Pocket Pants & Baby Powder —Busy Little Bee

So many years ago, when my daughters were just glimpses of the amazing young ladies they’ve become, I wrote this story. I didn’t even know I had any of it digital, but I have the complete hard copy that I need to transpose. I’m posting it mostly for them, but it’s worth the read, even if the whole story isn’t there.

One word of warning: Back when I wrote this, I didn’t consider word choice and writing to an audience of 5-7 year olds. So sue me. You only know what you know and if you don’t know, you don’t know.

The Adventures of

Pocket Pants and Baby Powder

BUSY LITTLE BEE

SCENE #1

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) are busy cleaning the house because, once again, mom and dad are busy working.

Kat and her little sister Kit were cleaning the house…again. With mom and dad always busy at work lately, cleaning the house and having it nice for when their parents were home was a full time job.  To Kat, it seemed only right that mom and dad should be able to relax when they were home, so she was diligent in making sure that the house was in good order. Of course, there was always the ulterior motive; the less for mom and dad to do, the more time they could focus on her…and her little sister maybe.

Kat was 8-year-olds, a string-bean with an over-active imagination and an abundance of nervous energy. She cleaned with a furry, limbs flying, frantically mopping the wood floors humming a tune outloud.

Her little sister, Kit was 3, or as she would tell you, “three and a quarter. And, while still in diapers, what Kit lacked in development she more than made up for through a spark-plug personality—a stout bundle of no-nonsense stubbornness with a funny edge.

Kat was vigorously working a patch of wood floor that ran off from the laundry room, making a sharp turn in to the living room where Kit was supposed to be hard at work dehairing the couch, which often had more of the cat’s hair than the cat. Kat was struck by how quiet her little sister had become—not at all like her.

Suspicion aroused, Kat dropped the mop in to the bucket and quietly crept around the corner to spy on her little sister. Rounding the corner, Kat discovered why Kit had been so silent—instead of cleaning the couch, she was sleeping on it, bent at the waist, feet still on the floor while her head and upper body lay across the soft green couch cushion.

“Kid can sleep anywhere,” Kat mused to her stuffed animal, a chipmunk by the name of Rosie, “I wish mom were here.” She looked sad for a moment, an thoughtless sort of melancholy, then shrugged her shoulders and went back to moping the floor.

The hours passed. Kit awoke from her nap grouchy. The sky was darkening outside and Kat was beginning to worry; she’d heard nothing from her parents and that was not like them. They had been absent from dinner before, but they always called. As if by thought alone, the phone rang. Kat ran to it, knowing for sure that it was either her mom or dad calling to tell her that they would be home soon. But it wasn’t.

“Hello? Kat speaking.”

On the other end of the line, a voice said, “Hello Kat, this is Mr. Madhorn speaking.”

Mr. Madhorn was the manager where her mom worked.

“They asked me to call you,” he continued, “and let you know that they’re going to stay at work a little longer. In fact, they might not be home until really late…so go to bed, and hopefully they’ll be home when you get up in the morning.”

“Okay Mr. Madhorn,” Kat replied, “Thanks.”

As she hung up the phone she could feel fear swelling up inside her. Like any 8-year-old with an overactive imagination, Kat was scared of virtually everything but the greatest among them being alone at home at night.

“I’m not gonna be scared,” she said aloud, squeezing Rosie tight in her arms. “I’m going to make dinner for Kit and myself and then we’re going to have ice cream and watch a movie.”

A satisfied smile shot across her face as she visualized a night free from adult supervision—mac and cheese, tons of sugar, and all the movies they could watch. The fear was still there but it had been relegated to the back seat, fun was driving this bus.

As Kat set herself to the task of making dinner and planning out the fun evening she and her little sister were going to have, she couldn’t shake the suspicious feeling she’d carried away from her conversation with Mr. Madhorn. What was going on and was it something that she needed to take care of?

SCENE #2

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) awake on the family room floor, static on the television to find themselves still home alone.

