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A high rise apartment complex in Mid-Town Parrodipolis.

The art deco styled doors of the elevator open onto a typical look apartment floor. Inside is only one soul occupant. As she exits she gives a quick glance back to make sure she's not caught in the doors. She is not, so she turns right & walks down the hallway.

She dressed as she normally is: navy blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high tops, argyle socks on her feet. Her pants are a well worn & ripped in a few places pair of blue jeans. She wore a greying black Hoodie. Slung over her right shoulder is a olive drag colored messenger bag. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets & a couple of wrist bands. A few of her fingers had some rings on them. Her black nail polish was cracked & chipped in places. She had short sandy blond which was pulled back & into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin & was also wearing a pair of black plastic glasses.

As she walked down the hallway she was reading a comic book.

"Good night, Giant Penny." She said to herself & smiling a bit.

She reaches the corner & turns left. Catherine was almost home. Almost instinctively she looks up as she passes an apartment a few doors down from her. As she approaches that apartment her left eyebrow raises in puzzlement.

There in front of the door to the home of Misters' Beeslyhuxtoy & Swiss were a small group of men. They were all nicely dressed, too nicely dressed to be with Chad or Ronnie Catherine thought.

As she passed on by she smiled at a few of them, none returned the gesture. None of them even looked at her. She did notice on thing: the group were all gathered behind on man, a man who looked sort of what she thought a Butler might look like. She had never meet one, well... one but he was really creepy & she guessed that she did meet a robotic version of one on the Moon but never just a plain human Butler.

Catherine gets to her door & looks over at the group: They are all still standing there in formation. Catherine has the thought to go over & ask what they are doing but isn't sure if she should. It's not really any of her business. Sure, she's friends with the occupants but they are entitled to having their own lives. But, having the gaggle of men in the hallway is kind of impeding traffic.

Catherine sighs & walks back over.

"Uh.. excuses me?" She asks timidly.

No response.

So, she asks again. No response at first but then the leader of the packs lets out a small sigh, turns towards her & says "Yes?"

Catherine could just hear the contempt in his voice & see it on his face.

"I was wondering who you were waiting for?"

"Ronald Arnold.." He pauses, lets out another sigh & rolls his eyes. Then continues on. "Gerrimoto Beeslyhuxtoy."

"I'm friends with him."

"I see." He said as he looked Catherine over.

"Would you happen to know where he is?" He asked.

"No. I haven't seen him in a few days. Him or Chad."

"Chad?" He said like he didn't know that name which Catherine thought was a bit odd.

"Yeah. Chad, as in Ronnie's best friend."

"Oh. him."

"Yes, Him." Catherine replied.

There was a brief moment of silence & then Catherine asked "Can I ask why your looking for Ronnie?"

"We are here to take him back home."

"Home?"

"Yes. His parents have been worried about him since he went missing."

"Ronnie was missing?"

"Yes. He was or still is. This address has been the closest we've been to bringing young master Beeslyhuxtoy home in years."

"Years?" Catherine said a bit shocked. "How long has he been gone?"

"Going on a decade now."

"wow." Catherine said quietly."

"yes." he said flatly.

"Where is home anyways?"

"England."

"I always thought Ronnie was American."

"He is but his family currently resides out of country."

"cool."

"yes, very."

There was another moment of silence. This time with was broken by the man. "Are you sure you don't know where young master Beeslyhuxtoy or his friend might be?"

"yeah. Those two are pretty free spirits."

"Yes, as I've come to know over the years." The man said with a hint of sadness.

"yeah." Catherine said with a hint of happiness & a smile.

"If they do contact you, would you give me a call?"

"Sure."

"Excellent." He said as reached into his suit jacket & pulled out a small silver rectangular tin, He opened it & inside were business cards.

"Here is my card with all pertinent information." He said as he handed Catherine the card.

As she took it, she asked "Do you want to know my name or anything?"

"No." He said & turned to walk away. As he did, the others followed soon after.

As Catherine was left there she looked at the card in her hand. On the white card in black lettering were the man's name & a phone number. Catherine has just met Clive Hudgens, personal assistant to Beeslyhuxtoy family.

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TO BE CONTINUED...

So either the butler is lying, or Chad is a bad influence who caused Ronnie to run away? Or maybe it was the hamster?

An interesting turn of events! Learning some of the history of Ronnie should be amusing, or just watching him duck his family could be as well. I'm curious to see how things will pan out, and if the gang will be heading back to England.

And Flapjack's a butler, so Catherine has met two. I'm not sure he counts as all that human either, however. At least, most of humanity would probably vote not to include him.

No, he's not. As stated getting to that door was the closet they've ever been. Also, getting to talk to someone who has interacted with the duo on a regular basis (Catherine) is also the closet they've ever been. The Butler & group have always known Ronnie's name but they other other one has been a mystery up to know.

This story has been one of the C&R story ideas I've had for sometime. It's originally started out as a Origin story but then over time it has morphed into this.




Me, too. In though I've had this idea for some time, I'm not sure about how to end this. As for a trip back to merry ol' England: it's possible.




I mentioned Flapjack: he was the "creepy one". I wasn't counting him as a normal human butler, he was a humanesque/human like/humanoid butler. The other Butler mentioned in the story was A.L.F.RED.

All thought, at this time, they won't be in appearing in this story: I also kind of know who the Swiss' (Chad's Family) might be.