Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 4

"She must have stayed at the pad," Mike supposed.

"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Gina.

"Yeah," Petra said, "what if she opens the drawer with your unmentionables?"

Gina frowned at her (along with all four of the guys). "I meant, if Shawn followed her here, then he'll know where to find her there."

"He could have been there this whole time, for all we know," Michelle said.

"We would've seen him," Davy said.

"But we never saw Sharon," Peter pointed out.

"She probably turned invisible," the mirror said.

"Invisible?" they all said at once- all eight of them.

"That's a weird one," Peter said, "even for us."

The mirror explained, "When you go through a mirror into Looking Glass Land, you gain the ability to become invisible."

"Like magic," Devona said.

"Hey, is there a dimension where I can be really smart?" asked Petra.

The mirror answered, "Even magic has its limits, Petra."

Micky blinked a few times as he realized something. "So she could still be over there. She could have been there this whole time, and I just couldn't see her."

"Most likely," the mirror said.

"Then it's settled," Micky said. "I've gotta go back for her." He started towards the mirror.

"Hey, Micky, wait a minute, man." Mike grabbed his arm, stopping him. "You don't know that she is there. And we don't know where Shawn is."

"And he sounds dangerous," Michelle added.

"Any man that'll kidnap a girl is capable of just about anything," Gina said.

Davy whispered to Peter, "Kidnapping is one of the few things I wouldn't do to a girl."

"Wait just a second," Devona said. "Let's put ourselves in Sharon's shoes for a minute."

"All of us?" said Peter. "She must have awfully big feet."

Devona leaned close to Davy and whispered, "You know, I think he's worse than Petra."

Davy nodded. "Probably."

"If I was Sharon," Devona went on, "I'd go invisible and stay over there."

"And Shawn would think she'd gone back through the looking glass," said Davy.

"And he'd come back here for her," Micky finished.

Petra looked scared. "Do you really think he's here somewhere?"

"Don't worry, Petra," Peter said. "We'll protect you girls." He leaned forward to give her a reassuring hug... and promptly fell out of his chair.

Michelle shook her head. "Well, I'm full of confidence in you," she drawled sarcastically.

"Why don't we switch places?" suggested Micky. "We'll stay on this side, and the girls can go to ours."

"That might throw Shawn off Sharon's trail," Peter said hopefully.

"You really think so?" asked Gina.

Peter lifted his chin, looking almost smug. "It'd throw me off."

Michelle said, "I have the feeling that a turtle crossing your path would throw you off track."

"But we're still not sure they are where we think they are," Mike pointed out. "I think two Monkees and two Kockatoos should be on each side."

"Hey, that'll really confuse him!" said Davy.

"Besides all that," Micky said, "we have a gig tonight."

"So do we," said Gina.

"Man, I almost forgot," Devona said.

Petra clasped her hands together in childlike exuberance and exclaimed, "Imagine that! For the first time ever, in any universe, Monkees and Kockatoos singing together!"

"That should sound interesting," Davy said sarcastically.

"But don't you think the club manager will be a little suspicious if an all-male group suddenly shows up with two women?" wondered Petra.

Micky shrugged. "Probably not. Nobody could ever tell whether we're boys or girls, to begin with."

"Who goes and who stays?" asked Peter.

"Well, uh..." Micky cleared his throat and put on a smug grin. "Sharon asked for my help specifically." He lifted his chin and puffed out his chest, imagining himself as Superman, and Sharon as his Lois Lane.

The fantasy lasted a full thirty seconds- until Sharon, as Lois, whispered urgently to Micky to put her down at the park- next to the ladies' restroom.

When Micky came back to Earth, Mike was saying, "Micky, I think you and Davy oughta take Michelle and Petra with you. Peter and I'll stay here with Gina and Devona... Uh, d'you mind if I call you Dev?"

"Why not?" she purred. "All my male friends do."

Gina cupped a hand around her mouth and whispered to Micky, "And I won't tell you in which room they call her that, either."

Micky snickered.

Davy noticed Petra clinging to Michelle the way a child might cling to her big sister. "Don't worry, Petra," he said. "Everything will be all right. Micky and I will protect you."

Micky cast a glance at the far corner, where Michelle's gun stood on end. "Yeah, and if we fail, you've always got Dan'l Boone here to protect you."

"Oh, I almost forgot my shotgun," Michelle said. She crossed the room to fetch it.

"It's not often you see a girl with such a big gun," Davy remarked.

"What're you talking about?" asked Michelle, scrunching up her face the way Mike did when someone annoyed him. "Yer forgettin', ah'm from Texas."

Mike put in, exaggerating his Texas drawl the way Michelle had, "Awh, it's jest cuz he's from anether cuhntry."

"Even I don't get it," Petra put in, "and I'm from this country."

"Ah, you don't believe in guns, anyway, remember?" said Micky.

"It's not the guns," Peter said, "it's the people using them that cause all the trouble."

Michelle flipped a hand at the lot of them. "Ah, what are y'all worried about? It's not even loaded, see?" She aimed at the potted plant and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked, and that was it. "See? Nothing in there." She smiled and tossed the weapon on the floor.

The gun went off with a BANG!, taking a good-sized chunk of plaster out of the wall. The Monkees and The Kockatoos all jumped, squealed, screamed, and grabbed onto each other. Dev leaped up into Gina's arms.

And Micky, the one Michelle had threatened with the gun, passed out cold, with a big, silly grin on his face.