Chapter Thirty-Two (Part One)

Marla approached Melody just as she walked back into Aldrich. "How was it?" she asked in her sweet, cheery voice.
"How was what?"
"The dinner."
"Heh, you don't want to know," Melody replied.
"Try me." Marla managed a chuckle. "Was it that bad?"
Shaking her head, Melody answered, "Well, it wasn't necessarily bad, just different."
"What do you mean by 'different'?"
"Depends on your point of view, actually."
Marla shook her head. This was typical Melody, she decided, not revealing anything.

Meanwhile, Chester had gone back to his apartment. He suddenly realized his final exam was just hours away. He didn't need to cram, he'd already turned in his term paper and all his assignments. So he decided that in lieu of sleep, he wanted to fix one of the broken computers on his lot. Suddenly, though, an odd screen appeared on his lone functioning computer, with a strange series of numbers and letters. Unable to think of anything else, he pressed the speed dial on his cell phone and called Melody.
"Hey Mel," he said, "I think you should come see this."
"I'll be over in a few, I want to check something out first. Don't touch anything, I'll be right there."
Chester looked again at his screen. "The sequence has changed, it seems like someone is trying to talk to me in some arcane language."
"I'll be over there in a few."
True to her word, Melody arrived a few moments later and shook her head as she cleaned up Chester's fly-ridden dinner plate. "You know you risk all those flies ganging up on you, don't you?" she muttered to herself.
Chester took the steaming mug of coffee from Melody with trembling hands and gulped it down quickly. This was the last thing he wanted to see right before his final.

But Melody shoved him aside. "Here, let me have a look." she said, squinting at the screen. Her serious frown suddenly vanished and she smiled broadly. "I think I've cracked it!" she said suddenly. "Judging by the repetition of many verbs and adverbs, I'm sure that this is a jumbled form of Latin!"
"How do you know all that?"
"Simple," Melody smirked proudly, "from books."

"Figures.... but hey! Isn't that a dead language?"
"Yep, only used in the medical, religious, and scholarly communities nowadays."
"Circe!"
"Actually, no.....it's more of a plea for help."
"I wouldn't help her if she was on fire!"
"Chester!!!"
"No, seriously, she's one evil person -- if you can call her that -- she's totally inhumane, just like her husband --"
"Loki Beaker, that scientist in Strangetown -- yeah, I've read about him. He dabbles in some really dangerous hard-core stuff, using live subjects for his experiments."
His voice trailed off and he looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder if they're true?"
"What's that?"
"The rumors."
"Huh?"
"Apparently they're supposed to have a 'creature' locked in the basement of their castle."
"A creature?" Melody was intrigued. "Do you mean they're holding a person hostage?"
"He isn't the first, I'm sorry to say."
Melody's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"I was lucky to escape their clutches by coming to college, lest I would be the next victim."
Leaning forth with decided interest, Melody asked, "Do you know who he is? I mean, have you seen him?"
"No, I haven't exactly seen him, at least not that I know. But when I used to pass by the Beakers I used to hear noises coming from their basement."
Melody continued to read what was on the screen. "A fronte praecipitum a tergo lupi," she read. "A precipice in front, wolves behind. It's supposed to be cryptic. Whoever's talking, they're not really talking about wolves, they used it as a metaphor. It means they're in some kind of trouble."
She decided to sit at the terminal and try communicating with the entity sending messages through Chester's computer screen. "Quid fit?" she asked no one in particular.
"What did you just type?"
"Oh, it's a Latin greeting, something like 'what's happening?'" She waited a few seconds for a response. And she got one. "Sentio aliquos contra me conspirare."
"The person is saying some people are plotting against him," replied Melody.
"Are you serious?" Chester asked.
Melody shrugged. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

Sighing heavily, Chester stole another glance at Melody. "I'm not liking the looks of this," he said. "How much Latin do you know?"
"Enough to get around Ancient Rome if I ever needed to." She laughed. "I took it in high school. Lots of Simlish is based upon it."
The person asked Melody if she spoke Latin, and she typed, "Sane, paululum linguae Latinae dico. Id legi modo hic modo illic. Vero, Latine loqui non est difficilissimum." (Sure, I speak a little bit. I picked it up here and there, but really, it isn't that hard.)
Chester looked over at Melody with longing and took a deep breath. Sure, he liked Jessica, but the woman he truly loved was in his presence right now. And he realized she was making a mistake.
The notion had been gnawing at him for awhile, eating at the very fiber of his being. "You can't do this," he said.
"Do what?"
Chester turned deadly serious. "You can't follow the path of Loki Beaker. You just can't. It's not you."
"What do you mean, follow the path of Loki Beaker?"
"I understand you love science and all, but there's a limit. You've cultivated that plant in the back of Aldrich and now look, it's already claimed a life."
"C'mon, Chester, he had no business being there in the first place, and he paid the price. Besides, Loki isn't my guide. I've got no desire to go into his line of work."
"If you ask me, you're already in it."
Shudders scooted down Melody's spine as Chester spoke. He was her best friend, how could he be saying these things to her? Why didn't he support her?
"It's just not you, Mel. I know you a lot better than that, and it's not you. It's not the woman I've come to know and love."

"My plan is to follow the paths of the Goths and the Curious brothers," she said, unsure if Chester was listening.
She turned to face Chester, her lips pressed tightly together, forming a pale line, determination written on her face.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, her resolve fading as she read the pained expression on Chester's face.
"What?"
"Why are you, all of a sudden, trying to stop me from following my predestined path?"
Chester took a deep breath and turned away from her.
"It's because I care for you," he muttered, unable to meet her challenging glare. "It's because -- because -- I'm really worried for you."
At that precise moment, Chester was very aware of his hands, and began to pick at his fingernails, awaiting Melody's reply. There was a stunned silence as the gravity of his words began to sink in. Melody opened, then closed her mouth, as words failed her.
It was then that Chester finally turned and looked at her, his eyes locking with hers. Of all this time, he'd never once challenged or stood up to her, allowing her free rein to do as she wished.

But now, he knew he had to intervene. He'd recognized the fervor in her face, the flush in her cheeks and the manic glint in her eyes as she worked on her experiments. And he wasn't the only one who noticed this.

Could he be right? she wondered. Had she gone too far with her experiment? And had she reached the point of no return?

Wanda Tinker dreaded her upcoming elder transition. She knew it meant her mortality was near, and that one day soon she would join her husband in that unmentionable place. All she'd ever wanted was to become a mother, and now all she wanted was a bright future for her daughters. She worried about them constantly -- the one who was in college and the other who was in diapers. After all, it had been her job as a mother, to worry about them. And yet... and yet.. she constantly feared that she'd failed as a parent. She'd failed at the one thing she'd ever wanted to do. What she wanted, above all, was for her daughters to forge an unbreakable sisterly bond. Upon her departure, she knew, they were all they were going to have left.
If there was one thing her daughters had inherited from her, it was their stubbornness -- a trait each expressed in different ways. She hoped they would somehow get to know each other better. Now, pressing on her mind, was the fact that Harmony's transition was coming up soon, too, and that would bring a new set of challenges. How would she, as an elder with far less energy, take to raising a child who would be teeming with it?
She decided to dial Melody at Academie Le Tour in hopes of convincing her to return to Bluewater over spring break to attend Harmony's transition party. She decided Harmony would have a quiet transition, with Melody and Florence as the only invited guests.
What she didn't know was that Melody was dealing with her own issue, namely her bloodstained hand as a result of the death of the cow mascot. It was the last thing she wanted her mother to hear about.
When Wanda picked up the receiver, she got a recorded message, "This is Melody's answering machine, leave a message at the tone. Bye."
Wanda took a deep breath. "Hey sweetheart, it's me, mom. Your little sister's birthday is coming up, and I'm hoping you'd come home for that. You can bring a friend, too, if you like. But I'll understand if you don't return to Bluewater, after all, I can't say you're exactly on anyone's favorite persons list here except mine and maybe Flo's. Call me back when you get a chance, love. Talk to you soon."
She looked at the grandfather clock in the living room. Where could Melody be at this time of the night? Surely she knew her oldest daughter was a night owl but hoped that she was at least in the relative safety of the dorm.

Wanda realized that all that mollycoddling she gave Harmony, would soon end, as this little bundle of mischief would soon grow up into an independent little girl, and then what would happen in the future? Would she turn into her sister and alienate herself from the family?

Interrupting Wanda from her reverie was a phone call from Jennifer Burb, who'd moved in the empty house across the street with her husband John and young daughter Lucy. She'd told Wanda she was a paralegal at Lawson and Lawson, the firm that was handling Malcolm Landgraab's affairs. This meant, Wanda thought, she knew all about the attempted takeover of Tinker Toys by Malcolm.

