I risk a quick look back. Sure enough, Dr. Grizzlowe has found his way out of the station. He’s running after us with big crunching steps and a very unfriendly look on his face.
We take a swift left turn into Severus Street, and push our legs even harder. I sneak another peek backward and see the doctor taking the corner like a professional roadrunner. Lucky for us, the Severus Street Market is open today, and business seems to be booming! If there’s anywhere we can shake him off, it’ll be here.
Diving into the market seems like a smart move until Oscar slips on a watermelon peel and crashes into a juice stand. He yelps as I drag him into a gap between two fruit stalls and kneel down beside him. From a quick inspection, he doesn’t seem to have done himself any damage. More importantly, he’s still got the cassette tape in his mouth. I put him back on his feet and we speed off again. First, we dive under a vegetable stand and roll out the other side, into another walkway. Then, we dash past a row of fruit stalls ... right into the same row where Dr. Grizzlowe has just entered the market.
We catch each other’s eyes again, across a huge stack of bananas. Just to be polite, I wave and wink at him. That seems to make him even angrier than he was in the aircell!
To be safe, I pick Oscar up and tuck him under my arm. I can’t risk any more injuries, to him or to the cassette tape! As heavy as he is, I sprint through the fruit section and into the toy stalls. People scowl and squeal as they leap out of our way, but it isn’t long before we reach the back end of the market and finally find ourselves on a regular footpath, in Nevin Street.
The good news is, we’re only two streets away from the museum storeroom. The not-so-good news is, the doctor’s still behind us, looking very unhappy, and as determined as ever to steal back our treasure.
All I can do is run. And that’s what I do until we reach the next street corner and whip around to the right. From there, it’s only half a block to Wickets Lane, where a well-camouflaged ventilation grate offers a free ride into our favorite storeroom.
I can hear the doctor’s feet stomping along the concrete behind us as we dash into the lane and run for the grate. I dive in head-first, hugging Oscar to my chest and squishing into the tightest ball I can. There’s a loud crash as we plow through the grate and slide down the steel pipe into the most homely storeroom on Skyburb 6.
Somewhere up above, we can hear Dr. Grizzlowe stomping his feet, running around and yelling unrepeatable words to anyone who’ll listen. I hardly dare to move a muscle as we huddle on the floor beneath one of Jessie’s sorting tables.
After a few loud minutes, Grizzlowe’s noise eventually fades, and vanishes. I let go of Oscar and he loosens his grip on the cassette tape. I take it gently from his mouth and give it a big kiss, and then I do the same to Oscar, who blushes and groans as he stands up and shakes off every last stitch of his fruit-stained rabbit suit.
CHAPTER 9
A Snowie Good Time
It’s a warm Friday afternoon, nearly two weeks after our high-speed tape escape. Oscar and I are down on the ground, in the Arts and Entertainment Wing of the Bluggsville City Museum. Beside us, we’ve got Jessie in her finest scoot-suit, looking very pleased with herself -and with us!
She really wanted us to present the tape to the head of the museum, Professor Wong, but we didn’t fancy explaining the ... er ... unusual research methods we used to identify it. So today, Jessie gets to shake Professor Wong’s hand, give her the cassette tape, and enjoy the applause from the 200 invited guests - all here to celebrate the opening of the “New Sounds of Snowie” exhibition.
Professor Wong takes the tape and shakes Jessie’s hand. Then, she places it into a real cassette player that Jessie found in the storeroom last week. The guests watch on in silence as Professor Wong hits the play button. The glorious sounds of David Snowie in full voice pour out from the museum speakers, and everyone applauds. A few of them even break into strange dance moves.
Oscar and I couldn’t be prouder. We’re especially proud that Dr. Grizzlowe is now safely behind bars, charged with Theft and Attempted Re-Theft of a Musical Heritage Item. Chances are, he won’t be joining us at the exhibition for a good ten years at least. By then, who knows, maybe I’ll be running the museum!
When the music finally dies down, I tap Jessie on the shoulder. “Well, that was an interesting journey,” I say. “I hope there’s plenty more where that tape came from!”
“Don’t worry about that, Max,” she laughs. “I’ve got enough stuff to keep you guys busy for the next 400 years - at least!”
Oscar and I don’t doubt her for a second.
--- THE END ---
SLEUTH TRUTH: THE CASSETTE TAPE
Until the early 1960s, if people wanted to listen to music at home, they needed to play records or listen to the radio. But in 1962, the first cassette tape - then called the compact cassette - was released. Cassette tapes were much smaller than records, which made them much more portable. They were also much harder to damage than records.
Not only could people listen to the music recorded on the tape, they could also make their own recordings on the tape. They could record their own voices, or record songs from the radio.
HOW IT WORKS:
The plastic tape inside the cassette has a magnetic coating. This coating contains the sounds on the tape, in coded form. Parts of a cassette player, known as heads, read the magnetic coating and convert the codes into sound that can be heard through speakers or headphones.
Tape Escape Page 5