Quito. Chaper 2. Quito The Astropup

     Page Two Hundred-Eleven.
     So the next morning, Quito woke up to the hypnotic, white noise of cold water running, as usual. He knew that almost every night little Thomas awoke and had to go tinkle. But the not really too old toilet needed a plumber because the water always continued running unless you lightly jiggled the chrome plated handle after flushing away the yellow. So Quito was forever waking up and first thing walking into the bathroom and jiggling said knob. Well, this morning when he took his first steps he went bouncing practically all the way up to his light blue bedroom ceiling, which as this was Shaker Heights, was 12 feet high. It was as if he were walking on the moon and there was less gravity than here on Earth.
     "WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!", he arfed to himself. He somehow made his way to the boy's bathroom with it's chartreuse glass cloth covered walls, but not without great effort. His movements actually looked more like a doggy swimming in a palm-encrusted Hawaiian pond than a normal canine walking to go fix a plumbing problem. And when he went to jiggle the shiny lever, he jiggled it right off the peacock-colored water tank and also cracked that same peacock-colored water tank. Subsequently, the tank proceeded to fall off the copper pipe it was sitting on and it, along with the cloisonne portrait of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow which was sitting on it as decoration, went crashing to the floor breaking into a zillion pieces. Then, there was water gushing everywhere from that same copper water pipe. As Quito and bathroom got soaking wet he felt like he weighed a ton. Then he realized that he simply felt back to normal, like yesterday, prior to the pralines and cream gelato fireball.
     He was really concerned, as you can imagine. He was quickly able to turn off the water which was so cold it was like the water that the Titanic sunk in. He then took some old yellow towels down from the linen closet and cleaned everything up. But he was freaking out, trying to figure out what had happened. After he dried out the bathroom and put the towels in the beautiful, shiny, new, royal blue Maytag drier he went to borrow a hair dryer from the next door neighbors so he could dry himself off. (Nobody in his house used a hair dryer, so there wasn't one around.)
     His neighbors, 3 brothers who were all zany professors, lived in a large and beautiful, putty-colored, wood shingled, center hall colonial. They'd spent years renovating the home. But as they were all a bit nuts, every time they finished a project they put their tools and leftover supplies in the basement without organizing it. You cannot believe how disastrously their cellar was crammed full of old tools, sawdust, paint cans, wooden remnants, and even Noah's Ark which they happened to find on a long-ago trip to Turkey and had shipped home. The basement was gossiped about by the neighbors as much as the brothers. And that was a lot.
     Judd was an astrophysicist; Nathanael was a biochemist and Zachary was a nuclear physicist. They were very eccentric but very pleasant retired gentleman who'd won 27 Nobel prizes between them and they chose to live together to save a few bucks. They were quite fond of their neighbors, particularly Quito and his family of humans, and always fed them whenever they cooked too much. Thankfully, they were home, watching Deputy Dawg, when Quito went over.
     A while later... "Wait. Tell me the story again", asked Nathanael with a quizzical mix of astonishment and true lack of understanding because he was particularly daffy and somewhat hard of hearing. (Also they'd turned off Deputy Dawg because it's rude to watch television while company is over. But instead they put the soundtrack to Ghostbusters on the Victrola. And it was a little bit too loud.) So Quito related a second time the events of the morning. And, he gradually began drying off, but without realizing it. So 3 brothers continued listening intensely while eating their Curried chicken over white steamed rice which is quite an unusual breakfast but they had it left over from the night before.
     "Tell me about your day yesterday", asked Zachary in between bites.
     "It was normal except for the fireball which fell from the sky and almost burned me", replied Quito. "Otherwise, it was a perfectly average day."
     "Was it a fireball the approximate size and shape of a scoop of pralines and cream gelato?", asked
Nathanael?
     "Yeah."
     "Afterwards, did you get a taste for homemade Hamburger Helper?", inquired Judd.
     "Yup."
     The three brothers looked at each other back and forth for a long moment. Then they all looked at Quito. Their expressions were understanding, joy, intensity, concern and anticipation all tossed into a Godiva chocolate gold gift bag, shaken up and then poured out into a Victorian, cut glass, candy dish.
     "Quito, are you completely dry now?", asked one brother.
     "Yeah. I think so", he replied while coincidentally reaching around and scratching his back.
     "Okay", said Judd. "Now what I want you to do is concentrate on flight and lean back onto your hind legs and then push off and fly around the room, steering with your ears. But please don't hit the chandelier because we just had it cleaned. And cleaning a chandelier is a major household project"
     Quito looked at Judd like he was a crazy nut (which, again, he was). But Quito thought, "what the hey?".  And the next thing he knew, he was flying around and he did hit the chandelier which made quite a loud clatter.
     "GOLLY WHIZBANG! THAT WAS COOLER THAN BEES KNEES!", Quito woofed loudly while smiling from ear to ear. The three brothers looked at him admiringly. Zachary said, "Quito, you're now a cold-fusion powered puppy. You're a real life astro-pup. And that's just the beginning."
     To be continued next week... Chapter 3: That's not all.  

