"I'll go and play a little", said the girl, jingling with some coins in her hand. The fat lady just sighed and put the basket down in front of the chosen machine. And then the girl came straight towards the small arcade room where the two boys in underwear hid behind a corner.
"Keith, what do we do now?" whimpered Martin. Getting caught in undies by grown-ups was bad enough. Getting caught in the same situation by a girl of their age was a fate worse than death in Martin's book… and Keith's as well, frankly.
"Sssshhhhh!" said Keith and pushed Martin deeper into the corner behind a candy machine, already trying to think of a way out of this mess but not immediately seeing one.
Luckily, the girl had no reason to think that somebody else was already in the arcade. So she had only eyes for one of the archaic games that, fortunately for the boys' present location stood in an opposite corner. Soon she was absorbed in the game that made funny sounds and some awkwardly primitive music, her attention completely diverted.
There were multiple rows of laundry machines, and fortunately, one was leading to the exit far enough from the fat lady's view. "C'mon." said Keith flatly and dragged Martin with him. Keeping low, under the level of the rows of machines that were between them and the lady, Martin and Keith sneaked to the door. Then, Martin stopped and held Keith back.
"But where are we supposed to go? And suppose these people are still here when we get back? And what if they take our clothes?" said Martin in rapid-fire succession.
"Later," said Keith. "Let's get outta here first."
"You seriously want us to go outside on the street, in our underwear?" cried Martin quietly.
"I can't see anybody outside. You'd rather hide here for three hours?" argued Keith.
Martin swallowed. "Okay… let's go."
The boys managed to slip outside without anybody noticing. Then they ducked quickly into the nearby alleyway where Keith had parked Martin's bike and his skateboard. "Keith, what about our clothes?" demanded Martin. "They might steal them, or still be there when we get back!"
"Don't be silly." said Keith. "Our clothes are locked in the laundry machine. We could leave them there until evening if we want."
"But we can't just stay here in this alleyway. It's not very big, and somebody's bound to see us." argued Martin. He wrapped his arms around his small body though the sun was shining and it was pretty hot. His upper thighs looked paler then the rest since the pants that Martin usually wore in summer were quite longer than the briefs he stuck in now. Keith could even see goose pimples on this pale skin.
Keith chewed his lip. Martin had a point. If a cop came along and saw two boys sitting in an alleyway in their underwear, they wouldn't get out of that one too readily. But where could they go? Then he had an idea. "I think I know what we can do," Keith said, pulling the cel phone out of his sock.
"What?" asked Martin.
"The one place where clothes don't matter." replied Keith. For the first time since this fiasco started, Martin grinned. He knew what Keith meant. The aliens that lived out near the woods near Davy Caulfield's home. Two of them, at least, Jahv and Keyro, almost always wore absolutely nothing. A third, Toben, also was frequently unclothed. And it'd be a safe place to spend a couple of hours until the clothes were done. There was still the matter of getting out there, though, but Martin suspected Keith was trying to deal with that right now.
And indeed, Keith was. Technically, Jahv and the others didn't have a telephone. But they did have what they called a «commlink» which Jahv and Toben had set up in such a way that it could be accessed by telephone. It was a ten-digit number that Keith had memorized, followed by "#" three times. It wouldn't even show up on the phone bill.
"Hi, Keith!" came a voice over the phone. It was Jahv. Keith was a little surprised that Jahv used his name, but he realized that not that many people had this number, and certainly Jahv must have something like "Caller ID" in his commlink.
Keith explained as much of the situation as he felt was necessary, then said, "You've got that transmat device or whatever it is. You think you can bring Martin and me out there directly?"
"Keith, I really wish I could, and I certainly would any other time, but Toben and I are performing maintenance on it at the moment. We'll be done in about an hour and a half, but I know that won't do you much good right now."
Keith groaned. The laundry would almost be finished by then.
Jahv continued. "Look, if you can get out here, you can certainly hang around with us for the duration, and then I'm sure we can transmat you back to the laundromat in time to pick up your clothes as soon as they're done. You'd be safe out here, you know."
Keith considered this. The one advantage to their current location was that the laundromat was at the edge of town, and the edge closest to the rural area where the Caulfield farm existed. Keith and Martin would not have to go through any city streets or even suburban neighborhoods to get out there. At least not many. They could be at the farm in about thirty-to-forty minutes, Keith estimated. That would give them almost two hours to spend with the aliens, by which time they should have the transmat device working again. Keith didn't particularly trust Jahv's repair skills, but he did trust Toben's. The blue-hued Botaran had managed to keep his own starship operational for quite some time after his father's death. Finally he said, "We'll be there as soon as we can."
Keith turned off the phone to look into the stunned expression of Martin. "We've got to get out there on our own!? We're supposed to go out in public like this? Are you crazy?"
"What public?" said Keith. "We'll be on back country roads for the most part. You gonna worry about what a cow thinks of how you're dressed?"
"People live out there, you know." said Martin.
"Yeah, on big farm properties where the house is so far from the road they'd need binoculars just to see us, and even then they'd figure us for two kids in swimsuits, which wouldn't be unusual on this hot a day." Keith knew he was mostly making excuses, but he hoped it sounded good. "And who besides Davy even knows us out there?"
"I am not doing this." said Martin flatly.
"Well, I am. And so are you." insisted Keith. "Because I'm not going to hang around this alley for the next two and a half hours, waiting for some cop or some bum or worse to come along. You want a cop or a bum or a drunk to see you in your underwear?"
"Noooo." said Martin.
"Then come on. Grab my skateboard and get on the bike." said Keith.
It wasn't all that easy, but then Keith hadn't expected it to be. This time around, Martin sat behind Keith, hanging onto the boy for dear life with one hand while hanging onto the skateboard with the other. It was an awkward position, but not as awkward as the positioning that had dumped them into the dirt and caused this mess in the first place. Keith wasn't one to make mistakes twice if he could help it.
Since Martin was taking most of the bicycle seat, this pushed Keith forward a bit into a position that wasn't as easy to maintain his balance on the bicycle as it would've been if he hadn't had a passenger. But Keith managed to keep the bike upright and make decent enough time nevertheless.
They'd gotten out of the city and suburbs in short order, and were now on the back roads and feeling a little more at ease. There really wasn't much of anyone around at all. Keith and Martin were just about thinking they were going to make it out to Davy's farm without any further incident when a huge delivery truck came along the other side of the dirt road, and managed to hit a rain-soaked depression just as Martin and Keith were passing through on the other side, and soaked the boys, once again, in mud.