Kat awoke in a sweat. The sun was beating through the plate-glass window and top it off, she was groggy from staying up too late the night before. As her head cleared she looked around. The television was on, the sizzle of static filling the air. She and Kit had fallen asleep on the family room floor some time around midnight she figured.

Now as she surveyed the room she couldn’t avoid the mess. The coffee table had been pushed out of the way, the floor littered with blankets and pillows. Empty ice cream bowls, candy wrappers, and drinking glasses were everywhere.

Her sister Kit had changed position during the night, one foot now laying across Kat’s stomach, the other uncomfortably close to her face.  She sat up and flipped Kit’s leg off her, shut off the television and rubbed her eyes.

Then she remembered the call from Mr. Madhorn.

Were her parents home? Did they end up working all night? What was happening?

She walked purposefully out of the family room.

“Mom!? Dad!?” she yelled up the stairs.

She was greeted by the silence of an empty house, only broken by the ticking of the clock on the kitchen wall. She looked around the living room for signs that her parents had been there, maybe left a note.

Nothing.

She sat down on the couch, noticed all the cat hair. She wanted to cry—was about to—when her sister started crying.

Kit was a sound sleeper, but more often than not, she woke up crying, crabby, and generally disagreeable. Kat rushed to her side, noticed that she was still not what one would call awake but instead, in this semi-conscious waking state that she went through. Kat sat down by her head and began to gently brush Kit’s hair away from her face with her hand.

“It’s gonna be all right,” she cooed to her sister; but in a way she knew she was saying it for her benefit as much as her little sister’s. Kit’s waking terror empowered Kat, pushed away the feelings of fear and sadness that she had had just moments before. Something had to be done. It was time to take action.

“Kit…wake up,” she said softly to her sister, “we’ve got to go find mom and dad.”

SCENE #3

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) make their way to the secret clubhouse.

“What’s wrong Kat?” Kit said to her sister as they made their way around the back of the house.

They were still dressed in their pajamas, no shoes or socks and the cold, wet grass felt uncomfortable under their feet.

“Mom and dad didn’t come home from work last night,” Kat said with as little emotion as possible. She didn’t want to scare her sister and cause her to act like a blubbering, overly dependant 3-year-old.

“The clubhouse?” Kit asked, eyes alight with excitement.

“Yep,” Kat nodded, “we’ve got to find them…and find out what’s going on at work.”

SCENE #4

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) inside the secret clubhouse.

Kat opened the door to the clubhouse with a creak. It had been a couple of months since the last time they had been inside and as she went through the door, she was greeted by a cobweb across the face.

“Aauuueeee, I hate spiders!” she exclaimed brushing aside the web as her little sister followed her cautiously inside.

Kat and Kit’s father had built the clubhouse a few years back with the impression that the girls would have a place to hang out and do girly things when they had friends over and didn’t want to play in the house.

For all intents and purposes, the clubhouse was essentially a tree house—crude wooden frame, plywood walls, ceiling, and floor—only without the tree. But it was what happened inside that made this clubhouse unlike any other clubhouse in the world.

“Close the door Kit,” Kat said, a little more edge in her voice than she would have liked. “Sorry, please close the door?”

Kit did as her sister asked, a smile running from ear to ear. Light was streaming in through spaces in the boards illuminating the small square room. Hung on the walls were posters of Hannah Montana, Demi/Mitchie, Ashley Tisdale, and Dora…that one Kit’s contribution to the décor. There was a crude table shoved up in the corner, covered with crayons, coloring books, and a month of inactivity. Kat walked to the rear of the clubhouse, pushed aside the table, crayons rolling on to the floor, and pulled up two floorboards. She brought out a metal case the size of a child’s suitcase, set it on the floor between Kit and herself, and opened it up.

SCENE #5

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron take on a new identity.

The latches snapped open on the case with a crisp Kathunk. Kat lifted the lid as Kit moved over to peer inside. A bright light shot out of the case, bathing the clubhouse in a greenish glow that pulsated through the cracks in the boards.

