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This does not take place this Easter but the Easter before. The Easter when Bob and Jack were on vacation. The Easter before they met Artie. The Easter before Ann was born. The whole thing started on the Thursday before Easter. Joseph and Sarah were staying with the Trims while their mother was in the hospital and the gang (those that were there) decided to keep them company.
Torry got their first.
“Hi, Joseph! Hi, Sarah!” greeted Torry.
“Hi, Torry,” they both replied.
“Could you 3 help me make Easter decorations?” asked Mrs. Trim.
“What about me?” asked Victor coming in the door.
Frisky followed.
“Amy!” guessed Torry.
“How did you know?” Amy wondered.
“A cat told me,” answered Torry.
Randy was next to show up, then Betty, then John. They all decided to help Mrs. Trim.
“Hey! Where’s Dan,” exclaimed John. “Dan’s house was closest to the lab. He should have been here a long time ago.”
They stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.
“He’s right,” said Mr. Trim.
They were just about to go out and look for Dan when the door opened.
“Dan!” they all yelled.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “but my grandfather has come over for a visit.”
As he said this his grandfather came in. Most of them had seen him 3 years ago. (See The Power Book.)
“We’ll keep your grandfather company. The rest of you can go outside,” said Mrs. Trim.
“We will?” questioned Mr. Trim.
Meanwhile at Bill’s lab, Bill and Kenny were planning how to spoil their Easter.
“We could put them in prison,” suggested Bill.
“We’ve tried that lots of times. They always escape,” Kenny reminded him.
“Not if we use a better security system and instead of bars we could use a solid steal wall,” added Bill.
“I think you have a good idea,” said Kenny and they started work on it immediately.
Joseph and Sarah had only moved to Jesterville the previous January so not too many people knew much about them. They decided to die Easter eggs.
“I’ll get the hard boiled eggs!” exclaimed Betty as she ran off to get them.
“Now as for the rest of us,” bossed Sarah because she was the oldest one out there. “You get the cups, Randy. You help him, Victor. You get the dye, Torry. You get the vinegar, Dan. And I’ll get the water.”
It took them awhile but slowly they obeyed Sarah’s orders. Amy, Joseph, and Frisky took it easy.
“The rest of you are in charge of cleaning up,” ordered Sarah as she went out the door.
Meanwhile Bill and Kenny needed a break so they walked over to Mr. Trim’s lab. They got there just in time to see Betty put the eggs down and go back inside. The eggs were in a 5-gallon bucket, as full as it could be without the eggs dropping from the bucket and cracking.
Kenny ran toward the eggs, grabbed one, and threw it at John who was just coming out the door. John was very mad. He took another egg from the bucket and threw it as hard as he could at Kenny. After that everybody joined. Because they were outnumbered and because they were being kept away from the egg supply, Bill and Kenny had to retreat. They found out the hard way that the eggs were not hard-boiled. Just then Betty, who had not been in the egg fight, came out.
“What have you done to the hard-boiled eggs?!” exclaimed Betty.
“Hard-boiled?!” they all said before they started throwing the eggs at Betty.
After they got cleaned up they found out that they were 35 eggs short.
“I am not buying any more eggs for you,” declared Mr. Trim. “but if you want, you can sell Mrs. Trim’s cakes and brownies. After paying for the ingredients, you can buy more eggs with your profit.”
“What!” yelled Mrs. Trim as soon as he was finished.
“And with what they have left over they can buy you a present,” said Mr. Trim and then added. “Unless you want Betty to make it.”
Everyone except Betty, Joseph, and Sarah made a face secretly. It wasn’t really fair to Betty. She made lots of good recipes but two were the only ones they remembered. One was her famous ice cream pizza. The other was the last one she made. She was making a cake but instead of all-purpose flour she used all-purpose cement. They always joked about it.
Like when they watched the Flintstones someone said, “Look, Betty. Your cake! It’s their left front tire!” or the Thanksgiving when Torry gained 8 pounds (and when the cake was first made) someone asked him, “What did you do? Eat Betty’s cake?”
After that she was too embarrassed to make anything again. They decided they had too many eggs anyway.
On Friday morning they hard-boiled and dyed what was left of the eggs. Then Dan’s grandfather hid the eggs and everyone else looked for them. Victor got the prize for the most eggs. When he said 16 no one believed him, but it was true. And Dan won the prize for finding the magic egg, the one that was hardest to find.
They had a contest to see who could guess how many jellybeans were in a jar. Mr. Trim was the only one who knew.
