Chapter Twenty Four
During the forage that night, Arkon crept up beside Torus while he was working alone and whispered intently. “Torus, I need your help. Can you meet me after the forage?”
“Sure, I guess so,” said Torus. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to help me get something and I don’t know how to get there.”
“Okay, but what – ”
“Quiet, you two!” hissed the forage leader. “You want the humans to hear you?” The new forage leader was a stranger, a burly rat from the third floor, assigned by the new Forage Compliance Committee.
“Meet me outside the Stockpile,” breathed Arkon, and he shuffled away.
Torus nodded silently and continued rummaging through the humans’ trash. He found a peanut and looked up to see the forage leader still watching him. He slipped the peanut in his pouch and gave the leader a big thumbs up. The leader sniffed and turned away to watch some other rats. Torus considered trying to sneak the nut back out of his bag and eating it, but decided it was too risky.
For the rest of the night he kept trying to get close to Arkon to get more information, but someone was always watching so it wasn’t until after they had returned to the stockpile, unloaded their food, and gotten their own rations that he had a chance to speak to him.
“So what’s up?” he asked as they headed back toward their homes.
“I need you to show me the way someplace,” Arkon said tensely.
“I know, you said that,” said Torus. “Where? What for?”
“I…I don’t know, exactly,” said Arkon. “Mr. Nile said you’d know how to get there, but he wasn’t able to tell me much about it.”
“Much about what? What’s going on?”
“Mr. Nile needs medicine,” said Arkon. “I’ve been going there to help him out and he just keeps getting sicker. I’ve tried to get him to tell me what I can do to help him, but he always just says the same ‘I just need to rest’ thing.”
Torus nodded, and Arkon continued.
“But tonight finally I guess he decided to admit how sick he is and he told me there’s some medicine that might help. Some special kind of medicine, and he said you would know how to get it.”
“Why would I know?” said Torus. “Where is it?”
“He said a friend of his could get it and that you knew his friend and could go there and get it from him.” Arkon paused uncertainly. “At least, that’s what I think he said. He seems kind of confused.”
“Is it Mr. Gumble?” asked Torus suddenly. “That cat?”
“It’s a cat?” said Arkon, alarmed. “He said that name, but I thought it was just another rat. I don’t know if we should go see a cat…”
“It’s alright,” said Torus. “This cat really is a friend of Nile’s. But how do we know what to ask him for?”
“I’ve got this,” said Arkon, taking a slip of paper out of his pouch and pointing to the markings on it. “These mean the kind of medicine he needs.”
Torus held the paper and squinted at it. He recognized the markings as being similar to markings that were found all over human food packages and different kinds of paper. He wasn’t able to tell one from another, though, and he handed the paper back to Arkon.
“I hope this makes sense to that cat,” he said. “It just looks like pigeon scratches to me.
Arkon looked at him quizzically.
“Really?” he said. “Haven’t you ever looked at the marks on different packages of food?”
“Not really,” said Torus. “They all look alike to me.”
“But you can learn to tell them apart,” said Arkon, excitedly. “You can figure out that certain shapes mean crackers, for instance, and others mean, I don’t know, like corn or something. You can totally go into a human’s kitchen and pick out what you want, if you figure it out.”
“Okay, if you say so,” said Torus. “You can just look at the pictures, too. But how does that help us with this?”
“I can find the right thing,” said Arkon. “You just get me there and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Okay,” said Torus, “but first I have to take this food home. Meet me at the old elevator in ten minutes.”
Torus rushed home and quickly stashed the food he had brought in the food nook. His father wasn’t back yet, so he told Moki to go ahead and eat what he wanted, to share with his sisters, and to let their father know he’d be back later.
By the time he got to the elevator, Arkon was already there.
“Okay, so which way do we go?” he asked excitedly.
“Well, we start inside the elevator shaft, and then I’ll just have to feel my way,” Torus replied. “Nevi really knows the way better. Maybe we should get her…”
“No, she’s with Chello, up at Mr. Nile’s house,” said Arkon. “I think Flinka and Juke are there, too.”
“What for?” asked Torus.
“Making sure he eats, helping him keep warm. That kind of thing,” said Arkon.
“Is he really that sick?” asked Torus.
Arkon nodded seriously.
“I don’t know if he’ll make it, even if we find this,” he said, holding up the paper. “He’s been sick for so long without taking care of it…”
“Well, let’s go then,” said Torus, starting off.
He was surprised to find he remembered the way pretty well, and only had to double back once when he missed the vent heading up to Mr. Gumble’s apartment.
