by Monica Lim
Melody turned to Danny only to find that he had been staring at traffic. He was fascinated by all the types of cars that he had, till now, only seen in pictures. Watching them made him feel like he was in an old movie.
“Danny! Are you listening?”
“Of course I am!” said Danny impatiently. “This Smart Alec guy loved the fish in an aquarium on a cliff and he became the Merlion. See? I was really listening!”
Melody gripped the side of the trishaw, exasperated. “He didn’t BECOME the Merlion, he DREW the Merlion! Anyway, because of the time warp, he never thought of the Merlion and is going to propose something completely different instead. That’s why we’re going to his office—”
“I thought we’re going to the aquarium on the cliff?” interrupted Danny.
“It’s not on a cliff!”
Danny was lost. “Why are we going to the aquarium that’s not on a cliff?”
Melody wanted to pull her hair out. “Ggggnnnnhhh! It’s the VAN KLEEF Aquarium! Alec Fraser-Brunner works there! We’re going there to make him change his design to the Merlion! Do you understand?”
“Er…I think so,” replied Danny. Actually, he didn’t but Melody looked like she was about to push him out of the trishaw so he decided to change the subject. “So how were you caught in the time warp? Were you struck by lightning? Did you have a time machine?” His eyes widened. “Or are you a superhero?”
Melody shook her head. “No, no, nothing like that. I don’t understand how or why it happened but I suddenly found myself rushing through time. It was like watching a movie rewinding and fast forwarding right before my eyes. Totally weird.”
The trishaw ride was not as smooth as Danny thought it would be and he kept bumping into Melody. He was also perspiring profusely. He removed his red jacket and stuffed it in his sling bag. However, he was still warm and was surprised to see that Melody looked fresh in her long-sleeved jacket.
“How come you’re not sweating?” he asked.
“Forever Kool air-con jacket,” she replied. The smug look returned. “Limited edition with temperature control.”
“What? No way!”
“Yes way. I’m from the future, remember? We have all kinds of great gadgets.”
Danny was torn between admiration and envy. “That’s so cool! I wish I had one of those.” The trishaw stopped along the edge of a road, next to a park. “We’re here,” said Melody. “Now remember, I’ll do the talking. You just follow me!”
“Why can’t I tal—LOOK AT THAT!” shouted Danny, pointing frantically.
Danny rushed forward while Melody hastily paid the trishaw man. “What is it? What is it?” she asked, startled.
“A DRINKS CART!” exclaimed Danny. “I am SO thirsty!” The small, wooden drinks pushcart was just what he needed. Danny was craving an icy cold drink to cool himself down. He ran towards the cart, past the groups of school children waiting around the many shady trees and colourful flowerbeds in the gardens.
The pushcart’s counter was lined with a row of bottled drinks—Pepsi-Cola, F&N Orange and some others that Danny was not familiar with. He was about to ask for an orange-coloured drink called Green Spot when the Indian man behind the cart smiled at him and asked, “Ice ball for you, boy?”
“Ice ball?” Danny’s curiosity was piqued. “Yes, please!” Just then, Melody caught up with him. “What are you doing?” asked Melody crossly. “We need to go now! Time is of the essence!”
“Chicken essence?” Danny thought of the tonic his mother always made him drink during exam periods and made a face. “Yuck! An ice ball sounds much more delicious. I want an ice ball!”
“Gggnnnnnhhh! Not chicken essence!” Melody gritted her teeth.
“That’s what I said!” Danny nodded in agreement. “An ice ball is much better!” Melody gave up arguing with Danny. They watched as the man worked the ice shaving machine. Shaved ice spilled out and fell into his cupped hand. He expertly moulded the ice into the shape of a bowl and filled it with red beans, gleaming green jelly and a small white fruit. More ice topped it off and the man shaped the whole slushy mountain into an ice ball. To Danny, it looked like the world’s biggest, most perfect snowball.
But the man wasn’t finished yet. He proceeded to ladle various coloured syrups onto the ice and drizzled condensed milk on top of it all. The frosty ice ball was tinged with green, brown and red, and looked like an orb of refreshing ice kachang, Danny’s favourite dessert which he always ordered at hawker centres.