“76,” he whispered to his wife then said out loud. “Each of you guess when we point to you.”
“30,” Torry.
“45,” Randy.
“1,000,000,” Victor.
“There not that many jelly beans in the candy store we bought them in!” explained Mr. Trim.
“100,” Victor.
“50,” Dan.
“75,” Amy.
“125,” Betty.
“95,” John.
“150,” Sarah.
“85,” Joseph.
“80,” said Dan’s grandfather.
Mr. Trim took the jellybeans out and they all started counting.
“1, 2, 3, 4 … 30 …”
“That leaves me out,” Torry whispered.
“ … 43, 44, 45, 46 …”
“Me too,” Randy whispered back.
“ … 69, 70, 71”
“Looks like Amy’s going to win,” said John.
“ 72, 73, 74, 75, 76!”
They stopped counting and gave the prize to Amy. They divided the jellybeans equally among everybody and Mr. Trim secretly ate the remainder.
“You’re just as bad as they are!” scolded Mrs. Trim.
They had lunch. (That is their peak, it’s all downhill from here.)
While they were at Dan’s grandfather’s house, something happened but no one was exactly sure what. Dan’s grandfather was in the hospital and Dan did not come back. Nobody blamed him.
That was when Bill and Kenny made their move. They hid in the bushes until they saw Victor alone. Kenny quickly grabbed him and covered his mouth before he could yell for help. They quickly carried him to Bill’s prison. Everyone knew where that was but they kept adding to it. Then it was the size of Mr. Trim’s lab so even those who knew the general area had a large area to search.
This time Betty was alone, but this time when they grabbed her Torry came out the door. They ran. Torry ran after them.
Because Bill and Kenny had to carry Betty, Torry was gaining rapidly. Kenny and Bill had an idea. Torry looked ahead and saw Kenny holding Betty and running straight for him. Torry knew he couldn’t run straight into him so Torry ran north. (Bill was running northeast.)
Torry was doing fine until he was surrounded. The Dreosin River (which he forgot about) was to his north, Mr. Trim’s lab to his south, Bill coming closer to his west, and Kenny to his east. Torry had to make a choice. Torry jumped into the Dreosin River but at the last foot Torry changed into a seagull and flew slowly downward and when he touched the water he changed into a minnow. (It was fairly shallow water.) Bill was convinced Torry had jumped and left. Kenny thought that one of Mr. Trim’s thing-a-ma-jig’s had saved him and there was nothing they could do about it so he left too.
Torry had to warn them, so he quickly changed back into a seagull and flew up until he was safely on the ground. Then he changed back, ran into Mr. Trim’s lab, and told Mr. Trim to get everybody over there as fast as he could.
In about 3 minutes, Mr. Trim came back with everyone in the lab.
“I couldn’t find Betty and Victor,” Mr. Trim said.
“That’s O.K.,” Torry replied. “I think I know where they are.”
“Where?” asked Sarah.
“They’ve been captured,” answered Torry.
“Why?” asked Sarah.
Torry explained about his past experienced with Jack, Bill, and Kenny and what he saw. (He did not explain about jumping in the river because Sarah would ask so many questions that he’d have to tell her about the crystal and he didn’t want to tell her about the crystal just yet.) They decided if they were outside they’d go in groups of 3.
Joseph, who hadn’t said 4 words that day, spoke.
“We must find a way to rescue them. We can’t just leave them there,” he stated.
Joseph was right. No matter how good they protected themselves there would be at least 2 people in prison. They decided to make plans to rescue them early the next day.
At 7 Torry, Joseph, Sarah, and John went to bed. (So did Frisky but nobody noticed.) At 9 Randy and Amy went to sleep and at 11 Mr. and Mrs. Trim joined them. At 5 the next morning Sarah, John, Joseph, and Torry got up in that order and set off to rescue Betty and Victor. They went by all kinds of prisons and traps. When they did get to the right section of prisons they triggered a beam that set off an alarm.
“I don’t remember an alarm,” explained Torry.
“Well stop trying to remember and get to work,” commanded Sarah tossing Joseph the keys.
He unlocked the prison that held Betty and Victor just as Bill and Kenny were in sight. Each of them had guns.
“Freeze!” ordered Kenny.
“Toss me the keys and nobody will get hurt,” he added.
Joseph tossed him the keys.
“Now get into prison,” ordered Kenny.
“You don’t scare me,” said Sarah. “You wouldn’t fire that gun. Hey!”
