Paul led Brianna outside into a large lush meadowy field. She looked around. Catfish and Livvie had brought up the rear.
"This wasnt here before." Brianna said. "Course the whole manor is new to me, we've never seen it before we came here weeks ago."
"Weeks?" Livvie asked. "It feels like yesterday."
"Yesterday...." A tenor voice crooned. "Love was such an easy game to play, oh I believe in yesterday. Why she had to go I couldnt say...." Livvie and Brianna turned to Paul who shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I'm tone deaf." He shrugged.
Livvie and Brianna then turned to Catfish who was crooning with a serious look on his face.
"Ohh how I long for yesterday....yesterday." He finished.
"Wow." Brianna clapped.
"I'm compelled to throw money." Livvie agreed.
"Don't throw money, throw candy." Catfish smiled nervously. He shuffled his feet.
"What are we here for Paul?" Brianna asked.
"That fun we were hoping for." He said. He blew a whistle and the field in back of them turned into an amusement park. There was a rollercoaster and a golden carousel. There were also some small challenge games such as the "pop the balloon" game, that Brianna guessed would already be hopelessly rigged.
"Wow." Brianna said as Paul took her hand.
"I guess there is really magic around here. This wasnt here when I left." Livvie agreed.
"Its a magic place, our manor." Paul said. "A magic place fun and maybe love lives." He said looking at Brianna who blushed. She still didnt know what to make of Pauls quiet advances yet. Before she could say anything he took her hand and lead her to the golden carousel.
"What do we do?" Livvie asked.
"Have fun!" Brianna called out as Paul helped her onto the moving carousel. They both picked a horse to ride. "No cotton candy for Catfish!"
"Too late." Paul said from his perch. He pointed out Catfish who had stuck his entire arm into a cotton candy machine. It was now covered in pink fluff.
"Wonderful." Livvie said. "He may be able to run to New Hampshire and back on sugar alone." She took Catfishs free hand and led him to a big fountain. "Okay thats also new." She mused as Catish reluctantly washed off the remainder of his sugar treat in the water. He then began dancing in it and climbing on the statue. "Yet another tv thing, I imagine. I'm just glad the Cosmo magazine with the risque shot of Burt Reynolds stayed out of the clone machine!"
Brianna rode around the carousel on a blue and white house. She started thinking about Paul, and she couldnt stop. She shook her head. "I'm not in love" She thought to herself. "I can't be too sure. Who knows when it really strikes you." Her thoughts were interrupted as the ride slowed to a stop.
"Where to next?" Paul said popping up next to her with a big smile on his face. From where he stood in the sunlight, his blue eyes were dazzling.
"There are more rides?" Brianna asked as Paul helped her off the horse. She looked beyond the roller coaster, where Catfish was a leading a seriously reluctant Livvie, and saw a few more rides magically appear. One of them was a large whiter tunnel. It had in huge sparkly letters the word "Love".
"Tunnel of love." Brianna whispered. She thought of the song for a moment, by Bruce Springsteen, one of her all time favorites.
"Want to go there next?" Paul asked. He helped her off the carousel.
"It could be dark." She said slowly.
"Don't worry, you won't be alone." He said softly. "Only if you want to."
Brianna thought for a minute. Her romantic past was short and sweet, like Davy, who now seemed more like a friend than anything else. Then there was Greg, the first man she ever dated. He asked her to marry her on the first date, which was a serious turn off. Was she going to fast? She had no idea what was going. Did she want to go on the ride with Paul? So many questions, yet no answers.
"Let's go." She said as she took his hand. "It could be fun."
Paul nodded and they walked to the Tunnel of Love ride together.
Mall of America
Chea paid for the new outfits she had purchased at Ununkees and joined Karen and Glory in the hallway. They moved to the bench where they had left Jack and inspected it.
"We hadnt left him here that long." Chea said.
"How powerful is that stun gun anyway?" Karen asked Glory.
"I dunno." Glory said looking at it. She took it out. It resembled a small remote control. Karen took it from her.
"It might be better if we hold onto it." Karen explained while Chea took it from Karen and stowed it into her bag.
"If you think so." Glory said. "I think it was on low."
"He was only out for a few minutes." Chea said. "I think we ought to look for him."
"Would splitting up be a good idea?" Karen asked. She then thought. "Then again it might be harder to find each other than finding Jack."
"Maybe not." Glory said. "I can feel him." She said. She walked forward. "He could be in trouble." She moved faster.
Chea and Karen looked at each other for a second then followed Glory down the hal. She jumped on a escalator that lead down the to the level where they first found her and ran down a hallway to the left. Karen ran faster than Chea did, but Karen wasnt burdened a blue and read shopping bag. After dodging random foot traffic for another fifty feet they found Jack who was staring at a large bouncer type.
"And you stay out of Wal-mart!" He said with a deep voice. He knocked Jack on the ground and went back into the store.
"What happened?" Karen said.
"Thanks to your new friend and her toy..." Jack moaned. "I got a class three headache." He said rubbing his neck. "I went looking for help. I was in the pharmacy and asked the girl there for help. She misunderstood me and got me booted out."
"Okay, I don't buy that." Karen said. "We know you, what did you really say?"
"I asked for some help with my headache." Jack said. "Although not that quite that way."
All three girls rolled their eyes.
"You see, this is why I'm not getting married." Glory said.
"Glory, you are weeks old clone, you havent met a guy yet." Chea teased.
"I have, believe me." She said. "Some people think I have a future at Hooters!"
"I think its time to leave." Chea said instead of going further into the Hooters topic.
"Good thought." Karen said. "We don't want to leave Brianna alone with Catfish any longer than we have to."
After about half an hour they found their way out to the parking area where they left the caddy.
"Okay, dude wheres the car?" Glory said looking around. "I know it has wheels, but it can't go anywhere by itself."
Karen looked at Chea. "Where did we park?"
"Right here." Chea said. "Next to the banana peel." She said pointing out the green rotten banana peel. "At least thats what I hope it would be." She looked at Karen. "Uh oh."
"Do we have a problem girls?" Jack said rubbing his head.
"We do. Oh boy do we." Karen moaned.
"Like whatever, I get car-sick anyway." Glory sighed. "So how do we get home?" Chea and Jack and Karen glared at her. "What?"