The man plopped the ice ball into Danny’s hands. “Ten cents,” he said. Danny looked at the glistening, sugary ball. “Oh, err…it doesn’t come in a cup?”
The man turned to Melody. “You want one, girl?” Melody looked at the ice ball in Danny’s hand. It had already begun to drip. “No, thank you!” said Melody brightly and paid the man. She hissed at Danny, “Let’s go!”
Danny sucked on the ice ball as they trotted towards a large, rectangular white building. A wide, red brick path with steps led up to the main entrance. Danny’s ice ball was wonderfully sweet and refreshingly cold. He couldn’t think of a better treat on a hot day. “Mmmm…this is even better than ice cream!”
Danny couldn’t stop sucking on the ice ball. Suddenly, he thought of a question he had been meaning to ask Melody. “So slurrrrp why did you pick me to help you in this mission?”
“You want to be a superhero, right?” replied Melody. “I thought I’d give you a chance. Anyway, nobody else will believe a story like this, especially not adults.”
Danny’s eyes lit up. “You mean, slurrrrp I’m the Chosen One? Yes! Finally! Fame! Fortune! Just wait till my slurp sisters hear about this!”
“No, no, you can’t tell anyone!” warned Melody. “This has to be our secret, otherwise we might create more mistakes in the time warp!”
“Whaaatt?” wailed Danny. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“Well,” consoled Melody, “all superheroes have a secret identity, right?”
“That’s true,” pondered Danny. He cheered up. “Danger Dan goes undercover as he saves the Merlion! Nothing can stop him! He’s the Defender of Destiny! slurp Rescuer of the Republic! slurp Time Traveller of Toa Payoh!”
Danny turned to Melody and said generously, “You can be my helpful assistant, Mad Melody.”
“UURRRGHHHH! You qwirklehead! And stop making those loud slurping noises, please!”
“What?” Danny looked a little hurt. “I said you were helpful, didn’t I?” He continued sucking on his ice ball but very, very softly.
“I’m nobody’s assistant! And I’m most definitely not mad!”
“Well, you look pretty mad to me.” In fact, Danny could almost see smoke coming out of Melody’s ears. “Okay, okay, you can be Gadget Girl. Happy?”
Melody shot him a searing look. “Can you please focus?” she snapped. “We’re here to look for Mr Fraser-Brunner.” They reached the lobby of the white building, which had ‘Van Kleef Aquarium’ inscribed on its façade. They walked towards the entrance of the exhibition area which was being manned by a burly security guard.
Melody put on her most polite voice. “Please, sir, can you tell us where Mr Fraser-Brunner’s office is?”
“Why are you looking for him?” asked the security guard brusquely.
“We have something very important to discuss with him,” replied Melody.
“Discuss with him?” scoffed the security guard. “More like bother him! He’s a very important man. He doesn’t have time to discuss anything with you children. Go on now.”
“Please, sir, it’s very important!” appealed Danny, as he made a frantic gesture with his hands. Unfortunately, some droplets of syrup from his ice ball sprinkled onto the security guard’s uniform. The guard glanced at his uniform in disgust and pointed at Danny’s half-eaten ice ball. “You’re not allowed in! Not with that. No eating in here!”
Melody pulled Danny aside. “Don’t worry. We’ll find another way of getting in,” she whi
spered. They waited in the lobby until a large group of students in their school uniforms gathered. “Come on, boys and girls,” called the teacher-in-charge. “Follow me. We’re going in to see the exhibits.”
Danger Dan and Gadget Girl spot a large army entering the Underwater Fortress. This is their chance to enter the forbidden castle of Villainous Van Kleef! Blending in, they sneak in undetected. Success!
Inside the aquarium, many display tanks were built into the walls, featuring numerous species of fish and exotic sea creatures. Special lights illuminated the tanks and gave them an unusual glow, creating a magical effect in the darkened rooms of the aquarium. “Wow, check this out!” exclaimed Danny, running from tank to tank. “An electric eel! Look, there’s even a baby shark!”
