"Somewhere Out There" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            A dead mouse was lying on a table, and yet—somehow—Tyler and Jennifer were still craving cheese. It got worse when they arrived in Tammany Hall, at what was the Grand Wake of Mickey O’Hare, a mouse killed by a cat. Rania, Tyler, and Jennifer had no idea who Mickey O’Hare was; they didn’t suppose anyone in attendance at the wake did, not even Honest John, who collected O’Hare’s name as one of the ‘ghost votes’ for his campaign.

            The whole matter was pointless to Rania, who sat at one of the tables in the proceeding. The table was actually just a thimble with a button glued on it. Rania would have enjoyed the cuteness of the design more if she weren’t so worried about Craig. She sat there while everyone else was focused on the drunken ramblings of Honest John—everyone except Tyler, who was kind enough to check up on her.

            “Hey,” he delicately approached, catching her attention, which was fixated on the mouse-sized cup of coffee that had been prepared for her minutes ago. She hardly drank a drop of it; by now, it was ice-cold. “Still thinkin’ ‘bout lil’ man?”

            Rania nodded. “Yeah…It’s almost nighttime, and he’s all alone out there.” She sighed heavily. “Did I make the right choice, Ty? I mean, I know he’s a tough lil’ dude, and Fievel needs our help with the Archivist somewhere in this world…but…I keep thinking about how I should’ve stayed and…”

            She felt Tyler take her hands into his. They were so fuzzy in his current form—warmer than they had been in his human form. “He’ll be alright, babe,” he told her with that optimism she loved so much about him.

            Rania still wasn’t so sure, but she accepted his reassurance out of love.

            Their tender moment was suddenly interrupted when Tyler’s new mouse nose picked up a scent. It turned up in the most adorable way in Rania’s eyes, and his head twisted toward the direction from which it came. “Is that…cheese?” His face beamed with delight; his stomach gurgled with hunger once again.

            There was a heap of cheese available for the guests, located at the center of the room, but someone had taken large portions of it, leaving very little for everyone and none for Tyler. The mystery behind the disappearance of the cheeses became clear when Jennifer appeared, wearing a chef’s hat and apron and holding a makeshift melting pot made from a bottle cap, filled with a cheesy substance.

            “Yo, Ty!” she called. “I was thinkin’— there’s somethin’ else with cheese in it: fondue! C’mon and get you some, sugah!”

            She didn’t have to pull his leg. The succulent smell of melted Swiss cheese and warm bread immediately sent his bare mouse feet running from Rania’s side to the pot itself. Rania could barely hold in her laughter, watching her boyfriend gobble up one cheese-dipped piece of bread after another.

            “Hey now, don’t be double-dippin’!” Leeka scolded him.

            “Sorry,” Tyler said with a mouthful.

            Rania’s sides were splitting at that point. She needed this laugh after the time she spent moping over Craig.

            “What is that grand smell I’m smellin’?” Rania heard Honest John slurringly speak out close to her. The sour odor of the alcoholic beverage he had consumed filled the air, making Rania hold her nose as he approached Jennifer. “What is that lovely delicacy, my dear?”

            “Fondue,” Leeka said, holding a piece of bread—dripping with cheese while impaled on a fork—right up to Honest John’s face. “Want some?”

            He took the fork from her. “Don’t mind if I do,” he said, sticking the fork in his mouth and eating the cheese-dipped bread. The reaction on Honest John’s face was Monterey Jack levels of zany. The hair on his mustache and sideburns curled, and his eyes spiraled. “I do say, that is the most spectacular thing I have ever tasted! It’s better than wine!” Upon making that declaration, he took another sip of his beverage, which sparked even more of a euphoric reaction. “It’s better with wine!”

            Jennifer tittered. “That’s what Obama said when I served this up at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

            “My dear girl, would ya be willing to be my registered caterer during my campaign?” Honest John asked her. “With your astounding culinary skills, I am certain to win in the polls!”

            Leeka was about to respond before she stopped all of a sudden.

            Rania noticed her hesitation—was Honest John’s proposal that enticing?

            No, it was something else that preoccupied the immortal captain. From the way Jennifer glanced at her left hip, Rania figured it was her phone vibrating in her pocket—apparently, it benefited from interdimensional roaming. Obviously, she didn’t want to answer it in front of the natives of the realm, who were living in an era in which smartphones had yet to exist. Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry any longer, as Gussie Mausheimer—the richest and most powerful mouse in New York City—barged into the hall. With Honest John and everyone else’s attention on Mausheimer, Jennifer slipped out of the room unnoticed…except by Rania, who was curious as to who was on the other end of that phone.

