Officer Shelton, Morris the not-so-evil imaginary Ugandan leprechaun, and Otto searched for the stairwell that led out of the basement of Hasselhoffer Castle. Caught up in all the excitement of finding mysterious body bags, and talking to their body parts, and eating strange-tasting hot dogs they had lost track of how they got down there.

Otto was a little apprehensive about leaving the basement. He had been ordered by Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily to remain there until her Veteran's Day Holiday weekend with the Count was over. Otto didn't like not following her orders. He prided himself on obeying Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily at all times. He was her underling after all, and that was his job, obeying each and every one of her commands. So when she ordered him to the basement, he was prepared to stay in the basement until she said it was time for him to come out.

But since then things had changed. Otto had eaten over three dozen strange-tasting hot dogs, had countless number of discussions about reality television with his clavicle, and suddenly spoke in an Irish accent. He also had befriended Officer Shelton, a man he trusted and admired, as well as a tiny Ugandan man named Morris who he was growing to like. Otto felt like a new person, a new non-underling type person. He was his own man, his own man with a mysterious Irish accent.

(I still have no clue as to why I've given Otto an Irish accent. I thought it would be a clever thing to do because writing dialogue in an Irish accent is a really tricky. However, now I'm feeling like it may have been a mistake because I can't see how it fits in with the rest of the novel. I'll stick with it for now, though, because perhaps somewhere down the line I'll find use for it.)

And then there were the new feelings he had felt for Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily. Well, not so much new feelings, but a return to older feelings that he had a long time ago, back when he was just her cousin and not her cousin/underling. He'd tried for so long to hold back these new-but-not-so-new feelings, but now there was no stopping them, for he could only hope to contain them. That doesn't make sense. Dang. I really wanted to use a variation of that phrase, "You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him" that they say on Sportscenter all the time. I think that would be another way to reach younger readers. Hmm. I'll have to work it in somewhere else.Anyway, Otto had new-but-not-so-new feelings for Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily and he wanted to find her and convey them to her.

"Over here," Officer Shelton called out, "I think I've found the stairs."

A rush of excitement ran up Otto's spine (same thing happens to me everytime I think about tonight's all-new ER event featuring a plane crash, John Stamos, and Serena Williams). He was finally leaving the basement and would soon be in the presence of Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily where he would tell her of the new-but-not-so-new feelings he has for her. Would she reciprocate his new-but-not-so-new feelings back to him? He did not know, and at that moment he did not care, because a penguin was suddenly pecking at his shin.

This post is dedicated to the Indigo Girls.