The light filled the room and as it did, small strings of illuminated dust slowly encircled the two small girls, slowly revolving around them, floating over their feet, legs, upper bodies, and heads. The rotating strings of light began to pick up speed, moving faster, becoming more agitated as the seconds passed. The glowing light began to expand and then as if it had never been, it exploded up in to the clubhouse space and vanished.

Kat opened her eyes and looked at her sister. What she saw always made her giggle.

For Kit was no longer Kit but the most fearsome 3-year-old superhero anyone had ever laid eyes on. She was naked from top to bottom with the exception of a clean, white cloth diaper that was pinned at the waist. In her mouth was a pacifier, that she was vigorously sucking on. In her hand was a ordinary plastic bottle of baby powder, a string running from the cap and wrapping around her wrist. Other than the outfit, nothing about her little sister had changed, but the sight of her little sister standing there in only a diaper was just plain funny.

“Hah, hah, hah,” Kat giggled, trying to suppress her desire to double over and really let loose.

“Not funny,” Kit said, a stern look coming over her normally cheerful face, which  slowly gave way to a pout that progressed in to tears…then the crying started and Kat’s laughter immediately stopped.

The high-pitched wail of Kit, a.k.a. Baby Powder grew in strength, the walls started to shake and the ceiling began to swell and contract at the sound.

Kat began to feel the intensity of the wail building in her head, the pitch of the cry sending shockwaves across the room.

“Kit!” she yelled over the steadily growing drone of the cry, “Kit! I’m sorry…” and at that, the crying immediately ceased.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated to her little sister, “but when you become Baby Powder…well, it’s just…we need to get you a new outfit.” Kat turned away for a moment, hiding the small smile and escaping giggles that had quietly resurfaced. She failed to notice the satisfied smile on her little sister’s face.

“Anyway,” she said turning back to her sister, “how do I look?”

To Kit, everything Kat said, did, or wore, was exactly what Kit wanted to be saying, doing, or wearing. She looked up at her big sister with a mixture of love and admiration.

“I want what you’re wearing.” Kit said.

“Soon enough little sis. But then again, if you’re wearing my stuff, what am I going to wear? After all, there can only be one Pocket Pants.”

Just as Kit had been transformed through the power of the case, so had Kat.

Her look was a cross between army commando and stylish little girl. Most notable were her pants, a pair of green cargos with more pockets than one could imagine. Several of the pockets projected out with the slight bulge of something contained within.

Her long hair, normally a shiny blonde had turned a vibrant shade of orange, a sunburst of color free flowing around her head.  She was wearing a tight pink spaghetti strap top with an attached pink long-sleeve slip-on, and a pair of black, rhinostone encrusted boat shoes.

“Well, you ready to go?” she said, hands doing a quick inventory through the multitude of pockets.

Baby Powder nodded a yes, her normally innocent appearance now overrun by one of fierce determination.

“Well, let’s get going then.”

With that they stepped in to the open suitcase.

“Star Enterprises, please,” Kat said, and as she did, the bright light returned, shooting up out of the case, swirling around the girls.

Then the bottom fell out.

SCENE #6

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) journey through the tube

Kat felt the weightless sensation, her stomach shooting up to her throat, and then she could feel the circular wall on her back.

The girls called it the slide because, quite frankly, they didn’t have a better, more scientific name for it. Whatever it was; a wormhole; a portal; it literally took them wherever they asked. At first, they had been in fear of it, uncovering this wonderful slide out of sheer accident. But the more they had used it to travel from place to place, the more they enjoyed the thrill of sliding through black tunnels to a destination of their choosing, no matter how near or how far.

Kat was moving through a spiral, gravity and speed holding her body to the outside wall. She could hear her sister somewhere behind her shrieking with delight. She could almost see her sister Kit, otherwise known as Baby Powder, flying through the slidee, dressed only in a diaper. The thought brought a bright smile to her face.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the ride was over.

SCENE #7

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) arrive at Star Enterprises.