Bill and Kenny grabbed Sarah, put her in prison, and locked her up. That gave the others enough time to escape. They decided to separate so all of them wouldn’t be caught. Joseph hid and grabbed the keys from Kenny as he went by. Then he quickly ran off to rescue Sarah. But Kenny had realized it and ran faster than Joseph had planned so he was put in the prison next to Sarah’s.
Bill tried to grab John but John was too tough. Victor was almost outside. Betty was caught. Victor made it outside but fell through a trapdoor. Torry saw Bill coming and turned into a piece of tile so Bill passed right over him. Kenny shut all the doors to one room trapping John inside. Torry turned back to himself and ran to the only way out. He made it!
Torry carefully got past all the trapdoors. Bill was after him. Torry ran as fast as he could toward Mr. Trim’s lab, but Bill grabbed him. The struggle went back to the Dreosin River. Then Bill gave Torry one last push. The push knocked Torry’s crystal out of his pocket. He tried to stop it but it went in the river. The push also caused him to fall. He was just able to grab onto the edge and climb back up.
After the push Bill headed back to his prison. Torry went back into the lab and went to sleep.
Meanwhile one of the doors opened and Kenny stepped in and the door closed again. John was forced at gunpoint to go through another door which led to the same section of prisons that the others were in. Bill did the same to Victor. Then they all went to sleep.
Later that day everyone in Mr. Trim’s lab was awake. Torry told them everything that happened. The new security system and the loss of Torry’s crystal made an escape plan almost impossible. Still later that day Mr. Trim tried to rescue them alone being careful not to sound off any alarms but Kenny had the keys with him so Mr. Trim had to go back.
“How did it go?” asked Mrs. Trim.
“Not too good,” Mr. Trim replied. “Kenny has the keys. I was surprised I didn’t get caught. Where’s everybody else?”
“They’re outside making plans for another rescue attempt,” answered Mrs. Trim.
Meanwhile outside the others had no idea at all.
Bill and Kenny were ready to go get their next victims. They came face to face with Torry, Amy, and Randy. Back in prison the rest were trying to escape without outside help.
“If only we knew where the beam was,” said Joseph.
“But we don’t do we,” added Betty.
“Mr. Trim’s still on the outside maybe he’ll think of a way,” suggested Victor.
So they talked on for about 5 minutes. The more they talked the more they thought they needed outside help to escape. They stopped talking when they saw Bill and Kenny come in.
Kenny came in first. He was holding Amy in his left arm and in his right hand he had a gun which was pointing at Amy. Mr. and Mrs. Trim were next walking side by side and last was Bill pointing a gun at Mr. and Mrs. Trim.
If you want to know how they got there let’s move through time and space a bit. Bill and Kenny were able to grab Amy but Torry and Randy escaped. Then they marched straight up to Mr. Trim’s lab. Both of them came to the door.
“Follow us or she gets it,” commanded Kenny.
Both of them had no choice. They followed them to Bill’s prison and got locked up with Amy.
Meanwhile Torry and Randy knew they had to try one more escape plan but first they had to get Dan. After the accident Dan kept to himself. He was sad and scared at the same time. He was having lunch when Torry and Randy came to the door. He let them in being glad to see them.
Torry wasted no time explaining what had happened.
“What good will one more escape attempt do?” questioned Dan after Torry was finished. “Your crystle was the only reason you escaped but now you don’t have it. Do you?”
“I know your upset because of what happened to your grandfather,” Torry argued. “but they’re going to be more things like that if you don’t do anything.”
He paused and then went on.
“We have to keep on trying until we’re all free or we’re all captured, and without my crystal I can’t go in there alone so are you going to try with us or not.”
All was silent.
“It’s a deal,” said Dan and they all shook hands on it.
Unknown to them Bill and Kenny figured out where they were and hid waiting for them to come out. When they came out Torry was first. They pounced on him until he just lay there alive and conscious but he didn’t want to get up. Randy was next who surrendered before they could lay their hands on him.
They waited for Dan to come out but he never did. Finally they decided to go in after him forcing Randy to go with them. They finally gave up. When they came out Torry was gone.
After Bill, Randy, and Kenny passed him Dan snuck out the front door and helped Torry to Mr. Trim’s lab. There they rested knowing they were safe … for the moment. They knew now it was up to them. Each with a problem Torry didn’t think he could do anything without his crystal and Dan didn’t feel good knowing his grandfather was in worse shape than all of them put together and Torry’s bruises weren’t helping any. They rested for an our until Torry went outside determined to get his crystal back.