When they got there, they found the cat as usual lying in his bed in the kitchen. Arkon was quite nervous at first, but followed Torus into the room anyway, keeping one eye on the open vent in case he needed to escape.
Torus explained what they needed, and Mr. Gumble nodded.
“Mumsy has lots of pills,” he said. “They’re all on a shelf in the bathroom. I’m sure we can find what you need.”
“That’s great!” said Torus. “Arkon here knows what to look for.”
“Can you read?” asked Arkon suddenly.
“Of course I can read,” said the cat, indignantly. “Whenever Mumsy has a book or a magazine or a newspaper out I lay on top of it and read with her.”
“Oh, good!” said Arkon. “Can you read this?” he asked, showing her the scrap of paper.
“Oh, no, that’s much too small for reading,” said the cat. “I could barely fit one paw on it, let alone recline leisurely.”
“Reclining leisurely isn’t reading,” said Arkon. “These marks mean things, and reading is knowing what they mean.”
“That’s ridiculous,” the cat sniffed. “Reading means lying on Mumsy’s book while she scratches me on my tummy and says, ‘I’m reading, you naughty kitty.’ That’s reading.”
Torus stifled a laugh. He knew they weren’t in any danger from the cat, still he thought it was better not to anger him.
“That’s fine, then,” he said. “Can you show us the pills? Then Arkon can find what he wants.”
“Very well,” said the cat diffidently. “This way…”
He headed off in what Torus thought was meant to be a haughty saunter, but was more like a rolling, fluffy waddle. The two rats followed him through the kitchen into the bedroom and then to the bathroom. The apartment could hardly have been more different than the one he had visited earlier with Nevi and Chello. The floor was spotlessly clean, without a crumb of food anywhere, and there were only a few items placed tidily on the tops of the furniture. The bathroom was gleaming, and Torus could see a shelf above the back of the toilet with neat rows of small bottles and boxes.
“Up there,” said Mr. Gumble. “Mumsy brings home pills and uses some and then forgets the rest, so there they sit, until spring, when she throws them all away and starts over.”
“How do we get them?” asked Torus.
“Like this,” said the cat, jumping up onto the toilet. He reached up with his paws and with one quick motion knocked al
l the containers off onto the floor, where they rattled and rolled to every corner of the small room.
The rats dodged the falling objects and then Arkon ran from one to the next, comparing the marks on his paper to the marks on the labels of the bottles. It took a long time, and Torus started to get nervous.
“When does your human come back?” he asked the cat.
“Oh, any time now, said the cat lazily, licking a paw. “Why?”
“Here it is!” said Arkon suddenly, holding up a small plastic bottle with three white tablets in it. “See, this mark and that one and that one…they all match!”
“Great!” said Torus. “Take one of them out and we’ll get out of here.”
“How do you get them out?” Arkon asked the cat.
“I don’t know, of course,” he replied. “Mumsy opens them, and Nile has a tool of some kind, I think.”
They were interrupted by the sound of keys in the lock of the front door.
“What’s that?” Arkon asked tensely.
“Run!” said Torus, grabbing the bottle from him. “We have to get out now!”
They scampered out through the bedroom and skidded across the kitchen floor, just ducking behind the vent as they heard the door open. This time Torus pulled the vent back into place and saw Mr. Gumble stroll casually into the kitchen and flop down onto his bed.
Torus and Arkon waited behind the vent, catching their breaths and watching the huge feet of Mr. Gumble’s human shuffle through the kitchen and into the bedroom.
“Do you think it’s okay we took the whole thing?” said Arkon.
“I guess so,” said Torus, looking at the bottle in his hands. “Gumble said that Mumsy human just throws them away, so…”
Far away, they heard the voice of the human call out in loud, angry tones.
“What pills?” said Mr. Gumble, still lying on his bed, eyes closed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Torus and Arkon made their way back to Mr. Nile’s house and entered to find him lying on his bed under a thin piece of cloth, with Nevi sitting on the floor beside him and Chello pulling on the string for the fan looking bored.
Nevi looked up when they came in.
“Did you get it?” she asked quietly. Torus held up the bottle for her to see and said, “Arkon figures it’s the right one…”
Chello dropped the string and came over to look at the bottle.
“How do we get them out?” he asked, pulling on the white cap without success.
“I don’t know,” said Arkon. “Mr. Nile, do you have a tool we could use?”
The old rat shook his head weakly.
“No, I used to,” he said, “but it’s missing.” He stopped an coughed painfully. “You could chew through the lid…”
“No, I don’t want to take that much time,” said Arkon. “Do you think we could break the bottle? It’s just plastic.”
