Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here once again to bring you chapter eight of my story Catzilla. This week I found my novelist has changed my walk time. This means I go earlier in the day than later because the weather is becoming warmer and though I am well-groomed for the upcoming summer I do pant from the heat. I am not sure how I feel about this change of schedule. I have no problem waking my novelist up at ruthlessly early hours but just because I wake my novelist up early does not mean I wish to rise from my slumber at such a time. I rather like sleeping in on a human bed. It’s big, soft, and comfortable. I don’t even like to eat meals before noon. But I am not going to be able to change her mind any time soon. Morning humans do not understand night poodles. And with that thought, here is chapter eight of Catzilla.

Catzilla

by

Gigi the parti poodle

Chapter Eight

Lyle and I agreed to meet at the entrance gate to the Edevane factory at ten on Sunday night. This was no easy task as I have an overly protective mother. But I managed to open my window which faced the back yard and crawled out, snuck around the side, and quietly wheeled my bicycle out into the street. I had wheeled my bike out of the garage & parked it by the side of the house before dinner and even offered to take out the garbage to ensure my mother didn’t see it.

I walked my bike two blocks before I got on it and started to ride. I had ridden out to the Edevane factory a couple of times a long time ago and I’d forgotten how far it was. I had to ride up two steep hills, ride over an overpass, and head down a long tree-lined road before I got halfway there. Then I had to pass the YMCA and head through a couple of neighborhoods before I finally got to the place.  

Lyle stood at the gate with his bike. His mother’s lanyard with her keycard hung around his neck. He waved sheepishly at me.

“Hi, Lyle,” I said as I dismounted my bike.

“I don’t know how many places in here my mom’s keycard is going to work on,” he said.

“Will it work on the gate here?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it will.” He held the card up to the keypad and we heard the lock pop open. “We’ll need these,” he said holding out a pair of disposable latex gloves. “Fingerprints and all.”

“Good idea.” I put on the gloves and threw the hood of my zippered sweatshirt over my head. Lyle did the same and we headed towards the main entrance door. Lyle put the keycard up to the pad and it too clicked open like the gate, and we went inside. “Do you know where your mom’s office is? You know just in case we need a homebase.”

“It’s on the third floor. Most of what’s down here is the factory, and the offices are all upstairs.”

“What do they make here anyway? It’s always been kind of secretive.”

“My mom doesn’t talk about work much. But I think they make sports medicine drugs.”

“Really. That’s odd. I would have guessed they made something else entirely.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Maybe toys.”

“No. They make sports medicine drugs.”

“Interesting.”

We walked through the rows of machinery until we got to the end where a large red steel door stood. Lyle held the keycard up to the pad and unlocked the door. The hall had a Kubrickian look to it with one of the overhead lights flickering ominously. This made me even more concerned about the experiments the Edevane’s might be doing. As I moved down the hallway, Lyle hung back and opened one of the doors. “Briar, come here,” he said. I turned back to see Lyle standing at the entrance staring inside. I moved over beside him. “What do you make of this?” he said.

As I looked inside the room, I saw what looked like a classroom for preschoolers complete with a colorful rug in primary colors and a mural of cats playing in a field. “I don’t know,” I said. Maybe its where employees leave their kids when they work here.”

“But there’s no chairs. No tables. No toys. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“I don’t know, Lyle. Maybe they took the chairs, stacked them, and put them in that big closet there. Come on. Let’s keep searching for a laboratory.” Lyle shut the door and we continued down the hall. That’s when we thought we heard something. “What’s that?”

“Don’t know. Sounded like it came from the end of the hall. After we check it out do you want to see my mom’s office?”

“Okay, but let’s check this out first.”

We crept towards the end of the hall. As we did the sound grew louder. I started to wish I hadn’t come out here tonight. Lyle bravely stepped up to the door and held his mother’s keycard up to the pad…but it didn’t work. “I guess my mom doesn’t have access to this one,” he whispered.

I was relieved. I really didn’t want to open the door and find out what was making the sound.  Especially if it turned out to be unrelated to Dr. Grosser’s experiment. Lyle and I quietly turned and headed for the stairs.

“Worst case, I can at least show you my mom’s office,” Lyle said.

“Yeah, but I rode all the way out here to find out what Dr. Grosser’s experiments are.”

“The night’s still young.”

We headed into the stairwell and up a couple flights, opened the door and entered the third floor. Out of habit I looked behind me. My mother always taught me to turn around every so often and see if anyone was following me. A good habit I suppose.

“Here it is,” Lyle said holding his mother’s keycard up to the pad. The light turned from red to green. Lyle pressed down the lever on the door and we entered.

Lyle’s mother’s office was larger than I expected. She had a whiteboard which almost covered the full length of one wall with her desk and chair expanded across the opposite wall. On the desk were a laptop docking station, a large coffee mug with company’s E logo boldly painted on it full of company pens and pencils, a crystal statue with a 5-year employee etched on it and a bobblehead cat in the opposite upper corner. Lyle reached over and tapped the cat’s head which made it bounce around.

“Your mom has a nice office,” I said and sat down in her desk chair.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I used to come here more often.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they used to have a bring your kid to work day but that phased out a couple of years ago. In fact, a lot of things here phased out.”

“Why?”

“I think the company is struggling financially. Please don’t tell anyone that. My mom says it’s classified information.”

“I won’t.”

Lyle sat down on the edge of the desk. “Shall we keep searching?”

“Sounds good to me.”

We got up and headed out of the office. Lyle checked to make sure the door locked behind us. “If for some reason we get separated, we can meet back here.” Lyle and I headed further down the hall. Another overhead light flickered which I found unsettling. “There’s an elevator at the end. It’s the only one in the building. Mom said they were going to install another one at the opposite wing, but they never did. You need a keycard to use it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s odd.”

“Yeah.”

Lyle and I headed towards the elevator. Lyle stepped up to the keypad and held up his mom’s card. The light remained red.

“Try it again.”

Lyle shrugged and held the keycard up to the pad again. The light remained red.

“Where does the elevator go to?”

“I think there’s a basement under the factory.”

“What’s in the basement?”

“I don’t know.” Suddenly, that sound started up again. “What is that?”

I saw Lyle’s eyes grew wide and then a gruff man’s voice said, “What are you doing here?”

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: TUFF TURF (1985)-Amazon Prime Video

Rounding out the final week of 80’s movie sleepers is this teenage gem. One year before Pretty in Pink and four years before Sex, Lies and Videotape kicked off the Indi Film movement, the fantastic James Spader played the role of Morgan Hiller, a preppy country club teen who had always been the black sheep of his upper crust family. But when his dad’s business goes under, he and his parents are forced to move from Connecticut to Los Angeles and join the ranks of the lower middle class.

The night before his first day at his new school Morgan thwarts a gang of teenagers from robbing a businessman at a bus stop while riding around on his $500 bike ($1,413.23 in today’s money). Making the mistake of wearing his very cool signature punk leather jacket to school the next day gives him away and the gang led by resident psychopath Nick Hauser (Paul Mones) destroy Morgan’s prized bike. Nick, who is fond of using his pretty girlfriend Frankie (Kim Richards) as bait for his muggings quickly sees Morgan take a shine to her and develops a dangerous animosity towards him. But Frankie has some demons of her own and Nick begins to see the attraction Morgan has towards her is mutual. With the help of his newfound drummer friend Jimmy Parker (a young Robert Downey Jr. who would go on to co-star with Spader again in Less Than Zero), Morgan slowly begins to carve out his place at his new school but not without some brutal sacrifices along the way.