Sunflower Girl [1]

The Bathtub

The Boys were trying to explain to Joyce and the rest how the Upside Down, the gate and the fly and the acrobat thing worked.
They looked...quite overwhelmed.

"Let me guess.",Hopper whispered to me. "You understand all this science bullshit."

"Theoretically, I can understand everything.",I answered him with a small grin. "But I actually saw it, Hops, and even I can't quite get it into my head."

"We tracked the gate to Hawkins Lab.",Lucas announced. "With our compasses.",Dustin added.

"That's genius, boys.",I exclaimed with a wide smile. "You could do it because of the electromagnetic field, right?"

The boys nodded wildly but Nancy, Jonathan and Joyce looked clueless.

"Okay, so the gate that we're talking about has a really strong electromagnetic field. It's basically a strong force.",I started to explain to them. "And this force can change the direction of a compass needle. Of course you need a great amount of energy to actually do that which we have thanks to the gate."

"Is this gate underground?",Hopper asked and looked at El.

"Yes."

"Near a large water tank?",the man continued asking.

"Yes.",the girl answered again.

"How do you know all that, Hops?",I asked confused.

"He's seen it.",Mike figured.

"Is there any way that you could...that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this-." "The Upside Down.",Eleven said. "Down. Yeah."

The little girl nodded.

"And my friend Barbara? Can you find her, too?",Nancy asked.

Static noises came from the walkie-talkie which was lying on the table.

Eleven sat in front of it with closed eyes while she was trying to find Will and Barb.

"I'm sorry.",she suddenly said.

"What? What's wrong? What happened?",Joyce stuttered.

Eleven's voice broke while she was talking. "I can't find them."

She left the living room abruptly and ran into the bathroom.

I slid off the kitchen counter and followed her.

"El? Can I come in please? It's not your fault, okay? You did your best, sweetie. No one's mad at you, I promise.",I spoke through the bathroom door.

The door was opened abruptly.

"The bath.",Eleven said. "I can find them. In the bath."

"Yep, all right. Yeah, we'll be careful. Definitely. All right Mr. Clarke. See you on Monday."

I watched Dustin hung up the phone and then turn around to us.

He called Mr. Clarke to ask him how we could build the perfect bath for Eleven to find Will and Barb.

"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?",the Henderson asked Joyce.

The woman nodded, confused why he was asking.

"Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it.",the curly-haired boy continued.

"How much is lots?",Hopper asked.

Dustin looked at his notes. "1.500 pounds."

"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?",Nancy asked.

I started to smile like a maniac. "Nance, do you remember how I always complained in Middleschool about our lovely janitor who never used enough salt on the streets in the winter so I always slipped and fell on my ass?"

Nancy looked a bit confused. "Yes...?"

"And remember that one time I snug into his office, stole his keys and found all the salt bags he was hiding?",I continued.

My best friend's eyes widened. "Of course."

I grinned. "That freaking janitor watched over his stupid salt like it was a treasure or something. I think we should pay it a visit, don't you think? In all these years of hoarding them, I'm sure he doesn't mind a few bags missing."