NaNoWriMo Day 25 - Still another chapter to go

Slugtectives Gary and Larry the Leopard Slugs

Explanation

Gary couldn’t stop fidgeting thinking about what Larry had said about wanting to help the man. He told him to just go meet him but as he thought about it he realized how silly it sounded. How would a slug talk to a human? His lower tentacles were drumming on the floor of his hole as he was lost in thought and he shifted his weight on his foot to relieve the pressure on the swollen spot.
His thoughts swam for a while before he slowly pulled himself back to present and looked around his hole. He decided to go see Larry to try to figure out a means of communicating with the man, maybe they could devise a means between them. Turning to the entrance he slugged out of his hole and directly to Larry’s nook. He gave a call from the entrance and hearing Larry respond he went inside.
Larry was at his pda tapping away with his tentacles on the screen and didn’t look up as Gary entered. He kept tapping for a minute then stopped and looked up at Gary saying, “what’s up?”
“I was thinking about what you said, about wanting to help the man,” Gary began. “Do you have any ideas yet?”
“I’ve had a few but nothing has seemed quite right, they all felt like they would be useless effort. Plus I don’t like the idea of possibly getting squished if he freaks out,” Larry said with a shudder at the end.
“That’s rather morbid and not where I was going,” Gary said with a grimace.
“Just being realistic. He may hate slugs and stomp me right away, I don’t know, I can’t be positive,” Larry replied.
“Well, how about you don’t have to meet him at all? Why not write him a message and send it? You have your pda and he has his phone now so maybe you can send it that way?” Gary offered hopefully.
Larry stared at him for a moment as the idea rolled around his head. He had been thinking of it but had dismissed it for not knowing the man’s phone number. “I don’t have the number so that won’t work,” he said to Gary.
“Maybe we go see if we can find out? I’m slow but I think I can make it up to the perch. If you want you can meet me, I’ll head out now and you can catch up?” Gary asked.
“I guess. It’ll be interesting to see the pile in the yard from up there. Go ahead and I’ll be along in a bit,” Larry said as he turned back to the pda and continued tapping away with his lower tentacles.
Gary watched him turn to the pda and without a word he turned and left the nook. He slowly made his way towards the bush, limping along on his fattened foot. He stopped in the shade of a large leaf and found a pile of leaf matter that he hungrily munched on. After enough mouthfuls to satiate him he continued limping towards the base of the bush. Within a minute of leaving the shade he heard Larry say from behind him, “hey, you’ve made it pretty far”.
Gary looked back to see Larry slugging towards him intently and he quickly stopped next to him. He waited a beat then said, “not too bad, I’m still sore but I just hope the selling doesn’t keep me from climbing the bush.”
“You’ll be fine, just use the rest of your foot and not that part,” Larry said.
Gary gave him a frown then wordlessly continued limping forward. Larry followed alongside for a while then moved ahead of Gary and after getting to the base of the bush he sat and waited for him to limp his way up. Reaching the base of the bush Gary sat and lifted his swollen foot off the ground and massaged it the best he could with the tensing and releasing of his foot. Larry watched him for a bit then said, “you ready? You can do it.”
Gary looked at him then up at the bush and the branch in front of him. He stuck his foot to the branch and began to climb up it. As the swollen part of his foot touched the branch he winced and held it away. The rest of his foot held tight and he found himself easily climbing the branch. Larry watched him climb before saying, “see, I knew you could get up there.” He quickly stuck hi foot to the branch and followed Gary to the perch above.
As he climbed he could hear the sounds of movement from the house as the man continued to clean up the debris and sort through anything that was still in one piece. The sound of music was playing in one room and the sound floated out the open living room window. The man had found one of his alarm clocks buried in a pile and it was tuned to a rock station from the city.
They reached the perch and looked around for any piles of bird droppings and quickly spotted a nice sized mound. They both went right to it and began devouring mouthfuls, staring at the window as they chewed. Soon the man walked into the room carrying a half full garbage bag. He dropped it on the floor and began sweeping around him when the phone rang as it sat on the chair near him. He picked it up and answered it, pushing the speaker phone button before setting it back on the chair, “hi Vivian”.
“Are you on speaker phone?” she asked.
“Sorry, I’m in the middle of cleaning, what’s up?” he said as he picked up the broom to continue sweeping.
“Ashir said you stopped by his apartment yesterday but didn’t say how it went so I was just curious what you found out.” Vivian said.
The man swept a couple times then stopped and said, “it went well. I don’t know what to do with the information but I have it.”
“What did you find out?” she asked quickly.
“Uhh, I’m still confused by it but apparently the original post that leaked the list of names was sent by someone using my wifi. That was how they tracked it to here but they raided my house thinking it was me that posted it. It was some Larslug4242 on some site called slimer,” the man explained.
