Down the street, about a half mile, he could see one of the new combination gas station, ice cream parlor franchises that was popping up in podunk towns across the country. They had various clever and not-so-clever names, but in general, they were known as pump'n'licks by the trucker community. An ice cream sounded good so Thesith hopped off the bench and started down the block. He never actually made it, however, because just then, a large, upright piano crashed to the sidewalk about 20 feet in front of him. He narrowly missed being hit by flying splinters and other debris. It scared the Bejeezus out of him. He quickly ducked into the building lobby to find a restroom. Little did he know that this episode in his life would take an even stranger turn than it already had.
In the restroom, he managed to pat himself mostly dry with towels and through clever use of the hot air hand dryer and a lot of hopping up and down, he mananged to conceal his earlier scare, much to his satisfaction. As he turned to leave, in walked two well dressed gentlemen in black suits; one with slicked back black hair and the other wearing a dark gray fedora. They were chatting, but stopped suddenly when they saw Thesith. The man in the fedora scowled at Thesith who immediately exercised the better part of valor and made his exit.
Not that this helped any.
Back in the lobby Thesith saw 5 more gentlemen dressed in black suits. He was starting to get worried that he had stumbled into something that he wanted no part of. He got a sick feeling in his stomach, much like someone who had eaten some poi well past its expiration date. Thesith decided the best thing to do was to try to blend in. So, he stood there, trying to look important, involved, inconspicuous and innocuous all at the same time. This proved to be difficult for someone three feet one inch tall, dressed in paisley spandex and smelling faintly of Bejeezus.
In the highlands of Scotland, lived a family of Marmots. Every day Daddy Marmot would leave for work. Mommy Marmot and the two children, Squeaky Marmot and Darla Mormot, would scurry around their field happily playing all day until Daddy Marmot got home at night. Then one day, Daddy Marmot got home and Mommy Marmot and the children were nowhere to be found! He search high and low around the field. To the south was the river and they could not cross that. To the west was the gulch and they could not cross that. To the north was the humans with their noisy musical bags and no marmot would dare venture there. That only left the east which was the spooky woods. Would they have gone there? It was too spooky, but they must have!
He got up all his courage and timidly crept into the spooky woods looking for the family. He scurried around the trees and through the leaves until he ran across a mouse. "Please, Mr. Mouse, have you seen my family?", he asked. "Why no.", said the mouse. Next, he ran across a snake. "Please, Mr Snake, have you seen my family?", he asked. "I'm so sorry, but I have not," replied the snake. This went on until Daddy Marmot was totally exhausted and finally went back home. When he went inside, he saw a pot of dinner stew on the stove and a note. The note read, "Daddy Marmot, I've run off with the Weasel and taken the kids. Enjoy the stew."
. . .
Thesith remembered a story from when he was a child about a family of marmots. The father encountered some adversity in his life and dealt with it in a manner that impressed Thesith. When adversity came his way, he would think, what would the father marmot do in a situation like this. And, that's exactly what he was thinking when he was shaken back to reality by a gruff voice. It was one of the men in the black suits.
"Hey you there ... in the spandex."
GULP. How would the father marmot handle this situation? His mind was a total blank. He couldn't think of anything! What would he do!
Revenge of Thesith Copyright 2005 The Force Productions