Kat and Kit appeared as if out of thin air in to a dimly lit parking garage. As many times as they had ridden in the tube, their arrival was never a smooth one. Kat came out first, her momentum pushing her forward. But for once she was able to hold her ground. That was until Kit came shooting out. She slammed in to Kat sending them both tumbling across the concrete, the two girls ending up in a heap on the floor.

The case, as always, came out behind them and skipped across the concrete floor, the slide vanishing in to thin air.

The girls got up cautiously, brushed themselves off, a smear of floor gunk covering the entire backside of Kits diaper. For a moment they scanned their surrounding, bodies tensed, ready to dart at the first sign of movement. It took a second for their eyes to adjust to the mirky darkness.

They stood in the shadow of a concrete support beam at the far end of the garage. A long row of cars stretched out in front of them running away to an elevator door at the far end of the garage.

Kat grabbed Kit by the arm, moving swiftly from car to car looking for the case. The two girls searched under each vehicle they passed until finally Kat saw it under a silver SUV.

“This is dad’s car,” she said to her little sister who returned the comment with a suck of the paci. The case had wedged itself about dead center under the exhaust system. As hard as she tried, Kat couldn’t reach it without having to get down on her stomach and slide under the vehicle.

“You have to be really quiet now Kit,” Kat breathed as she took her sister by the arm and gently guided her in to the shadowy darkness at the front of the car. “I’ve got to get that case or we’ll have to take the long way home.”

Kit safely hidden for the moment, Kat got down on her belly. Immediately she was disgusted at the amount of grease and grim collecting on her new pink top. “Ahhhh, my outfit is going to be ruined,” she whispered aloud.

She reached out for the case and grasped the handle. It wouldn’t budge. Reaching around to the front pocket of her pants, she felt around for something to help get the case unstuck and pulled out a bottle of liquid hand sanitizer.

“I was looking for my air jack but this outta do,” she commented.

Still on her stomach, she placed her hands over her head and squeezed the bottle, hand sanitizer squirting wildly over the case. She closed the lid and slipped the bottle back in to her pocket then gave the case another tug. It came free begrudgingly and Kat shimmed out from under the car. The case she tucked away in her left leg lower pocket.

“Remind me where I put that later okay Kit?” Kat said, wiping some grime from her cheek. Kit just nodded her head and sucked on her pacifier.

They made their way down the corridor, hiding in the shadows, using the tight spaces between the cars and the near-side wall as cover. They cleared the 25 yards to the elevators in just over a minute.

Kat left Kit hidden by the final car in the line and made a dash for the elevator. She hit the up button and heard the gentle whir of the motor as the elevator made it’s way down. That’s when she saw the headlights of a car flash across the wall; a car was pulling in to the garage. She froze with panic and that’s when she felt a small tug at her sleeve. She looked down to find Kit standing next to her holding the bottle of baby powder.

“Great thinking Kit,” Kat said, and with that Kit gave the bottle a squeeze, engulfing the two in a cloak of white mist.

As the driver of the vehicle pulled around the corner, they couldn’t help noticing the elevator door standing open at the end of the corridor and the fine white cloud that seemed to float inside it just before the doors closed.

SCENE #8

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) take the elevator

Kat stepped forward and stuck her head out of the cloud of baby powder that surrounded her and her sister, trying to locate the button for the eighth floor. She pushed it and nothing happened. She tried again. The elevator sat motionless.

“I don’t get it. All mom ever does it push the button and the thing goes right up to her office,” Kat mused panic starting to pervade her thoughts.

Then she remembered…her mom also had a card which, somehow, must activate the elevator so it would move. The could of baby powder was slowly disintegrating and he could visualize the person getting out of their car and heading towards the elevator. They would be trapped. She had to act.

She reached in a pocket and pulled out a harness which she quickly strapped around her waist. Then she connected the harness around her sister’s waist. She reached back in and withdrew two shoe-shaped metal plates which she threw on the floor. She stepped on them and began to rock back and forth. As she did, the plates began to raise her and her sister up towards the ceiling of the elevator. As she got closer, she removed the cover panel and hitched her body up on to the top of the elevator pulling her baby sister up with her. With time running short, she hit a button on the shoe lifts and then silently sucked back up in to their previous shape. Not a moment to soon because right then the elevator door opened with a ding.

