Door To Chaos

Ageless reaches the door.

Knock knock! He will make a grand entrance.

Kobo will be surprised at how fast he has moulted. Pinky will swoon.

They will not be expecting the chevrons.

He hesitates. Maybe they will. He seems to have sent them a message.

The door opens to chaos.

Come in, quick! says Humboldt, grasping a claw and drawing him inwards. We have a new parrot, and she's currently on a mad mission.

Ageless looks about the cabin.

Gaius is flapping at smoke with a spatula.

Gloria is at the far end of Arthur's top bunk. You can see her white hair, and her eyebrows.

Terence is clapping.

Why is he clapping?

Ageless skitters over to the plum box.

My beloveds! cries Ageless. I'm here!

A sharp intake of breath comes from the plum box, and a coughing.

Cu-huh! coughs Kobo.

Ageless clambers into the plum box, to be greeted by further coughing.

It's the smoke, coughs Kobo. Gaius burned the fried plums.

That's not like him, says Ageless.

It's Terence's new parrot, says Kobo. She's turning the place upside down.

She's finding my magic flow ring! cries Terence. I have to keep clapping.

Celia stops flying around the cabin.

Shh!

Boing!

Hear that? says Celia. Where did it come from?

Up here! says Gloria. Help me, I'm trapped.

Jumping Jupiter! says Gaius. She's found it!

You are the best parrot in the world! says Terence. My magic bracelet was lost for EVER! Now it isn't!

Therefore, says Gaius, it was not lost forever. It appears Arthur found it.

Steady on, says Humboldt. Gloria found it.

Let me out! cries Gloria from inside the magic prison.

My parrot found it, says Terence. My parrot and me. She told me to do clapping. And boing!

PLEASE! shouts Gloria.

Gaius climbs up the bunk ladder.

Arthur's bed is a raddle of dirty sheets, stained with sauce, and littered with hamburger wrappings and various hard prickly crumbs.

But Gaius, to his credit, does not notice.

He crawls through it to Gloria, who is trapped in the flow ring.

Ding! He pats the top, firmly.

The flow ring collapses. and Gloria is now free to come down from the bunk bed.

That's how they work, magic flow rings.

They are wonderful, these, says Gloria. I might think about one for a grandchild.

Good for her.

You'd think she might have been angry. But she wasn't.