MOUSE OF COMMONS. MOUSE OF LORDS.: PART 4 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...

Monday, October 27, 2008

PART 4 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...

GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
- PART 4

Welcome to the 4th 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 have trailed Gladstone McWhiskers to Barcelona, in disguise - uncertain of why the mouse has travelled there so secretly. Whilst Oliver spies in on Gladstone and Claud using a listening device in a walking stick, Laura takes a peek at some notes written by Oliver that suggest that he may be about to sell his story to the newspapers. Laura survives nearly getting cooked on a crepe hob, whilst Gladstone and Claud head up into the mountains near Alquézar where ghostly sightings of Charlie have been seen - Claud expects another appearance that very night...

Alquézar, Spain. Early Autumn.

Meanwhile - in another dimension somewhere…

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere - Charlie Grrr was well and truly lost and he knew for certain who was behind it all too; well - at least - he chose to believe he did…

"Father…" growled tiredly. "This is all your doing…"

That said, perhaps things could have been worse - his father, Augustus might well be somewhere pulling the strings; but in some ways his was better than actually having to spend time with the bear…

It had all begun, of course, during their search for the lost city of Bearcelona; the map of which had been unearthed under a disused pie factory in Barcelona - the map had led them to modern day Majorca; but only the comatosed Augustus Grrr had been able to guide them to the portal that had led to the lost city - communicating via telepathy. There was even some worry that the portal didn't lead to the true city; but this concern seemed to have been abated by the fact that there was a large sign in the community square which read BEARCELONA (also known as THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA…) It could have been a fake - but it was just too confusing to consider. One thing that was for sure, however, was that it wasn't as grand as it had been advertised; but then this is often the case with such important holy grails. Charlie remembered that Professor Smith had once found the sunken isle of Atlantis at the bottom of his garden fish pond and it had been such a terrible disappointment; full of modern sky-scrapers and grafitti and horrible boarded up corner-shops. The problem on this occasion was firstly that there seemed to be very little to do there, now they had arrived - but more importantly that it seemed far smaller than either he or Augustus had expected. The map that Charlie had found had been exaggerated, to say the least making each small street and square appear to stretch on forever…

To be honest The Lost City of Bearcelona was more of a village than a city…

Time seemed to stretch on and on and there seemed to obvious way to get away from the city - but more about this at some other date…

To begin with Augustus and Charlie had feuded and argued - especially when the reality had dawned on them that they were stuck there.

"Stuck in this armpit of a place…" Augustus had growled furiously and, thought Charlie, rather unfairly - for the village was actually very beautiful and the views of the mountains were stunning; it just wasn't quite what they had imagined.

It wasn't helped that Charlie began to resent Augustus for not knowing that the place was rather less than impressive and also that Augustus resented Charlie; well - for pretty much everything - including a lot of what had happened to him whilst he'd been still comatosed and imprisoned whilst they'd been trapped in Majorca.

"You'd have seen me die, boy…" he'd growled to which Charlie had simply scoffed.

"Well, you deserved it - after all you did to me - to my friends and to the innocent inhabitants of London - not to mention all the stress you put mother under…"

The rivalries and resentments were far too much for the two bears to ever make amends and to be fair it was Augustus who had done the majority of all the band things, anyway…

It was simply an impossible situation to resolve; especially without anyone else around to mediate; for not only was "The Lost City" small and unimpressive, it was also completely deserted…

In the end they had taken their separate sides of the village and attempted to avoid one another… It was a peculiar plight; seeing as they were they only folk around (well, except for one particular instance, which I will return to later…) The irony was that although they were alone they wanted for nothing; from the pick of the houses to a whole range of regularly replenishing foods and drinks that simply appeared in the village square twice a week. They took their share and didn't attempt to steal too much; dividing it equally, which was unusually reasonable of them both. Still, this didn't stop the resentments from growing and in time Charlie began to resent his father for causing them to be trapped in the "Lost City"; for he was a creative bear and although there were pens and paper; a small theatre, an old cine-camera, a basic printers and all sorts of other objects useful for his craft; there was still one very important thing missing…

An audience...

There was no point being creative if there was no-one to adore him; for Charlie this was the only reason to continue with his writing and performing - because adoration brought with it the other favourite thing in Charlie's life…
Pies…

"It's all your fault, father!!" he bellowed again out across the valley, as he stood on the balcony of his lonely, yet luxury villa and stared over at the abandoned monastry on the hill on the other side of the community. "You have killed the thing that I loved most - well, other than pies - you have dimmed the limelight - stolen the attention that was my lifeblood…" he continued melodramatically. "You! Father… You did this to me…"

Sometimes it seemed to him that Augustus was teasing him deliberately - for he didn't seem at all bothered that their fates were to be exiled in this place - this living prison of a lost city… If anything, it probably made the bear smugly content to watch his son straining at the leash to escape their shackles and knowing that he did so in vain.

"BUT I WILL ESCAPE!!" Charlie insisted - to an audience of none; for Augustus was sound asleep and dreaming of world domination. "I WILL ESCAPE!!" insisted Charlie. "I WILL ESCAPE AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME…"

Now all he had to do was find a way to do just that; except that so far he had absolutely no idea how to escape the "Lost City…"

"I'll find a way…" he growled under his breath. "If it's the last thing I do, I'll
find a way…"

...And he knew this was true - for if Charlie couldn't escape the village then, without a doubt, the bear would rather be dead...

Next episode, Laura and Ollie also reach Alquézar as the hunt for Charlie begins - but what exactly will they find and what dangers lie in store...

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 WEDNESDAY 29TH OCTOBER FOR PART 5 OF THIS ADVENTURE!!

This instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION was originally written in Bierge, Spain on Monday 13th October 2008.

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

In this chapter we take a look around "The Lost City of Bearcelona", which Charlie and Augustus find to be rather smaller than they expected. The photos for this part of the story were taken in a number of towns around Alquézar and Girona; namely Bierge, near Huesca (where we stayed for four days whilst taking the Alquézar photos) and Peratallada, near Girona - but also a couple of others. Dr Neph, my driver for this trip, also makes a brief appearance! Tomorrow we will return to exploring Alquézar...