Jupie sat in the back of the old traveling craft silently looking out of the window. The closer they got to the city the better she felt. She had felt better thinking that there might be a chance that she still had a hurkle, but the longer they traveled and the more she thought about it she realized how ridiculous the idea seemed. Sure hurkles were nice to have around and they were loyal enough but protectors? She didn't think so.

Omeric sat driving towards the city. The closer they got to the city the more uneasy he felt. It had been a long time since he had been in the city and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to go back.

Elsie sat in the passenger seat sleeping soundly. The countryside quietly drifted by as she slept; when the traveling craft stopped they were inside of the city. Jupie directed Omeric to her house in the city.

"You're sure that I still have a hurkle?" she asked Omeric having convinced herself that this farmer was out of his mind and didn't really know anything about her hurkle.

"I told ya girl; hurkles ain't that easy to get rid of," replied Omeric.

"Okay, I hope you're right," said Jupie, sure that he was wrong.

Jupie walked into her house expecting a furious Earl to be standing at the door waiting for her. Instead she walked into a house filled with silence. "That's strange," thought Jupie. "I wonder where Earl is". She went into the living room and checked the message machine.

Hi this is Jupie and Earl we're not home at the moment so too bad for you. Ha ha ha ha. Just kidding. Leave a message after the screech and we'll get back to you. SCREECH.

Hey Earl, this is your secretary! Where are you? The meeting let out hours ago and you were supposed to bring back those supplies I asked for. I know you're there and I know you can hear me! Get down here with my supplies you! Oh by the way, leave that hurkle of yours at home.

SCREECH. SCREECH.

Jupie sat down and looked at the message machine. Earl was not home. "This is not a good day for me," thought Jupie.

Omeric and Elsie came into the room and sat down on the couch.

"Earl's not here."

"What about the hurkle?" asked Omeric.

"The hurkle was with Earl. They're both not here."

"Well, where the bump are they?" asked Omeric.

"I don't know. I just don't know," said Jupie. She got up and started walking up the stairs. "If you'll excuse me I've had a rough day and I'm going to bed now. Thank you for all your help. Be sure to turn off the lights when you leave."

Jupie went upstairs and promptly went to sleep.

Chapter 8

Earl was guided out of the office by two men wearing dark suits and bright red sunglasses. The woman told Earl that they were there to protect him in-case the problem in space was dangerous.

"Can I call home? My wife must be terribly upset," asked Earl.

"I'm afraid that's impossible. We wouldn't want the news to spread that there's a problem in space would we?" replied the woman with a thin smile.

Earl was beginning to wish he was back with Mr. Blithers. At least with him he knew what bad things were going to happen to him. The two men with the sunglasses escorted Earl to a hotel room on the outskirts of the city. If Earl had happened to look outside of one of the windows he might have seen the headlights of a traveling craft heading out into the country, more precisely heading out into farming country.

"What am I supposed to do here?" asked Earl.

The man with the sunglasses said nothing.

"Do you guys talk at all?"

The man opened his mouth and gestured. Inside was a huge wad of bubble gum. That explained why he didn't talk; nobody could talk with that much gum in their mouth.

"Why don't you take it out?"

"Ith agwainth thd ruldth," said the man.

"Oh," said Earl not understanding.

Earl sat down to watch the Vision-tube and picked up the phone.

"What do you want Earl?" asked the voice.

"Wha.." exclaimed Earl, not expecting the person on the other end to know who he was.

"I just wanted something to eat."

"Okay we'll bring up some food. You get back to figuring out the problem in space."

Earl put down the phone, then picked it back up.

"Yes Earl?"

"I want to speak to my wife."

"Sorry you can't do that."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because I'm the only one connected to this phone and I don't want to talk to your wife."

Earl thought about that. It seemed the voice on the other end of the phone was right; he couldn't talk to his wife.

"Can you at least call my wife and tell her I won't be home for dinner?"

"Will you stop calling me?"

"Yes."

"All right." In the background a small friendly yelp could be heard.

"Oh by the way tell her that the hurkle said 'hi'."

"Anything else?"

Earl thought about it.

"I'm rather hungry. Could you get me something to eat?"

"Sure, if you promise to put down the phone and start working on a solution to the problem in space."

"Okay. For dinner I want a humburger, some fries, a cote and some patooie cookies, please."

"Anything else?" said the voice sounding very annoyed.

"No, I think that's about it."

"Good," said the voice at the other end and hung up.

Earl put down the phone. Then picked it up again.

"What!?!"

"Tell them not to put any ketchup on my fries, please."

"Good-bye Earl!" said the voice and hung up the phone.

Earl put down the phone and waited for his food. While Earl was waiting for his food one of the men with the dark suits and red sunglasses came in the room.

"Is my food ready?" asked Earl.

"Nwo," said the man.

"What?" asked Earl.

The man pointed to his mouth with the huge wad of bubble gum. "Hewre." The man set down a small laptop computer on the desk.

"That's my computer! What's it doing here?"

"Dey saidth you'dth need thid."

"Who is 'Dey', I mean 'They'?"

The man looked at Earl with one eyebrow arched. "Dwe pweopwle in chardth obwioudly," he said and walked out.

"Oh. Of course," said Earl. He got up and walked over to his computer and turned it on.

"Hi there Earl," chirped the computer.

Earl hit a few keys.

"No problem," chirped the computer in reply.

In a few seconds a menu appeared on the screen. Earl chose the icon for the space program. In a few more seconds a menu of items for the space program appeared. Just then Earl's food arrived. Earl sat at his computer eating his fries and looking at the screen. Where was he going to find a problem in the space program when he didn't know anything about what the problem was supposed to be or even what it was doing.

At this point in the story some of you may be wondering what happened to the hurkle. Well you aren't the only ones; as a matter of fact there were three other people wondering about the hurkle besides you.

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