Bea surmised that Bean-Tek assigned its more absent-minded scientific types to the greenhouse and plant cultivation level of the building, because she and Odin found they were able to stroll down the corridor outside the greenhouse with nothing more than a slightly purposeful air about them, and no one paid them any attention.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut this area was clearly not where they were going to find the stolen children, so they\u2019d have to descend into dicier territory.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLet\u2019s stick to the stairs,\u201d said Bea, pointing toward the stairwell door at the end of the hallway. \u201cThe elevators around here are a little freaky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey trotted down a flight, and opened the door, labeled \u201c5,\u201d a crack.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is the main office level,\u201d whispered Bea. She\u2019d been here before, with Hortensia. She recognized the stale odor of cardboard and could see, down the hallway, the lobby and the bean statue.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnother life-sized bean man?\u201d said Odin.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNot \u2018life-sized,\u2019\u201d corrected Bea. \u201cHave you ever seen a bean that big?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI suppose not, now that you mention it,\u201d Odin replied.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnyway,\u201d continued Bea in a hushed tone. \u201cHere\u2019s where it gets tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOnly here?\u201d said Odin. \u201cAs if it wasn\u2019t tricky before?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey might recognize me here,\u201d Bea explained. \u201cAnyone might, but especially Dierdre or Scalmo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey slid as surreptitiously as two kids could slide, along the wall of the corridor, passing doors with labels such as \u201cAdvertising,\u201d and \u201cKiosk Management.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cStop!\u201d commanded Bea, as quietly as she could while still managing to be commanding.<\/p>\n
\n\tAcross the hall, a door labeled \u201cFormulation\u201d was ajar. And the voice barking from inside was unmistakably Hiram Scalmo\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve got to put a halt to this crazy stuff!\u201d demanded Scalmo to an unseen person behind the door. \u201cMaybe not yet, but tails, and horns, and stripes…it\u2019s sure to mess with sales sooner or later!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cStripes?\u201d whispered Odin.<\/p>\n
\n\tBea shushed him.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTake something out!\u201d demanded Scalmo. \u201cWhatever\u2019s causing it!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe koohoo is causing it,\u201d replied the unseen female voice, whom Bea presumed was in charge of the secret koo-bar recipe. \u201cIf we take the koohoo out, it\u2019s nothing more than a granola bar. Or a lump of cardboard. Nobody would buy it twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThen put something in!\u201d screamed Scalmo. \u201cA weirdness suppressor or something!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYes,\u201d piped up a second male voice. \u201cThat is precisely what I was thinking. We add a growth inhibitor to the recipe. That might just be the thing to control these unexpected changes. And it will take months…years perhaps…for anyone to notice that their children have stopped growing!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cRight! Get on it!\u201d demanded Scalmo.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut what,\u201d interjected the female scientist, \u201cabout the kids you\u2019ve rounded up? How are we going to fix them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA simple injection, then send them on their merry way,\u201d replied the male scientist. \u201cSame stuff that we\u2019ll put in the koo-bars. I call it Ugh. U-G-H. Ugh. The U is for \u2018un,\u2019 as in \u2018un-growth hormone.\u2019 Works like a champ on fruit flies. Why not kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMake this work, and it\u2019s a big fat bonus for you, my friend,\u201d said Scalmo with a congratulatory swagger in his voice. \u201cDo it now. The sooner, the better.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s coming out!\u201d whispered Bea. She glanced around the hall, spotted a ladies\u2019 room, and pulled Odin through the doorway with her.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLadies\u2019 room, Bea!\u201d protested Odin. \u201cFor ladies!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSshhh,\u201d said Bea. Someone was speaking behind a toilet stall door.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOui! oui! oui! oui! oui!\u201d squealed the agitated but unseen woman, presumably into a phone.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cZay sink I can clean up zee room after feefty cheeldren? Zis is not my job!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea and Odin exchanged glances, then shut themselves in the toilet stall next to the woman speaking.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cO\u00f9? O\u00f9?\u201d she squawked. \u201cLa premi\u00e8re \u00e9tage!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe woman flushed the toilet, then hustled out of the bathroom after a too-hasty hand-washing.<\/p>\n \n\tBea and Odin exited their stall.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cShe said \u2018where? where?\u2019\u201d translated Bea. \u201cMaybe she\u2019s talking about where the kids are!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOdin\u2019s phone, though now silenced, buzzed in his shirt pocket.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMichael-Dan,\u201d said Odin, into his phone. \u201cYes, yes…we know where they are. Even I know that \u2018premi\u00e8re \u00e9tage\u2019 means \u2018first floor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMichael-Dan yelled back through the phone so loudly Bea could hear him.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt doesn\u2019t!\u201d<\/em> he squeaked in a tiny through-the-phone-speaker voice. \u201cIn French, the first floor means the second floor!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFrench is so weird,\u201d said Bea, grabbing the phone from Odin. \u201cOk then, second floor! We\u2019re going now!