“Sure,” said Chello, excitedly, pointing to the far corner of the room. “Put it down over there.” Arkon set the bottle down on its side and Chello tried to crack it by swinging at it with the blunt end of his knitting needle. He gave it a few good whacks, but only succeeded in making a few small chips in the surface.
Torus started rummaging through Mr. Nile’s supplies to find something better and came back carrying a small steel ball the size of a grape.
“Here, try this,” he said, handing it to Chello. Chello took the ball in both hands and brought it down on the bottle. It made a bigger chip in the plastic, but Chello lost his grip on the smooth surface of the ball and it rolled away across the floor. He picked it up and was about to try again when Torus stopped him.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “I have an idea.” He ran over to the supplies and found a roll of thick, gray tape which he rolled back over to Chello. “Give me your needle,” he said.
“What for?” asked Chello suspiciously. “You’re not putting that junk on Sticker, are you?”
“Just temporarily,” said Torus, lining up the ball and the blunt end of the needle.
“Because that tape’s all junky looking, and Sticker is shiny…” said Chello, nervously.
“Don’t worry,” said Torus. “You can take it off after we’re done.” Quickly, he tore off a strip of tape and attached the ball firmly to the end of the needle. With another couple of strips he solidified the joint and handed it back to Chello.
“Give that a try,” he said.
“Okay,” said Chello, eyeing the knob at the end of his weapon and testing the weight in his hands. “Stand back, okay? This seems dangerous.”
He took the needle in both hands, swung the end up over his head and then down squarely on the small plastic bottle. There was a sharp crack, and it shattered into a dozen pieces that flew in every direction. The lid flipped up in the air and almost hit Chello in the head. The three pills lay on the floor among the plastic shards of the bottle. One of them had been partially crushed by the impact and when Arkon saw that he scowled at Chello. He found a piece of paper and started collecting the crumbled bits of medicine.
“Wow,” said Chello, finally.
“I think you hit it a little hard,” said Torus.
“Really?” said Arkon, folding up the paper with the pills inside. “A little hard, you think?” He walked away from them and started gathering what he needed to prepare the medicine for Mr. Nile.
“Here, give me your needle,” said Torus. “I’ll take that off now.”
“No, that’s okay,” said Chello thoughtfully. He turned it around and held it with the point forward, testing the balance and weight of his modified weapon. “I think I’ll keep it like this for a while…”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” said Torus. “At least it’s still mostly shiny.”
“Yeah…” replied Chello, shifting the needle from hand to hand, his eyes fixed on some spot in the distance.
Torus watched Arkon begin to prepare the medicine. He had gotten another piece of paper, and the same small file Mr. Nile had used before, and began rubbing one of the pills against it, making a small pile of fine, white powder on the paper.
“How do you know how to do that?” asked Torus.
“Mr. Nile’s been teaching me,” Arkon replied, still working.
“And how do you know that’s the right stuff?” asked Chello, coming over to watch.
“It’s in the book,” said Arkon, pointing at a small bundle of papers on top of one of the stacks of supplies.
‘The book’ was apparently Mr. Nile’s collection of information about human medicine. It was an irregular bundle of paper tied loosely at one edge with string. Torus took it down and leafed through it. On each leaf was a series of markings like the ones Arkon brought to Mr. Gumble’s, along with a picture of a rat with some part drawn in a different color.
“Hey, be careful!” said Arkon, coming over hurriedly. “There’s not anything else like this anywhere.”
“This is amazing,” said Torus. “Did he do all this?”
“Some of it,” said Arkon, turning through the pages slowly. “Some of it he got from the rat that taught him, and some he figured out himself.” He stopped at a certain page. “It’s always growing and changing.” He pointed to the page he had just stopped at. “See, this is the medicine we got today. See the markings?”
He pointed to them and ran his claw under them carefully. Torus shook his head in bewilderment, but Arkon didn’t seem to notice.
“And see the picture of the rat? See the red here inside its chest? That’s how we know what it’s for. The red is like burning, so when a rat has burning in its chest, this is the right medicine.”
“How do you do the pictures?” asked Chello. “How do you make it look like a rat?”
“Practice,” said Mr. Nile from his place on the bed. “You know what a rat looks like, right? Just practice making marks on paper until they start to look like rats…”
“That’s weird,” said Chello. “It’s like a human thing, right? Making marks and pictures like this? Only humans do this?”
Mr. Nile chuckled painfully.
“Humans believe that only they do it, yes,” he said.
“Weird,” Chello repeated, still hefting his needle in his hand.
Arkon brought the powdered medicine over to Mr. Nile.
