Silver Jen and the Peach Tree — Episode 2

Silver Jen rocketed through the air flying just above the treetops.

The jetpack on her back left a trail of rainbow colored exhaust.

Silver Jen held tightly to a stuffed bear, whom was wearing a pair of goggles that matched the ones she was wearing.

Silver Jen didn’t always carry her stuffed animals around with her, but she liked to bring them along when she needed to be brave.

And now was one of those times.

Silver Jen looked ahead into the distance and saw a tall castle tower stretching from the ground into the clouds.

The tower was the home of Professor Surreptitious Rump.

Silver Jen didn’t like to go see Professor Rump very often as he lived in a big spooky house and used lots of funny sounding words, but she was sure he was the one who could help her.

Silver Jen landed at the front door of the castle and squeezed her stuffed bear close to her.

“It’s okay That Bear, we wont be here long.”

There was a bright, happy Welcome Mat at the front door and a note on the door explaining the door bell was Out of Order and to please come inside.

Silver Jen and That Bear entered the castle and began to climb a staggeringly tall spiral-staircase.

Though the lighting was dim, Silver Jen saw all the things she expected in the spooky castle tower; bats that clung to the undersides of some of the stairs. Spiderwebs were everywhere, giant spiders did the best they could to keep out of sight, but things like boots, fish skeletons, and tricycles showed evidence of their presence.

Silver Jen also heard all of the sounds she expected to hear in the spooky castle tower; creaking stairs, tree branches rustling in the howling wind, the distant sound of thunder and the gentle persistent patter of rain, even though she knew it was not raining outside.

As she ascended the stairs she also heard some notably flatulent sounds that she didn’t expect..

Silver Jen hugged That Bear tight and continued to climb the impossibly tall staircase. She tried her best to ignore the air biscuits but she was feeling more and more uncomfortable, as though she was being watched.

Between the creaks in the stairs Silver Jen began to catch faint whispers like the giggle of a child.

An she was sure that she saw an opalescent figure out of the corner of her eye.

She quickened her pace to try and out run her discomfort.

The stairs ended abruptly at an old wooden door with rusty hinges and a large metal ring rather than a door nob like that she was more familiar with. A sign on the door read, “Professor Rump’s Room for Sceince-y Stuff: Enter At Your Own Risk”

She swallowed hard and opened the door.

“One more turn and… Egon! I’ve done it! I’ve managed to successfully calibrate this linear-time measuring device!” Professor Rump held a small analogue clock above his head in triumph\, “No more being late for those quarterly mad scientist conventions! Quickly, place it next to my spring-powered nocturnal recovery pod.” Professor Rump presented the small clock to Egon.

“Math-ter, math-ter! She’th here! The robot printh-eth, she’th here!”

“Ahh, Princess! What curious calamities can be attributed for the crossing our paths on this fine day?”

Silver Jen looked confused for a moment until she realized he was asking why she had come.

Silver Jen then explained how she hasn’t been happy despite all of her toys and friends and how beautiful Rainbow Valley is from her view on top of the hill under the giant peach tree.

“And then I realized that I can’t even taste my ice cream cone. How can all these things I have make me happy? I’m not even whole. Can you fix me?”

“Negative Princess. I can’t fix what’s not broken. Though I’d be happy to make some modifications and install some updated software. In fact, I just had a whole shipment of new cybernetic parts delivered. Egon, fetch me the box of biotech lingual flavor-detectors from the basement!” Professor Rump pointed dynamically toward the door.

“Yeth Math-ter, right away math-ter.” Egon slowly limped toward the door and began the long descent.

“This might take a while, that limp really slows him down. Feel free to enjoy the selection of magazines in the waiting area.” Professor Rump directed her toward the waiting area and returned to his work bench.

Silver Jen smiled and sat down in a cream colored chair in the corner, she picked up a copy of The New Mad Scientist magazine and read an article titled Creating Chimera: A practical guide to splicing species.

Silver Jen could hear the sounds of Professor Rump tinkering, sawing, soldering, screw-driving.

Silver Jen watched the ghostly form a child playing chase with a white lab mouse.

Silver Jen played with her yo-yo.

Silver Jen waited a long time for Egon to return. Through a small window on the ceiling of the laboratory Silver Jen watched the sun set and stars in the sky appear.

At some pointe in the middle of the night, Professor Rump took a break from his work and invited Silver Jen to have some tea.

Professor Rump placed a Glass teapot on a table with a tea flower inside. He filled each of their handle-less tea cups and sat down. A small plate of currant jam-filled sandwich cookies sat next to the tea pot in the middle of the table

“I just adore Jasmine tea, don’t you? The subtle floral aroma is just so comforting don’t you think?” Professor Rump inquired, “Oh, right… Sorry, that’s why you’re here. Well, you’ll be able to enjoy it soon enough.” Professor Rump smiled awkwardly and took a sip of his tea.

“What is taking him so long?” Silver Jen asked

“As I said before, that limp really slows Egon down quite a bit.”

“Can I ask why you haven’t done anything to help fix his limp?”

“Well… I suppose because he’s never asked me to.” Professor Rump thoughtfully took another sip of tea. “Perhaps it doesn’t bother him that much. After all, you can’t spend all your time focusing on what you don’t have. Focusing on problems brings problems, you know.”

Professor Rump smiled at Silver Jen and took a cookie off the plate.

They finished their tea and Professor Rump returned to his work station.

Silver Jen walked back to the waiting area, sat down, and went into sleep mode.

The sun was rising when Egon returned

“Math-ter, I’ve returned.”

Egon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a box much larger than should’ve been able to fit in his coat, “Here are your robot tongueth Math-ter.”

“Thank you Egon!” Professor Rump retrieved the box, not seeming at all surprised by the box fitting in Egon’s pocket. Silver Jen stared on in surprise.

“Come along Princess. It is time… to… Up-Grade! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!”

Professor Rump pulled out Silver Jen’s old tongue and quickly replaced it with the new model. It clicked right into place and Silver Jen was greeted with a whole world full of new flavor sensations.

Silver Jen was suddenly greeted by a world of flavors.

Silver Jen was caught off guard and was feeling overwhelmed.

“People enjoy this?” Silver Jen asked Professor Rump

“Oh yes, quite… Well, not all of them… Actually, not most of them. But the ones we do find favorable, we enjoy quite passionately.” He offered Silver Jen a piece of black licorice.

Silver Jen took the licorice and put it in her mouth. She immediately tried to spit it right back out, but it stuck to her new tongue. she stood there, bent over, tongue sticking out, waiting for the mercy of gravity to make the piece of black licorice fall off her tongue.

Silver Jen didn’t know what to say or do.

Silver Jen had been sure that once she was able to taste things she would be happy, but this was not what she experienced at all.

Once her taste buds were free and the candy finally fell off her tongue she straightened up and said, “I must be going. Thank you Professor Rump.”

Professor Rump smiled warmly and nodded in understanding.

Silver Jen picked up That Bear, walked to the window, clicked her heels together and with her rocket shoes engaged, she blasted off.

Professor Rump, Egon, and Opal the ghost-child waved goodbye.