Mr. Hershey's Secret To Immoral Choco-Chip Cookies

     Page Ninety-One.
     It was a Tuesday afternoon in October and I was assisting my buddy, Romeo, as he was working on his newest invention: the computer. He was really frustrated. I was doing my best to try and keep him calm, but he was just off the charts with aggravation. (I wondered if this was how Bill Gates felt when he invented the disposable paper coffee cup?)
     Just to backtrack, Romeo was a close high school friend of mine and he was dating another friend, Juliet. They got along great but their parents couldn't stand each other. (Romeo's mother, Halle Berry, was an astrophysicist. She didn't get along with Juliet's father, Theodore Roosevelt, who was a quantum physicist. They had altering theories as to how to figure out how many universes exist.) Subsequently, Romeo and Juliet had to have a clandestine affair.
     Romeo and I had second period English class together and Juliet and I shared eighth period Life Skills class, so they would tell me what was going on. They also asked me to transmit messages to each other as their parents were monitoring their texts. (If they were even seen talking with each other, it would get back to their parents.) I didn't love being in the middle, but that's what happens sometimes. I really liked both of them, too.
     So anyhow, Romeo fancied himself an inventor. I was over his house assisting while he was working on his newest invention: this "computer" thing. I wasn't even sure what it was, but I knew that if Romeo was inventing it, it must be good. And he was just talking non-stop about Juliet. I warned him that he'd better be careful what he said in the house because, of course, walls have ears.
     All of a sudden, his father, Milton Hershey, walked in. I though for sure he'd heard us talking about Juliet but he acted normal. The reason that he'd come in was because he'd just made a batch of choco-chip cookies. I was hardly going to stop myself from gorging on choco-chip cookies made by Milton Hershey himself so I just inhaled those things. And they were beyond good. They were downright immoral.
     I asked Mr. Hershey what made them so good and he told me his primary secret was adding some almond extract. He added the same amount of almond extract as vanilla. He had a few other secrets too, which I'll share another time because they're complicated. But adding that little bit of almond is sooooo easy and sooooo good! I've never forgotten any of his other tricks either.
     A minute after leaving he came back in and told us that he'd heard us talking about Juliet. He said that he wouldn't tell Halle, but that if Romeo knew what was good for him, he'd better be careful. Mr. Hershey really was very understanding. Also, I think another reason he didn't care too much was because the family feud was primarily between his wife and Juliet's father. And, I later found out that Milton and Halle were having serious problems anyhow which would lead to a divorce when Romeo was in college (University of Hawaii). So he truly didn't care if his wife was double crossed anyhow. 
     Incidentally, Romeo never completely got his computer working. He eventually gave up and put his energies into learning how to paint. It paid off - he ended up painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And, as it turned out, he and Juliet eventually broke up. What do you expect from a couple of teenagers? He got over his parents divorce quickly too. He'd been seeing it coming for years. He told me that he'd wondered why it hadn't occurred earlier.