Mickie's Adventures in Boston-land (Chapter Two)

Mickie and Sodo awoke the next morning. They opened the door and found that it led into a passage, toward the elevators (which they took to the lobby without delay). How they longed to get to the restaurant, and munch a great breakfast. They met up with Joff in a room filled with beds of bright flowers and cool fountains, but they could not even get their heads to comprehend the extravagent price Joff had paid for his breakfast (for it was quite a lot for a breakfast).

There seemed to be no use in ordering there, so they went to a lounge, half hoping they might find a more affordable breakfast, or at any rate a book of rules for growing money on trees. At this lounge, Mickie found a little bottle of orange juice and a muffin, (which certainly was not there the night before) and round the base of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `SHAKE WELL' beautifully printed on it in small letters.

It was all very well to say `Shake well,' but the wise little Mickie was not going to do that in a hurry. `No, I'll look first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she remembered a line she had memorized in the past: that if you drink much from a bottle marked `poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Mickie shook it and ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of orange flavor) she very soon finished it off. But she found that the juice had not filled her up quite enough. So she set to work, and very soon finished off the muffin.

After a short time, Sodo, Joff and Mickie decided it was time to go off in search of a magical land called "Lowe's" to find bamboo and other supplies to make a frame. Piling into Sodo's car, they began their adventure, soon finding themselves lost yet again. 'Oh dear, how puzzling it all is!' they cried, trying to figure out the roads.

And all the while Boston drivers caused Mickie and Joff to cringe in their passenger's seats. From time to time Sodo would have to slam on his breaks or accelerate suddenly. `That WAS a narrow escape!' said Mickie after a particularly close call, a good deal frightened at the sudden change in speed, but very glad to find herself still in existence; `and now for Lowes!' and she smartly downloaded a GPS application for her phone, finally allowing them to reach their destination.

After gathering supplies and stopping for coffee and soda, it was high time to go, for the restaurant was getting quite crowded with the locals that had come into it for lunch. They were indeed a queer-looking party that clambered out of the car once they had arrived back at the hotel--each of them lugging long and somewhat pointy sticks to the elevator. They stopped on their way up to look at the ballroom. The first question of course was, how to set up the frame: they had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes, they had a plan set forth.

After such an adventure, the trio needed a rest, and so they made their way to their rooms with plans to meet later at registration.