MOUSE OF COMMONS. MOUSE OF LORDS.: PART 2 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

PART 2 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...

GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
- PART 2

Welcome to the 2nd part of our new internet-exclusive, 15 part, mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, once again set in Spain, which is a sequel to GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL and GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA. Although the story refers back to some elements from the previous two stories it can be read on its own and below is a brief summary of the events of the two stories so far. The three stories will be published, along with other stories from this site in a collection called POSTCARDS FROM MCWHISKERS, due in Spring/Summer 2009.

The story so far…

During a visit to Barcelona; Gladstone, Oliver and Charlie meet a cat waiter called Claud and embark on a pie-crawl around the city. During their adventures they stumble on secret goings-on under a pie factory and discover a map that leads them to The Lost City Of Bearcelona - which just happens to be somewhere on the island of Majorca. The only person who can understand the map is Charlie's father Augustus; who is imprisoned inside a cocoon where he can't cause any further trouble. He isn't dead - and yet he isn't really alive in any proper sense; although he is able to communicate with Charlie psychically and during their visit to Barcelona he escapes and Charlie and he fall through a portal that may or may not lead to the lost city… The portal closes behind them and there is no sign of them for months. This new story takes place almost a year later and nothing has been heard from either Charlie or Augustus...

So far this adventure: Oliver Louse and Laura Dust-mite had trailed Gladstone McWhiskers to Barcelona, in disguise - uncertain of why the mouse has travelled over there so secretly. Just as Laura is getting fed up of all their spy work and is feeling hungry and in need of a shopping trip - Ollie raises to his feet and strides from their café to the restaurant where Gladstone and Claud are making plans - what exactly is Oliver going to do next??

Barcelona. Early Autumn.

"Whatever is he up to now!?" Laura sighed to herself for, at least, the third time in as many minutes; her stomach was beginning to rumble as she watched Ollie storm off across La Rambla towards the restaurant where Gladstone could be clearly seen in deep conversation with Claud. "Surely he can't be about to turn himself in?" she reasoned although, of course, if Gladstone had looked out of the window all he would have seen would have been an apparently rather ancient-looking woodlouse with a large Santa Claus-style beard heading across the road looking extremely serious.

Sure enough, although she had been concerned that he would, Ollie didn't give himself away, but instead he carefully left his walking stick outside the window of the restaurant; just beneath the window where Gladstone and Claud were sitting. Once he had done so he withdrew back to the paved La Rambla promenade, although he didn't return to their table at the café, but sat sat on a bench only a few feet from the restaurant and quickly put in a small pair of headphones, as if listening to the radio or some such - although he was presumably doing something far more sneaky.

Was it possible that Ollie was now able to listen in to their conversation!?

For a moment all these questions and general thinky-ness made Laura even more confused, at least until her eye was distracted by the sight of Ollie's note-pad, which he'd accidentally left abandoned there, right in front of her, on their table. Having checked that Oliver couldn't see what she was up to (which he wasn't), she didn't pause a moment longer and simply snatched up the pad and peeked right inside.

It took her a moment or two to work out exactly what she was reading; but then she realised she was trying to look at it upside down. When she began to read what was written there before her she was really quite taken aback: THE SECRET DIARY OF OLIVER LOUSE - was the intriguing title - but although there wasn't much yet written in the diary there were still a lot of notes that Ollie had made - which seemed to be quite revealing as far as what he appeared to be planning to write.

"Write back to Growlly Growlerson. Offer a sample page or two of the diary, but demand the amount offered so-far is tripled…" he had also added. "After all - I am not a charity!!"