Wanda made attempts to grill Jennifer, but Jennifer wouldn't divulge any information. "Listen," Jennifer replied tartly, "I understand that it's in your best interests, but it's my job and reputation on the line here. It's taken a lot of sim hours to get where I am today. And I'm not prepared to lose it all. Sorry."

Lisa Ramirez had parked her silver and black Lexus in the parking lot of Amelia's Closet, the swanky clothing store in Bluewater. It was the last gift that Checo had given her, and now, she wouldn't be without it. It represented a token of her former life. After a great deal of thought, she realized it was one of Checo's guilt gifts, just to keep her happy.
She had just returned from the grocery store. There was no food in the house. Thanks to Checo's furniture business, she'd never known what it was like to be hungry. She and Tessa never wanted for anything. They'd lived the good life.
While at Amelia's, she spotted a woman who seemed familiar to her, but somehow also seemed different. Her brown hair, which used to be blunt cut and covered with a dumpy black hat, was now loose and full. Gone was her long housedresses and stooped posture. She'd even dropped thirty pounds. Lisa had to admit, she looked great. It was none other than Wanda Tinker.
Wanda was flourishing, no doubt about it. And yet, here was Lisa, struggling with two jobs to make ends meet. Already she'd had to sell off some of her more expensive pieces of furniture, and the clothes she wore had seen better days.
It occurred to Lisa to approach Wanda, to try to apologize. Would Wanda accept? Would Wanda even talk to her? After all, so much time had passed, and so many things had happened.
Lisa was now destitute. She hardly saw Tessa because she was working so much. Checo had vanished without a trace, and while she was thinking about walking toward Wanda, she caught a whiff of perfume. Her perfume. The special perfume Checo had always bought for her. And now, some other woman had breezed past her wearing it.
Lisa looked up. It was none other than the scarlet woman herself -- Dina Caliente, the curvaceous blonde her husband had the affair with. She was picking out designer wear for herself. It took a lot of restraint for Lisa, flushing with rage, for her not to walk over and slap the woman in the face.
Her perfect little life had fallen apart. But was it really perfect to begin with? Was it all a lie?

Chapter Thirty-One (Part Two)

When Dr. Hyden walked into his office from his last class of the day, Melody was waiting on him. "Miss Tinker?" he asked, looking around with a bewildered look on his face. "How long have you been here?"
Melody shrugged. "Not long at all."
"How did you get in? I lock my door at all times."
Melody shrugged again. "You left it open," she lied. Chester had taught her how to pick the lock. Dr. Hyden let out a deep sigh. "You haven't been poking around in my files, have you?"
"No," Melody frowned. "How am I supposed to know your password?"
Dr. Hyden took a long look at Melody, and suddenly decided she was attractive. "You know, Miss Tinker," he said, circling her uncomfortably, "if you weren't my student --"
Melody bristled. "Get your hands off my -- god, you're so disgusting!"
Startled by Melody's tone of voice, Dr. Hyden backed away.
"You know, I can have you reported to the chancellor for doing this." Melody was firm. "And don't think I don't know about you and Roxie Sharpe too."
"Who is Roxie Sharpe?" Dr. Hyden asked. "I don't have a student by that name."
"She isn't even one of your students? That makes it even worse."
"Seriously, Miss Tinker, I don't have an idea what you're talking about."
Melody turned around to face him. Inhaling deeply, she pieced together exactly what she was going to say. "I'm going to make a deal with you, Hyden."
Dr. Hyden didn't like the sound of that, but he listened anyway.
"I won't report these indiscretions of yours to the campus authorities -- if you agree to take my DNA test."
Dr. Hyden could do nothing but laugh. He knew he'd been backed into a corner. Either way, he was going to do something he didn't want to do.
"You're a smart lass, eh, Tinker?" Dr. Hyden managed to mutter.
"Yeah, well, I didn't steal it from anywhere." She took a deep breath. "So, what are you going to do?"
"I can't believe that you're still holding this over my head."
"Dr. Hyden, this charade has gone on long enough, it's time to find out the truth once and for all."

Chester Gieke rose from his bed the next day. He needed this time, this space, and discovered that he liked his own company. He needed to think about some things -- mostly the mess his love life had degenerated into. He'd wanted an understanding of women's motivations, but found that he was more confused than ever. And what Melody had said really made his head spin. He secretly (and not-so-secretly) hoped that what happened wouldn't damage his hopes of finally graduating from ALT.
So, with a heavy heart and a heavy mind -- he paid a visit to Aldrich. He found he MISSED living there -- missed the constant movement, missed the busy-ness, missed the noise. More importantly, he missed his friends. His apartment was usually silent, except for the noises from his computer game.
He and Melody walked straight toward the back greenhouse, unaware that they were being watched.
"Chester, we've got a problem," Melody whispered, with the cowplant seemingly listening to their every word.
"What do you mean?" wondered Chester, rubbing his chin.
"Well, the plant -- it -- it ate a sim just like we would eat a meal."
Shaking his head, Chester replied, "No, wait a minute, that's impossible. No way the plant could actually eat a simian. The only thing it takes in as nourishment is special fertilizer. That's what the instructions said."
"Well, it's clear this isn't an ordinary plant," Melody confirmed.
"No shit, Sherlock," laughed Chester. "Look at it, the thing has a cow head and fangs, for chrissakes! It's not supposed to look like that is it?"
Melody took a step back. Had the plant's chemistry changed when Chester's blood accidentally got onto the seeds? There was only one way for her to find out. After swabbing Chester's tongue, Melody peered into the powerful microscope. She pulled away, rubbing her eyes. 'I must be getting tired,' she thought, wiping the lens of her glasses.
Leaning forward again, she peered down onto the sliver of glass and shook her head. "It can't be," she whispered.
"Anything wrong?" Chester asked, approaching.
"Give me your hand," she demanded, grabbing a sterilized needle.
"Whoa!!" Chester protested, stepping back.
"Aww, c'mon," she said, grabbing his fingers.
Chester yelped as he felt the pin prick on the fleshiest part of his thumb.
"Owwww!! THAT HURT!"
"Wuss," she grinned, "all I wanted was a drop of blood."
Chester took one look at the smear of blood on his thumb, and promptly vomited.
Melody shook her head and let out a deep sigh. "You are worse than my kid sister," she said as she closed her eyes and cleaned Chester off with a towel.
"It's not my fault needles give me the creeps. When I was little I actually ran from the doctor. My parents had to hold me down to have my shots."
Chester looked up, into Melody's eyes. He couldn't forget those eyes, those big, piercing, can't-miss-anything brown eyes. He'd already decided they were her most noteworthy feature. They stood in sharp contrast to his own -- so inconspicuous that his glasses could very well substitute for them.
He knew instantly where he'd seen those eyes -- on a portrait of Dr. Hyden hanging in his office. They were the same ones, the same large, piercing brown eyes. He couldn't help but think -- was it really true? Could it be?

"An invite to the Goth mansion?" Edwin asked Melody over dinner. "You cannot be serious! Do you realize how big a deal this is?"
Melody shrugged. "It's not really that big of a deal."
"Do you know who he is?!?" Marla exclaimed. "He's only the most important man in all of Sim City. And the fact that you and Chester have been granted a private audience with him -- I mean that doesn't happen, like, ever. Especially not to lowly college students like us."
"Do you know what you're going to say to him?" Edwin asked.
"I guess, we're going to explain our project --"
Edwin took a deep breath. "That thing in the greenhouse out back?"
Melody sighed. "How do you know about that?"
"C'mon, Mel, it's not that big of a secret, you know. I know you and Chester have been up all night, every night, and you sneak out back every morning with a notepad."
Melody bristled. "How do you know all that?"
"Hey, you forget I lived in an apartment with the two loudest people on the face of the earth. You kind of get used to certain things after awhile."

Melody had asked Marla to help her pick out something to wear to the Goth mansion. "I'm no good at this," she complained.
"You'll find something to put on," Marla smiled.
"But I only own one dress!"
"Wear it."
"But it's not right, I mean, this is the Goth mansion we're talking about. And you know a whole lot more about clothes than I do."