Dan followed him and caught up with him at the edge of the river. Torry pretended to talk to himself but he was really talking to Dan for he knew Dan was there.
“I’ve had that crystal since I was 4 years old,” he said. “That’s over ½ my life. The crystal usually takes care of these bruises, but now I’m hardly a match for Bill and Kenny. I may never see the crystal again. I’m not sure how I’m gonna live without it.”
“And I’m not sure how I’m going to live without him,” added Dan.
“At least you’ll probably see your grandfather again,” Torry argued. “But without the help of Mr. Trim I’ll probably never see my crystal again and I need my crystal to rescue Mr. Trim and the others.”
“Maybe so,” agreed Dan. “but as you said to me somebody had to try.”
“I know,” Torry replied. “I am still gonna try. I just don’t think I’m gonna succeed. Now could you help me find my crystal.”
Meanwhile Dan’s grandfather is still in the hospital, Torry’s crystal is somewhere downstream, and Bill and Kenny are celebrating. The others didn’t like the food they were getting and had no thoughts of escaping except as an impossible dream. Some Easter this was turning out to be.
Dan and Torry were still looking for the crystal and finally gave up.
“O.K.,” said Torry. “The escape plan will take place at 0100 hours.”
“What!!” yelled Dan who loves to sleep.
“Everyone will be asleep then,” Torry explained.
“Yeah, and I want to be too,” Dan added.
While they were saying all this they were walking back to Mr. Trim’s lab. Torry talked Dan into the idea so they went in and went to sleep waiting for 1 o’clock.
At 1 o’clock everyone was asleep except Dan, Torry, and Mr. Trim who stayed awake figuring Torry would try such a plan. Getting into the prison was easy. Now came the hard part. They looked all over the prison and finally where Bill and Kenny were sleeping. Quietly they got the keys outside.
“Now for the alarm,” Torry started to say but he remembered the noise might wake Kenny up just in time.
They were down quietly into the section of prisons where the others were being held. Torry was about to break the beam the triggered the alarm but Dan stopped him.
“Hold it! Slip the keys under the beam to someone in prison and let him or her get everyone out,” Dan said.
“Psst! Over here,” whispered Mr. Trim who heard what Dan had said.
Torry slipped the keys under the beam to Mr. Trim. It hit one of the bars of the prison. Mr. Trim got it and unlocked his prison. Then went over to Mrs. Trim’s prison, unlocked it, and went inside.
“Wake up,” commanded Mr. Trim as nicely as he could.
Mrs. Trim woke up. She is turn did the same to Sarah and that’s how it went with Joseph, John, Amy, Betty, Randy, and Victor in that order. They got ready to run as fast as they could as soon as somebody broke the beam.
Torry suddenly came up with an idea. He ran ahead to where Bill and Kenny were sleeping. The alarm went off. Torry had little time. Bill had just woke up and turned off the alarm when Torry came into view.
“Can’t catch me!” yelled Torry running back where he came from.
Bill woke up Kenny and they both took off after Torry. Torry was careful not to lead them to the place where they could see the others trying to escape. Soon they split up. Kenny turned off to the left and Bill kept running after him. Later on Kenny started running toward him from the opposite direction. Surrounded!
Bill and Kenny led him back to prison. There they discovered no one else was there. They also realized that the keys were missing. They locked Torry in prison (They had an extra set just in case.) and went after the others. As soon as they were a good distance away Dan came running in with the keys and unlocked Torry’s prison.
“Why didn’t you go with the others?” questioned Torry.
“No time! Let’s get out of here!” Dan replied.
“We can’t. Bill and Kenny are blocking the only exit,” Torry explained.
“We’ll wait for them to leave,” started Dan. “To kill time I’ll tell you what happened to us while you were busy with Bill and Kenny.”
There was a short pause to listen and see if Bill and Kenny were coming back then he went on with his story.
“As soon as you were out of sight Victor ran as fast as he could past the beam sounding the alarm. The rest of us couldn’t argue with him so we just took off after him. When Victor, who was first, got outside I wondered why none of us even saw Bill and Kenny during our escape. I figured out that you had distracted them and you did so. And I also figured that without your crystal they’d capture you sooner or later and they did so. So I asked Victor for the keys.”
Then Dan added, “They’re coming. Get back in your prison. I have an idea.”
