-----“So…what’s the plan?” _”What plan? Plans are what I have you for.”_ -----“Huh…yeah…Let me get this straight…You want me to figure out how to get us, smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…no land…just ocean…really deep water…right?” _”Yeah, shouldn’t be too difficult for you. I remember some plans you used to come up with. They were quite brilliant.”_ -----“You’ve got to be kidding…the only plans I ever came up with around you was how to build different kinds of water bongs. Finally grew out of that, though.” Amanda laughed; _”Well, they were really good plans. I mean…a paper plate and a fork is all we had one time…and that one was awesome.”_ -----“Look, we need something a little more than a stoners idea to get himself high. We need something that will work…in what…two mile deep water?” _”Then build a bong big enough to suck all the water out of the area we need to go.”_ Amanda was almost rolling on the floor with laughter now. Perry looked at her in disbelief…then slowly…a smile parted his face. -----“You know, that’s not a bad idea. That’s really not a bad idea at all.” Amanda adopted a very serious look all of a sudden. _”Perry…brother…I don’t care how high anyone thinks they can get…that can’t be done.”_ Perry looked at her, as though he was amazed how in the dark she was. -----“It’s gonna be a spell, dingbat…a SPELL…I just have to make sure I work it right. Damnit…I gotta go to the basement.” _”Want me to go with you?”_ -----“Nah, wouldn’t be able to tell you what I needed anyway. I gotta pack a lunch though…actually, best if I bring a tent.” _”Damn…you plan on staying down there that long?”_ -----“Well, I really don’t know what I’m looking for, so it could take a while.” _”Best you wait till tomorrow then. Get a couple of good meals under your belt and a good nights sleep in your bed…then go for it.”_ -----“Yeah…that does sound good.” After a rather large dinner, a couple of hours of TV, a couple of hours of computer games, a very good nights sleep, and a rather large breakfast, it was time to set off. Perry collected his tent, packed some items for the fridge downstairs, and brought a couple of pillows from his own bed, he set off down the stairs to the basement. After the little ‘security’ measures their parents had ‘installed’, he made it to the ‘real’ basement. A place located outside time and space. Perry knew exactly where he was…well, not as a location, but as a place. Here was a room located in the safest place in the universe, a place located where time, space and physics lose all meaning…a blue sun orbiting a singularity…dead at the heart of a black hole. -----“And with all the security, all the fear tactics, they put in a small fridge, a bathroom but no guest bedroom.” Perry set up the tent next to the couch, got out a bag of popcorn and sat down at the table. Concentrating on what he needed, he leaned close to the table and said, “Large shield spells, giant encasement spells, and watertight spells.” Again, the table raised its extra legs, started tapping and, at first, only a couple of books flew off the shelves…then tens of books….once the tapping stopped, there were five stacks of books, about a hundred twenty-five to be close to exact. Perry looked at all the books standing in the floor next to the table. -----“Damn.” *** Amanda went on about her daily business…and did so for two days before Perry emerged from the basement. Once in the kitchen, Amanda ran up and hugged him tightly. _”Damn, you were down there a while…how long do you think?”_ -----“Well, seeing as how I have a nice beard growth…and since the bathroom down there doesn’t have a shower or bath…and I smell quite ripe…I’d say, a week at least. But, I could be wrong…maybe two weeks.” _”Did you find what you were looking for?”_ -----“Yeah…finally, but I had to look through all the books to make sure I found everything I needed.” _”A lot of books, huh?”_ -----“That is an understatement. A bit over a hundred.” _”Alright…I’ve got the tickets for our cruise…it takes us right over that area. You go bathe and I’ll fix a good lunch. We leave in three days.”_ -----“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Perry went upstairs and put his tent away, after dropping his dishes in the sink…took a long bath, and returned to the kitchen.