Inside the Goth mansion, Melody and Chester jostled each other, shuffling uncomfortably. They were here by special invitation. Even though this elderly man barely reached their shoulders, with his stooped posture, he still commanded an air of authority. His watery eyes missed nothing.
"You CAN enter you know," he grumbled, rubbing at his lower back, "and make sure you close that door. The damp air plays havoc with my old joints."
Slowly they peered in. "You first," Chester whispered, nudging Melody on her shoulder. Melody took a deep breath. This was THE Mortimer Goth, who'd made his living with fabulous gadgets and years of studying extraterrestrial and paranormal phenomena. He'd amassed the most impressive fortune in all of Sim City, making Landgraab look like a pauper in comparison.
"I've heard you young'uns have been doing some good work." Mortimer chewed on his mustache and patted his head.
Melody could remember only two other occasions during which she'd truly been awestruck -- first, by meeting Darren Dreamer, and second, by meeting Dr. Hyden. This one, however, dwarfed them both.
Mortimer Goth managed to be both frail and imposing at the same time. The crotchety old CEO of Goth Industries told the pair to sit in his elegant, spacious dining room.
Melody, sharp eyed as usual, instantly spotted the pain in Mortimer's eyes, the accentuated gruffness in his voice and the slow way he moved from A to B. His spine, once straight as an arrow, now slightly curved, with his shoulders hunched in an exaggerated stoop "Alexander?" Mortimer called softly, "our guests are here."
From nowhere, creeping spectrally silent into the hallway, a tall, lanky, bespectacled boy appeared. "He's such a shy boy," Mortimer shook his head. "Completely withdrawn himself from everything, ever since his mother vanished."
Melody picked up the tone of regret in this elderly gent's voice. She and Chester already knew the story by memory. Several years ago, when Alexander was but a tot, Mortimer's wife, the legendary beauty Bella Bachelor Goth, had vanished. The current theory was that she'd been stargazing on Don Lothario's condo deck and been abducted by aliens. In his spare time (when he wasn't running and hiding from everyone) Chester spent a great deal of time researching the 'Bella Goth' conspiracies.
No one knew for sure what had happened to her. Ever since he saw (or thought he saw) a perfect lookalike wandering through Strangetown, he himself had many unproven theories of his own. Not renowned for being a 'sensitive soul' (Chester concluded that Edwin and Marla fit that bill) he himself saw the deep aura of sadness circling Mortimer.
Alexander stopped short, his mouth hung open at the sight of two strangers sitting at his dinner table.
"Alexander," his father called softly, "why don't you join us?"
Alexander flushed brightly before turning and fleeing.
Alexander was always in awe of his father. Keeping silent all the time but overhearing these two discussing his father's sorrow, an overwhelming urge crept over him. After all, wasn't he himself a witness to the wanton debauchery of his step mother Dina? She was always on the phone, calling all her 'conquests.' It was common knowledge that they didn't always get on. Actually, that was an understatement -- they hated each other on sight. Alexander didn't like Dina the moment he first saw her. Tall, blond, and beautiful, Dina slithered her way into his father's life like a snake. He hated the way she wrapped her slinky arms around him, how she told him everything she thought he wanted to hear. Especially after the disappearance of Bella, Dina was a ray of sunshine in his dark, dreary life. Or so he thought.
Why were they here? Alexander wondered. Were they here to pry? Were they spies?
Meanwhile, Mortimer's excellent turkey dish sat on the table. Melody, not usually one to eat, was famished after spending hours buried underneath stacks of yellowing texts in the Le Tour library.
Melody glanced over at Chester and saw him hyperventilating as he took his seat. Which meant, as usual, it would be up to her to explain the experiment.
Chester couldn't believe where he was, or where his journey with Melody had taken him. A year ago he wouldn't have dared to set foot in the Goth mansion, in the presence of a man he admired greatly. Now he was there, in his presence, explaining his work.
There was a definite air of hostility, when Melody and Chester came face to face with Dina.
Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, she shifted Manuel's heavy weight from one hip to the other.
Melody couldn't help noticing the resemblance to his mother.
His chubby fingers played with Dina's own hair as he nodded to sleep, his tiny little head lolling on her chest.
"Please excuse me," said Dina turning abruptly, "I'd better get this little man to bed."
His eyes were tight shut, so they couldn't quite see if he had Dina's or Mortimer's eye colour, but the resemblance to Dina was indeed very striking.
Meanwhile, the phone rang. "I'm sorry," Mortimer said, his tone regretful, "I've got to take this." Chester and Melody watched in awe as Mortimer disappeared toward the kitchen, where the phone was located. "Alexander, be a good host until I return."
Alexander inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. He didn't know these two, had never seen them before in his life, but yet they seemed strangely familiar to him, like he'd seen them before in another dimension.
Alexander slid into his chair, his eyes alternating between Chester and Melody, his face hopeful and expectant. But soon enough, his attention strayed to Melody. The easy going attitude she had, the way she gave him her full attention when he asked questions. It could have been his fertile imagination, or even his raging teen hormones. But he felt that Melody made him appear the single most important person at that table.
Melody herself, was flattered by the rapt attention this soft-spoken teenage boy gave her. How his pallid complexion flushed whenever she answered his questions and smiled at him.
Chester waited until the taxi pulled toward the curb. Then he pounced. "He was flirting with you," he declared loudly.
"What?" Melody was stunned.
"He was hanging on every word you said."
"C'mon, Chester, he's a kid. When kids see grownups around them, they're gonna mimic everything they say."
"Not the way he was 'mimicing.' He couldn't keep his eyes off of you." They walked into the taxi and rode back to Le Tour, jostling and needling each other the whole way.

Chapter Thirty-One (Part One)

Back in Bluewater Village, Malcolm Landgraab IV spent the morning screaming into his receiver -- this time, at one of the contractors he'd hired to finish the strip mall he was building. "What?" he yelled. "You mean you can't finish the project because I can't procure the land? It's not my damn fault! I've done everything I can from my end. Can't you evict the Tinkers?"
He buried his face in his hands. He couldn't believe what was happening to him. He'd grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth -- and the lofty legacy of his family to protect -- and for the first time in his life he'd heard the word 'no.' For the first time in his professional career, someone had told him he didn't have permission to bulldoze their property. And it was a mere slip of a girl, too, barely out of her teens. Sure, he secretly admired her gumption, but did it have to happen to him? Why? And why now?
He reflected on the events that had taken place since that fateful Christmas party when everything as he'd known it in Bluewater Village had changed. Even the Bluewater to which he'd first arrived had changed, too, in no small part because of him. There were more businesses here now than full-time residences. The people had sacrificed their lives and lifestyles for, as he put it, the 'betterment of Bluewater.' But was it really?
His reverie was interrupted by the ringing doorbell. Ah, pleasurable company, the Missus Goth, née Dina Caliente. She'd recently wed the retired mad scientist, Mortimer Goth.
Malcolm took a look at Dina. She was certainly attractive, with blond waves that dusted her shoulders and cheery green eyes. Her red dress hugged her considerable curves in all the right places.
He had a weakness for this sort, and he knew he would need to check his lust at the door. After all, she was a married woman, and women married to men like Mr. Goth just didn't embark on relationships with him.
"What brings you here?" Malcolm asked almost breathlessly, attempting to hide his passion. His grandfather had warned him about Jezebels -- not to fall into their trap.
Dina was quite forthcoming. "I want a baby," she said outright, "and my husband is infertile."
"Have you tried fertility treatments?" Malcolm asked tersely.
"You, Mr. Landgraab, are the only fertility treatment I need," Dina said, "young and handsome and virile."
Malcolm sighed. "There's one minor flaw in your plan, Mrs. Goth," he said, "we're both blond haired and the Goth family is dark."
In a seductive voice Dina replied, after changing into another stunning outfit, "I'm -- sure -- we could work something out."
Malcolm marvelled at this striking woman's bravado. "Look," she said, her voice low, her gaze direct, "I don't care if it's from outer space. If I don't bear a child, I don't get a red cent of that massive fortune of his." She stroked her fingers lightly up his sleeve.
"So, what do you say?"
She was a woman after his own heart, determined, money driven. In a different scenario, this would have been perfect. But he realized how desperate she was. The Goths and the Landgraabs had always been society rivals, with the Goths always pipping the Landgraabs at the post for the biggest fortune accumulated in Simland. Dina wasn't exactly 'mother' material, and she knew it. Swallowing her pride, she had decided to 'make a go of it' on her wedding night. With a few grunts, and groans, and the fear that her poor husband's heart would give out before the night was over, Dina was deeply disappointed when she wasn't successful at conceiving a child.
Malcolm smirked at Dina. "Why didn't you try for that Ramirez guy you were banging?"
Dina blanched at the thought. "I did," she replied dryly, "but he was always 'careful.' Apparently, he was thinking about his 'family.'"
"And what happened?"
"He dropped me like a brick," Dina pouted, "some snot of a kid, went and blabbed about us to his wife."
Malcolm sighed. It all had come back to him now. Melody Tinker's stunning rant at the Bluewater Village Christmas party, during which she'd railed on everyone in town, himself included. Everything had come full circle. How the heck had she known about the affair? Malcolm wondered. With her obvious knack for finding out things, if they weren't bitter enemies, Malcolm would have put her on the pay roll.
Malcolm ushered Dina into his spacious living room and then led her to his hot tub. Without knowing it he'd fallen right into her trap.




