The
only valid reasons for disturbing me are... none. There are none.
Please inform the crew that I will be with them as soon as
possible.”

“
Of course,” Pilgrim said.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“
You can get yourself
ready. We are going to fly this ship through hell and high water
with no more unnecessary deaths – not a single one! – and then we
are going to colonize that damn planet! Do you understand me?” She
scowled in his general direction.

“
Yes, sir!” he exclaimed,
saluting.

“
Now go supervise the
waking of this old, lonely Whelk.”

As everyone turned to attend to their
duties, Holland was left alone in an empty hallway. Her footsteps
echoed and she smiled, glad that she was awake, glad that she was
alive, glad that her body was functioning properly and that the
waking of the ship was reasonably under control.

What happened today was unreal, strange,
weird… and yet she felt calm and secure. That man, John, whom her
husband had liked as a child, he had been so excited to meet her.
At least she was favored back at home. But what about Hazel?
Holland still didn’t really understand why she had come, or what
those people back in Pomegranate City had been trying to steal, or
any of what was going on. But Hazel and her shop were off of the
Whelk, the monkeys were shut down, and the individuals who remained
were waking up.

It seemed that it would be the most helpful
and logical if she just put the whole incident behind her.

“
I will put it all behind
me,” she stated in a calm and straightforward manner. Her voice
echoed in the corridor.

Then, Holland, Admiral of the Lonely Whelk,
turned and hobbled down the old metal hallways of home towards a
hot, relaxing bath; there she proceeded to mourn the loss of her
husband, her son, and her shipmates, and afterwards, she led
thousands of people to Sagitta’s first manual planetary
colonization.

It was a success.

Acknowledgements

When I first burst into the world as a
squalling, screaming ball of grossness, my mother was there to yell
right back at me. She is still here, supporting and encouraging me
every step of my author’s journey. My dad was there at my birth as
well, staring deep into my eyes and begging me not to go bald. I
did go bald temporarily, but I have grown up in his footsteps, both
with my hair and in my writing career.

I would also like to throw out a special
thanks to Zoe Cannon, an amazing writer in her own right, in
addition to my copyeditor and cover-putter-together-er. Without
her, this book would be… not here. Go check out her website:
www.zoecannon.com.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to
Deidre, my mentor. In addition to occasionally smacking some sense
into my head, she has supported and encouraged me to keep up the
hard work, even when I’m cranky and tired. I will be ever
grateful.

About the
Author

A lifetime writer and lover of cats, Ariele
Sieling delves into the exciting possibilities of science fiction
from her home on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. From
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to the intricate behaviors of
bees, she looks for stories wherever she goes.

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