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe coast was clear enough, so Bea and Odin returned to the stairwell, and descended three flights. The doorway marked \u201c2\u201d led them into a level of mechanical din. The hall was lined with wider doorways, most open to display the humming machinery and moving boxes inside.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cKids, kids, where would you hide kids?\u201d wondered Bea aloud as she and Odin again made use of the \u201clook purposeful\u201d strategy to blend in.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHey!\u201d yelled a green-coated man who had just lugged a box of koo-bars into the hallway. \u201cWhat are you two doing? Didn\u2019t they tell you to wait in room twelve?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYes,\u201d stated Odin plainly.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe can\u2019t find room twelve,\u201d added Bea. \u201cBut we\u2019re definitely supposed to be waiting there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRoom twelve,\u201d grunted the green-coat. \u201cTurn left halfway down, then end of the hall on the right.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThank you very much sir,\u201d said Odin.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHey!\u201d said the man again. \u201cYou two don\u2019t look so weird, like the others. What\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea thought fast. \u201cI used to be…really, really short,\u201d she said. \u201cReally short.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd I can only walk like a robot now,\u201d said Odin, lurching into an awkward gait.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cStuck doin\u2019 the robot?\u201d chuckled the man. \u201cHaven\u2019t heard that one yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThanks for your help sir,\u201d said Bea. She pulled Odin down the hall, and he robot-walked as well as he could while being pulled.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTwelve,\u201d said Bea when she reached the door so marked. She tugged the handle. \u201cTwelve is locked.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTwelve is opening,\u201d Odin observed.<\/p>\n \n\tThe door opened out. Bea and Odin tucked themselves behind it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDon\u2019t eat\u2019em all at once!\u201d squawked a short woman carrying out an empty koo-bar carton.<\/p>\n \n\tBea grabbed the door to keep it from closing.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHey! Don\u2019t be sneaking out!\u201d exclaimed the woman, who\u2019d been expecting the door to close behind her.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOh, we\u2019re not,\u201d replied Bea earnestly. \u201cSneaking, that is. Just hoping to catch a glimpse of more delicious koo-bars.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe woman scrutinized her, as if trying to spot some horns or a tail. Odin quickly began to move like a robot.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was short,\u201d explained Bea. \u201cI used to be really short.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe woman looked skeptical, but shooed them into the room. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWell, that\u2019s it for now,\u201d she said. \u201cYou kids are going to eat this factory out of house and home.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tThe door closed. Bea looked around. Room twelve was mostly empty of stuff, but there were at least fifty kids, sitting on the floor or on empty koo-bar boxes. She spotted the playground kids\u2014the boy with pearly horns, and the girl with a striped tail\u2014playing a hand-clapping game with a pair whose luxuriant hair and curly horns gave them away as the baker\u2019s children.<\/p>\n \n\tGreen wrappers were strewn haphazardly about, and several kids were scarfing down last bits of the most recently emptied carton.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBea!\u201d cried Kitty from a far corner.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHow\u2019d you guys get in here?\u201d said Gordy, his hair flaming even redder than before. \u201cI thought they were only rounding up Bean-Tek kids!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe snuck. Of course,\u201d said Bea. Then she lowered her voice. \u201cI don\u2019t want to panic every kid in the room, but we\u2019ve got to get everyone out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOr else Ugh.\u201d said Odin.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUgh?\u201d replied Kitty.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a shot,\u201d said Bea. \u201cA really bad for you shot, to keep the weirdness from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI hate shots,\u201d said Gordy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey\u2019re going to spot you, you know,\u201d said Kitty. \u201cWe have to do something to make you blend in.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI am blending,\u201d replied Odin, performing a brief robot routine.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBeautiful,\u201d said Kitty. \u201cBut Bea…\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDid you bring your makeup, Kitty?\u201d asked Bea. \u201cThat might help.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tKitty rummaged through her rubber backpack and fished out a compact of assorted eye shadow colors.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPerfect,\u201d said Bea. \u201cThey won\u2019t spot me if I\u2019m spotty.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKitty chose Mediterranean blue, then, using a sponge-tip applicator, carefully applied polka-dots all over Bea\u2019s face.<\/p>\n \n\tShe dropped the compact back into her bag just as the door banged open again.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOkay Bean-Tek kids!\u201d said a tall skinny man whose voice gave him away as the inventor of the \u201cUgh\u201d solution. \u201cEverybody line up by the door! We\u2019re going to head on up to the fifth floor! You do one more little thing for us, and we\u2019ll send you all home with big enough supply of delicious, nutritious Koo-Bars to last you for life!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bea surmised that Bean-Tek assigned its more absent-minded scientific types to the greenhouse and plant cultivation level of the building, because she and Odin found they were able to stroll down the corridor outside the greenhouse with nothing more than a slightly purposeful air about them, and no one paid them any attention. But this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}