Melody heard the sound of tinkling glass and her heart sank. She knew that meant only one thing. Her precious hybrid was about to suffer a swift and painful death. She'd kept that greenhouse at a constant 90 degree temperature while propagating the seedlings. But when she got to the greenhouse, there was nobody there. The only clue was the head of the plant lolling indulgently, its udders under it's chin slightly swollen. By the roots of the plant, there was a scrap of fleece, which by Melody's quick deductions, could only come from the costume of the cow mascot.
Quick as a flash, she pocketed the scrap of fabric. And waited for an opportune moment to dispose of it properly. The cow mascot was nowhere to be seen.
She grabbed her cell phone and buzzed Chester.
Chester was eating pizza with Jessica McClellan, his girlfriend, when the phone rang. "Hello?" Chester droned.
"Ches, it's me, Mel. Look, could you come over to Aldrich? Something's -- happened -- with the plant."
Chester didn't like the tone of Melody's voice. "I'm on my way as soon as I can," he told her, wiping the pizza crumbs from his mouth.
Jessica made a face. "Who was that?"
Chester didn't want to lie to her, but he didn't want to tell her the truth either.
"That was that psycho Melody, wasn't it? I tell you, Chester, with a friend like that who needs enemies?"
Chester let out a deep groan as he returned to his seat.

Dr. Marcel Hyden stepped out of a taxi and surveyed the exterior of Aldrich Honors Dormitory. A redhaired guy he knew well stepped outside, on his way to his night class. "Mr. Gieke!" Dr. Hyden called.
Chester was surprised. "Hello, Dr. Hyden," he greeted, "how are you today?"
Dr. Hyden rubbed his chin. He had no time for small talk. "Have you seen Miss Tinker?" he asked.
Frowning, Chester replied, "I don't live here. And if you're looking for Melody, she isn't here either."
Shaking his head, Dr. Hyden said, "Well, I'm sure you know what time she'll be back."
"If I did know," Chester told Dr. Hyden, "I sure as heck wouldn't tell you."
"Are you being smart with me, Gieke?" asked Dr. Hyden.
"I'm just telling you, I wouldn't know. I don't live here."
"I'd like to come in anyway, to inspect the premises."
Chester folded his arms. "Dr. Hyden, I know why you're coming. You're looking for that formula aren't you?"
"Look, Gieke, I don't know what you and Miss Tinker are trying to hide, but you can't hide too much longer. I'm on to you, the pair of you."
I dodged the military every day while I was in Strangetown, Chester thought, an aged, bespectacled professor doesn't frighten me at all. "You've got nothing on me or Melody," he shot back.
"Tinker's got you thinking you're both bullet proof. Well, you're sadly mistaken."
"Dr. Hyden, I realize you're a tenured professor who's been in your field for years, but can't you admit for once that someone has you beat?" Chester realized that it was six in the evening and it was time for him to go to his nuclear physics class. He was tempted to leave to go to his class, but he didn't trust Dr. Hyden to keep his nose out of Aldrich while he was gone.

Chapter Thirty (Part Two)

Edwin was awakened by the sounds of hammer, screwdriver, and nails coming from across the hallway. He drowsily rose from his bed to see what was the racket -- although he suspected he knew what was causing it. It was Melody at her workbench. He shook his head in disbelief. "What are you doing?" he asked. "It's three-thirty in the morning!"
Melody grinned. "I couldn't sleep," she said.
"And you have to wake up the whole dorm?" As he said it, he couldn't hide the chuckle on his face. "Couldn't you pick a quieter activity, like reading a book or something?"
Melody grinned again. "I'm trying to build us a sentry bot."
"What's a sentry bot?" Edwin wondered.
"Think of what a sentry does. It's a guard," Melody explained. "Well, this is a robot that kind of does the same thing. It uses laser technology to zap its victims."
"Oh," Edwin mused. "Why are you making a sentry bot?"
"For the silly cow mascots and cheerleaders. They're so annoying!" Then Melody added, "The cheerleaders scream the school cheer in your face and the cow mascots play all kinds of tricks."
For Edwin, the sight of a woman happily hunched over a gray bench with a screwdriver and a hammer was a bit jarring, even if he knew Melody was a different sort of woman with a different background from the ones he'd met. Oh, he knew about her family, the famed toymakers the Tinkers. He figured they probably spent hours hunched over benches. But still, to him, seeing it was a bit surprising.

Dr. Hyden was sitting in his classroom going over his assignments when he stopped Melody as she was leaving. "Melody Tinker," he called as she was heading for the exit, "may I see you, please?"
Melody shrugged. "Sure, Dr. Hyden." She motioned to Chester, waiting at the door, that she was coming in a few seconds.
"I've carefully examined your profile and have discovered some very interesting things in it."
Leaning forward with interest, Melody asked, "What do you mean, interesting things?"
"I didn't realize you were an artist as well. My niece Delilah is an art major here and is also quite talented."
"I wish I still had time to paint," Melody admitted. "I'm so busy now I hardly have time to breathe. What I wouldn't give to commune with my canvas again."
Dr. Hyden continued. "A few years ago you were the Quigley award winner, and the winning painting is very interesting to me."
"Oh? In what way?"
Dr. Hyden leaned forth with a color-printed copy of Melody's painting on a sheet of paper. She barely recognized the girl in the painting -- the only way she realized it was her was the Hanover uniform she was wearing. But there were other details too, like the telescope and the bright blue beam and her backyard in the background.
Melody took a deep breath as she knew she'd been found out. Now would her dean be astute enough to discern her big secret?
"Is this your painting, Miss Tinker?"
Melody closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. "Yes."
"I must say myself, it's an intriguing painting. It seems to depict an abduction, am I correct?"
Melody reluctantly nodded her head.
"Are you the girl in the painting?"
Melody couldn't lie to her dean, but she couldn't tell him the whole truth, either. "Not exactly," she fibbed.
"What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"
"Well," Melody began, shocked that she'd have to answer this question again, "the whole scene is a dream sequence, a 'what if' type scenario. It's asking the question, what happens if aliens are out there? Would they want to establish a line of communication with humans?"
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "An interesting take on the age-old question, Miss Tinker," he said. But he wasn't sure he believed her story. "You say it does, in fact, depict an abduction -- is this one of your own imagination, or does it have basis in reality?"
"There really is no additional analysis needed," Melody said, getting more irritated. "It's just a painting depicting a dream sequence. Nothing more, nothing less. Why, did you think it was real?"
Dr. Hyden decided to change the subject. Filing his suspicion in the back of his mind for now, he had another matter he wanted to discuss with his star pupil. "Miss Tinker, I'm well aware of your demands for a DNA test."
Melody was firm. "It's the only way we're going to answer the question once and for all."
"I'm hearing you've been doing your own experiments with DNA."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, the plant growing at the back of your dormitory. I did a check of the list of students staying at Aldrich, and you're the only one I teach -- and the only one I could see doing something like this."
Melody shook her head. "So you think I'm growing this plant?"
"Miss Tinker, I've questioned everyone else who lives in your dorm. There's a girl who says she's actually seen you go off in the direction of the greenhouse in the back, so I know the plant is yours."
Melody immediately knew who had been the snitch -- Jessica McClellan. And she knew why, too. She knew Jessica was the only person in Aldrich who hated her enough to snitch on her.Just then Chester emerged. He had been at the door, listening. He couldn't allow Melody to take the fall for this alone, it wouldn't sit right with him.
"It's my plant," Chester said, with surety. "We grew it together as an experiment."
Melody was astonished. "Chester!" she exclaimed, half-whispering. "You don't --"
He put his finger over her mouth, looking into her eyes and grabbing her hand. The gesture did not go unnoticed by Dr. Hyden.
"How did you -- how did you come across such a strange hybrid?"
Melody spoke up. "I cannot disclose that information."
"You are going to tell me where you got the instructions to grow that plant -- or you will be expelled from school."
Melody and Chester looked at each other and took deep breaths. "We were doing this as a research project," Melody began. "We were attempting to see if plant and animal DNA could be combined to create something else entirely."
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "I have been teaching for many years, and I don't think I've ever encountered students like you two."
"What do you mean?" asked Chester.
"I've had students with curiosity and a passion for learning, but not on the level of you two."
"Coming from you," Melody said, "I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not."
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "I'm having the biology dean, Dr. Straight, take a trip to Aldrich to get a look at the plant. But since the two of you are in my department, I'm the one who's going to ultimately decide what to do with you." His tone grew more ominous as he directly addressed Melody. "But I will say this -- it would be in your best interest to hand over your notes."
"Can we at least have time to consider our options?" asked Chester, acutely aware of Melody trembling beside him.
Dr. Hyden removed his bifocals and wiped them thoughtfully, apparently weighing up the odds. "And give you two the time to hide or destroy the evidence?" he replied squinting at them, "I think not."

