Strange Days Indeed By Knightie Katrinka Time: Sometime Friday afternoon All Knighties used with permission Marla wished they had been able to take the Caddy shopping. It would have been so much easier, to bring their things back. All they would have to do is pull into the garage, to unload the car. Instead they were riding in a rented Minivan. Katrinka had pointed out that since this war was so strange, they couldn't fully trust Nick. After all, he was in someone else's body. Which meant that he might report the car stolen. Hence the ride in a rented Minivan. Tracey looked at the very long shopping list. "You know, next time we go to the shops, we might *Not* ask everyone what they want. It's going to be very expensive." "We have Nick's credit card." Marla pointed out. "The one he gave us in case of emergencies, and I think this is an emergency." "Buying things isn't an emergency." Tracey insisted. "We should have asked." "We couldn't ask Nick-we're not even sure if it *is* Nick." "We're going to have to go to at least five shops to fulfil this order." "We're only going to one store." Katrinka finally said as she pulled into the parking lot of a very large sized store. "Wally-World!" "I didn't know they had one here!" Marla said as she got out of the van. "Wally-World's everywhere!" Katrinka said as she got out. "We don't have any shop called Wally-World in New Zealand." Tracey pointed out. "This is even better, it's a super Wally-World. They even have a grocery store." They went into the store. Tracey looked around with wide-eyed wonder. The groceries right by the jewelry, which was right by the sporting goods, which was right next to the toys. "What first?" Marla asked. Tracey looked at the list, trying hard to read Katrinka's bad handwriting. "Groceries." Everyone grabbed a shopping cart, and they headed towards the grocery section. Katrinka stopped in front of the jewelry counter. She stared at the display of pocket watches. "Their very pretty aren't they?" Marla asked. "We better get to finding the food." Tracey reminded them. Katrinka didn't answer, instead she stood as still as a statue. "We better go." Marla put a hand on Katrinka's arm. "Come on Kat." Katrinka spun around. "My names Ms'Kaye. A student such as you cannot address me with my full name!" "We're not your students." "Of course you're not my students! My students are far better behaved then you'll ever be." Katrinka stuck her nose in the air. "I must shop for the picnic. You two better run along and find your parents." "Katrin..." She was stopped by the woman's glare. "Ms'Kaye, we're not here with our parents. We're not even students." "We're Knighties." Tracey put in. "You're a Knightie." The woman's glare got even more withering. "Yes, I am an instructor at the Nick Knight Academy, but I would not denigrate him with the name Knightie." "Excuse me" A man pushing a hydraulic pallet carrier when by the three Knighties, Marla and Tracey moved out of the way. Once the pallet was gone, it was just the two of them. "She's gone!" Marla gasped. "We've got to find her, she's out of her head!" Tracey agreed. ************************ The more and more they looked the more and more the two Knighties realized that the place was crawling with members of the Cousins of the Knight and Nunkies Anonymous. They would get brief glimpses of Katrinka, but as soon as she saw them, she disappeared around a corner. "What are we going to do?" Marla looked at her watch. "We've been looking for 30 minutes." "We'll have to call the loft, and get reinforcements." Tracey said firmly. "Will they believe us?" "They'll have to." Tracey found a phone, and called the loft. Eowyn answered the phone. "Nick Night's residence." "Eowyn, we've got a problem. A very large problem." "What is it?" "We've lost Katrinka." "What do you mean lost Katrinka? How do you loose a person?" "When she doesn't want you to find her, it's real easy." Tracey said. "Do you mean she defected to another faction?" "I don't know. She's says she's someone called Ms'Kaye. She thinks we're students! She reminds me of that Bucket woman in Keeping Up Appearances." "Oh no," Eowyn sighed. "Where are you? We'll send over all the Knighties we can to find her." "We're at a thing called a Super Wally-World." She paused. "What should we do if we do find her?" "Humor her!" With that, Eowyn hung up the phone.