(As you remember Dan was on the outside of the beam and closest to the exit. When Victor passed him Dan was still second. Also Victor was the last one free. The first one out gave the keys to the second and so on. Since Victor was last he still had the keys. Change either order and Dan could have never gotten the keys when he did.)
Meanwhile Bill and Kenny got them just in time to hear Dan, next to Torry say, “Don’t worry, Torry, I’ll get you out somehow.”
“You’ll have to wait ‘till next Easter!” interrupted Kenny. “That is if there’s going to be a next Easter.”
They put Dan in prison and left.
Dan’s “I’ll get you out somehow” made them think he didn’t have the keys, but after they left Dan just took the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the prison. Torry just opened the door for it was never locked. The second mistake Bill and Kenny made was when Bill turned the alarm off he never turned it back on again so they could cross the beam without setting an alarm off. And because Bill and Kenny didn’t know they escaped they could just walk out. About 50 yards away from Bill’s prison they met Joseph and Sarah going the other way.
“What are you doing here?” asked Torry.
“We were going to rescue you,” replied Sarah. “but it looks like you don’t need it.”
“What happened to the others?” questioned Torry.
“In Mr. Trim’s lab,” answered Sarah. “Some of them are probably asleep by now.”
After that nobody said a word until they got to Mr. Trim’s lab and were in bed.
“By the way you never did tell me what happened after you asked Victor for the keys,” Torry stated to Dan but he got no response for Dan was asleep.
At the time nobody noticed it but the Trims weren’t there. Soon the only ones awake were Torry, John, and Sarah when the Trims came back. Joseph dropped off to sleep right after Dan and was snoring loudly.
“Torry, are you awake,” Mrs. Trim asked.
“Yes, barely,” Torry replied.
“We must find your crystal before the spring rain floods the river and washes your crystal into the ocean,” explained Mr. Trim.
“What crystal?” questioned Sarah.
“The one I keep as a good luck charm,” burst Torry before Mr. and Mrs. Trim could explain about the crystle.
“You don’t believe in that stuff do you?” demanded Sarah.
“When I lost it we started getting captured,” Torry said.
Sarah mumbled something tossed and turned and then went to sleep.
“I’m going with you!” exclaimed John wide awake and out of bed.
So the four of them went outside to look for the crystal. They climbed down the cliff and walked by the river. (After the spring rain the entire area is filled with water up to the edge of the cliff.) It was 6 inches deeper than it was Friday due to the melting snow in the northwest. There was a small crack in the bottom of the cliff, the part where the water was running through.
Torry stuck his hand in and couldn’t get it back out. John and Mrs. Trim pulled on him but it was no use.
Meanwhile Mr. Trim climbed back up the cliff and into the lab. 3 minutes later he was back down with a hammer and chisel. He finally loosened the rock so Torry could pull his hand out … and the crystal with it. With that they went back and went to sleep.
The next morning Joseph was the first one up.
“What a lovely sunrise!” he declared looking outside.
Amy was next. Then John, then the Trims, Randy, Sarah, Victor, Torry, (then Frisky who I haven’t mentioned since the beginning of this story,) and then Betty. By 9 the only one not awake was Dan. Mr. Trim said they were all going to the hospital and for everyone to wake Dan up. With everyone shaking and stirring him it took a full 45 seconds before Dan finally stirred.
At the hospital Mrs. Trim went inside and told the others were told to stay on the steps. She came back out supporting an elderly gentleman on crutches. It was Dan’s grandfather. Dan ran up and hugged him. Everybody (except Mr. Trim) was so busy watching Dan and his grandfather that they did not notice Mrs. Trim going back into the building.
She came back out. This time with a pink blanket wrapped in her arms.
“Joseph, Sarah, come here,” she said.
They did so.
She opened the blanket so they could see what was inside and then added, “This is your sister. She’s 3 days old.”
“What is her name?” asked Joseph and Sarah at the same time.
“It is for you to decide,” she replied.
They both went to a private spot and discussed a bunch of names until they found one they could both agree on. They came back.
“ANN!” declared Joseph. “Her name shall be Ann.”
That was the first time since they moved to Jesterville that Joseph spoke for the two of them. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) crowded around her. Sarah asked to hold her which she did.
Torry found his crystle. Dan’s grandfather was fine. Joseph and Sarah were now Joseph, Sarah, and Ann. Dan learned that he had to keep trying no matter what. And Torry learned that he could do things without his crystal. Even Bill and Kenny were pleased with the new baby. So were Jack and Bob when they came back to Jesterville. Everyone there heard about the new baby.
It is on this happy note that I say,
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