Cape Suzette.

After the tenth pilot had turned him down and told him gruffly to get out of the way, Professor O’Bowens wondered how long it would take him to walk to Cape Suzette.

Days, the esteemed archeologist thought despondently. But he would do it if he had to if it meant getting his precious artifact safely to the museum. Hadn’t he once sailed five hundred miles on a makeshift raft, the last four hundred miles on literally his own steam power?

Feeling someone watching him, he put a protective hand over the pouch hanging on his left side and determinedly strode towards the next plane.

He had just cast an anxious look over his shoulder when he ran headlong into a man toting a tower of crates towards a truck.

“Hey, watch it, buddy!” the man barked, regaining his balance and steadying the crates.

“Sorry.” Professor O’Bowens shoved his glasses up further on his nose to get a better look at the man addressing him. His face brightened with recognition and relief. “Baloo!”

Baloo grinned. “Well, if it ain’t my ol’ pal, the professor. How’re ya doin’?” He slid the crates into the truck and cordially shook the professor’s hand.

“Am I glad to see you and Kit.” He nodded to the young man, who had emerged from the Sea Duck’s cargo hold with Cassie toddling behind. “I know you’re going to Cape Suzette.”

“Yup, as soon as we get these record players delivered.” Baloo scooped up Cassie when she ran by him.

“How long will that take?”

“Oh, ‘bout fifteen minutes.”

Slightly panicked, the archeologist exclaimed, “Fifteen minutes?”

“Maybe less. How come you’re so hopped up about gettin’ to Cape Suzette anyhoo?”

Once again, Professor O’Bowens glanced over his shoulder and gestured for Baloo and Kit to come closer. “This,” he whispered, drawing an amulet from the pouch: a large amethyst ringed by a thick layer of the purest gold. The sunlight glinted off the amethyst’s many facets and accentuated the unusual writing inscribed in the gold.

“Wow! Where’d you find that?” Kit asked.

“Buried beneath the ruins of Gagagoogie.”

Simultaneously, Baloo and Kit said, “Gagagoogie?”

Cassie stretched eager hands towards the shiny bauble. Swiftly, the professor removed it from her reach.

“Centuries ago, Gagagoogie was a thriving civilization. Their architecture was rivaled only by Babbleonanonia. They had an extremely complex language with an alphabet made up of over two hundred letters.”

Kit muttered to himself, “I’d hate to be in that spelling class.”

Baloo shifted Cassie to the other arm. “What happened to Gagagoogie? I ain’t never heard of it.”

Professor O’Bowens said, “That’s the thing. No one knows, because no one’s been able to decipher their language. But, according to an ancient Babbleonanonian scroll that was found last year, in 235 B.C. a group of nomads who had traveled to Gagagoogie to trade found something very odd.”

“What?” Kit asked eagerly.

Mysteriously, the professor said, “Babies.”

Looking down at Cassie in confusion, Baloo said, “Babies are odd?”

Cassie grinned, showing a few tiny teeth.

“According to the scroll, the nomads only found babies in the entire city. No adults, no children, just babies. They gathered them up and took them back to Babbleonanonia.”

Gazing at the amulet’s strange-looking inscription, Kit said, “What happened to the adults? Were they captured? Killed?”

The archeologist shrugged. “No one knows.”

“Boy, Becky would go gaga over this bauble,” Baloo said as he walked up the Sea Duck’s back hatch into the cargo hold.

“Many people have,” Professor O’Bowens said, following the von Bruinwalds. “Ever since I found it, I’ve had thieves breathing down my neck.” He glanced nervously around the airfield, still with the same creepy feeling that someone was watching him. “The sooner I get it to the museum, the better.”

“We’ll take off for Cape Suzette just as soon as Kit an’ me unload this cargo.”

“I’ll help you.” In his eagerness to get on the way, the professor laid the amulet down on Baloo’s trunk o’ junk, picked up a heavy crate, and stumbled backwards a few paces. Regaining his balance, he staggered towards the truck.

Baloo put Cassie on the trunk beside the amulet. “Now you sit tight. Daddy’ll be back in a jiffy.”

When her father and brother had left with their loads, Cassie immediately reached for the shiny amulet and slipped the chain around her neck. She giggled with delight at the clinking sound the chain made. After that amusement wore off, she stared, fascinated, at the amethyst.

Meanwhile, Trader Moe poked his head out from behind a nearby plane. Seeing the amulet around Cassie’s neck, the alligator smiled broadly, revealing a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth. “Dis is gonna be like takin’ candy from a baby.”

Just behind him, Rhino Goon - tall, dark, and stupid - craned his neck around the tail section to see what his diminutive boss was seeing. “Oh, boy! I like candy.”

Ape Goon - tall, dark, and stupider - joined them at enthusiastically peering at the amulet. “Yeah, where’s da candy?”