Later that afternoon, Chester decided to play pinball in the Le Tour student union. Melody, coming from the press room, spotted him and decided to join him. Seeing her out of the corner of his eye, he broke out into a wide grin. But Melody was deadly serious. "Hyden's outrageous!" she cried. "He thinks he can beat me."
"Well," Chester replied, "he's got the doctoral degrees and the position as dean of the department. He can do whatever he wants."
"Not if I can help it," Melody sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you see what he's doing, Chester?" asked Melody. "He's trying to blackmail us into giving up our work. You think I'm going to allow him to get the credit? That's not going to happen. I don't care what I have to do."
Chester stopped and looked at Melody. He knew she was serious and he knew her tone was ominous. He knew the last time he saw that look -- just before she returned to Bluewater Village over Christmas break. She hadn't told him what happened there, but he knew something had occurred. He put his hand on hers. "Don't do anything rash," he warned.

Melody had a hard time paying attention in Dr. Hyden's Principles of Astronomy class. While listening to him lecture on quasars, she realized that this was the same man attempting to blackmail her into giving up her pet project. Not in this lifetime, she said to herself. She also wondered how many other students he'd done this to over the years.
Chester, sitting in front of her, had hastily scribbled a note and passed it to her. "Hey Mel," it began, "meet me in the student press room after your next class."
Folding it up and putting it in her notebook, she looked again at the diagrams and formulas Dr. Hyden had put on the chalkboard. She decided she was going to focus on the material and not on the person teaching it.
"Tonight's the lunar eclipse, isn't it?" asked Melody.
Chester shook his head. "Goodness, Mel, are you a computer? I forgot all about that."
"How could you have forgotten? They've been saying it on the news for the last two weeks. We're not going to see another one for two more years."
"You've been looking forward to it for the last two weeks, I bet," Chester chuckled.

That evening Chester and Melody had found their way to the top of the observatory tower in the astronomy building. "What time did they say the lunar eclipse was going to start?" Chester asked.
"The almanac said it starts at eight seventeen and ends at ten thirty."
"Two whole hours." Chester took a deep breath. "Is that how long it takes for the sun's shadow to completely obscure the moon?"
Melody adjusted the knobs on the telescope. "Hey, this is one of those that's supposed to take pictures, right? Is there a way to set that up?"
"Dr. Hyden was showing us," Chester said, leaning over to press a button on the bottom, "I think you turn that knob there and press that button to take pictures."
"Oh," Melody said, shaking her head. "I think I'll take a few practice shots of the Milky Way."
Chester gazed longingly at Melody, thinking to himself that on a night like tonight, he'd like to wrap his arms around her. But right now he wanted to wrap his hands around one of the tuna fish sandwiches he'd packed. "I'm hungry," Chester said between bites. "Do you want one?"
Melody looked at Chester holding the soggy sandwich in his hand. She liked him -- liked him a lot, but sometimes she found him ingratiating. "Uh, no thanks," she replied. "I'm not hungry. Besides, according to my watch the eclipse is supposed to start in two minutes and twenty seconds."
"How about a drink?" Chester popped open a can of soda and the fizz could be heard for awhile afterward. While he took a sip, he managed to spill some on his shirt.
Shaking her head, Melody responded, "Two minutes."
Chester hurriedly packed his food, but left out his tuna fish sandwich. Between bites, he couldn't help but glance back at Melody. My goodness, she's the brightest star out here, he thought to himself.
"One minute," Melody said, aiming the telescope to the northwest sky. Satisfied that the sky wasn't going to be cloudy, as forecasted on the news, Melody decided to sit on the blanket, next to Chester, and watch this natural light show. Her hand briefly brushed against Chester's, causing an electric bolt through his arm, straight to his heart.
He gasped weakly, and glanced across at her.
She drew her hand away. "Oops, sorry," she muttered distractedly, "did I catch you just then?"
"No," he panted, feeling his fair skin tingling as the blood rushed through to his scalp. Thank goodness for the velvety darkness surrounding them.
He leaned towards her, lightly brushing against her arm, the excuse being that his leg was in cramp.
Her skin felt soft, yet cold.
"Oh my," he exclaimed loudly, "you're freezing. Let me get you something to keep you warm."
Touched by his generosity, Melody only smiled. "I'm fine, really," she replied, her hands slid up and down her arms.
Realizing they'd only brought the blanket they sat upon, and it would take at least an hour to run back to the dorm, Chester removed his favorite sweater and draped it over Melody's shoulders. There was a moment, just then, when their eyes locked. He peered through his glasses and past hers.
He leaned forward only fractionally, hoping that she wasn't about to skitter away. When she didn't move, he tried again,using the excuse that his sweater was falling off her shoulder and needed adjusting. Those brown eyes were intense, deep pools of determination he could drown in. He could feel her warm breath in short gasps as he kept approaching. "SQUELCH!!"
As Chester had leaned across, he needed a little balance and he'd put his hand out to steady himself right into the middle of his now soggy tuna sandwiches. "EWWW," he groaned, sitting back, trying to inspect his hand.
Melody stifled a nervous giggle, quite out of character for her. She got up, dusted herself off, and returned to the telescope to get pictures of the eclipse.

Melody was still stargazing when a limousine pulled up in front of the astronomy building. She stopped and looked around, and a blond girl with braids got out and eyed her warily. "Okay, hands up!" said the girl in a meek voice.
Melody was perplexed. What's going on here? she wondered. When she tried to return to her telescope, the blond girl cleared her throat. "You're coming with me."

"Me?" Melody asked, shrugging her shoulders. "What did I do? I'm telling you, I didn't do anything!"
The blond girl jammed her hands firmly on her hips and scowled. "Yeah, right," she muttered, "where've I heard THAT one before? Just come with me, Tinker." The girl struggled to handcuff Melody, who was fit and strong from working out and lifting weights, but managed to lead her to the limousine.
They rode in silence until Melody's insatiable curiosity kicked in. "Where are we going?" asked Melody.
A man's voice from behind a tinted black window responded, "You shall see for yourself."
Finally they arrived at an imposing older building that resembled a castle, complete with a moat. It was like Melody had stepped backwards in time. Waiting to greet her were Robin Simpson from one of her math classes and another girl she didn't know, who wore her hair in two black buns. As the rain drops began falling steadily, Robin stepped up to Melody and handed her a black blazer with a llama crest on it.
"Go ahead, put it on," squealed the other girl. "You're one of us now!" Melody squinched, but eventually she put on her blazer.
Her mind began to wander. Examining the medieval decor, she gazed upon the grim reaper phone, a special phone with an amber glow. Could it be possible, she thought, rubbing her chin, that one had the power to control death itself? Melody was familiar with itches, and like all the rest, this one tickled at her, refusing to go away.
"Don't even think about it," came a whisper.
Melody whipped around to come face to face with none other than Jessica McClellan, Chester's girlfriend.
"What do you want?" Jessica asked, her voice taking on a sinister cadence. "I've been watching you, Tinker."
"Likewise," came the tart reply.
Jessica blanched at the thoughts of being 'observed.' Even though they were wearing the same colors, there was no love lost between them.
"I love him," Jessica replied, "and there's nothing you can do or say about it."
"I know your type," Melody shot back, "you don't love anyone but yourself. Does he know about you and Chaz?"
"Oh, please!" Jessica cried. "I wouldn't touch Chaz Whippler with a ten foot pole!"
"That's not what I've heard."
"Oh really. And where exactly did you get your information? The guy himself?" Jessica chuckled. "He's so in love his his car, I'm surprised he hasn't married it by now."
It was a cruel shot, and Melody winced at Jessica's crudeness. But she was not done. "And what the heck do you know? You're no different. You're so in love with your robots and telescope, you make no time for anything or anyone else."
Melody took a deep breath. Her mind flashed back, to the insults hurled at her by Sarah and the girls at Hanover Academy. Jessica's rant and Sarah's became indistinguishable. "That was harsh, Jessica."
"Demi told me, she found you stargazing!"
Melody shrugged. "What can I say, I love astronomy. Have since I was a little girl."
"You're an oddball, Tinker," Jessica chuckled. "I wonder what the heck Chester sees in you, he talks about you constantly."
"Just because Chester's your boyfriend and all, doesn't give you the excuse to belittle everyone else in his life!"
"Because I'm his girlfriend, who else does he need?"
Melody fumed. "Listen, sister. I've been in his life long before you even sauntered into the picture, and I'll be around long after you've sashayed your little way out of it. So let me give you a little piece of advice. Get used to it, okay?"

