House and the P.L.O.T. Device: 26/?
A/N: So, a day late! I ended up going to be early last night instead of writing. And the old-school Potteric is on my laptop, which I don't want to even turn on right now because it's 95 degrees out and the laptop throws off a lot of heat. But I'll post 'em soon! In the meantime, here's the latest P.L.O.T.
House is having trouble keeping Wilson in sight. The path is crowded, and he’s hurrying along like he’s late for something. He tries calling out to him, but he guesses Wilson doesn’t hear, because he doesn’t stop or even look around.
When House finally catches up to him, Wilson is talking to some lady with a kid. That’s just like Wilson, to be flirting with some stranger when House is looking for him. He must’ve ditched Chase, too.
House slugs him in the kidneys. “Thought you’d lose me that easily?” he demands.
Wilson does turn around then, but it isn’t Wilson. It’s just some guy. “What the--damn it, kid, that hurt!” He rubs his lower back where House hit him.
“Chas, language,” the lady says.
House backs away. “Um, sorry. Mistake.” He turns and hobbles away quickly, calling over his shoulder, “Call your doctor if you start peeing blood!”
He can move surprisingly quickly for a kid with a crutch, and he’s also very sneaky. He makes his escape by ducking through a crowd of people and then taking every turn he comes to. Once he’s certain he’s thrown off pursuit, he stops to catch his breath, leaning against a map of the park.
Clearly this parallel universe business is trickier than he’d thought, if there are fake Wilsons running around. He’ll have to be more careful next time.
#
“Hi,” Wilson says to the teenage girl behind the Lost Parents window. “I’ve lost a kid.”
She takes a few chews of her gum and slowly closes the magazine she’s looking at. “Did you designate a meeting place?”
“I’m sorry?”
“We recommend that before your visit to Six Flags Great Adventure you designate a meeting place in the event your party becomes separated,” she recites.
“That would have been a good idea,” he admits. “But we didn’t.”
She slaps a form in front of him. “Fill this out and we’ll make an announcement.”
While he’s working on the form, Chase calls. “He was here!” he reports.
“Where?”
“At the bumper cars. He rode them twice.”
The relief Wilson feels makes him realize he’d been worried. If House is going on rides, he hasn’t been kidnapped, and he must not be too upset about being lost, either. “Good. I’m making a report at the lost kids place.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
“Yeah,” Wilson agrees. It would be a better one if the person working there seemed to care, but the announcement might help, anyway. “Okay. Check the rest of the rides, like we talked about. Let me know what you find out.”
He hangs up and finishes filling in the form. Returning it to the teenager, he explains that they should announce to “House” that “Wilson” is waiting for him at Lost Parents. “I’m going to check some other places he might be, but my cell’s on there, so if he shows up, just call--and hang on to him!”
#
House soon discovers that even a theme park can be boring if you have no money and you’ve lost your Wilson.
He’s still very thirsty, too.
Wandering around and hoping to spot Wilson--even a parallel universe one--isn’t going very well, until he spots the Ferris wheel in the distance and has an Idea.
If he goes on the Ferris wheel, he’ll be up high, able to see most of the park. If Wilson is anywhere outdoors, he’ll be able to spot him from there.
Having an objective in mind energizes him. He hurries over to the ride and gets in line. It’s not too long--he should be able to get on when the current load of passengers get off.
As the wheel starts unloading passengers, a nearby loudspeaker crackles into life. It makes the usual announcements about not cutting in line or smoking outside of designated areas, but then there’s a new one. “Greg, meet your dad at the Lost Parents Center, located on Main Street. Greg, your dad is waiting for you at the Lost Parents Center.”
He hesitates. Is it possible that parallel-universe him is here with his parents?
Very unlikely, he decides. And even if he is, Mom and Dad will be no help getting him back to Wilson in his own universe. It must be some other kid with the same name who got lost. He boards the Ferris wheel.
A teenager couple gets into the car with him. He ignores them--kissing, gross--and scans the ground as the car starts to rise.
He soon realizes the flaw in this plan. When he gets to the top of the ride, he can see most of the park, sure--but the people are just blurry dots, scurrying around like ants. It’s sort of interesting to watch, but doesn’t get him any closer to finding Wilson.
#
Leaving Lost Parents, Wilson heads toward the carousel. “Excuse me,” he says to the attendant. He’s a grown man, so maybe he’ll be more helpful than the teenager at Lost Parents.
“End of the line’s back there,” he says, pointing.
“I know. I’m looking for a lost kid.” He describes House, being careful to leave out the stubble and negative attitude, adding, “He probably asked to ride a pig or a hippopotamus.”