The hatch was still open and Kat worried that whoever was down below would look up and discover them. She wanted to look over the edge and see who was down below in the worst way but didn’t want to make any noise and give themselves away. Curiosity won out.

Kat slowly shifted her weight, careful not to make a sound. She looked through the hole in the ceiling and saw the top of a wide-brim hat staring back up at her. She didn’t recognize it and furthermore the hat obstructed her ability to take in any of the features of the person wearing it. They were humming. It was a tune she had never heard but the melody made her uneasy…like it was evil.

The elevator stopped and the hat stepped out on to the floor. Kat looked over and notice the button was lit on 8. Then the elevator doors closed and it started to go back down. Still attached to her sister, Kat reached in to a pocket and pulled out a device which she clamped on to the elevator cable. She locked it down and the elevator began to slowly disappear in to the shaft.

Kat held on tightly to the device, Kit hanging from the harness below her. She flipped a switch and the a wheels turned inside the clamp drawing them up towards the closed metal doors on the inside of the elevator. She stopped above the door and swung her sister towards the concrete lip in a pendulum motion. When Kit got close enough she grabbed for the shelf and settled herself on it, the strain letting up on Kat as she held on to the cable clamp. She took one hand off the device, reached in to a pocket and pulled out a pry bar which she threw to her sister.

Kit looked at the bar with bewilderment.

“You have to wedge it between the metal panels at the door seam Kit. Then pull the bar back and the door should open.”

Kat’s arms were tiring and Kit continued to stare at the bar. Then slowly, she turned it and jammed it between the two metal panes and the door gave way.

SCENE #9

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) on the 8thfloor.

Floor 8 was dark, the opposite wall office windows giving the girls a glimpse inside empty offices only lit by computer monitors and desk lamps.

Come on Kit, mom’s office is this way. The turned right down the corridor until they reached the last office. As Kat had assumed, their mom was not in her office. But her car was still here, which means she hadn’t left.

Kat tried the knob, “Locked,” she said with annoyance.

She stood staring in to the darkened office, the only sound was that of her little sister sucking on her pasi and the occasional hum of the office air. Her mind churned on a solution to their problem. She stood like that for some time, then turned to her sister, a maniacal look in her eyes.

“Kit, come here,” she said lifting her baby sis off the berber carpet. She held Kit up, positioning her face towards the glass door. “Kit, I’m going to do something that’s going to hurt and I want you to know that I’m sorry. But right now I need you to cry.”

With that she pinched her baby sister on the leg below her diaper…hard! The cry started from somewhere deep within, travelling rapidly from Kit’s lungs and bursting forth from her mouth with tremendous force. The door pane was blown out instantaneously and Kat quickly put her hand over her sister’s mouth to stifle the cry.

“Kit, we can’t let them hear us,” she said, not really sure who they were if there really was a they to begin with. “Now, I need to put you down but you have to stop crying…please.”

Like turning off a faucet, Kit’s wail abruptly ended and when Kat looked at her, she could see the understanding in her little sisters eyes.

Kat smiled at her sister then reached through the blown out glass and turned the knob. The door opened, bottom sliding along the glass strewn carpet.

“Walk careful Kit, there’s glass all over and I don’t want to have to hide you away. You’ve been really helpful so far,” kind words helping to put a smile on her sisters face, her paci now hanging off the cord that ran around her neck. “Let’s just look around and see if we can find something that will help us.”

Kit immediately wandered over to the corner cabinet where her mom kept the toys and began pulling them out. Whether she was Baby Powder or not Kit could still destroy a room in a matter of seconds and she now applied that skill to her mom’s office with natural fury. Kat thought about stopping her but then figured that this might go smoother if Kit was occupied so she left her to do her worst while Kat headed to the desk and the computer which sat on top.