Chapter Thirty (Part One)

While Wanda and Florence were busy digging up the Tinker homestead, Melody and Chester had made their way downstairs, to their secret laboratory in the basement of Aldrich dormitory, in the dead of night. Chester couldn't believe he'd agreed to this. Why was he following her, again? What was it about this tall, dark, lanky, bespectacled woman that intrigued him so?
She told him to take a seat in the contraption of wires she called a chair. As he waited, a wave of apprehension came over him and he felt nauseous.
He wasn't too good with blood at the best of times. And there was yet another fear that crept up his spine.
Something that had been niggling at the back of his mind for a while now. He was relieved, however, when Melody approached him, carrying a wooden spatula.
"Stick your tongue out," she said, matter of factly.
If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, Chester would have laughed out loud. But there was something about the determination in Melody's face that stopped him. As she handed him her notes on the plant's progress and growth, he chopped hybrid seedlings to examine them under the microscope. They wanted to make sure every seedling had developed to their exacting standards.
But Melody noticed that Chester had cut his finger. Leaning over towards him, she sprayed an antibacterial and covered the wound with a bandage. Chester couldn't help himself. He was grinning from ear to ear.
Then Melody examined some of the seedlings again. She noticed their cellular structure had been changed because of the droplets of Chester's blood that had made it onto them. "Chester," Melody called, "could you come see this?"
Chester shuffled over to where Melody had the seedlings underneath the microscope. "Hmm, I really can't discern a difference."
"There's definitely a difference, Chester. I'm wondering if there's something in that blood that made that cell structure change."
Melody decided to try something. She made an incision in her own finger and smeared the blood on another seedling, afterwards covering it with a bandage and spraying an antibacterial.
"What are you doing?" asked Chester.
"I'm trying to see if my blood will make a difference in the cell structure of the seedling."
Chester chuckled silently to himself as he shook his head. A few moments later, Melody checked to see if there was any noticeable changes to the cell structure of the seedlings she'd contaminated with her blood. Even though there were changes, they weren't as dramatic as the ones that had been contaminated with Chester's blood.
But Melody was serious. Folding her arms, she looked him in the eye. "Tell me the truth, Chester. I feel like you're hiding something from me. We should have no secrets, as long as we've known each other."
Chester had to admit, Melody could be intimidating at times. He felt like she could see right through him. Must be the heiress in her, he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, Chester sadly admitted, "I'm part alien."
Melody shook her head in astonishment. "No, wait, Ches, you didn't just say that. You're not telling me you have alien ancestry, are you? That's impossible."
"Anything's possible when you're from Strangetown."
Melody turned away from Chester, trying to process this new information. "We've been chatting for four years about abductions and conspiracies, and you never once told me someone in your own family had been abducted."
"Well, it's not something you entirely feel comfortable about admitting."
"I felt comfortable enough with you to tell you about my abduction!"
"Yes, but that was different."
"How, Chester? How?" Melody took a deep breath, realizing this should be no big deal and she needed to calm down. "You're still the only person in the world who knows about that. I don't tell my secrets to just anybody."
When Melody looked away, Chester recognized that look. It was the one she got when she wanted to be left alone.
"Melody -- " Chester put his hand on her shoulder. "Melody, I'm sorry, really, I am. I really should have told you."

"I remember this box," Wanda said wistfully. "It's all of Melody's stuff from when she was little." "You kept everything?" Florence asked.
"Yep. Stephen and I kept everything -- her old drawings, her report cards, even her cute little baby dresses." Wanda held out one of them for Florence to see. "I wonder if Harmony could fit this now."
Florence shook her head. "Melody does seem to have been very small. Just look at her now."
"Look, here's her black and blue striped sleeper. She loved that one, she never wanted to wear anything else." Wanda sighed. "You remember, Florence, me telling you that we had a hard time getting Melody to play with toys, till we just gave up on it?"
Florence nodded.
"Before my mother died I took Melody to see her. They bonded immediately, in a way that my mother and I never did. I believe they communicated with each other even back then, even though my mother was aged and my daughter could barely talk. Melody doesn't remember this, but my mom bought her all kinds of little things. Curiously, she knew not to buy Melody any toys, no dolls or teddy bears and such, even though I'd never told her about the jack-in-the-box incident. She'd bought her books and stuff."
"Did your mother know Melody was going to be knowledge-oriented?"
"I think she suspected it. Melody was always asking her to read to her, she said. Sometimes I think if Melody were their child, my parents would have adored her."
Florence nodded again. "We are supposed to be looking for those papers."

Meanwhile, Melody had slept in the next morning, which was highly unusual for her. She shuffled out of bed as the moonlight filtered through her bedroom window. She'd taken a dump, a shower, and gone out to her greenhouse to check on her 'baby', the cowplant she was growing as an experiment.
She couldn't get over what Chester had told her the night before. Her best friend, himself, was part-alien. That explained why, when he touched the computers in the laboratory, electric voltage shot through them. She felt a slight tinge of jealousy towards him -- if only there were people that exciting in HER family tree. Of course, she wasn't entirely sure of the other half of it yet. Only the DNA could tell her for sure, whether the astronomy professor or the policeman toymaker was her biological father.
She knew she was risking getting found out, but she didn't care. She needed to check it out, to see how it was progressing. Whipping out her notepad, she measured its height and circumference, and carefully pulled weeds around it and watered it.
It seemed like the more she knew, the more she wanted to learn.
"I can't believe you, Chester Gieke," Melody said, approaching him for breakfast. "I can't believe after all this time, you'd keep a secret like that from me."
Chester sighed. "Mel -- I'm sorry, really. It's just -- I wasn't sure --"
"C'mon, Chester, I spilt my guts out about that night to you -- or what I remember about that night."
"My heritage is not something I take lightly, and you're the only person I've told so far. Not even Jessica knows." Chester took a deep breath. "It was my great-great-grandfather. He'd been abducted back in Strangetown."
Melody sighed. "So your great-grandfather was half-alien."
"Pollination Technician #6," Chester said, "was my great-great-great grandfather."
"How did you find this out?"
Chester looked away. "I hacked into the Strangetown Town Hall archives, which had been put on computer." He went on to tell her his family's sorry story. He told her he'd been born in Bluewater as an only child, and after his parents died, he was shipped to Strangetown to his only remaining living adult relative -- his uncle, Dieter. Dieter Gieke had been a robot maker and surrounded himself with gadgets of all kinds. Dieter also had two children -- a boy and a girl. Chester didn't get along as well with the male cousin -- who was his age -- as he did the female, who was younger.
"My uncle Dieter believed the military -- led by one infamous General Buzz Grunt -- was watching us. There were these tanks that would roll down our street all the time. Then helicopters circled our house all the time."
"I can't imagine what that would be like. Were you scared?"
Chester took a deep breath. "I was, kinda. Then there was that Loki Beaker guy. Frankly he gave me the creeps."
Melody made a face. "I've heard of him. Wasn't he the one who did those experiments on --"
"Yeah, that's him." Chester continued. "My uncle was under a lot of pressure. Not only did he have to deal with the authorities breathing down his neck, but then there was the electronics shop he ran in Bluewater after my dad died."
Melody's eyes flew open as she gasped. "You mean the Electronics Superstore -- it belonged -- to YOUR family?"
Chester nodded sadly.
Melody could feel herself filling with rage. "Malcolm Landgraab -- that greedy, selfish bastard! I kind of figured he wouldn't be interested in any electronics -- except to make money off of them."
"I didn't find out what had happened until much later, too late for me to have done anything about it. After my uncle died everything got scattered, sort of what happened after your dad passed." Chester heaved a deep sigh. "My uncle was very cryptic about my heritage. He had to be, really. He'd only said bits and pieces to me, about us Giekes having a kinship with aliens and an interest in astronomy -- that was pretty much all I had to go on until I came here. I still have no idea where my cousins are, I haven't seen or heard from them since I left Strangetown to attend school here."
Melody put a hand on Chester's shoulder. "We're going to find them," she vowed.
Chester was desperate to change the subject. "Did you lock up the remaining seeds?"
Melody smiled. "Of course I did. You know those seeds absolutely cannot get into the wrong hands."

Meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Young, faculty adviser of the Le Tour math team, walked into a nearly empty classroom, save for two mop-haired guys who were talking amongst themselves. "Where's your third wheel, Gieke?" he asked Chester, eyeing him. "I see you've brought Mr. Sharpe here, excellent."
"She's coming," Chester said, and no sooner had he said it than Melody barged into the door, dropping her books all over. "Sorry I'm late," she said as Chester and Edwin rushed to help her pick up her mess. "I got caught up in my research project on the time and space continuum and lost track of the time."
The boys shrugged. That was the Melody they knew, all right.
Dr. Young took his index card off his desk and read it aloud. "You are Melody Tinker, right?"
Melody nodded.
"And you're double-majoring in astronomy and mathematics and minoring in art and anthropology."
Melody nodded again.
"That's quite a courseload, young lady." Dr. Young managed a chuckle. "Can't say you're not making the most of your time here."
The three friends sat in the front row of the classroom while Dr. Young handed them a sheet of sample questions. For the next hour they bantered back and forth about word problems, quadratic equations, sines and cosines, and other such mathematical terms. Dr. Young hardly did anything. He sat most of the time with his arms folded and his mouth gaped open. He felt satisfied that these were the right students to represent Academie Le Tour in the upcoming collegiate math competition.

