Chapter Five: A Fish Out of Water

Deborah Champski-Five chose an average sunny weekday to break into Trevor’s house, assuming he would be at work like the rest of the population. She broke a window and climbed into his house, pleased by her ingenuity. As it was 8:15 a.m., Trevor had not yet gone to work. He was making breakfast when he heard the glass shatter. Trevor was a collector of many rare and extraordinary items that he believed gave a certain grand distinction to his personality. But secretly Trevor was not immune to peer pressure from his co-workers and also had a fine collection of porn and weapons. Upon dipping her hand into the tank to retrieve Eliasberg, Deborah heard a shotgun blast from Trevor’s rare Lee Van Cleef model shotgun. With no time to harness Eliasberg properly into her Fish Fashion Bag, she dropped the watery bag on the floor, stuffed Eliasberg into her purse, and jumped out the window. Eliasberg gasped and squirmed in her purse as Deborah’s loose change and tampons rattled against him. It was about that time, when Trevor was scrambling to his car and Deborah was running across the neighbor’s lawn that she called Lawrence Fountaingale, who was picking up small children just down the block. 

Chapter Six: A School Bus/Truck at the Center of the World

“Autumn!” Lawrence declared as he turned down a back alley. He now realized that the first time he shouted at the children he probably did scream “autumn” and thought he should be consistent. The kids on the left side of the bus all flew to the right. The kids on the right side of the bus were pinned against the windows. It was garbage day, and trash cans lined the very alley the bus was charging down. The trash cans became bowling pins as the bus shot them high into the air, spraying garbage everywhere. The children screamed. Marvin’s face had been launched into Ruby’s lap as the bus snaked into the alley, and he decided to keep it there. Lawrence looked into the bubble rearview.