— — — — — — — —

            As Rania had known from the original cinematic events of Fievel’s reality, Honest John was unable to help Fievel find his parents due to their fresh status as immigrants. But Rania, Jennifer, and Tyler didn’t leave his side—nor did Tony and Bridget. Together, they took up residence at Bridget’s place—a water tower atop a downtown building with a big, beautiful, bright moon shining in the sky.

            From an adjacent corner of the tower, Rania watched Bridget help the disheartened Fievel to a bed made from a woven wicker baby basket—a bit huge for the tiny Fievel. As Bridget bid Fievel goodnight, Rania sighed deeply, knowing what was to come afterward.

            “You O.K.?” she heard Tyler approach again. He was such a sweet boyfriend, worrying about her so much. “You’re crying,” he indicated with a frown.

            Rania touched one side of her face, catching one of the tears at her fingertips.

            “So I am,” she giggled in amusement.

            “Hey, if you’re worried about Craig, we can always go out there now and…”

            “No, no, babe. That’s not it.”

            Tyler’s frown grew more pronounced. “Then…what’s got you crying?”

            Rania nodded to where Fievel was now sitting in the small hole—the bedroom window—near his bed. He was singing a soft, adorable tune, seemingly to no one but himself. “Kristin and I used to sing this little song to Candace when she was just a baby.” Rania sighed deeply again. “I guess it brings tears to my eyes when I still hear it.”

            Now comprehending, Tyler held Rania close while they both watched and listened to Fievel sing. They felt themselves lulled to sleep, cuddling close to each other as they sat along the wall. That was until angry shouting startled them awake—it was Jennifer. Her bellowing voice echoed along the entire water tower, endangering the peace that kept Fievel in a pleasant slumber.

            “Archie, I don’t give a hoot what you gotta do to get me patched in with those idiots at the Pentagon!” Jennifer roared into her phone. “Either you get me in touch with that moron General Holden or Yvette Dwonch! I wanna talk to someone now!”

            She was finished with the conversation just as Rania and Tyler walked up.

            “Uh, Jen?” Rania said carefully. “Is everything alright?”

            Leeka took a long breath and waved it off. “It’s nothing, y’all. Really.”

            “You sure?” Tyler was unconvinced. “‘Cause you sounded really angry.”

            Seeing the concern on their faces—specifically Rania’s—weighed heavily on Jennifer’s guilt. “Alright,” she caved after a brief pause. “But let’s talk in the TARDIS.” Rania and Tyler obliged with her demand, congregating in the ship’s console room where Leeka told them, “That call I got back in Tammany Hall? It was from Archie Wyld, one of the members of my Torchwood team in America.”

            “Is everything alright?” Rania asked.

            Jennifer wished that she hadn’t. “No, honey, it’s not. Those got-dang world governments back in our home dimension are considerin’ the initiation of ‘Global Lockdown’.”

            Tyler, who had kept Rania held in an affectionate embrace, suddenly felt her body stiffen. He glanced at her, seeing the look of fury on her face. “I don’t get it,” he said. “What’s Global Lockdown?”

            “It’s a protocol that repels alien invasions,” Jennifer told him.

            Tyler shrugged, not comprehending either of the women’s negative reactions to this protocol. “It doesn’t sound so bad,” he said.

            In response to his naivety, Leeka fiddled with her vortex manipulator—a device strapped to her left wrist that was most of the time camouflaged to avoid attention. It became visible once she pressed a button on its small panel, followed by the press of another that projected a holographic display.

            The display was the planet Earth, particularly Rania and Jennifer’s Earth, being engulfed by fire…until the entire planet was ashes scattered through space.

            Rania removed herself from Tyler’s embrace, looking at the hologram with ferocity. “Yvette told me that they weren’t going through with it,” she said through gritted teeth.

            “Now y’all see why I was so ticked with Archie to get her on the phone,” Leeka stated.

            “Once we’re finished here and we’ve found Craig, we’re going back,” Rania declared with clenched fists. “And I’m gonna have a long talk with U.N.I.T., Earth’s leaders, and whoever thought of this ‘Global Lockdown’ protocol.”