It was then she realised she was being watched. Looking down she saw a million (or what it felt like) pairs of eyes staring up at her from beneath coal. Then one of them released its grip on the coal, and it collapsed on it. Once it did it began to painfully squeak, but for some reason you could tell it was play acting. Suddenly all the other soot balls began doing the same thing, all walking towards Goo and crowding around her feet and dropping their loads on top of their heads. Wilt finally physically moved, his whole body sifting to look down at the soot balls and Goo in shock.
"Hey hey now! Guys! Get back to work! Do you want to be turned back into soot again? I'm sorry but this is not okay! Look at what you did to them, now what are we gonna do?" Wilt flipped and flopped from concerned worrisome tones to slight annoyance and back again, banking the wheel again trying to restore order. He kind of did, for the soot balls got out from under the coal only to squeak angrily at Goo for not doing their work, and getting them in trouble with Wilt.
Off to the side, across from where Goo came in, a door was slid open from the other side. It was a small crawl space door, and the person coming through had to climb. And given she was carrying things didn't make it any easier, but she managed. The person was a human, a young woman, and no more then twenty five. Her hair was fiery red to match Wilt's skin, and her outfit was pink in colour. Shorts with tie offs, and a top with a white rope tied around her arms. She looked up as she set her haul on the floor. In one hand had been a tray with a small plate of food (probably Wilt's dinner), and in the other was a basket full of something unknown yet. "Hey guys, what's going on? You all fighting again?" she asked as she stood up, picking her goods up once again to walk over to the commotion. "Where's your bowl Wilt? I keep telling you to leave it out for me." she gently chided the boiler man whilst all the soot balls immediately forgot their quarrel to go and squeak around in front of the woman's feet excitedly.
"Sorry Frankie." Wilt sighed a bit but smiled all the same, as one of his arms extended towards her with an empty plate. They traded one for the other, and soon Wilt had his meal. Only then did the young woman named Frankie finally glance away and then did she spot Goo. Her eyes went wild.
"The human!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger. "So this is where you are?! You are in so much trouble; the whole house is looking for you!"
"Uh, um. Uh..." Goo didn't know what to say. Again. This place seemed to have a way of rendering her speechless. How could a grown up be calling her a 'human' when she was one?
"She's my creator." Wilt spoke up gently from between eating his meal which looked to be consisted of rice and some large shrimps.
Both Goo and Frankie stared at him blankly for a few moments.
"Your creator?" Frankie asked, weary of Wilt's answer. She had heard this story before; whenever a human was fortunate enough to bump into Wilt in his boiler room and they were caught he'd cover up, saying they were his creator. But Frankie knew the truth. Heck, he'd even tried to save her with the same excuse years ago.
"Yep!" Wilt replied brightly, knowing all too well Frankie wasn't buying it. "She said she's looking to work here," as he spoke, two of his spare arms began mixing the rice while another hand grabbed a piece of bread. "But I told her, I'm sorry but I have enough help. And sorry Frankie but I think you should feed the guys, they're growing impatient."
"Oh right." Frankie finally began throwing what was in the basket to the soot balls below. It was candy stars. You know, the tiny stars that you put on cakes, or fairy bread. The little soot balls rejoiced at the food being thrown from above they seemed to sing and dance in excitement at the food before grabbing what they could and scurrying away to eat. "So what're we gonna do with her?" Frankie asked.
"Well I think you should take her to go see Duchess. She's a tough little thing; I think she'll be fine." Wilt looked to Goo, smiling at her before realising he had rice on his teeth and quickly closing his mouth but still smiled at her.
"No way I'm not gonna stick my neck out for her!" Frankie said. Once again Wilt's one eyestalk turned around to look at Frankie for a moment, before one of his hands vanished beneath his seat.
"Oh really?" he asked, a sly smile on his face.
"Yeah really!" Frankie shot back.
"Not even for..." his hand reappeared and stretched itself to Frankie, in his hand was a cookie.”Foster's Famous Triple Chocolate Cookie?" Wilt asked, grinning like a loon.
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