Villainous Van Kleef has taken all the sea creatures prisoner! Evil sharks guard the entrances so no fish can escape. Danger Dan realises that the electricity that powers the Underwater Fortress comes from the imprisoned electric eels. A lonely puffer fish recognises him. “Please save us, Danger Dan!” it puffs. Danger Dan promises to free them all.
“We’re not here to look at fish, remember?” reminded Melody. She looked at Danny’s ice ball which was disintegrating in earnest, leaving behind a wet trail on the floor. “And you’re making an awfully big mess.”
Danny ignored her and peered into a low tank set up on a table in the middle of the room. The plaque next to it was marked, ‘Children’s Interactive Exhibit’. “Ooh, a starfish!” he pointed excitedly. As he leaned over the tank to get a closer look, his ice ball dripped onto the unlucky starfish. The light beige starfish now had a sticky, bright pink splotch. “Oops!”
Danny used his free hand to pick up the starfish and tried to wipe away the incriminating mark. Right at that moment, the security guard appeared in the room. “Oi! You!” he shouted, running towards Danny. “I told you: no eating in here!”
Several things happened at once. Melody seized Danny’s arm and the starfish flew out of Danny’s wet, syrupy fingers. The security guard slipped on the wet traces of the ice ball on the floor and skidded towards the tank. In a desperate attempt to stop, he grabbed at the table.
The table overturned, toppling the tank and everything in it. Some 50 terrapins, released from their enclosure, scuttled in all directions with surprising speed. Water, rocks and sand slushed onto the floor. To top it all off, the airborne starfish landed right on top of the security guard’s bald head.
“OHHHHH!! You…you…!” spluttered the security guard. Visitors screamed hysterically and scrambled out of the room, trying to avoid stepping on the travelling terrapins. With some difficulty, the security guard struggled to his feet and pried the starfish from his head. “Come on, help me!” barked the security guard, trying to set the table upright. Melody and Danny snapped out of their stupor and sprang into action.
Terrapins scuttle in all directions. They need water but Villainous Van Kleef has denied them any. “We need to help them!” cries Gadget Girl. Danger Dan and Gadget Girl quickly transfer the terrapins to a water-filled tank. “You’re safe for now, my reptilian friends,” whispers Danger Dan. “We’ll come back to free you when we can!”
Eventually, they managed to return most of the items but even Danny had to admit it wasn’t quite the same pretty display it was before. In his haste, he had also dropped his ice ball (or what was left of it) into the tank. It was a sorry sight.
Breathing heavily, the security guard stood by the tank and surveyed the slimy mess left on the ground. “At least we got the animals back.” He turned to the children. “Can you please go now?”
“Tell us where Mr Fraser-Brunner is first,” bargained Danny. “Otherwise I’m going from room to room until I find him!” The security guard opened his mouth. Then he sighed and replied wearily, “Fine, fine. His office is on the second floor. Take the staircase in the lobby. Just promise me you won’t come back in here, okay?”
“We promise!” chirped Danny. “Come on, Melody, let’s go.” The two children scampered out of the room, leaving the security guard shaking his head. They arrived back at the lobby and located the staircase behind a pillar.
“I learnt something new today,” mused Melody as they walked up the stairs. “The best way to get people to do something is to threaten them with Disaster Dan.”
“The name is Danger Dan!” said Danny indignantly. He frowned. “Hey, wait a minute! Did you just insult me?” On the second floor, they found themselves at the start of a long corridor, with rows of offices on both sides. They didn’t have far to go though. The very first door bore the sign: ‘Alec Fraser-Brunner, Curator’.
Melody knocked on the door and the two of them entered the office cautiously. A middle-aged secretary sat behind a desk. She had a pinched face and a sourpuss mouth. Her hair was permed and teased into a massive beehive style and she wore black-rimmed glasses that pointed up at the ends. Danny thought she looked like an electrocuted bat woman.
“Yes?” she sniffed haughtily.
“We’re looking for Mr Fraser-Brunner,” said Melody politely.
“He’s not here,” replied the secretary. “Why are you looking for him?”
