"Not too bad," Benji said, looking at a picture of a koala in a tree.
King Kuts went up to meet a kangaroo at the registration desk, which was really a long counter built into the wall. [Note--notice how I utilize both anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic animals in this story, e. g., the non-anthro kangaroo of the previous chapter and this anthro kangaroo innkeeper.] The walls were painted sky blue, and the desk was painted yellow. The floor was scuffed wood and there were cracks in the ceiling. A mousehole was in one wall.
"G'day, mates!" the kangaroo said, smiling. "If your rat friends would like, they can check into the mouse inn in the wall."
"Go along, you heard what he said," said King Kuts, pushing Squeely, his brother and his mother towards the hole. The rats scurried inside.
"I'd like to give you a tour, but I'm afraid there isn't much to see," said the kangaroo. "Boys [sic] sleeping quarters down here in that room, ang [sic] girls [sic] upstairs." [Note--gender-segregated inn? Weird.]
"Sunnyside Inn?" LaTa asked. "Is that the name?"
"Sure is," a new voice said. Everyone looked and saw a brown female greyhound come in. She was soaked from ear to foot but did'nt [sic] seem to mind.
"Fall in water again, eh?" the innkeeper asked. "Everybody, I'd like you to meet Darlene, longtime occupant of Sunnyside Inn. Darlene, these dogs just arrived from Egypt. They planned to go to the Antarctic, but the jet could'nt [sic] make it." [Note--is he psychic or something? Even I didn't know any of that. And what's this about the Antarctic??]
Everyone helloed politely.
Darlene took an immediate liking to Straitjacket. They (and all the other girls) went upstairs to unpack.
"Who's that gray dog down there?" Darlene asked.
"Him? That's Benji. He likes to run around all the time. If you meet up with him, call him Benjamin. Only once."
"Why?"
"Trust me. The sign-in room is empty. Why don't you go down and meet him? I'll take care of your stuff here."
"Here goes." Darlene headed downstairs.
The sign-in room was empty, except for Benji looking on the floor.
"Careful!" he shouted suddenly. "I dropped a contact lens."
"Let me take a look." Darlene bended [sic] over. "Hey! Here it is."
Benji crawled over and picked it up. "Excuse me," he said, and went to the bathroom in the boys' part. He cleaned it off and put it back on his eye. Then he came back.
"You're Darlene, are'nt [sic] you?" he asked.
Darlene nodded. "Are you nearsighted or farsighted?"
"Nearsighted."
"Oh, by the way, I learned that your name is Benjamin."
Benji turned bright red. "S'cuse [sic] me," he said, leaving the room.
"What'd he say when you called him you-know-what?" Straitjacket asked. [Note--in case you haven't noticed, I didn't seem to believe in scene transitions back then. For example, Straitjacket is not standing right there when Darlene uses this name--Darlene has in fact gone back to meet Straitjacket.]
"He left the room."
"Well, that's different!" Straitjacket said. "He must like you. I mean, really like you."
"You think so?"
"Sure thing."
"Hiiike!" Akhenaton called from downstairs. Everyone grabbed their backpacks and headed downstairs. Everyone else was ready, so they left.
[Illustration: Straitjacket and Darlene; both are wearing backpacks and smiling, and Darlene wears her hair in a ponytail. Some sort of counter or something is behind them.]
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