THIRTEEN
JimJim walked to his window and looked out at the full moon. He was thinking. He walked back to his desk and sat on the chair. He got up and walked back to the window again. His backyard looked very quiet. It looked like everything was just dandy. No one out there knew how bad things really were.
No one said anything for a while. Finally, JimJim said, “We have to go back. We have to rescue the other Council Kids. Here is the first problem. I don’t know how to get back to Council Headquarters. We definitely need to get back. I don’t know how to do it. How can we get back?”
PosterGuy said, “No problem. I can handle that. You and SueSue and I link arms. I pop us on over to Council Headquarters. You can pop back by yourself anytime you want to leave, if you aren’t captured by the Shadow Kids. It’s a risky business, very risky.”
Everything was quiet for a while. SueSue said, “It’s definitely risky but we have to do it. We have to link arms and pop on over to Council headquarters. We are just going to do it.
“We need a plan right now. We need a strategy. How can we rescue the other Council Kids? How do we defeat the Shadow Kids? How do we zap the purple shadows?”
JimJim snapped his fingers. He said, “That’s it. That’s how we do it. It’s time for a little Shadow-Kid zapping.”
PosterGuy and SueSue just stared at JimJim. SueSue said, “I don’t think so. I think you are forgetting. PosterGuy and I aren’t thought-zappers. You are our only thought-zapper. Maybe we can do some thought-zapping too but I’ve never tried it.”
SueSue pointed her finger at JimJim and said, “Hey Beetle Brain. You just about got destroyed by only four purple shadows in your classroom. There are nine purple shadows in Council Headquarters right this very minute. They will destroy you in a minute. It won’t even take a minute. Try zapping nine purple shadows and you are toast.”
JimJim stared at SueSue. His mouth dropped open. He couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening. There was a purple shadow. It was dropping over SueSue’s head. It was getting darker. SueSue was disappearing.
JimJim concentrated. He gave it all he had. He thought, “You have to come back. Don’t let the Shadow Kids win. You are a Council Kid now. You have to fight back. Concentrate. Help me zap the purple shadow. You have to help me. It’s very strong. You have to help me zap it. SueSue, hang in there. We can defeat this purple shadow. We can do it.”
The battle went on and on for a very long time. JimJim and SueSue were exhausted. They were down to their last ounce of energy. That was the strongest purple shadow JimJim had ever battled. It was a monster.
Suddenly the purple shadow disappeared. Poof. It was gone. JimJim and SueSue both dropped to the floor. The battle was over. They won, this time.
SueSue said, “I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I was just thinking about our strategy. You said that we can thought-zap the purple shadows. I got this weird feeling. I called you Beetle Brain. I started acting like I did before I became a Council Kid. Something just came over me. It’s very strange. I’m sorry.”
JimJim said, “No problem. We won this time. The purple shadow is gone. Where did that purple shadow come from? The Shadow Kids are at Council Headquarters. At least I think they are at Council Headquarters. How did they know that we are here? How did that purple shadow show up here? This is way too weird.”
It was very quiet in JimJim’s room. PosterGuy was just sitting on TT’s old ball cap he left on JimJim’s shelf. SueSue was still sitting on the floor. Her energy was not back yet. The battle with the purple shadow left her exhausted.
JimJim was sitting at his desk. He was thinking, “This is definitely weird. We need a strategy. We have to have a strategy.”