Kat was like any 8-year-old these days and she knew how to work her way around a computer. She began looking for anything that would give her a clue to the wherabouts of her parents, going first through her mom’s e-mail, then her internet history. She stopped when she found her mom’s day planner. The last thing on her schedule was a mandatory staff meeting at four on the previous day. The location said, “????”.

“Hmmmmm, I wonder where The Lobby is,” she said to herself. “Maybe I can find some kind of building schematic, or at least a conference room layout.”

She went on to the internet and typed in the company name. It only took her a couple seconds to find the floor plan for the offices. She sent the file to the printer, figuring it might come in handy.

As she waited for the print out, she looked over the conference room names. “Let’s see, (Meatball, The Depot, Fitness…here it is, The Lobby”. The meeting room was located in sublevel 2, one floor below the parking garage.

“Okay Kit,” she said turning to her sister who was engrossed in her mess making, game pieces, puzzles, and card awash all over the floor. “Man you can make a mess,” she said her little sister looking quite satisfied, “but we have to go.”

Kit scowled, then got up, kicked a Barbie across the room and followed her big sister gingerly out of the office.

“Kit,” Kat said looking at the wide open elevator shaft, “I think we’ll take the stairs this time.”

SCENE #10

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) take the stairs.

The girls made their way quietly down the darkened hall to the stairwell door. It took all the strength they could muster just to get the door open far enough for them both to squeak through before it banged closed.

They started their descent down, Kat taking Kit’s hand to steady her. They had just passed the 7th floor landing when they heard the sound of barking dogs echoing off the concrete walls.

“Kit, those are dogs,” she said, half dragging her little sister back up to the 7th floor landing, “we’ve got to get out of this stairwell.”

She tried the knob, pulling and twisting it to no avail.

“Oh Kat,…I love doggies,” Kit said in a sweet voice, an innocent smile on her face.

“Not these doggies Kit. These doggies bite,” Kat replied.

The dogs had closed the gap, 2 floors below at the most Kat figured. “We’ve got to do something,” she said, panic gripping her as she tried to figure out how they would survive this jam.

Kat pulled her sister close and whispered something in her ear. Then she reached in to one of her pants pockets and pulled out a gas mask.

The dogs were getting close, she could hear their snarling only a floor below, their claws chinking on the concrete steps. 

Kat slipped the gas mask on, quickly grabbed her little sister and held her up in front of her, Kit’s backside pointed down the stairs.

As the dogs rounded the stairwell Kat yelled out through her mask, “Now Kit, Now!!!”, and with that, Kit farted. It was powerful enough to reverberate through the stairwell, but the real strength of Kit’s flatulence was in its smell. For, as the dogs reached the contaminated zone, they stopped…sniffed…whimpered…and then, one by one, they fell to the ground—knocked out by the noxious odor.

Kat wrapped her sister in her arms and, as nimbly as she could, wound her way down the stairs, stepping over and around the three rottweilers that lay comatose on the steps.

Once clear of the gas cloud, Kat momentarily set her sister down, took off the mask, which by this time had filled with condensation from carrying her sister down the steps, and put it away in her pocket.

“Nice work Kit...” Kat said, awed by her sister’s natural talent. While Kit had the ability to cry with sonic intensity and fart at a moments notice, neither seemed to have any effect on her. As far as Kit knew, she was just like any other 3-year-old…only she got to do fun stuff.

The girls finished their trek down the stairs, arriving at sublevel 2, winded but otherwise fine. Kat, hearing the soft sound of dogs stirring far above them, turned the door handle. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked. 

SCENE #11

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) explore Madhorn’s office.

The girls walked out in to a sparsely lit, unfurnished rotunda. There were two doors with large plaques on them directly across the floor. The door to the right read, The Lobby, the one on the left read, Mr. Madhorn.

Kat left Kit standing by the stairwell door and ran over to The Lobby, putting her ear to the wood. Hearing nothing, she crept back over to her sister, unaware of the camera that followed her every move.

