Free Mr. Chickee's Messy Mission by Christopher Paul Curtis Page B

In the beginning it made it much easier on me when I went to Yourside if I was already familiar with everything.”
    Steven said, “The only difference is that the table where you used to keep your sound system is empty.”
    “Not really, we have a different type of technology here. I don't mean to be curt, Steven, I hope well have plenty of time to discuss this later; now, however, we must get moving quickly.”
    Russell said, “Yeah, we really need to move fast, Mr. Chickee. All I want to do is find Rodney Rodent and get back to Flint in time for dinner. Have you and Ms. Tiptip seen a real shy, little, nervous-acting dog?”
    Mr. Chickee and Ms. Tiptip looked at each other. She said, “Yes. Russell, the animal you call Rodney Rodent came through here yesterday, but he's gone back home.”
    Steven moaned, “You mean we let that gnome grab us for nothing? Rodney Rodent is safe? He's already back in Flint?”
    “No. He is safe, but he's back at his other home, his home here in Ourside.”
    Mr. Chickee said, “Rodney Rodent was sent to Flint to lead you to us. You coming here was no accident.”
    He sighed. “This is kind of complicated and contains a lot of new information, so maybe you boys should have a seat before the brain freeze sets in again.”
    Steven said, “Boys? What about her?”
    He looked at Richelle. “I'll sit if I can sit next to my darl—”
    Richelle balled her hand into a fist and Steven quickly looked the other way.
    He told himself, “No looking! No looking! Very important!”
    He and Russell sat down on a couch in front of Mr. Chickee's empty round coffee table.
    Mr. Chickee said, “Your adventure with the quadrillion-dollar bill was a test designed to see if you were capable ofcompleting a series of missions that the Old Souls have set up for you. It was felt if you could pass that test, then you might be able to help us understand the prophecies of the Chronicles of Zornea-Hu. And Steven, I must say we were quite worried for a while, but you did enough things properly with the mystery of the quadrillion-dollar bill to pass.”
    Steven puffed his chest and started to look at Richelle to make sure she was hearing all of this, but Russell slapped the back of his head and said, “Please, don't look at her, Bucko, please don't shame yourself any more than you did already.”
    Mr. Chickee continued, “You didn't do great, but you did pass, just barely.”
    “Mr. Chickee!” Steven said. “We did better than barely pass, you can ask the feds in Washington. Madam Director knows the Flint Future Detectives solved the mystery of the quadrillion-dollar bill.”
    Ms. Tiptip said, “Actually you solved only a portion of it, but Mr. Chickee argued so strongly in your defense that the rest of the Old Souls gave you a pass.”
    “A pass? I didn't even know I was taking a test, and who are the Old Souls?”
    “It's a group of people here in Ourside who have come together to try to save our world.”
    “Save it?”
    “Yes,” Mr. Chickee said, “save it. Sad to say, but what you see around you is a dying world.”
    He showed them his wrist. There was another one of theOops-a-Daisies there, but this one read thirty-two days, seventeen hours and forty-eight seconds.
    Richelle said, “Are you saying that's all the time that Ourside has left before it dies?”
    “That's it. If the mystery isn't solved by the time this Oops-a-Daisy zeroes out, the Chronicles of Zornea-Hu predict our destruction will be unstoppably set in motion.”
    Ms. Tiptip said, “Ah, Othello, they seem like such nice children, but those looks! Have you ever seen such expressions of confusion? Play the Holo-Vision for them, it's only fair that we flum-flub them to make sure they're completely informed. Especially since we are asking them to risk their lives.”
    None of the Flint Future Detectives said anything, but each one was thinking, “
Risk our lives
?”
    Richelle looked at Russell, then at Steven.
    Russell looked at