Who: Brittany and OTA What: Brittany has arrived in Lawrence by way of the Ohio sewer system. It must be magic. Where: the sewers of Lawrence When: Early morning
Brittany was clad in the dress she’d bought for last year’s Easter Sunday family dinner. This was an extremely important event so, naturally, she wanted to look her best. Where had this idea come from? She really couldn’t remember specifics, but suspected it had something to do with the time she was sick with the flu and watching that movie Ben about the rat society. Piece that together with the football player who had told her that the rat king who lived in the sewers of Ohio granted wishes to anyone who could find his rat kingdom and you had a half-cocked sort of plan. Brittany was going to find the rat king and get a wish.
Sewers were really hard to get into. She’d originally thought she’d just lift a manhole and climb down, but manholes were heavy. Instead, she shimmied backwards down the drain in front of her house. It got her dress a little dirty with bits of gravel embedded in the tulle, but rats were dirty, too, right? Maybe it could work in her favor, being as dirty as the rat king. Maybe he would even grant her extra wishes!
The tunnels were surprisingly cramped and nothing like how they looked on the science fiction movie her sister had been watching the night before. She had to crouch a bit as she meandered her way through the twists and turns of the underground rat kingdom. It was probably part of the challenge, she reasoned. If it was easy to find the rat king then everyone would have been able to get wishes and you’d hear about it on the news and stuff. It all made sense in her head.
Then her legs started to ache like they did after long Cheerio practice and that meant that she was really working her muscles. This trip was only supposed to last a day. She couldn’t be out for very long. Her cats depended on her to feed them and she imagined that their little kitty bellies were close to empty. The tunnels, though? They were confusing and she wasn’t really sure how to make her way back.
Just when she felt like crying, though, she saw it. Sunlight was streaming into the otherwise dark and morbid looking tunnel. It was a manhole and that meant that she was close to people! Brittany lifted her head and shouted.
“Hello? Could someone help me?” She stared up and prayed someone might have heard her.