Kat knelt down next to her sister. “Okay Kit,” she said, “that’s the room that mom’s meeting was in but there’s no one in there. The other room is Mr. Madhorn’s office. I think we should look through his office first,…see if we can find anything. Then we can go look in The Lobby.

Kit nodded, not really following much of what her sister said but grateful for the attention. They slowly made their way around the rotunda, staying close to the walls with little or no place to hide their movements.

Kat checked the door. Locked. She looked around but there was no glass, so Kit’s crying would be useless. She began digging through the pockets of her pants, searching for anything that might get the door open. She hand closed on a familiar object and she pulled it out.

“This mini-saw ought to do the trick,” she said, a smile of satisfaction on her lips. “Stand back Kit, this could get messy.”

She turned the saw on, the circular blade cutting through the pine door with surprising ease. She cut around the door handle, slipped the saw back in to her pants pocket and gave the sawed out lock a hard kick. Two or three kicks later, the handle fell out, clanking to the floor inside the office.

Kat opened the door. It was pitch black inside, a little light spilling in from the rotunda.

“Okay Kit, do that thing you do,” Kat said to her little sister, that thing a reference to Kit’s ability to take a place apart in a matter of seconds, “I’m going to check the computer.”

Kat sat down in the big leather chair and began searching the computer. Almost immediately, her sister was at her side tugging on her sleeve.

“What is it Kit,” Kat said with annoyance. She turned her head and immediately understood why Kit was being so insistent.

Kit was holding their mom’s purse and their dad’s small brown wallet. As Kat peered past her sister, she noticed there was more bags, purses, and wallets piled high in the corner.

“Kit, that’s really strange…nice work,” she said fluffing her little sister’s hair. “If this means anything, mom and dad might not be the only ones in danger. Come on, we’ve got to find them.”

She slid out of the leather chair. But as she worked her way around the side of the desk, the phone rang. Kat wasn’t thinking, her penchant for answering the phone overpowering the voice inside her head telling her not to.

“H-h-h-hello?” she said, holding the receiver slightly away from her head as if someone or something could come through it any second.

“Kat…you brat,” the voice was familiar, “this is Mr. Madhorn…what are you doing in my office.”

The tone in his voice sent chills down her spine and she let the phone drop.

“Come on Kit, we have to get out of here,” she said, grabbing her sister by the arm and moving towards the door. “But first, we have to check the other room.”

SCENE #12

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) in The Lobby.

Her conversation with Mr. Madhorn had shaken Kat to the bone. Sister in tow, she took little care making her way out of his office and back across the rotunda to The Lobby doors.

She reached for the door handle and was surprised to find the room unlocked. She ushered her sister in to the conference room and closed the door behind them.

The lights were dimmed, but she could tell immediately that the room was empty. A large conference table ran down the center, papers scattered willy-nilly across the top of it, chairs pushed in neatly around the table.

As the girls surveyed the room, one thing caught Kat’s eye. Shoes. Underneath each of the chairs was a pair of either men’s or women’s shoes, untied, as if the owner had taken them off and left them neatly beneath their seat.

Kat didn’t have time to think on it for long though. Through the closed door, she heard the ding of the elevator and the sound of rushing feet, the light from the rotunda fluctuating through the space between the door and the floor. Someone had come but she didn’t for one moment hope that they were here to help.

Kit was crawling around under the table, knocking over shoes and pushing out the swivel-back chairs…playing. Kat quickly looked about the room for a place to hide but the furnishings were sparse. She noticed a vent near the ceiling on the opposite side of the room and ran over to it.

“Kit, push one of those chairs over here will you?” Kat said in a hushed voice.

She dove her hand in to the right top pocket of her pants and found an electro-magnetic screwdriver. She turned to see what was taking her sister and a chair came rocketing from the table straight at her, a glimpse past it revealing her little sister, who was having a ball.

