The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)

28.2: Dare to Hope

The path did lead to the top of the cliff and the sun was nearly overhead by the time we had reached the Ministry of Wisdom once again.

We found no sign of anyone as we made our way through the building, and upon reaching the locked door, the previously unconscious form of the guard was gone.

Nothing can explain the amount of relief I felt when I saw that the key had been left in the lock of the door.

As we approached the door, I heard the king say from within, "Is that you poppet, uh, dear?"

I opened the door and said, "No, it's just us, I'm afraid."

The king looked us up and down, taking in the full measure of our frightening appearance, then promptly plugged his nose and said, "Ugh, you both somehow manage to smell much worse than you look, which is no small feat, I assure you. Honestly, when I saw Derek yanked down that hole and heard his pitiful scream as he fell, I lost all hope of ever getting out of here."

"Well, you have him to thank for all of it," Derek said with a nod in my direction.

"Never mind all that, you can work out your grievances later," I said. Then I turned to the king and asked, "Where do you think the queen would have taken the bomb?"

"She did say that she was going to oversee the final preparations, so the parade grounds is my best guess. That's where the celebration is to be held."

"I think was is the better word. It's morning already," I said.

"Really? We should all be dead. What in the world is going on?" the king said as he hurried off down the hall.

Derek and I quickly followed, then the king suddenly stopped and rounded on us. "I just remembered something. You have to hear this."

We both peered at him expectantly.

"An electron and a positron walk into a pub, and the positron says to the electron, 'You're round.'" He then chuckled to himself before he continued with, "This next part gets me every time. So the electron says, 'Are you sure?' and the positron replies, 'I'm positive!'"

This is precisely why I became a professor rather than work with other scientists in a lab somewhere.

Derek took a step forward, clearly invading the king's space bubble, and quietly said, "Don't make me hurt you, Barry."

"Right, we're off then," the king said and beat a hasty retreat down the hall.

Thankfully, the parade ground wasn't very far, and the way was mostly downhill from the Ministry of Wisdom. Therefore, it didn't take us long to get there, but we were not at all prepared for what awaited us there.