THE NOSE AND HIS PERFUME

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen: The Mob

Carla Cheng produced a special report on the extractor overnight, which aired the following morning. Within a matter of hours was all over the Internet, as well as being continuously replayed on almost every TV channel. In the afternoon, Penny’s mother called. Considering that Penny’s mother had seen Carla’s special in the middle of nowhere, just about everyone in the world must have seen the reporter’s hidden camera footage. Though it would take days for her to arrive, Penny’s mother was on her way home. Penny was overjoyed, but outside of Penny’s good news, the general atmosphere amongst them was bleak.

Carla’s hidden camera had been damaged, and she had only been able to recover the very last bit of the recording. The only usable footage she had was from when the Nose transferred some of their happiness to Penny. There was no footage of Mr. Hartford doing or saying anything wrong; there was no footage of him at all, as he had been unconscious on the ground at the time. Few people believed that the esteemed billionaire had anything to do with the Nose extracting children, and since Mr. Hartford’s memory had been extracted, when he claimed he knew nothing about the extractor, he wasn’t even lying. As it stood, the Nose would take the fall for everything that had happened; after all, he was guilty.

When the police questioned him, the Nose said that he stole the extractor from Spark’s and Campbell’s. (Which was somewhat true—he had stolen the plans for the extractor all those years ago.) So at least the extractor would stay at the store, though this wasn’t much of a relief to the general public. Extracting essence wasn’t officially a crime. In fact, the authorities were still debating whether or not such a thing even existed. The police and a number of official-looking people had questioned the Nose and the Varshavskys about the extractor, but so far nothing was being done, and people were outraged.

The Varshavskys had temporarily closed the store. Holed up in the apartment, they, the children, Basil, and the Nose watched the news on TV, though they could just as easily have looked out the window. There was a mob gathering outside the closed doors of Spark’s and Campbell’s. As Bunny watched an overhead shot of the massive crowd outside, she thought all that was missing from the scene were the pitchforks and torches. Mrs. V turned the TV off.

“Maybe we should have kept the extractor a secret,” Bunny said.

“No, we were wrong to keep the extractor a secret,” Basil responded. “There is no safety to be found in ignorance, only the temporary illusion of it.”

“But what happens now? What will happen to the store?” Beau asked.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Mrs. V said.

“Great, so there’s nothing we can do about any of this?” Bunny said.

“Humanity would have wiped itself out a long time ago if everyone thought like that,” Basil said. “You children already have done more than you realize.”

“What are you talking about? All we did was make mistakes.”

“Just think how much worse off we would be had you done nothing.”

“You saved me,” Penny smiled.

“You saved everyone,” Basil said.

“For now,” Bunny said.

There was a knock at the front door, and as Mr. V went to answer it, Basil stopped talking. Bunny knew he would remain silent until whoever was at the door was gone. A moment later, Carla came into the living room, looking almost as happy as she had when she was constantly spritzing herself with XEssence. It seemed like the wrong sort of time to be happy, and Bunny felt slightly irritated with her. As Carla faced them, her smile faded, and she frowned. 

“Haven’t you been watching the news? Have you been outside?” she asked.

“There’s a mob outside,” Beau said.

“You don’t know, do you?” Carla said, and seeming to come to some sort of realization, she grinned again. “Something amazing has happened. All those people out there—”

“—hate us?” Bunny guessed.

“Yes, people are outraged, but that’s not why they’re here. Don’t you know? They’re here to donate.”

Everyone stared at Carla. It was obvious that no one had any idea what she was talking about.

“You have no idea how many phone calls we’ve had. I’ve never seen anything like it. So many people called into the station, we finally had to leave an automated voice message telling people to come here. Those people out there all watched what you did,” Carla said.

“What are you talking about? We didn’t do anything,” Bunny said.

“They want to give some of their happiness to the children who were extracted. They’re here to return the happiness the Nose stole.”

Penny grinned, and Carla looked relieved to see that at least one of them was appropriately happy.

“Like when all of you gave some of your happiness to me?” Penny asked.

“Exactly,” Carla said. Seeming confused as to why Penny was the only one excited about it, Carla asked, “What’s the matter?”

“The extractor is too dangerous,” Mr. V said. “We must destroy it and never use it again.”

“But this is different,” Bunny said.

“Couldn’t you destroy it after?” Carla asked. 

“The extractor is dangerous. People have been killed by it. I’m so sorry. No one should have to pay for our mistakes,” Mrs. V said.

“Then help us fix them,” Penny said.