"Oh my goodness…" whispered Laura, for she simply couldn't believe what she was reading; Growlly Growlerson was a notorious, big time tabloid journalist and Ollie appeared to be contemplating selling his life story and private thoughts on working with Gladstone McWhiskers to this disreputable bear…

Meanwhile, across on his bench Oliver's plan wasn't going quite as smoothly as he'd hoped it would. The walking stick that he'd left by the window of the restaurant was an invention of their friend, the inventor Professor Gibraltar Smith and it contained a high-powered listening device which theoretically should have picked up anything that Gladstone and Claud were saying; even from outside the restaurant and through the glass. But to start with Gladstone seemed to be writing something down, which Claud was nodding at with interest - but this was obviously something which wouldn't be picked by a microphone. When they eventually did start to speak it was general chatter about how yummy their newly arrived desserts were;

"Oh, Gladstone - this gateau really is amazing… You should try some!"

"I will, Claud - thank you so much - do try a piece of my apple pie - the pastry just melt in your mouth - have some cream with it too…"

This only ended up frustrating Oliver all the more, as well as making him extremely hungry again and after they had finished eating the only other conversation seemed to be some quibble over whether or not they would have coffee ("I shouldn't - I've had too many today, but I can't resist…") and then who would pay the bill. ("It's my turn!", "Let's just split it, Gladstone…", "No… It's my treat…", "Please now - let me contribute something…") It was hardly the top secret chinwag that Oliver had been hoping for. The only piece of information that he was able to retrieve was that Gladstone and Claud were not going to be returning to Charlie's offices - but intended to travel out somewhere, to some countryside location of relevance to Gladstone's visit.

As they made to leave, Oliver quickly collected his walking stick and hurried back to the café where he'd left Laura, his coat and notepad - only to suddenly realise that one of these items was missing…

There was no sign of Laura!!

As it happened, at that very moment, Laura was practically hypnotised - not so very far away and watching with hungry intent at the serving hatch of a small creperie two doors up from the café. She had always thought that such pancakes were more of a french delicacy; but being as they were quite close to the french border and in the Catalan area of Spain it appeared that such things were also a local food custom in Barcelona. The whole region was known for it's merging of french and spanish customs and anyway eating crepes in Spain was hardly something that Laura felt strongly about in a negative way for she loved crepes; she always had them when she was in Paris. She had once eaten six. Now, for a bear like Charlie Grrr that would be nothing - but for a dust-mite six crepes was a pretty big deal and she had moved up a whole dress-size as a result which had taken months to shift.

At one stage Laura had intended on crossing the road to tell Ollie off about his plans to associate with Growlly Growlerson, but the wafting smell of the crepes had quite distracted her; banana and chocolate, cheese and mushroom, orange and chocolate, spinach, pine nuts and cheese - such wonderful aromas… It may have been the enchanting allure of the food or a rush of air as a lorry passed by alongside La Rambla, but all of a sudden Laura suddenly felt light-headed and lost her balance…

Without even having a chance to cry out, Laura tipped forward - plummetting down towards the steaming hob on which the crepes were being made…

All of a sudden Laura had rapidly lost her appetite!!

Next episode, Laura's fate, quite literally, hangs in the balance. Will Oliver learn any more about what is going on? Will he be able to keep trailing them as they head out into the countryside? Up in the mountains outside Barcelona the answer as to what has happened to Charlie Grrr may just be about to be answered...

GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION WILL (HOPEFULLY) BE POSTED THRICE-WEEKLY: ON MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY - UNLESS STATED ELSEWHERE…
SO TUNE IN AGAIN, ON FRIDAY FOR PART 3 OF THIS ADVENTURE!!

This installment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION was originally written in Girona, Spain between Sunday 12th and Monday 13th October 2008.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...

We remain in Barcelona for the second installment of our new adventure - as you can see it was a little wet and bleak in Barcelona, during my three days there from Friday 17th - Sunday 19th October. I have also included some photos of me eating crepes; which were taken on Sunday 12th October in Girona - and influenced the cliffhanger that you have just read. In our next post we will say goodbye to Barcelona and embark on a bit of a road trip - seeing some sights along the way as we head out to the Spanish countryside towards the mysterious city of Alquézar to find out exactly what has happened to Charlie and Augustus Grrr.