The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 27. Chapter 27 - Clean-up Crew

Dotty Marbles and Auntie Peg were with Thech, Jzuna, Fennah, Ninyani, and several adults, whom the pair of queens had rallied, including Bivon. It was late morning. The queens had taken the children to breakfast and ordered mistcream lattes for each of them, and they were now back at the grey building with the large wooden doors. Fennah had asked about it several times before they all returned, but the queens were enjoying keeping their plans secret.

“Okay, boys and girls and everyone,” Dotty Marbles said to the group, “let’s split up into a few teams to focus on several different projects. We want to deal with this big room,” and she waved at the large empty space. “It’s very dusty and grimy and the windows are coated in gunk, but it will eventually be our central area.” She smiled and looked around.

“Cleaning the entire building is going to be a serious chore,” Auntie Peg added, “however, we know exactly what we intend to achieve first. Along with the auditorium, it’s important that we get a few of the small rooms upstairs prepped. I know it may all seem overwhelming now, but today we only have to start; we don’t have to finish anything. Kids,” she said to Thech, Jzuna, Fennah, and Ninyani, “why don’t we head upstairs and start cleaning out some of the smaller spaces?”

Fennah eyed Dottie Marbles inquisitively, but Ninyani whispered, “You know she’s not gonna tell us what we’re doing.” He rolled his eyes and she giggled.

“Bivon,” Dotty Marbles said to the big red-bearded fellow, “will you please help me carry a few of these ladders over and set them up?” She added to the others, “I’d love to deal with the windows first, brighten the place up a little.”

Auntie Peg called from the bottom of the stairs, “Dot! I left the glass polish there by the door,” and she pointed, before turning back to the kids. “Come on, you four, let’s see what’s up there.” They climbed the stairs and Auntie Peg waved them into the first room. “We’ll start in here together? Let me get the window.”

The old windowpane may not have been moved in years, and it may have been resistant, but Auntie Peg was still as strong as she had been when she first became a Messiah, and the wood screeched as she forced the window open. Minding her wig, she stuck her head out and looked down at the pavement below.

“Oh, that’s perfect. Why don’t we start by tossing some of this junk out into the street, so we can collect it later and get rid of it? Here, Fennah and Ninyani, put these on,” and Auntie Peg handed the children each a pair of thick leather gloves. “They will probably be a little too big for you, but they will help protect your hands. I have gloves for you two as well,” she added, turning to Thech and Jzuna, “but do you need them? Can you even wear them on your tentacles, Jzuna?”

“I don’t think so,” she replied, “and Thech doesn’t need them.”

“Let me know if either of you want to try them,” Auntie Peg said with a smile. “You can certainly use them if you’d like. Why don’t we begin with this?” She took a broom out of a closet in the hallway.

There was some accumulated grit on the floor, and Fennah enthusiastically grabbed the broom handle and began to sweep. “Jzuna and Thech, how old are you?” she asked the unique pair.

“We’re 12,” Jzuna replied, and Thech huffed in agreement.

Fennah stopped sweeping. “Wow, you two are two years younger than Ninyani, and two times older than me! He’s 14 and I’m 6!” She then recited, “Twelve plus two is fourteen, and six times two is twelve.” Fennah nodded with certainty.

“Those are impressive math skills,” Auntie Peg declared. “And you are quite correct, princess!”

Fennah smiled so widely that her eyes squinted shut. “We had to do maths and languages and histories and sciences,” she explained, “even me, even though I was the youngest.” The little girl asked in an overly casual tone of voice. “So, Peggy, what are these empty rooms gonna be?” Fennah resumed sweeping, glancing at the queen, trying to downplay her curiosity.

Auntie Peg let out a cackle and brought a fingertip to her nose. She winked at Fennah, who repeated Ninyani’s eye roll and Auntie Peg only laughed more raucously. Jzuna, Ninyani, and Fennah could not stop themselves from giggling, and Thech hummed. Auntie Peg pinched Fennah’s cheek, and the girl stuck her tongue out. “Princess, we’ll make a queen of you yet!”

“But not like you and Dot, right, since you’re boys underneath?”

“Oh, honey,” Auntie Peg replied, “absolutely anyone can be a queen! Now, let’s get back to cleaning.”

Larger broken chunks of concrete and pieces of debris were strewn about the room, and Jzuna focused on them. The bits levitated, floated out the window, and dropped. A steady flow of refuse made its way out with Jzuna and Thech’s powers.

“That is quite astonishing,” Auntie Peg said with a chuckle. “Ninyani, why don’t you head back down and see if Dot has another broom? Thech and Jzuna have already almost finished clearing this room, and we’ll move on to the next in another minute or two. If Dot’s got another broom, you can sweep that second room while Fennah finishes this one.”

“Okay,” Ninyani replied brightly, and he skipped down the stairs.

Fennah continued sweeping, and Jzuna left her brother in the hall and floated into the next room. She used her powers again, and all the little miscellaneous pieces of rubble and twigs and pebbles rose up from the floor. They drifted through the hallway, and they entered the first room, moving through the air past Fennah and Auntie Peg. Jzuna released it, and the rubble fell to the growing pile on the street below.

Auntie Peg began scrubbing the window, and Thech left the hallway and stepped right up to her.

“Would you like to help me, Thech?”

One of his arms shot straight up overhead. He smeared the window with the slime that perpetually covered him.

Auntie Peg replied in a confused voice, “Oh, well, that’s something.”

Jzuna came to the door of the room and informed Auntie Peg, “Thech used to help our mama clean our home. If you just wipe it off, the glass will be clear.”

Auntie Peg looked down at Thech. “Is that right? You used to help your mother clean the windows like this?”

The boy gave her a subtle response, rocking from side to side. He then reached out and slimed the outside of the window as well.

Auntie Peg wiped each side, and sure enough, the boy’s slime, along with whatever buildup had accumulated over the 200 years since the fall of Oselia, came right off.

“Wow,” Auntie Peg exclaimed, “thank you so much for helping me, Thech. Would you like to clean the windows in the other rooms?” He followed her as Jzuna continued levitating little bits of junk into the first room and out the window.

Auntie Peg looked back in on Fennah. “I’d say you’re almost done here, and Jzuna has already picked up what was in the second room. Would you like to move on and sweep in there next?”

Fennah nodded her head, and she concentrated on getting all the remaining grit into a little pile.

“We have a dustpan downstairs that we can use to pick that up later,” Auntie Peg informed her. She snapped her fingers. “Should have asked Ninyani to grab it.”

“I can get rid of it!” Jzuna called out from the hallway. She entered and focused on the pile Fennah made. The minuscule particles began to lift like a cloud, and Jzuna drifted it out the window.

“Truly wondrous,” Auntie Peg said. “And let me open some of the other windows, so you don’t need to keep coming back into this room. We just need to make sure there’s nothing important and no people below.”

Ninyani arrived a few minutes later with another broom, and the four children and the queen cleaned out five of the rooms before lunchtime. They joined everyone downstairs for sandwiches that Theolan and the mystic delivered to them just after noon.

“Say thank you,” Dottie Marbles said to the four children as they each got their lunch.

“Thank you,” Ninyani dutifully repeated.

“Thanks, mystic and Theolan,” Fennah squeaked.

“Thech says thank you also,” Jzuna added.

The afternoon passed in much the same way as the morning, and the group called it a day when the sun began to set.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much Peggy and I appreciate all your help today,” Dotty Marbles said to everyone. “I’m thrilled with how much we accomplished! If you’re up for it, dinner is on us at Red Raven’s, and you’re all welcome.”★