Larry’s eyes got as wide as they could and he stopped mid chew turning to look at Gary whose expression matched his own.
“Holy. Shit.” Larry thought as his surprise began to turn to fear. “What am I going to do?” his head screamed.
“Slimer?” Vivian asked incredulously.
“That’s what I thought too. Ashir thinks it is a cosplay site since it is slug focused. But that’s were that list was first posted then someone else screen captured it and that was the post to go viral,” the man replied.
“So it was someone using your wifi? Is it one of your neighbors?” she asked.
“I don’t think so, they all have their own wifi and internet. I don’t know why anyone would use mine when there is way better signals around here,” he said as he swept a few more times.
Larry’s mouth slowly resumed chewing as he listened, his eyes still wide open. Gary had finished his mouthful and was the first to speak, “what are you going to do?” he asked Larry.
Larry stared through the window and slowly chewed and as he finished said, “I don’t know yet. I’m a bit too freaked out right now to do anything. What the hell am I going to do? If he finds out it was me he’ll totally squish me for getting his house raided.”
“Well, was Ashir able to tell you anything about the person who posted the original?” Vivian asked.
“Just that. He’s offered his help if I need it so I may have to see if he can dig for more information,” the man replied. “I should keep cleaning, so I’ll talk to you later,” he said as he picked up the phone from the chair.
“Okay, we’ll talk later. Enjoy cleaning,” she said then hung up.
The man tossed the phone on the chair again and went back to sweeping the floor.
Gary looked over a Larry and the thought reentered his head which he blurted out, “why not just tell him it was you?”
Larry turned and stared at Gary with a deep frown before saying coldly, “why the hell would I do that?”
“You want to help him, so maybe you write him an email and tell him the truth. Tell him how this all happened. Tell him you want to help him,” Gary offered innocently.
Larry stared at Gary then turned and watched the man sweeping, the dust flying around the air of the room. He stared in silence for a while as he thought over the possibility and he softened as he did. “I don’t know, I don’t know if it would work. How would I even find his number or address to send the message?” he asked.
“I don’t know, can’t you find it on your pda? You’re the one who leaked the list, I think you can find a phone number or email address,” Gary said.
Larry sat staring and thinking before turning to Gary and saying, “let’s go. He’s just cleaning now. I have to think about this for a bit.”
“Sure,” Gary said then moved back to the pile of bird droppings and took a big mouthful before following slowly behind Larry as he climbed down the bush. He limped his way off the base of the bush and stopped next to Larry saying, “you can go ahead if you want, it’s going to take me a while to get back to my hole.”
Larry gave a quick acknowledgment and then turned and quickly slugged towards his nook. Gary watched him go then slowly limped his way back to his hole.
Within sight of his nook Larry saw Tendra at the entrance to Gary’s hole, she saw him then and yelled to him. He sat and waited outside the entrance to his nook as she made her way to him.
“Where’s Gary? I wanted to see how his foot is doing,” Tendra asked.
“He’ll be along. We were up on the bush and he is slow coming back. He’s still limping but is better,” Larry replied.
“Good, how are you?” she asked.
“Uhh, could be better I think,” he answered.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“He knows it was me that posted the list, well not me so much as my user name. Gary thinks I should write him a note and tell him the truth,” Larry said.
Tendra stared back at him and her eyes blinked in astonishment before she said, “but why?”
“I’m starting to think it is a good idea myself, the more I think about it,” Larry replied.
“You’re going to tell the man that a slug is why his house got raided? Do you have any idea what that could cause?” she asked as she was becoming excited and unsure.
“I’ve thought this over quite a bit now and I don’t think there is really anything that could happen. The worst he would do is think it’s a joke, right?” Larry asked.
“Uhm, no! He could spread salt in the yard to get rid of us if he wanted!” Tendra was yelling now.
“Calm down, he would have done that a long time ago if he hated us that much,” Larry said. “I’ve got some thinking to do before I go through with this, I’ll see you later.”
Tendra glared at Larry and as he turned to enter his nook she huffed, “whatever” and watched him disappear. From out of the grasses Gary limped along towards his hole and she watched as he neared. As he got closer she asked, “you feeling better?”
“Yeah, just sore after all this,” he replied.
“Is he really going to tell the man that he posted the list?” Tendra pointedly asked.
“I think so, why?” he asked.
“You think it’s a good idea too?” she pressed.
“At this point it’s the last option. He wants to help the man so why not actually do it?” he asked.
Tendra sat staring at him wavering between anger and wonder. How could they be so stupid to think the human would just be fine with a slug causing his house to be raided? “Are they both out of their minds,” she thought.
Gary flexed his foot and winced then said, “I’ve got to go rest this thing. I’ll talk to you later.”
Tendra watched him wince then said, “yeah, you should rest that. All the movement doesn’t let it heal like it should.”
Gary nodded than moved past her and limped his way into his hole. Tendra watched him disappear then turned and went to find something to eat.