BY SOLO
EPISODE SIX
Well, she did it....Oh no, she hasn't fixed the time machine yet - no, I'm talking about coming face to face with PAUL, TIM and RICHARD and coming through the encounter unscathed. (Everyone stand up...stand up right now - all of you, even you Bindy! Give Solo a round of applause. Now all of you sit down and shut up! )
We rejoin Solo as she is wandering down one of the many corridors of the Titanic II. Tim was walking ahead droaning out some tour information, but quite frankly, she had tuned out four or five...seconds after he had started. Richard trailed along behind solo like a puppy anxious for just one more pet on the head and Paul was bringing up the rear...In fact he was lagging quite a fair way behind. Still sulking probably.
"Solo, so tell me what your earth is like?" Richard asked
sweetly after finally working up the nerve to address her.
"Well, it's pretty different Rich." She replied and then
proceeded to tell him about the three young men called Richard Fidler,
Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott from her universe.
"So Paul and myself have our own TV programs?" Richard
asked incredulously a few HOURS later.
"Yep."
"And Tim did too but it was a flop?"
"Yep, stank totally."
Richard smiled... "Better not tell him then," he said
finally, "he might get ticked with me. Oh and don't tell paul about his
other self being so popular and loved caus we'd never shut him up, you
know, he'd always be going on about how everyone loves him and how he could
pull any chicks he wanted to and stuff like that. it's be very annoying."
"Okay Rich," Solo suddenly stopped. "hey we lost Tim."
She stared down the endlessly long corridor
Paul came up behind them. "What'sa matter...ya sacred
little girl?"
"Shut up Paul." Solo replied, "No, but we've lost Tim."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! who gives a rat's about that pencildick,
lte's keep moving."
"But Paul..."
"Shut up Richard!"
"Hey!" Solo snapped, "be nice to Richard, he was only
concerned about Tim."
"We don't need some girl to come on the Titanic and teach
us manners...now butt out girly, this is between me and Richard, right
mate?"
Richard looked hurt and his eyes looked suspicously full
of water. "R r r r right Paul."
Solo walked over to Richard and put her arms around him.
Behind her, Paul's facial expression went from suprise, to anger before
it suddenly closed off and became unreadable as he watched her hug Richard,
but his eyes looked strangly wounded.
Paul turned away and huffed loudly.
Solo ignored him and spoke quietly to Richard..."Don't
worry about Paul, he really does care for you, he just puts on a big front...the
only way he knows how to deal with his self conciousness and depression
is to lash out at those around him that he loves."
"Really?" Richard sniffed... "But why then does he argue
so much with you?"
Solo went red... "Ahh i dunno Rich, probably caus he
really doesn't like me. i guess I'm the exception that proves the rule."
She fianlly replied and then changed the subject. "Maybe we should go and
look for Tim."
Paul, who had been secretly listening to the entire whispered
conversation turned back around and said... "Nah! who cares about pus head.
We have to find the time machine."
"What do you mean find it Paul?" Solo asked.
Paul looked sheepish.
Richard explained, "Well, you see, that's why the machine
became a relic in the future and was put on the titanic II for safe keeping,
you see it never actually worked. Oh it could send stuff backwards and
forwards through time but then it would relocate itself somwhere in the
general area. So we know it's got to be on the Titanic II, we're just not
sure where."
Solo groaned, terrific she thought, not only did she
have to find a way to fix the damn machine but now she'd have to find it
first. "Let's keep moving then."
The continued up the corridor the doors they were now
passing were differnt colours. Pink, green, rusted metal, battleship grey,
coffee brown and so on. As they passed each door, Paul leaned over and
opened it. Solo was amazed by the bizarre objects hidden away inside each
room, revealed for the split second Paul checked the room for the time
machine or Tim. THere was a giant library packed ceiling to floor with
books, a gallery filled with paintings - Solo was sure she spoted a da
Vinci, a Van Gogh and a McDermott before Paul slammed the door shut with
a "nup, not there!"
There were rooms filled with dinosaurs, koalas, several
aged Australian prime ministers in wheel chairs, Walt Disney - still frozen
in a huge slab of ice...although the ice had been chipped to form the shape
of a giant, naked, well built, exotic dancing mickey mouse. A giant warehouse
filled with boxes, a galley full of busts and a full size statue of Liberty
- how the hell they had fit it through the door was beyond Solo's comprehension.
Finally Paul stopped at a Red door. "Let's try here."
"No!" Solo shouted.
"Scared?" Paul asked waving his hands outstretched in
front of her face crying "woohoohoo hoohoo scary scary scary."
"oh leave her alone Paul." Richard mumbled.
Paul looked at Richard nastily. Richard backed away.
"I know you're scared Rich, but I'm talking to Solo, not you."
Richard looked hurt but Paul ignored him.
"Shut up Paul." Solo snapped.
Paul looked hurt and Richard looked smug. Finally someone
who's on my side, he thought.
"Paul, I was told, that whatever I do, not to open the
RED door. I don't think we should go in there."
"Tough!" Paul said in his evil tone, and hid his scared
expression by turning away. Taking a deep breath, he threw open the door.
What will happen next?
What is behind the RED door?
Where the hell is Tim?
And will Solo ever find that damn time machine?
STAY TUNED...