“Ya peach pits!” Trader Moe said in frustration, smacking them both across the snouts with his floppy brown hat. “Dere ain’t no candy.”

“But dere’s a baby,” Rhino Goon said slowly.

“Don’t it got candy? You said...” Ape Goon added, hopeful of a sweet treat.

“No!” Trader Moe snapped. His temper was as short as his stature. “Da baby’s got somethin’ better’n candy.”

“Gumdrops?” Ape Goon interjected.

“But wait.” Rhino Goon pointed out, “Gumdrops are candy.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ape Goon chuckled stupidly, “I forgot.”

“Will youse shut up already?”

The hulking goons cringed, completely cowed by their much smaller, yet smarter, boss.

Trader Moe ordered, “Get da necklace from da baby an’ be careful wid it. A jewel dat size has gotta be worth a lotta moolah. I’ll meet ya back at da plane.”

“Right, boss,” Rhino Goon said as Trader Moe marched across the airfield. “Get da necklace from da baby.”

“No candy,” Ape Goon added, a little sadly.

When the goons approached Cassie, she fixed her questioning eyes on them.

“Hand over da necklace, kid,” said Rhino Goon, scowling down at her.

Ape Goon held out his hand. “Yeah, da necklace.”

Thinking it was a game, Cassie slapped his palm and chirped, “Fibe!”

“She hit me!” Ape Goon cried, recoiling in fear.

“Tough girl, huh? Well, we’ll just see about that.” The rhino grabbed onto the necklace’s chain and tried to slip it over her head. However, it wasn’t as easy as he had thought it would be.

“No!” Cassie yelled at the top of her lungs, clutching the amulet with her tiny hands. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!”

When she started to bawl, Rhino Goon dropped the necklace as if it were a hot potato.

Perplexed, Ape Goon scratched his pointed head. “Da boss wants da necklace, an’ da baby wants da necklace. What do we do?”

“We’ll take her to da boss. He’ll know what to do.” Without further ado, Rhino Goon scooped up crying Cassie and carried her off.

End of part 1

Mishappy Birthday, Baby
part 2

A Few Minutes Later

Baloo dusted off his hands as he walked up the back hatch into the Sea Duck’s cargo hold. “Thanks for helpin’ us out, Professor. Now, we’ll just get Cassie an’ scoot.”

Seeing no sign of his little sister, a horrible sinking feeling settled in the pit of Kit’s stomach. “Uh, Papa Bear...”

“Cassie? Cassie!”

Cassie wasn’t the only thing that was missing.

“The amulet! It’s gone!” Professor O’Bowens exclaimed, looking dazed.

Kit watched as Baloo and Professor O’Bowens ran from one end of the cargo hold to the other, each desperately searching for their respective treasures. They looked behind the curtains, rummaged through the trunk and the supply closet, and finally peered down the manhole that led to the water tanks.

After five frantic minutes, Baloo and Professor O’Bowens sank, defeated, on the lower bunk bed.

“It’s gone!” the professor wailed. “The head of the museum will kill me.”

“She’s gone!” Baloo wailed. “Becky’ll kill me.”

“Maybe she wandered into the cockpit,” Kit suggested, “and took the amulet with her?”

“Man, I hope so!” Baloo said, speeding into the cockpit with Kit and the professor on his heels.

Unfortunately, a thorough search of the cockpit yielded no results. Neither Cassie nor the amulet were to be found.

Baloo plopped down in pilot’s seat in despair and buried his face in his hands. “What are we gonna do now?”

Just as he thought things couldn’t get any worse, Rebecca’s voice crackled over the radio. “Higher for Hire to Sea Duck. Come in, Sea Duck.”

“Uh-oh,” Kit murmured.

“You talk to her, Kit,” Baloo muttered, feeling as if he could never face his wife again. How could he ever tell her that he lost their baby?

“No,you talk to her.” He shoved the microphone into his adopted father’s hands. I’m not taking the blame for this!

Baloo gulped, pushed the ‘transmit’ button, and said as casually as he could, “Yeah, Becky?”

“Hi-ee,” she sang cheerfully. “Just wanted to check to see if everything was fine.”

“Oh, yeah. Couldn’t be finer,” Baloo said with a sinking heart.

Rebecca asked, “How’s Cassie doing?”

Baloo anxiously tugged on his shirt collar. “Okay...I guess.” Under his breath, he muttered, “Wish she were here.”

“Did you say wish she were here?” Rebecca screeched, causing Baloo, Kit, and Professor O’Bowens to nearly hit the cockpit ceiling.

“I said, uh, dear. Yeah, that’s it...dear,” Baloo laughed weakly. Cold sweat beaded on his brow as he hoped against hope that Rebecca would swallow his lie. “Cassie’s such a little dear. That's what I said. Honest engines.”

A little

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