It was the middle of the night and it was unseasonably warm. Chester could hardly sleep, so his legs carried him, unconsciously, towards Aldrich Hall. How or why, he simply couldn't understand, but he found himself stood at the front entrance.
Normally he would ring, but it was pretty late and he guessed the others were either asleep or out partying. The air conditioning was working a lot better here than at his place and he found it easier to concentrate. As he was busy working on his assignment, he felt a sudden surge of electricity. That meant only one thing.
Melody was in the basement.
Chester guessed that she couldn't sleep either, but he also knew the basement wasn't exactly the ideal place to cool down.
Trotting down the steep stairs, Chester opened the door and peered in. Slumped over a desk fast asleep was Melody. Judging by the notes on the computer, she'd been here for hours.
He was beginning to get worried for her. This 'project' was beginning to consume her. If she wasn't careful, she'd burn herself out, just like his uncle. He'd witnessed Dieter Gieke, a powerfully built man with fabulous ideas who worked on complicated machinery, reduced to a fair shell of himself.
Dieter was a strapping man. Melody was tall, but slight.
Shaking Melody gently, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to her suite, where he laid her gently down on the bed. Even though he was slightly built, he was astonished at how light Melody felt in his arms.
Leaning down, Chester gently rubbed her forehead, leaving the comforter neatly folded at the foot of the bed. He knew that she was stubborn and wouldn't listen, but he also knew that if she didn't slow down and take on so much responsibility, then the Melody he knew and loved would soon vanish before his very eyes.
He couldn't let that happen. And he wasn't the only person who noticed, either.

Very early the next morning, after Melody had gotten her bearings, she stared at her computer, at a foreign series of numbers and letters on the screen. She knew this had been her dream and she knew this was why she'd put up her paintbrushes, but the urge was still there, still latent. She could not help herself.
Turning off the machine, Melody went hunting for her painting supplies. She found her watercolors, a few stray canvases, and her old trusty folding easel she'd had since she was eight. Maybe it was time for a new one, she thought.
Staring at the blank canvas, Melody wondered to herself, what am I doing? What the heck am I doing? Did I still have it? Or have my painting days passed me by?
Like she used to, Melody dipped her brush into the palette and dashes of color appeared on the canvas. She wasn't sure what she was doing or why she was doing it, all she knew was she was doing one of the things she loved. Just like old times. And just like old times, she'd managed to forget everything that was happening around her -- tuned it out -- and concentrated on her piece.
Just then Marla walked in. "I was just putting this right --" She then looked up at Melody's painting. "Wow. I didn't know you painted. You're REALLY good."
Melody didn't pay any attention to her. Engrossed in her canvas, she'd lost herself in what she was doing.
"Why don't you paint more often?" asked Marla, still astonished at Melody's obvious talent.
Halfway through her UFO painting, and hiding it just the same, risking smearing the paints all over the back of her shirt, Melody finally muttered, somewhat absent-mindedly, "I wish I had time. I'm so busy, frankly --" Hastily attempting to cover her easel with a blanket, Melody stumbled.
All of this made Marla even more suspicious. "Melody, what are you hiding from me? We're supposed to be best friends, why do we have secrets? Before today, I didn't even know you painted. What can't you do?"
"Fly," Melody shot back sarcastically.
"And I bet you're working on that." Marla took a deep breath. "Mel, I'm really sorry for reading your journal. It was just sitting there on the bed and I couldn't help myself. Besides, I was worried about how much time you were spending away from the dorm."
Melody let out a deep sigh. "Pardon me, Marla, but it's not really any of your business what I do."
"I know, but it's just that I care about you a lot and I worry about you. I worry about all my friends. That's how I am." Marla set a small wrapped gift box on top of Melody's bed and walked out.
Getting herself together, Melody uncovered her canvas. Her curiosity getting the better of her again, she picked up Marla's package and untied the bow. Carefully she unsealed the wrapping paper, discovering the volume. 'The Blind Watchmaker' by Richard Dawkins. Inside was a note. "I picked this up when I was in the used bookstore downtown. I know you're going to go through this in one evening, but I figured since you're into science, this would be something that interested you. Marla."
Melody put her copy of The Blind Watchmaker in her bookcase and returned to her set of numbers. "I feel like I'm close," she muttered to herself, "I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough."

Chaz Whippler sat down in front of his dormitory when he spotted Melody, her curly ponytail flying, walking up to the entrance. She was cradling a basketball in her arm. Chaz shook his head. "What, are you kidding? I thought we were supposed to be going over sines and cosines today."
Melody couldn't help herself. "We will," she kidded, "on the court." As Chaz gave her a confused look, Melody twirled the basketball on top of her middle finger.
"I didn't know you were into sports," he said.
Laughing heartily, Melody replied, "I used to play a lot with my dad in the backyard when I was younger. Soccer, baseball, football, basketball. My mom used to fuss because I'd come in the house having ripped my dresses. Did you think I spent all day in the house reading?"
Chaz again shook his head. This Melody Tinker was one surprise after another.
After changing to her exercise gear, Melody sprinted to the newly-installed basketball hoop in front of Lam Plaza Dormitory and began bouncing her basketball. "Hey Chaz," she shouted, "Michael Jordan didn't wait for his competition."
He came out of the dorm with his tennis shoes on and met Melody at the basketball hoop. "I'll beat you yet."
"You couldn't beat a dead man, Chaz," joked Melody.
"I may not be super fit like you but I play a little bit." Bouncing the ball, Chaz tried to demonstrate his dead-eye shooting prowess, but his underhanded shot bounced off the rim.
Melody tried to stifle giggles. "Here, Chaz, let me show you." She placed the basketball in his hand. "Bouncing the basketball allows you to get maximum lift on your shot. You're supposed to shoot over your head at precisely a forty-five-degree angle. One little bit off and your shot doesn't go through the net. It either bounces left or right off the iron, depending on the direction your shot angle misses." She shot the ball ten times, and each time the basketball went through the netting.
Chaz was amazed. What other surprises would the ponytailed wonder hold for him? They stood outside shooting baskets on that brisk winter day, the breezes cutting their cheeks and warming their hands by blowing into them. The game ended when Chaz received yet another phone call from a female companion, and Melody remained outside the dorm, practicing her free throw stroke.

Chapter Twenty-Nine (Part Two)

Edwin flopped down on one of the chairs in the Le Tour library. Marla looked up from her book. "Something wrong?" she asked.
Sighing, he took his glasses off and wiped them roughly on his tee shirt.
"It's Roxie and that creep Jonah again," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I thought you'd left there for good."
"I got a call from Roxie, asking to pick up a package from mom and dad. When I got there, you could hear them from outside."
Marla shook her head.
"I wish they'd stop, or at least she'd dump him."
Melody raised her eyes only ever so slightly, she was used to hearing about Edwin's sister and the massive rows that she had with her boyfriend. They were the reason Edwin had come back to live in the dorms in the first place.
"What was it this time?" asked Marla, the draw of Edwin's family life far more important than the research she was supposed to be working on.
"The same as always." he sighed, putting his glasses back on. "Now creep face is accusing her of sleeping around."
"That sucks."
"Yeah, apparently she's been spending a lot of time getting extra tutoring from one of the professors."
Marla slammed the book down.
"There's nothing wrong with that," she said, defensively.... "especially if she's falling behind with her course work. Anyway, from what I gathered, he needn't talk, he's worse than her. I've heard rumors..."
Melody raised her head from her studies. "Out of curiosity," she said softly.
Everybody turned to look at her. It was rare for Melody to get involved in anybody's business.
"Which professor was it?"
"Oh, Dr. Hyden."
Edwin's offhand remark felt harmless enough, but Melody felt sick. So, the other day, it was Roxie who'd been in Dr Hyden's office. It wasn't some random female after all. "Erm," Melody put her book down carefully and tried to compose herself, "Ed, how long has this been going on for?"
Edwin didn't say anything. He didn't have to. Melody had already made a mad dash away from the table, toward the nearest restroom.
While he and Marla sat dumbfounded, Melody locked herself in the restroom and proceeded to throw up her dinner. After wiping her mouth, she collapsed in a heap near the toilet and enveloped herself in her arms, sobbing.
Finally Marla gathered up the courage to knock on the door. "Melody?" she asked in her sweet voice. "Melody, are you okay?"
Pressing her ears closer to the door, Marla listened to another round of purging. "Can I take you to the campus infirmary?"
Motioning for Edwin to come forth, Marla shook her head. "Ed, she's locked herself in the bathroom --"
"I'll talk to her." Edwin joined Marla at the doorway to the main bathroom on the first floor. "Mel?" he asked, knocking gently. "Mel, are you all right?"
"Leave me alone!" shouted Melody from behind the doorway.
Edwin and Marla looked at each other. "Yep, she's okay," Marla told Edwin.
Just then they turned around after hearing the click of the doorknob. Melody emerged as if nothing had happened, dusting herself off.


