CHRONICLES OF MER - MER'S DAY OUT CHAPTER SIX

I was sitting at my desk, all alone. Felps and Dibs were out on a delivery, and Rubean was picking some more stock up. I hadn't received any calls for about an hour, and now I was so totally bored. I was making paper aeroplanes when suddenly a loud ringing rent the air. It took me a moment or two to realize that it was the CT; I hadn't heard it for a while, that I'd forgotten what it sounds like.
I picked it up and pressed the 'Talk' button.
"Hello, Rubean's Stock Delivery Service. Mer Landry speaking. How may I help?"
The voice coming from the other end was deep and rasping.
"Hello. I am Marlon Langle, and I am an representative of Need Smokes Now, the cigarette brand. We have picked up on your Stock Delivery business, and we feel that it's very hard for us to sell our stock when you are delivering illegal cigarettes. We feel that you must stop this right now."
"And if we don't?" The voice sounded like it belonged to someone who was totally big, hard and thuggish, so I tried to keep my voice from sounding like a mouse's squeak.
"Well, we will have to bring you up in front of the Council!"
I gasped. I'd heard of the Council. You never saw them, unless you did something bad, and they were the sort of beings who'd do something Bad to you. Their reputation was one that they were very frightening and everyone made they did nothing Bad.
"I hear you. You sound scared. Will you stop your Delivery business, and let us sell our stock in peace?"
I may be small and light, but I wasn't about to let a thug's voice intimidate me. I swallowed and took a deep breath.
"No, Mr Langle. I'm afraid I can't. I am only the Assitant to the person in charge."
"And who is the person in charge?"
"Rubean Harpwit."
"Well, tell this Mr Harpwit that I shall be dropping by quite soon. Possible in the next twelve hours." I heard a low beeping and the CT went dead.
I sat there for a couple of minutes, really worried. How was I going to tell Rubean? What would he do? We wouldn't have to go up in front of the Council, would we?
I was still sitting there when Felps and Dibs got back from their delivery.
"What's the matter?" Asked Dibs.
"I got some bad news," and I told them about the call.
After I finished, I noticed that Dibs and Felps both looked really white, like they'd just seen a ghost. Dibs started moaning, and paced up and down the room.
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no," he was moaning. "What are we going to do?"
"Ok, let's not panic," said Felps. "Let's just wait til the boss gets back and then we'll tell him."
"But he'll do awful things to us," Dibs whimpered.
"Why? It isn't our fault we got the call." I said.
"Yeah, well, he;ll need to vent his anger out on something, won't he?"
We heard a spaceship land outside, and the familiar jolly voice of Rubean called out: "I'm back!"
All three of us huddled together and Rubean looked confused when he saw the looks of terror on our faces.

Meanwhile...

"Oh, darling, you're not serious, are you?" Asked Karina Landry."
"Yes, I am," announced Mitha Landry.
"But, Mitha, cloning humans is really expensive, and we don't have that kind of money."
"Yeah, Dad. Plus, you're being selfish, for the first time in my life, I get the bedroom to myself," said Mitha's other son, Juniper.
At that moment, Mitha saw white rage, and hit the roof.
"SO I'M BEING REALLY SELFISH, AM I, JUNIPER? YOUR YOUNGER BROTHER IS OUT THERE, AND WE DON'T KNOW WHERE! PLUS, I'M GETTING WORRIED WE MAY NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN! IF WE DO NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN, I'D LIKE TO HAVE A LIVING, BREATHING REMINDER OF HIM!"
"Oh, come on, Dad," said Juniper, looking really worried. "I was only joking."
Mitha had by now calmed down, but he still livid that his son could be calm about his brother going missing.
"Juniper," he started. Karina flinched. 'Oh, dear,' she thought to herself. 'Here comes one of his lectures. This is how they all begin.'
"Juniper, how would you feel if you was the one that had gone missing. And Mer started implying that he never wanted you to come home."
"Dad, I was implying that..."
"Let me finish please, Juniper. And then he called me selfish because I wanted you cloned, and he wanted his room all to himself."
"Dad," said Juniper. "I was only joking when I said that. I'm worried that I'll never see Mer again. I'm sorry. I think it's a brilliant idea that you weant to clone him, really I do."

Later on, Juniper was up in his bedroom, staring over at Mer's bed. Juniper was the sort of person who was totally hard-as-nails, and he never felt mushy about anything. But now he felt tears coming to his eyes, as he looked at Mer's bed, and thought about his brother.
'If Dad thinks I'm not worried about Mer,' he thought to himself. 'I'll show him.'
He made up his mind, really quickly. He would go and look for Mer
He got off his bed, opened up the cupboard that was situated on his side of the bedroom, and was home to so many suitcases. He took out a couple of big suitcases, stuffed all his clothes into one suitcase, then he sneaked downstairs, careful not to wake Karina and Mitha. He crept into the kitchen, and piled some food into the other suitcase.
He was on his way out the front door, when he hesitated. And thought about what he was doing. Then he decided.
He would write his parents a note.

The next morning, Karina got up early for an early morning jog. She went into the kitchen for a drink first, and noticed the note. She read it, her eyes gettng wider and wider, and then hollared up the stairs for her husband.

on the note, scrawled in Juniper's untidy handwriting:

Der mum and dad
ive gon loking four my bruvver mer dont no how loong ill bee miss u loods allredy luv frome juniper

Karina and Mitha looked at each other. Karina looked worried, but Mitha shrugged his shoulders, crumpled the letter up, and set about, making his breakfast.

Find out what happens next in Chapter Seven...