*
I’m back! Thanks for being patient. I had an awesome vacation, but I’m not going to be posting about it yet. I have to hunt down some pictures first. 😉
You’ve waited long enough for the next episode of the Yarn Wars, so I’m posting part 9 today. I have a few things to report about how the story’s going:
~ There are going to be 21 parts in total…originally I thought it would end around 12, but the story decided it didn’t like the idea.
~ I finished writing it yesterday, and typed up the final edition in Microsoft Word Notebook. After I’ve blogged all 21 parts, I’ll post the final edition, so you can download it as one document.
~ Currently the story is going from Lynnea’s point of view (as much as third person can be, anyway), but there are still two more characters to tell the story. Here’s a hint: you’ve met both of them already. Then we go back to Kira’s point of view for a little bit, and then it’s done.
~ The finished version is 42 pages and 15,000 words, and has 5 parts and an epilogue.
I hope I haven’t bored you too much…here it is, as promised.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The guard said nothing as both girls went into the office without ID-ing, but he looked a bit flustered. He obviously wasn’t used to dealing with caterwauling ladies.
Lynnea had never been inside her father’s office before. Government workers weren’t allowed to bring along their children on National Take Your Kid to Work Day. Lynnea had never thought to question why, though.
However, she did know one piece of information: her father’s name. Of course. So she went up to the information desk with Kira right on her heels.
“I’m looking for Charles Ayers?” she asked.
“Mr. Ayres is out of town,” the lady – Barbara, her name tag read – said.
“Well, it’s really important,” emphasized Lynnea. “Can I go drop off a letter at his office?” She tapped the pocket of her skirt importantly.
“Number 552,” said Barbara indifferently. She turned back to her work.
Lynnea led Kira to the elevators at the other end of the main entrance. They stepped inside, and Kira pushed the ‘close door’ button. The doors complied, and Kira and Lynnea were left alone for the first time since entering the office.
Both sighed with relief, and Lynnea began picking her fingernails as the elevator got closer to the 5th floor.
“I just don’t get what’s up here,” Lynnea said. “Why did they act so weird, saying ‘I guess it’s all about yarn around here’? Why do they act like they know something that we don’t?”
“I guess they figure that we know it too, working here and all,” whispered Kira.
Lynnea looked around for hidden microphones, then she figured that if she could see them, they wouldn’t exactly be hidden anymore. She put her finger to her lips as the elevator doors opened.
Kira got out first, and they set off with a purpose. Then they reached office 552 and realized they would need an eye scan to get inside.
“They’re gonna recognize us,” mumbled Kira, dejected. “We came all this way!”
Lynnea, however, was not going to give up so easily. She leaned forward and placed her forehead on the scanner. She heard the familiar ‘zing’ of the eye scan finishing its work, and pulled back, quickly pushing the ‘cancel’ button on the scanner.
Lynnea heard a telltale ‘click’ coming from the doorknob. She rushed over and opened the door successfully. Turning around, she saw Kira’s mouth drop open as she stared at Lynnea.
“Come on,” Lynnea said, blushing.
“How did you do that?!” Kira asked, amazed. “You’re, like, some computer genius or something. I have never seen anyone do that!”
“Shhh,” Lynnea shushed, looking apologetic. “I’ll tell you later.”
Once in the office, Lynnea shut the door and locked it, programming the alarm on the wall to block all visitors for two hours. “That ought to be enough time for us to look around,” she said.
“Do they have the you-know-whats in here?” Kira asked, referring to the hidden microphones mentioned earlier.
“We better not say any juicy gossip,” Lynnea said for the microphones’ benefit. “You know how those ladies can spread rumors!”
Kira laughed. It sounded fake to Lynnea, but maybe the microphones wouldn’t pick that part up.
It took about twenty minutes for Lynnea to guess the password for the computer. She had figured that most of the files would be hidden there. The password ended up being ‘caetylynn’, a combination of her and her mother’s names – Caetlin and Lynnea.
“Cool,” whispered Kira after they had gotten in.
It was very cool indeed. A hologram had appeared in front of them, over a black wall hanging put there for just that purpose. When Lynnea touched the computer screen, the movement was echoed on the hologram. Lynnea had never seen anything so amazing. Why hadn’t her father told her about some of this? And how did a lowly crocheter end up working here?
Kira slid into a chair beside Lynnea. She raised it up a few inches to be at the same height as the taller girl. “Try this,” she mouthed, pointing to a document labeled ‘Origin’.
Lynnea obliged. The hologram vanished, and it was replaced by a request to retype her password, since it was classified government information. Lynnea retyped ‘caetylynn’, and the document began to load. She looked at Kira, knowing that they had picked the right one. Finally, they would uncover the mystery!
~~~~~~~~~~~
…and with that, I leave you in suspense again. I hope it’s not too vain to think I’m leaving you in suspense…
Normally you would have to wait until Sunday, but to thank you for being so patient while I was gone, I’ll post another part on Thursday. Then I’ll go back to my regular schedule of a part every Sunday.
Now I’m going to eke out a few more words so I can say this post is 1000 words long…
Have a nice day, I’ll ‘see’ you on Thursday. 😉
* This awesome text is from CoolText.com…and it’s also going to be used in the finished edition of The Yarn Wars. 🙂
[…] Part Nine […]