“Ah, sooo,” said O’Rigami, smiling widely. “Need some speciar suppries such as transistors…” He pulled an almost invisibly small scrap of paper from a pocket in his white smock. But the paper grew strangely into a long strip as it touched Rolf’s hand. A list of items was neatly hand-printed on it.
“Transistors and other necessary components,” O’Rigami said. “If you wirr be so kind as to obtain them…”
“But wait a minute,” said Rolf. “Why can’t you get these things for yourselves?”
Baneen reappeared, alone, with a faint pop.
“Cold iron,” said Baneen, simply. “Sure, and the places where the things are kept are full all round with iron this, and iron that. It would be like yourself having to fetch something you badly wanted out of the very center of a fiery furnace.”
“All right, then,” said Rolf, who had been thinking. “But why should I get them for you?”
“Indeed! Indeed!” exploded Shep. “The very idea, trying to put the boy to work for your blackguardly purposes! Naturally, he’s not the sort to fetch and carry for a pack of gremlin scalawags! That’s the spirit, lad. Tell them!”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Rolf. “What I meant—”
“Why now, you were only wondering what shape our gremlin gratitude would take, were you not?” cried Baneen. “To be sure, would we be accepting a favor and thinking of giving nothing in return? No, no, lad—what we have for you is no less than the Great Wish, itself. The same unlimited one wish given to any human clever enough to steal—ah, that is, return the Grand Corkscrew of Gremla, that symbol of kingship itself, should such as a human chance to find it after it had been lost. One wish—for whatever your heart desires!”
There was a sudden silent explosion in the background of Rolf’s mind. All at once he had an image of his father and a lot of other people staring at him in awe after he had just announced that he would clean up all the pollution in the world with one snap of his fingers—and had just done it. But Shep was already growling back at the gremlin.
“What!” Shep was snorting. “He scorns your base attempt at bribery! Do you suppose a lad like this would think for a moment—”
“Just a minute, Shep,” said Rolf hastily. “Baneen, could you make the world free of pollution—I mean, clean up all the pollution and make the environment safe forever, if I helped you?”
“The promise of a Baneen upon it, the moment our kite is safely headed for beautiful Gremla!”
“Do my ears deceive me?” demanded Shep. “Rolf, boy, think before you—”
“Indeed and indeed, the word of a Baneen, himself!” shot out Baneen quickly. “Ah, it’s a bargain, then, and may the memory of it be warm in your heart for years to come. Now, off with you and gain the transistories, or whatever they’re called, by tomorrow noon—”
“Just a second,” said Rolf. “Where am I supposed to get them?”
“Is this,” Shep was asking the sky, in a tragic voice, “the youngster I’ve stuck with through thick and thin? The boy I’ve raised like one of my own—”
“Now, Rolf me lad,” said Baneen, briskly, “surely you know as well as anyone of a certain store not ten blocks from your very home, that has transistories and all such radio things and devices piled like coals in a coalshop, within its walls?”
“Oh,” said Rolf. “Sure. But—wait another minute. These things may be expensive; and my bank account—”
“Rolf, Rolf,” cried Baneen. “Did you think us the sort to ask for the use of the life savings of such a friend as yourself? Ah, never! Not a penny will any of these transistories cost your pocket. Just have yourself at the store this night about ten o’clock and we’ll make it quite simple for you to slip inside and steal each and every one of them!”
4
Rolf looked nervously down the dark, deserted street. The whole town seemed to be asleep, and the only lights anywhere were the few street lamps glowing along the main avenue. One of the lamps was planted squarely in front of the hardware store.
“A black deed,” muttered Mr. Sheperton. “Breaking into the hardware store to steal things for the gremlins. I thought I had brought you up better than that.”
Rolf shushed him.
“You don’t understand. Be quiet.”
“Be quiet? I certainly will not be quiet!” Mr. Sheperton snapped back, but in a growly whisper. “Got half a mind to set up a howl that would bring on the police. If only the moon were full…”
Still standing uncertainly in the shadows of the Rocket City movie theater’s lobby, Rolf felt his nerves jangling. Shep was right. Stealing was no way to go. But if a little theft now would make the future right and safe again for the brown pelican and all the rest of the world’s creatures that were being threatened with destruction through pollution of one kind or another, certainly the end ought to justify the means?
“You were quiet enough at home tonight,” he said to Shep. “Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“Nothing for me to say,” the dog replied. “Did you want me to cook dinner for you?”
Rolf’s father had been out, as usual. The countdown for the Mars launch was too important for him to come home for dinner. His mother had been busy with the baby again, and when Rolf came home from Playalinda Beach he found that he had to fix his own dinner. He had opened a can of spaghetti and another of beef stew and eaten them both cold. Shep got his regular dogfood and half the beef stew.
Then Rolf had watched television for a while, fidgeting in the family room while his dinner made a cold lump inside him. He waited until it was late enough to slip out of the house. Rita Amaro had called to ask when his father would be on the TV news, and Rolf had hung up on her as quickly as he could.
Now, with everyone else asleep, Rolf still felt fidgety as he watched the empty street.
“If it’s the police you’re worried about,” said Mr. Sheperton coldly, “I’m sure the gremlins will be keeping them busy on other things. They can cause all the mischief in the world whenever they choose to.”
Rolf brightened a little. “Baneen said he’d help us…”
“Us?” Mr. Sheperton’s ears actually stood on end for an instant. “Not us, young man. You. You’re the one who’s decided on a life of crime.”
“Aw, come on. It’s only a few transistors.”
“For a start.”
Rolf didn’t feel like arguing. He looked up and down the street once more. “Why’d they have to put that street lamp right in front of the hardware store?”
And just at the moment, that particular lamp suddenly dimmed, sputtered, and went completely dark. The hardware store’s big front windows were swallowed by darkness.
“Baneen!” Rolf felt like shouting for joy. “He’s helping us after all! Just like he said he would.”
“Trust a gremlin to help you—to get into trouble,” muttered Mr. Sheperton darkly.
But Rolf wasn’t listening. He swiftly crossed the street and, keeping to the shadows along the building walls as much as possible, he hurried down the street toward the hardware store. Shep padded along behind him, his claws making tiny clicking sounds on the pavement. There were no other sounds. The night was as quiet as it was dark.
They slipped into the entryway of the hardware store. It was set in between two big plate-glass display windows. It was wonderfully dark in there. So dark, in fact, that Rolf couldn’t see the door very well at all. How can I pick the lock if I can’t see the keyhole? he wondered.
“Have you thought about the store’s burglar alarm?” asked Mr. Sheperton.
“Huh? Burglar alarm?” Rolf touched the door handle in the darkness…