“What do I do now? He asked. “How do you take it?”
“You can sprinkle it on food, or mix it with water and drink it,” said Mr. Nile.
“Okay, what do you want, then?” said Arkon. “Some water? Do you have any food you want?”
“I don’t have much appetite,” said Mr. Nile. “There’s some water and a cup over there by what food I have left.” He lay back and closed his eyes while Arkon got the water and mixed a pinch of the powder into it.
Mr. Nile sat up and started sipping at it, and was nearly finished when Flinka and Juke arrived. Flinka seemed even more agitated than usual, but Juke was as impassive as ever. He went over to Mr. Nile’s bed and took an object out of his pouch.
“I brought you this,” he said. “It’s chocolate.”
Mr. Nile smiled appreciatively.
“Thank you Juke, that’s very thoughtful.”
“How did you get that?” said Torus. “I thought all the chocolate was reserved for the greater good.”
“I just took it,” said Juke. “No one said anything to me.”
“Did anyone see you?” asked Chello, grinning pointedly.
“Probably not,” said Juke shortly, but a rare smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“I told him not to do it,” said Flinka sharply, “but he snuck into the stockpile and took it anyway.” She shook her head quickly. “He makes me so crazy!” she said. “It’s not like I have enough to worry about with the new cleaning assignment, now he has to risk us getting in trouble for stealing food on our way over here!” She smiled and punched him gently on the shoulder, and he looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable.
“What new assignment?” asked Nevi. “I didn’t hear anything from my mom.”
“It’s new just today,” said Flinka. “Your mom probably knows more about it since she’s the crew leader, but I know enough to know it stinks!”
“Well what is it?”
“It’s the pigeons!” said Flinka, as if she could hardly believe it. “The pigeons in the attic! They’ve been there for a couple of moons now, and suddenly ‘the cleanliness of the space is insufficient to our guests’ requirements.’ Nogolo called the crew together and told us we would have to go start cleaning it up once a week. Once a week! Can you believe that? He said in return we could maybe get some access to the park again, but I’m guessing probably not.”
She paused, and when she spoke again her voice was shaking.
“I can’t do it,” she said. “They scare me! They fly down and that thing happens and I can’t think and I hate it. I hate it!”
Juke reached out awkwardly and put a paw on her shoulder and she leaned against him.
“I’m going up there tomorrow.”
“Mr. Nile,” said Nevi, “what is that? Do you know the thing she’s talking about?”
“It’s called The Panic,” said Mr. Nile. “It’s an ancient rat survival mechanism. When something flies down at you in a certain way your mind stops and your body takes over. It finds the quickest way to safety and runs there as fast as it can. Once you’re safe, your mind returns and you can go on.” He handed the cup back to Arkon. “It’s fascinating, really.”
“I think it’s creepy,” said Flinka, and the others nodded in agreement. “What good does it do?”
“Well, some think it’s because your body can act faster if you’re not thinking,” said Mr. Nile. “And others think it’s so you won’t be troubled if you are taken.”
“Taken?” said Chello.
“Hunted,” said Nile. “Captured. Killed, in other words. Some old rats call it The Little Darkness because it protects you from fear at the end.” He closed his eyes and lay back in his bed. “Not my first choice, but I suppose it has something to recommend it…”
“Well I hate it,” said Flinka, “and I think those pigeons do it to us for fun and I’m not going!”
“Listen,” said Nevi, “what if these cloaks help? That one time at the dumpster when they flew down at us – ” She stopped suddenly and looked over at Mr. Nile. His eyes were closed and he spoke quietly.
“I’m asleep, my dear. I can’t hear a thing,” he said.
Nevi smiled and continued.
“That time when they flew down at us it didn’t happen to me. I thought at the time it was because they didn’t see me, but what if it was because with my head and body all covered I felt safe enough that it didn’t happen? Does that make sense?”
“Perfect sense,” said Mr. Nile sleepily.
“I don’t know…” said Flinka, uncertainly.
“I think we should try it,” said Nevi. “You really do feel safer in one. When are you going up?”
“They want us to start tomorrow,” said Flinka, and Torus suddenly had a paralyzing thought.
“Well, come over to my place after this and me and my mom will help you make one, okay?” said Nevi.
While Nevi and Flinka made plans, Torus pulled Chello aside and whispered intently.
“What am I going to do? The wrecked flying machine is still somewhere up there! If the cleaning crew finds it they’ll know I built it and then they’ll know we were up to something and figure out it was us that started the whole mess!”
Chello stared at him, at a loss for words.
“I have to go get it,” said Torus. “I have to go tonight!”
* * *