THE NOSE AND HIS PERFUME

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: The Party

The children went home to change out of their pajamas. There was no way for them to tell Basil what happened, because the guards watched their every move. Not knowing what else to do, they went downstairs and started decorating for the party.

The two guards watched over the children, as they set up giant boxes for collecting unwanted presents for charity on the second floor balcony overlooking the store lobby. The security guard they had first seen at the store guarded the elevators. As wide as the elevator door he was standing in front of, he was so built and so short, he was practically a square. The severe-looking lady guard blocked the staircase to the lobby, preventing the children from going anywhere.

“What are we going to do?” Beau whispered.

“I don’t know,” Bunny whispered back.

“Why can’t we just ask Basil what to do?” Penny said.

“We can’t with Hefty and Helga over there watching us,” Bunny said.

As the children got ready for the party, they tried to come up with a plan, but after hours and hours of wracking their brains, they had nothing; all they could think was they had to tell someone what was going on, but they couldn’t tell anyone anything until the Varshavskys, J-F, and Carla were safe.

It got dark outside. Shortly before the party was supposed to start, several store employees arrived and began putting out food and beverages. When they asked where the Varshavskys and J-F were, Beau told them they were in the basement. The children were just about finished filling all the balloons they had with helium, when Beau nudged Bunny, who tapped Penny, who let go of the balloon she was tying. The balloon sputtered and shot out of her hand, deflating, as the Nose walked toward them.

“Are the Varshavskys okay?” Bunny asked.

“Everyone’s fine,” the Nose said. “Well except for J-F. We need to get his essence back in him tonight.”

“Did you make the extractor more powerful?” Beau asked.

“No,” the Nose said, dropping his voice and nervously glancing over his shoulder at the guards. “I’ve disabled it so it won’t work. Mr. Hartford doesn’t know enough about the extractor to realize, but he’s going to know what I’ve done when it doesn’t work at the party tonight. Mr. Hartford’s lost his mind. Who knows what he’ll do next? Everything was under control before you interfered.”

The Nose looked angry, and Bunny couldn’t tell if he was angry with Mr. Hartford, or with them.

“Why are you helping us?” Beau asked.

“I only ever wanted to extract the tiniest bit of essence, so no one would even notice, but Mr. Hartford keeps making me extract more. It’s a disaster.”

The Nose’s anger faded, and he looked crushed. Given everything that he had done, Bunny didn’t think he really deserved the right to feel sorry for himself. Wearily rubbing his temples, the Nose gazed down at the Gingerbread Village.

“I could have been great,” he sighed.

“You could try just being good,” Bunny said.  

 “How? There’s nothing I can do to stop Mr. Hartford. He’ll get what he wants eventually.”

 “Tell everyone about the extractor,” Bunny said, suddenly realizing this was the only solution.

“Are you crazy?”

“You said Mr. Hartford can’t extract anyone because you disabled the extractor. There will be thousands of people here tonight. Tell everyone what happened before he finds out what you did.”