Melody sprang from her bed before sunrise one morning, before even the dorm cook arrived. She turned the key on the padlock to her secret laboratory and walked inside, flicking the light switch. Immediately she walked to where she and Chester had placed the seeds they were making. "Yes! They're ready!" she squealed excitedly like a little girl getting her Christmas gifts.
Putting on her lab gloves, she removed the seeds from the container they'd been kept in and ran to the greenhouse in the back of the dormitory she and Chester had built specifically for this experiment. Humming to herself, she prepared a spot of ground for the seeds to be planted. She'd never gardened before, but she found that she liked tilling the earth, preparing it to bring life forth.
Next she dropped the seeds into the hole that she'd dug, covered them back up with dirt, and watered them. Now all she could do was wait. Would their experiment be a success -- or crash and burn?

Edwin joined Melody for a late-night cup of coffee. "I hate her," Melody muttered between sips, shaking her head in disgust.
Edwin knew instantly she was referring to Jessica McClellan, Chester's new girlfriend. Lightly touching her on the shoulder, he responded, with his soft calm voice, "Calm down, Mel. You hardly know her."
"I know enough about her to know that I can't stand that bimbo. He's so enamored with this girl that he can't see that she's only using him."
"How do you know that?" Edwin asked. As Melody washed the cups up, a dim realization crept through his caffeine-fogged brain. Listening to her caffeine-tinged rant, he wondered, is it possible? He shook his head, trying to remove the thought, but it stuck there, unwilling to go away. What if he was wrong? Quite out of character, Edwin asked, "You like Chester, don't you, Mel?"
Melody's jaw dropped to the floor. "C'mon, Edwin, he's my best friend in the whole world. Of course I like him."
"You know what I mean -- you know, a different kind of like. For a boyfriend."
As Melody continued to categorically deny that she liked Chester 'that way,' Edwin realized that the more he thought about it, the more he realized Chester felt that way towards Melody. He thought about the amount of times he'd seen Chester following her around like a puppy, and the way his face lit up whenever she was in the room and darkened when she left it. Could he possibly dare to intervene and knock their heads together? Or should he leave matters be and see what happens next?
Melody sighed heavily, dark rings beginning to appear under her eyes. "I'm turning in now," she said, a defeated tone in her voice.
Edwin raised his eyebrows. Mel? Tired? It was never heard of.
This left him alone in the dorm, alone with his thoughts and feelings. Sure, he loved and respected Melody, but he also realized she was wearing herself thin too. Oh, he knew about the late night trysts. Being a light sleeper, thanks to Roxie and Jonah's loud music, he often heard Melody's soft footfalls and hand claps as she passed his door. He also heard the low whispers of two voices -- one was distinctly Melody's, raspy and throaty but with a distinctly feminine cadence, and the other, a lot more muffled, he was sure, belonged to Chester.
He also wondered about the fluctuations in the dorm's power grid that occurred at about midnight every night, and the sudden appearance of a greenhouse out back. He knew something was going on, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Melody found herself face-to-face with Chester's girlfriend, Jessica McClellan, over the starchy macaroni and cheese served in Aldrich that evening. Melody stared Jessica in the eye and waited for her to blink.
"Just who do you think you are?" Jessica asked, staring straight into Melody's brown eyes.
"That's funny," retorted Melody, "I was just about to ask you the same question."
"This is about Chester, isn't it?"
"So what if it is?" Melody was adamant. "He's my best friend in the whole world, and I don't want to see him get hurt. Especially not by the likes of you."
Jessica's cheeks turned beet red through her porcelain skin. "What makes you think I'm going to actually hurt Chester?"
"I know your type, Jessica. Girls like you are a dime a dozen. You tease guys into thinking they're your one and only when it turns out you've got 3 or 4 others on the side."
"Why are you sitting here making all kinds of assumptions about me? Is it because of my blond hair? Or my outfit? Well, all your assumptions are wrong. I love him and he loves me."
"Oh, don't give me that bull, Jessica! You wouldn't know what love is if it stared you in the face and made you beg for mercy!"
"As if you can talk, Melody Tinker. I've heard all the rumors. Everyone around campus has. Everyone around here knows you've never been on a date."
"That's none of your business anyway! Remember what you just said about assumptions, Jessica? Just because you hear something, doesn't mean it's true. And besides, you're belaboring the point. The point is, I know you've been a notch on Chaz Whippler's bedpost."
Jessica was aghast. "Who told you that?"
"Doesn't matter who told me, just that I know. Besides, I'm tutoring Whippler in math. Now, if I tell that to Chester, you're finished. Case closed."

Back in Bluewater Village, Malcolm Landgraab IV was in his mansion on the telephone, screaming to his lawyer. "Lawson, we have got to act now! Time is money, and we're wasting a lot of both with this kid and her little toy store. Do you have something, anything you can use to try to force them off the property?" Banging his fist on the table, Malcolm screamed louder. "Well, Lawson, you've got to do something. Say anything! Say something to make these people wake up!" Slamming the receiver on the hook, Malcolm vowed, "Tinker Toys will be mine if it's the last thing I do."
Meanwhile Wanda Tinker had gone to her mailbox, like she always had done every three days. Among her stack of bills was a thick package coming from the law offices of M. Quincy Lawson. "Oh boy, I hope it's not jury duty again," she sighed. She opened the letter and read its contents: "Dear Mrs. Tinker, according to city council records, there have been a few land disputes in and around Bluewater Village. In order to clarify your land rights, we suggest you hand in a copy of your registry documents as proof that you are, indeed, the rightful owner of both your residence and your business...Sincerely, M. Quincy Lawson, Attorney at Law."
Puzzled, Wanda wondered what the attorney's words meant. She didn't understand the legal language of the letter, so she called someone who she thought might know more. "Florence?" she asked, listening to the Delarosa phone ring once, twice, three times.
Florence was busy dealing with customers in her flower shop who'd mostly come in to seek the new shipment that had arrived. But the tone in Wanda's voice told her something was wrong. Discreetly she tried to carry on the conversation while tending to the customers. "So you got a suspicious letter today in the mail?" she asked while showing a customer a blooming lily plant.
"Really strange, Florence. From some lawyer."
Florence frowned. "A lawyer, huh?" she replied while talking to a customer. "This is trouble. I knew he'd try this."
"Who?" asked Wanda.
"This is the handiwork of none other than the man himself."
Wanda, warming a jar of toddler food for Harmony in the kitchen, heaved a sigh. "Malcolm Landgraab."
Florence's voice was sweet, but firm. "You've got to tell her."
"Call Melody at college?" asked Wanda while feeding Harmony her strained carrots. "No way! I can't bother her with this. She deserves to have a normal college life, free from all this stuff."
Florence nodded. "I know she does. Heaven knows the child's been through more stuff than people twice her age -- and she's handled it a whole heck of a lot better than I would, that's for sure." Managing a chuckle, Florence suddenly turned serious. "This is as important to her as it is to you. Perhaps more so." Taking a deep breath as she rang up a customer with the phone in her ear, she then asked about the contents of the letter.
"I didn't understand it really. Something about land rights."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Florence while ringing up another customer. "He's disputing your claim to your property. He wants copies of your deed. Do you know where they are?"
Wanda whispered "no" sadly.
"That's the point. He thinks you don't know where the papers are, so he's putting pressure on you to find them. Typical."
"Okay, so now what do I do?"
"I'm coming over to help you as soon as I'm done over here."
The phone rang in Aldrich again. "Hello?" asked Melody, bewildered.
"Hi sweetie, it's me, Florence."
Melody piped up at Florence's sweet-sounding voice. "Hi, Ms. Florence, what's up?"
"Melody dear, Malcolm is turning up the heat again. He's asked your mother for proof the land the toy store is built on is actually your family's land."
Melody shook her head. "Un-believable!" she shouted. "He'll stop at nothing, won't he?"
"And as you can probably understand, your mother is freaking out about it."
"Is she there right now? Can I talk to her?"
"I'm in the flower shop. She doesn't know I called you."
Melody sighed. "I see. So in other words he wants the deed to the property."
"Basically, yes."
"And she's freaking out because she can't find it and she doesn't know where it is."
"Basically, yes."
Melody took a deep breath. "Could you tell her to look in the file cabinet by the computer in the master bedroom? I'm sure that's where Daddy kept his files."
Wanda had just put Harmony to sleep when the doorbell rang. "Knock, knock, it's me, Florence." Florence let herself in because Wanda had left the door open. "Do you have any idea where to find those papers?"
"What papers?" asked Wanda absentmindedly, but then she remembered. "Oh, yes, those."
"I talked to Melody on the phone right after I closed down the shop for the afternoon."
Wanda was surprised. "What? I thought we said --"
"Wanda, she's so calm and reasonable."
"Isn't she?" reminisced Wanda with a deep, wistful sigh. "She doesn't get it from me, that's for sure. I'm a quivering wreck most of the time -- but there she is. I can't take any credit because it's all her."
"She says to look in the file cabinet in the master bedroom." The two of them went upstairs to try to locate the paperwork.