“Oh, man, sorry, but I haven’t seen him. Have you been to the lost kids place yet?”
“Yes, I was just there. Can I give you my cell phone number, and if he shows up--”
“Sure, sure.” The man produces a grimy scrap of paper and the stub of a pencil.
Wilson writes out his number. “Thanks. He’ll probably be here--he’s already been on the bumper cars since we last saw him.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. Good luck!”
“Thanks.”
Swings next. He repeats his spiel to the ride attendant, but she hasn’t seen House either--although she does promise to watch for him.
“Thanks. I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”
He moves on. What was next? Oh, right, the Ferris wheel.
He barely gets through his description of House before the attendant says, “Oh, yeah! He was here--darn, it was only about five minutes ago!”
If only he’d started here, instead of wasting his time at the merry-go-round and the swings. “Did you see which way he went?”
“No, sorry.”
Damn. “Thanks anyway.”
He’s not sure where to go next. He’s checked all of the rides in this section that House mentioned. Maybe he should try some others that happen to be nearby?
He decides to call Chase and report his progress.
#
Chase is studying his map, trying to decide the best way to get to the arcade area, when his phone rings. “Hello?”
“It’s Wilson. We’re getting warmer--he was on the Ferris wheel a few minutes ago.”
“Great--no luck on the pirate ship, but that makes sense if he’s over by the Ferris wheel.” Trust House to be going on rides like nothing’s wrong when the rest of them are running themselves ragged looking for him.
“We’ll find him sooner or later,” Wilson predicts. “I’m just not sure--ooof!”
There’s a burst of static and a crash like Wilson has dropped the phone. Frowning, Chase heads toward the Ferris wheel, Wilson’s last known location.
He hasn’t gone far before his phone informs him that the call has disconnected. He rings back, but Wilson’s phone goes straight to voicemail.
He’d better not have dropped it in a fountain or something. Everyone who’s helping look for House has that number.
But when he catches up to Wilson, he sees that that isn’t going to be a problem. He’s sitting on the sidewalk, with House standing over him. His phone is lying at the base of an ornamental planter a few feet away.
“--universe,” House is saying. “So I need you to help me get back to my own one. But first I want a drink. Hi, Chase! I’m from a parallel universe.”
Wilson is obviously trying not to laugh, and not doing a very good job of it. “Um, I don’t think…I mean I’m pretty sure…this isn’t a parallel universe.”
House looks skeptical. “How can you tell?”
“Well….” Wilson explains about the restroom having two exits, and that House probably left through the wrong one, which made it look like they had disappeared, when in fact they were right where House had left them.
House looks thoughtful. “I don’t know. But you can buy me a drink.”
Wilson locates a refreshment stand, and Chase follows them, after picking up Wilson’s phone.
#
House is not sure whether to believe that he has located his own proper Wilson or not. He’d checked very closely to make sure that it was a Wilson, before knocking him over so that he couldn’t run away again. But it could still be a parallel universe one.
This Wilson is buying him a soda, which is a very good sign. On the way to the refreshment stand, he quizzes him on a number of important issues, in an attempt to locate discrepancies between this Wilson and the one he’s familiar with. “Batman or Spiderman?”
Wilson stalls. “You mean which one would win in a fight?”
“No, which one would you do?”
“Uh, which Batman are we talking about? And which Spiderman? And why are you asking?”
“Tobey Maguire and Christian Bale. And ‘cause.”
Wilson sighs. “Tobey Maguire, but Batman has better clothes. I don’t think this is an appropriate topic of conversation.”
That definitely sounds like what his Wilson would say. “Can I have a puppy?”
“Next week, if you still want one.”
“What about a duck?”
“No.”
That also sounds like Wilson. When he receives his soda, he looks in the direction of a Ben and Jerry’s. “I think I could eat an ice-cream cone, too. Changing universes makes me hungry.”
#
Wilson is not sure, by the end of their day at Six Flags, that he and Chase have managed to convince House that they are the same people he came with, and not parallel-universe versions. When Chase suggests that they would know if they were, House just rolls his eyes and says, “It’s not a parallel universe for you. It’s the same one you started out in! I’m the only one who switched.”
But he continues going on rides and playing games, and in the end he agrees to go home with them. “I guess if this parallel universe is so much like my old one that I can’t tell the difference for sure, I might as well stay,” he decides.
Chase manages to say, “I think that’s a good choice,” with a completely straight face, which is a good thing, since Wilson doesn’t think he could have.
On to Chapter 27