“It’s quite urgent. We need to talk to him. Can you tell us where he is?”
“Who are you?” asked the secretary. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Did John send you? You’re here to steal his designs, aren’t you? You’re spies!”
Danny thought the secretary quite mad. “We’re children!” he cried. “How can we be spies?”
“That’s what they all say! Tell John he can’t fool me so easily just because he sends children! Shoo! Shoo!”
Melody and Danny left the office in a hurry, closing the door behind them. “Why are all the adults in this place so mean and grumpy?” wondered Danny. “What do we do now?”
“There was an appointment book on the secretary’s desk,” said Melody. “We just need to take a look at it. I’m sure she would have written down where Mr Fraser-Brunner is.” Triumphantly, Melody showed Danny what was in her hand. “I managed to snag a name card. Hang on.” She removed her large, silver hair clip.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m going to make a phone call.”
“You mean that’s a phone?” asked Danny, his mouth open in astonishment.
“A phone? This is not JUST a phone! It’s a mega all-in-one computer. It reads my brain waves so I can find any information and do all kinds of actions just by thinking. Latest model with 15 zettabytes of memory space.”
“Zettabytes?” Danny had never heard of that word. “How many gigabytes is that?”
“Gigabytes?” Melody looked at Danny pityingly. “I forgot you’re still living in the Stone Age. One zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 gigabytes. Anyway, I’m going to call the number on the card. I’ll try to lure the secretary out of the room so that we can take a peek at the appointment book.” Melody fiddled with her hair clip. “Uh-oh.”
“What? What is it now?”
“No signal.”
“Are you kidding?” Danny was amazed. “Such a fancy gadget with zettabytes that can read minds and it still needs a signal? That’s so lame!”
“Stop complaining! Come on. We have to find a public phone.” Melody re-fastened the hair clip on her hair and the two of them went back downstairs to the aquarium lobby. They spotted the phone almost immediately. It was sitting on an old wooden ledge next to a bulky, worn out volume of Yellow Pages. It had a black receiver and on the face of the phone was a large circular ring with small holes indicating the numbers one to zero.
Danny lifted the receiver. “How does this work? There are no buttons! Where are the buttons?”
“Give me that,” said Melody, snatching the receiver from Danny. She inserted a coin into the coin slot, stuck her finger into the hole at number two and turned the dial. She waited for the dial to whirr back to its original position before dialling the next number.
“Gosh!�
�� exclaimed Danny, smacking his forehead. “What ancient device is this?”
Melody gestured for Danny to be quiet. She heard the secretary’s scratchy voice through the receiver.
“Hello, Alec Fraser-Brunner’s office.”
“Hello,” Melody replied, trying to lower her voice so she would sound more like an adult. “Excuse me, Miss, but you’re needed urgently downstairs! There’s been an accident at the Children’s Interactive Exhibit and you need to report it to Mr Fraser-Brunner.”
“What! Alright, alright, I’m on my way.”
Melody hung up the phone and gave a delighted whoop. “Yes! Score!” Melody and Danny waited inconspicuously by the side until they saw the secretary hurry past into the aquarium. Seizing the opportunity, they dashed back up the stairs to Mr Fraser-Brunner’s office.
However, their glee turned to dismay when Melody tried the knob on the door. “She locked it!”
“Drats!” said Danny. He looked at Melody hopefully. ”Can you make yourself thin and stretchy like Flex Rex? Then you can just slip under the door!”
“I told you I’m not a superhero!” snapped Melody. “Wait!” She suddenly perked up. “You just gave me an idea.” Melody unhooked the pendant from the necklace she was wearing. Danny had thought it was a butterfly but on closer look, he realised it was a fly. “What does that do?” asked Danny eagerly.
“It’s called the Fly on the Wall, or Fly for short,” explained Melody. “It is a flying robot with a tiny wireless camera called the Fly-Cam. I use my hair clip as a remote control and projector. The projector will display a hologram to let us see and hear what’s going on.”
She slipped the Fly under the door. Her hair clip projected a red hologram showing them the view of the office from the Fly-Cam. Danny watched intently while Melody fiddled with the controls.
