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Susie’s Shell Searching Adventure /// Chapter 2

A day of sliming had passed before Mel pointed her antennae toward what she called a mountain. She explained how they might use it as a lookout point. Obviously, Susie didn’t really have an inclination regarding where the thief ran off to. They were operating under the belief that the evil slug would be moving towards the urban areas. And that the shell was certainly stolen by an evil slug. Susie agreed to climb the mountain.

After they had laboured for a time, Mel paused to catch her breath. Susie stopped too and looked at Mel. Mel was smiling still and it was causing Susie to feel quite confused. They’d just been hiking up the face of an enormous mountain and here was this slug, smiling like they had taken a stroll along the beach and been coated with a lovely spray of the sea rather than the sticky secretion of sweat. Susie shook her head, bewildered. Silly, but perhaps unique.

‘Why do you want this shell back so badly?’ Mel said.

‘What do you mean?’ said Susie. ‘It’s my shell. It’s who I am? I’m naked without it.’

‘Well —  I don’t know..’ Mel said. ‘You haven’t got a shell right now and I still seem to be hanging out with you just fine.’

‘It’s just, this can’t be me,’ Susie said. Her entire body slumped to the ground. ‘This ruins everything,’ she said.

‘Being a slug?’ Mel said.

Susie said, “Being a slug.’

‘Haven’t you always been a slug?’ Mel said. Confusion.

‘I’m a snail. I know that I’m a snail. I’ve always been a snail. I don’t even know how to be a slug,’ Susie said. ‘I need my shell. My friends are snails. My parents know me as a snail. I’ve spent my entire life doing snail things and trying to be a snail. I can’t just become a slug.’ 

‘So you don’t like slugs, that’s all?’ Mel said. 

‘Do you like slugs?’ Susie said. 

‘Sure, if they’re the right slug. Sure, again, if they’re the right snail,’ Mel said. She had a stupid grin on her face like she knew exactly what she was saying.

‘Do you see me as a slug?’ Susie said.

Mel was smiling larger now. She said, ‘I see you as a you, Susie. That’s all that really matters, eh?’ 

But Susie couldn’t respond. She twisted her eyes down towards the mountain and said at last, ‘I’m not sure I can be a slug.’

Mel turned away now to face the peak of the mountain. ‘Snail or slug or otherwise, I only know you, and that’s enough for me. We’ll get your shell though, don’t worry about that. We’ll get your shell. You deserve a choice.’ Mel was moving now and Susie joined her slowly. ‘The sun’s about to set,’ Mel said. ‘And that moon behind it doesn’t have much light. We should get to the top,’ she said. Susie fell in behind Mel and they continued labouring, progressing towards the mountain’s precipice.

Just as Susie and Mel crested the peak of the mountain, they were arrested by the chilling voice of a man. They couldn’t see him under the sparse light of the melting moon, but his presence floated in the empty air, enveloping them.

‘Not another step,’ the man said. ‘Where’re you slugs headed?’ 

They stopped. Susie said, ‘A friend of ours ran off this way. We’re looking for them.’ 

‘Who’s your friend?’ the man said. 

Mel was quivering, but Susie spoke with faux confidence. ‘Name’s Bob. He’s a centipede.’ Centipedes seemed devious. Surely they would steal an unassuming snail’s shell. Maybe this ghostly man could point them in the direction of a centipede. It seemed like the best course, Susie reasoned.

The man came closer and Susie and Mel got their first look at him. A praying mantis. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t met a Bob,’ he said. ‘I am Pedro, I’ve been heading for the circus.’

Susie and Mel looked at each other and then turned back to Pedro. Mel said, ‘Circus?’

‘You’re joking, surely?’ Pedro said. Apparently, El Circo de Los Ángelas was world-renowned and only came around every twenty years or so. They were in town for two weeks before packing up for another twenty years. 

Pedro clapped his bent arms together and spun about. ‘Just over this mountain. Come, you’ll see,’ he said. He crept towards the horizon line and stood looking out at nothing. 

Susie and Mel slimed to his side and watched as what was previously nothing coalesced into an orchestra of neon lights. A city of lights and tents and roller coasters had been erected at the foot of the mountains, casting joy and life and adventure out into the night air.

“Damas, queridas babosas, les presento El Circo de los Ángelas,” Pedro said. Ladies, dear slugs, I present to you The Circus of Angels.

It seemed a perfect name. The festivities of the circus goers floated into the night sky like angels ascending towards the heavens. The spectacle in tandem with the rarity of the occasion certainly gave the circus of angels a sense of mystification. Mel and Susie gawked at the expanse for some time before the trio decided they would take the night to rest. Pedro agreed to take Susie and Mel to the circus first thing in the morning. It was no biggie, he’d said, the circus was his final destination anyhow, the place he was always meant to be.

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