Chapter 9: Tuesday, June 17, 2008
In the morning, Megan's mother made breakfast for her and sent her off to school before she went to work. Megan walked to school with trepidation, knowing that Scrapper would be her teacher. Along the way, Shelly’s brother Chris showed up in his 1957 station wagon and picked her up. Shelly was already in the car.
"We're supposed to get two books today," said Shelly. “The teacher said we could keep both of them.”
"On what?" Megan asked.
"The Iliad and the Odyssey,” Shelly replied. "We need to pick something from one of those books and write an essay on them."
When the girls were dropped off at the junior high school, Megan got out and walked slowly toward the classroom.
"You don't need to worry," said Shelly. “Captain Vargas reassured me that Scrapper won't make a move against you in public."
"How can he be sure of that?" Megan asked.
"I don't know, but I wrote down something he told me to show to you."
Shelly handed Megan a piece of paper. "It's a police report for the next few days."
"A bank robbery, this afternoon?" Megan asked.
"Yeah, he said he wanted you to stay away from there when it happens," said Shelly.
"If I go there with the shrink ray gun in my backpack, I could stop them!" said Megan.
"Well, the robbery does happen before Chris goes to work, so he could take you there and drop you off," said Shelly.
Earlier that morning, Scrapper was at the motel room getting ready to head to the school. He put two books in a backpack.
“I had to go to three different bookstores,” Scrapper told his brothers, “the curriculum insisted I have the Robert Fagles translation. I used a mind control device to memorize the contents of these books, so I’m ready to teach!”
When Scrapper was in the classroom by himself with a copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey on the teacher’s desk he reached into his satchel and pulled out a duplicator, and pointed it at the Iliad enough times so there would be one for each student in his class, and then did the same with the Odyssey.
When the students arrived, Scrapper gave each of them the two books and tried not to draw suspicion from Megan or the other kids.
“You don’t need to read these books in their entirety,” said Scrapper, “In the Iliad, Homer gave Achilles the choice of dying in battle and being remembered for a thousand generations, or living to an old age and being forgotten by history. In the Odyssey, Odysseus was held captive by a sea nymph named Callisto. She offered him immortality in exchange for his loyalty, but he chose to return to his wife Penelope, so he chose death.”
Shelly raised her hand, and Scrapper called on her. “Didn’t he choose love over immortality? Why focus on death?”
“I want all of you to choose to write a 2,000 word essay due this a Friday on either the choice of Achilles or the choice of Odysseus. If you want to distinguish between love or death, you can write about that in your essay.”
When school was out, Megan went to Shelly’s house. She asked Captain Vargas if guns worked at shrunken size, and he said that they could not function when miniaturized.
It took twenty minutes for Megan to convince Chris to drive her to the bank that was going to be robbed that afternoon.
“Once I shrink their guns, they can’t shoot them!” said Megan. “Those shrunken guys from the future explained the science of neutrino dissimilators to us!”
He finally relented, and dropped her off near the bank. She had the shrink ray gun stashed in a backpack. Megan went inside and waited for the appointed time. Two gunmen came in and one of them shouted: “Okay, freeze! Hit the floor!”
Megan got on the floor with the others.
Less than a minute later, the robbers had the cash they wanted, and the one who had shouted said: “Count to 200 before you even think about getting up!”
When robbers took the money and exited, Megan followed them with her backpack. A man who worked at the bank tried to stop her, but she broke free.
The two armed gunmen got into their getaway car and Megan reduced their vehicle with them inside to the same scale as Captain Vargas and his crew. She scooped the car up and stuck it in her backpack, and zipped it up.
Later that afternoon, Scrapper met with Megan’s mom at her home.
“I’m happy to report that your daughter attended class today, you should be proud of her!”
Margaret brought coffee to Scrapper, and a cup for herself. “She hates English and loves math, she’s always been that way. Her father is an engineer, so she takes after him.”
“If that co-worker of yours gives you any problems, I can handle him.”
“Stanley?” Margaret asked. “He’s harmless, just a weirdo. If my husband was still alive and knew Stanley was trying to court me, we would have a good laugh.”
“There’s a concert at the grange hall this Friday,” Scrapper began.
“I wouldn’t go to something like that,” said Margaret.
“I was thinking your daughter and her friend could go to the concert, while I take you to a nice dinner somewhere.”
“Isn’t thirteen a little young for a concert?” Margaret asked.
“Where I come from people that age go to concerts all the time.”
“Where exactly is that?” Margaret asked.
“Enceladus,” Scrapper began, then cringed because he had accidentally said something anachronistic. Most people in the early 21st century wouldn’t be that familiar with a moon of Saturn.
“Where on Earth is that?” Margaret asked.
“It’s somewhere in Latin America, I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it.”
“You’re Latino? I wouldn’t have guessed. I can let her go to the concert if you take me to dinner. Am I driving us?”
Back at the motel that night, Scrapper was cheerful.
“Everything is going according to plan! Margaret Weiss is letting Megan go to that concert this Friday!”
“What’s your plan?” Gator asked.
“While I’m eating dinner with her mother, one of you make contact with her and kidnap her! We’ll get that weapon one way or another!”
To Be Continued!
Giantess World
