Tom was on a roll now, excited at being involved in some spy cloak and dagger work, just like James Bond.
“James Bond the children’s books?” Lucy exclaimed.
Tom thought Tom Cruise would be too close to his own name… “Ok, how about Dwayne Dibley?” Tom nearly laughed out loud at that notion, being the alter ego of the ship’s cat in the series Red Dwarf.
The three looked bemused again with such a strange name choice. “Dwayne Dibley it is,” Balthazar pleased at being finally allowed to make a decision.
“Lucy, there is an empty cottage two doors down from your mum’s. I can open that up for you to use,” Said Captain Brown now also buying into the project.
“That would be better, to isolate the experiment, but no entering from the front. Lucy, there is a path along the rear of the cottages you can use. So no one sees anyone coming or going from the ghost laboratory,” Tom said, enjoying his role in this.
“Okay, so if Lucy, er, Miss Moneypenny can give me a list of what she needs in the next day or so, we can get started. Tom, er, Dwayne you are bordering on paranoia, but I see your argument,” Balthazar agreed. He nodded at them all and took his leave up the beach.
“Well, Lucy, what do you think? Can you and Tom pull this off?” Captain Brown asked.
“Well, if I can get equipment, it will certainly be an interesting project for the summer. I will start a plan and make a list to give you.” Lucy answered.
Captain Brown nodded at Lucy, then at Tom, “You were back on thin ice for a short while back then Tom, but you have made your point. Things may not be as simple as we thought.” He turned and walked over to the gathered fisherdogs, barking orders. He now directed the recovery of Thomas’s boat. The boat at the end of its trip was now approaching the beach, with the retired captain Bob, the human father and son on board.
“So Lucy, what do you think? Can we?”
“It depends on what is actually in that box. Luckily it looks to be a waterproof sealed unit, so it should remain uncontaminated. But I don’t want to open it until I have the right equipment.”
Tom handed Lucy the yellow box, then they both walked up the beach to join Sarah, Kitty and the two other kittens. The six of them chatted, but mainly they all wanted to hear Tom’s story of rescuing the mermaid.
That evening the pub was the busiest Tom had ever seen in any pub. You could barely move in the small pub, with people spilling out onto the front garden with the slightly warmer evening. Thomas came in early with his many girlfriends and his dad, the retired captain Bob. Captain Bob brought Tom a beer, saying it had been a lot of fun to get back out on the boat to entertain rather than work. The human father had paid handsomely for the few hours work and Bob admitted that it was worth it, just for enjoying a few hours back with his son on his old boat. He even asked to be considered if any more guests at Kitty’s B&B asked, so long as it was not every day.
Sarah and her kittens were sat at a table in the lounge, trying to encourage Tom to sit and join them for a meal, rather than work. Soon Sarah had to join him in clearing tables and serving as they were so busy.
The human family were over the moon with their day, and seeing merpeople for the first time, and thanked Tom for arranging everything. Even the mother cracked a smile, listening to her overexcited son retell his adventure for the umpteenth time that evening. The daughter, no longer wearing lipstick, kept smiling knowingly at him, glancing down to his crotch whenever their eyes met.
As more and more fisherdogs arrived for the evening, Tom was brought more and more beer and congratulated for his heroism. Kitty excused him from working, although Tom kept clearing empty glasses and serving in between talking to the fisherdogs. Tom struggled to keep up with the lengthening line of glasses of beer that had been brought for him.
“Hi Tom, I’m Peter,” A timid-looking dog introduced himself to Tom, shaking his hand.
“Hi Peter, I saw you here last night. Thanks but please I can’t drink anymore beer, I am trying to pace myself as it is.”
“No, haha, er, I wanted to ask, just how do you do it?”
“Sorry?”
“I watched you last night and now tonight, you are so calm when talking to females. Whether human, cat or dog, how do you do it?” Peter asked whilst glancing at Lucy in the lounge.
“Oh, you fancy Lucy?”
“NO, no. I was on the same course as her at college and whilst she was top of the class, I struggled. Even though often lab partners, I struggled to ask her for help, even with simple problems.”
Phew, well that is simple, try not to put her on a pedestal. She is friendly and wouldn’t bite your head off. Why not just go up now and ask something like, what were her plans for the holidays? If you keep it neutral and try not to overthink it.”
“Oh, thanks. Well, what about females you like?” Peter whispered in embarrassment. He did glance at the kitchen hatch to the kitchen where only Brenda and Becky were working. Well, now it was obvious he would not be thinking of Brenda.
“Ah well, that’s a whole new ball game. It’s tough. The key here is not to think of her as Captain Brown’s daughter. You must be already friends, which is half the battle. Say something positive to show you have noticed something about her. It is a bit corny but start with small things, I don’t know her well but she seems to like fashion. Say something nice along the lines of, you like the smell of her perfume, or how nice her dress or new hair cut looks. Something that isn’t too out of the ordinary, but shows you noticed her or her feelings.” Tom hated these types of conversations; it is easy to give advice but hard to follow yourself.
“Oh thanks, I’ll try later.” Peter tried to put a brave face on but didn’t look confident.
“No time like the present. The bonus tonight is that it is busy, so no one will notice if you crash and burn,” Tom said and realised that he had just undone his pep talk.
Tom moved back to see if Brenda or Becky needed a hand, but they almost shooed him out of the kitchen, saying they were too busy to have him under their feet. Tom was pleased to see that not only was the hatch clear, but Becky was furiously washing up.
Tom saw Lucy on her own in the lounge, with Sarah working and the other two kittens chatting with some dogs in the bar.
“Lucy, I have a brief question to ask before we meet up tomorrow?”
“Tom, I have a lot of questions too, mum told us. Your secret is safe with us. I am looking forward to setting up in the other cottage. All I would need is a blood sample from you and I could discover all kinds of things.”
“Our priority is the box, remember? Which is why I want to talk now? Do you need any help? Peter said he was on your course at college, would he be suitable to help?” Tom glanced up, but Peter was nowhere to be seen.
“Peter would be a real big help. He is a better engineer than a scientist. We worked well together as lab partners at college because of that. I am not good with setting up test equipment, but Peter could build us what we need, out of what we can buy. We can talk further in the morning.”