Omeric sat behind the wheel of his pick-up traveling craft driving back towards his home in farming country. Elsie was again sitting in the front seat sleeping. Long drives always made her sleepy. Omeric couldn't stop thinking about Jupie and her hurkle. More accurately he couldn't stop thinking about the hurkle and the fact that it was Jupie's. What would a hurkle be doing with a girl like that? Why had it suddenly disappeared? Was there something wrong? Obviously there was something wrong or else he wouldn't keep worrying about it. Why was he worried about it anyway? It's not like it was his hurkle or anything. But Omeric knew better. Nothing happened accidentally; especially involving a hurkle.

Jupie sat up in her bed listening to the sounds of the night. Worry was beginning to set in. She had been awake now for about an hour, waiting for Earl to come home. She had slept the rest of the afternoon away and it was now after evening and Earl should have been home by now. It was times like this that she really missed the hurkle. She would have looked into the hurkle's eyes, seeing that happy grin on his face, its tongue hanging out, its furry feet at the end of its furry body. She realized just how much she missed Earl without the hurkle there. She wished they both would come home. "At least I should have one of them home," she thought.

The third person worried about the hurkle was surprisingly enough Earl. Earl had just finished the first part of his sandwich when he remembered that he had told Jupie that he was going to dump the hurkle at the dumping grounds, the second thing that he remembered was that he hadn't feed the hurkle today.

Earl opened the door to his room. There was one of the men with the dark suit and red sunglasses sitting next to the door.

"Hey, I need something to feed my hurkle," said Earl to the man.

The man turned his head and looked at Earl and said, "Swo."

"So get me something to feed my hurkle."

"Talk to the guy on the phone. I just handle the sitting in the hall problems. He handles the food problems," replied the man and turned back around and sat looking down the hall.

Earl went back inside and picked up the phone.

"What do you want now Earl," said the voice on the other end.

"I need something to feed my hurkle. I haven't fed him all day, because I was going to dump him at the dumping ground but ..."

"I need to talk to my supervisor," interrupted the voice on the phone. "I'll call you with his answer," said the voice on the phone and hung up.

Earl hung up the phone and returned to his computer. The hurkle sat dosing peacefully in the corner its head on his paws. Earl sat at the computer punching furiously at the keys. He had given up looking for the space problem about fifteen minutes ago and decided to play his favorite game, spaceport, to get his mind off his present situation.

As he reached the final stage Earl had a sudden spark of inspiration. At least that was his excuse for failing to get to the end of the game and win for the first time since buying the game. He quickly got out of the game and into his personal planning program and wrote himself a memo.

"Now hurkle its time for some of us to get some sleep. We're going to have a busy day tomorrow," said Earl and he went to bed.

The next day Earl called for some breakfast for himself and the hurkle. After finishing his breakfast he made reservations on the next shuttle into space.

"Hello?" said Earl outside his hotel room door.

"What?" said a man in a dark suit and red sunglasses.

"I need to, ah that is I'd like to leave ...."

"No," said the man.

"But I need to leave to solve the problem," pleaded Earl.

"What problem?"

Earl then noticed that it was a different man in a dark suit and red sunglasses than the one that was there yesterday.

"Do you know about the problem?"

"Oh the problem. (pause) No."

Earl frowned. "Then I can't tell you, but it involves my being on the next flight into space."

"That's the problem?"

"No. That's not a problem ..."

"Good. Problem solved and you didn't have to leave your room to solve it," said the man with what could be called a satisfied smile, but only if you looked real hard and imagined.

Earl closed the door and picked up the phone.

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

"Are you the same person that I spoke to yesterday?" asked Earl.

"Yes."

"Do you know about the problem?"

"What problem?"

"Never mind. I need to leave my room," said Earl.

"I don't handle room leaving privileges. Talk to the guy outside the door," responded the voice.

"I all ready did that."

"Then I can't help you."

"But I need to leave to solve the problem."

"Still can't help you."

"If I leave I'll have to eat lunch outside my room."

"Hold on, I'll make a couple of calls," said the voice.

At the space port Earl tried to make a phone call home.

"I'm sorry but the number that you have dialed has been temporarily disconnected. Please check the number and try again," said the recording.

Earl hung up the phone. "I'm going to get into a lot of trouble because of this," thought Earl.

The hurkle yelped; apparently he agreed.

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