She gave Kit a disgusted look, spun the chair around facing the wall, and gingerly put her feet on it until she was face to face with the air vent. She worked the screwdriver like a pro; small, nimble fingers making short work of the screws that fixed it to the wall. The last screw avoided her grasp and fell to the floor. “No matter,” she thought, “I won’t be able to screw them back in anyway.”

Kat called Kit over and helped boost her up in to the shaft. Kit didn’t go without protest but one look at Kat told her all she needed to know about the seriousness of the situation. Sister stowed away, Kat launched herself in to the vent, pushing the chair back towards the table as she did. Being as efficient as possible, Kat grabbed the vent cover, slipped it out of the shaft, and pulled it tight over the vent opening.

SCENE #13

Pocket Pants (AKA: Kat Kameron) and Baby Powder (AKA: Kit Kameron) travel through the vents.

She had barely withdrawn her fingers from the vent cover when the outer door burst open. In walked the man with the hat, followed by two very large, very mean looking sidekicks. Because the room was so dimly lit, she couldn’t tell if the man in the hat was Mr. Madhorn, as she suspected. Neither was she about to stick around for closer inspection.

The shaft was tight, but big enough. Kit was actually able to crawl through the vent, Kat sliding along on her belly, using suction gloves to pull her body along through the smooth, square tin pipes. When they had gone about 50 years, Kat reached out and grabbed her sister’s ankle.

“No tooting Kit,” she said, trying to make a joke. “Let’s stop for a minute, my arms are tired.”

Kit shrugged her shoulders and sat on her butt, the shaft not quite large enough to allow her to sit straight up. The shaft led straight ahead but Kat could make out a spot ahead where it split off to the right.

“Kit, let’s go up a little farther and we’ll cut in to that shaft up ahead,…just in case.” Just in case those goons decide to take a peek in the vent was what she was thinking, but didn’t say.

They moved slowly to where the shaft split off and slipped around the corner out of sight. Kat looked past her sister down the vent pipe. There was light streaming in through the slits about 200 yards straight ahead.

As they sat in the semi-darkness resting, Kat turned her attention on the opening and the room that would undoubtedly sit beyond it. Not hearing anything, she reached in a pocket and pulled out an ordinary sheet of paper, rolled it in to a funnel and shoved the skinny end in to her ear. Focusing the wide opening towards the vent, she could hear the unmistakable sounds of whirring machinery.

“Kit,” Kat whispered in her sisters ear, “we’re going to head for that light down there.” In the faint light, she could see her little sister’s head nodding in approval. “I need to slip by you so I can lead the way though okay?” she said, her body swaying too fast, the girls knocking heads in the dark.

Kit started to whimper. Kat knew it was getting close to her little sister’s nap time. Add to that the fact that the girls hadn’t eaten any breakfast and one could almost touch the anger welling up inside her sister.

“Kit, you’ve got to be strong now,” Kat said, putting an arm around her little sister’s bare shoulders, a con. “Mom and dad are somewhere in this building, maybe down at the end of this very tunnel…and they’re in trouble…I just know it.”

Kat’s speech seemed to have an effect on her sister. Kit’s agreeable demeanor, which had been slowly deteriorating seemed to toughen, her resolve to find her parents giving her renewed strength and determination.

“Kat…I’m scared,” Kit said to her sister without a hint of fear in her expression.

“Me too Kit, but you know who isn’t?”

“Who?” Kit asked.

“Pocket Pants isn’t,” Kat said, pointing at herself in the dark.

“Baby Powder’s not scared then,” Kit said, “but I’m hungry.”

Kat dug through her pockets and pulled out a granola bar. “Sorry Kit, this is all I have, but it’s got chocolate chips.”

Kit took the granola bar, unwrapped it, and shoveled half of it in her mouth. She was about to do the same with the remainder but stopped herself, holding the rest of the granola bar to her sister.

“Here Kat, this is for you,” Kit said with an appreciative smile.

Kat took the bar, flattened her body against the side wall of the vent shaft, and slipped past her sister. She stopped only long enough to stuff the granola bar in to her mouth, then she began pulling herself towards the end of the shaft.