Before uh-oh could investigate the weird number, she had to go and see
her brother.  She was dreading this more than usual today.  She did not
get along with her brother, but she stopped by every so often to say hi,
even if she really felt like saying "die".
 
Her brother was younger than her, and he was into baseball.  Really into
baseball.  Really really into baseball.  His life was nothing but
baseball.  He played baseball.  He watched baseball.  He talked about
nothing but baseball.  He was a rather chubby dew and even looked
somewhat like a baseball.  Heck, its like he was a baseball.  He had
beady little black eyes and didn't like her any more than she liked
him.  But, she had to say, he was a pretty good player.
 
She rode her motorcycle down to his house, but barely stayed long enough
to say hi.  He didn't even answer, he was so lost in the last minutes of
the Giants/As game.  When she was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief,
now she could really get to business.  Without bothering to turn on the
radio, she drove home as fast as she could.  She had meant to go straight
home, but even in her hurry, she could not resist stopping to get an ice
cream at a little place called, for some reason, Poop Scoop.  Despite the
name, they had really good ice cream, and uh-oh made a point to eat there
at least once a week.  She ignored any creation with baseball in its
name, she had had quite enough baseball just thinking about her brother,
and ordered her usual, a single scoop of strawberry-vanilla swirl.  it
annoyed her to see her favorite flavor up on the board in small print,
when the fancy, tropical flavors took up so much space.  But for all
their efforts to attract tourists Poop Scoop was a local place, and they
knew it.  But they still didn't change the decorations.  Uh-oh payed for
her ice cream and wandered down to the pier.  She sat down and cooled her
paws in the water.  Strange how tired just being near her brother could
make her.  When she had finished, she rode home at her top speed.  She
looked in her mailbox, nothing.  She hadn't expected anything, but she
hadn't been expecting the weird letter either.  She walked inside, there
it sat on the table, managing to look both comforting and sinister at the
same time.  She reread it.  544-5555, hmm, she thought.  Well, she had
asked for an adventure.  She picked up the phone and dialed.
[Posted in FML issue 4989]