It had been weeks after their OZ-venture. The guys had been lucky and gotten several gigs. The money that gave them, gave them the ability to stay at their respective places a little longer.
But Brianna Lewis, Chea Thomas and Karen Galloway knew they couldn’t rely on the guys alone to pay their rent at their personal shangri-la. They decided to get jobs.
"But hon," Micky said to Chea. "Once our big break comes along we wont have to worry about money anymore."
"I know." Chea had said.
"It could be a long time before that break." Karen said. "If we get kicked out of our place we couldn’t stay with you forever."
"Besides. It might be fun." Brianna said. "But where could I work?"
"How about a being a doctah like you want to be." Davy suggest.
"Its always been a dream of me to help mankind." Brianna said taking a liking to Davys idea. Brianna was going to be a intern at a local hospital in 2000 when she was whisked back to the 60's with the now famous time gadget.
"Its a nice dream, but one that’s impossible. At least in this time period." Brianna sighed.
"Why?" Mike asked.
"Think about it." Karen said. "All of the medical knowledge she has is stuff that hasn’t been done yet. Shed be ahead of time in more ways than one."
"Right." Micky chimed in. "Plus the stuff that exists now, why its probably more than a little outdated to her."
"I'm sure we can do something." Chea said.
"Yeah." Micky said. They looked at Peter who was quietly reading the paper. "Peter?"
"Huh?" He said looking over it.
"We can help the girls find jobs right?" Mike asked.
"Sure." Peter said and he looked back at his paper.
Karen frowned. Peter had seemed to be very unhappy lately and that was sort of disturbing for the ever-seeming happy go lucky member of the Monkees. She thought about this while Peter looked at the paper.
"Hey look at this." He said suddenly. The gang swarmed around here.
"Calm down. He's only got one paper." Micky said.
"What is it Petah?" Davy asked.
"The local soda joint, the Slurp Shoppe is looking for help." He said reading the paper. "In fact they are looking for girls just like you." He said to the girls.
"Wow, someone must have given them advance warning." Chea laughed.
"The job is only open for a few more weeks." Mike pointed out.
"Yeah but that would be enough money to live on while we find a new job for when that one ends." Karen said. "Oh Peter thank you!"
"Really!" Chea said. "If we get this job it would be great. We could kiss you!"
"Could!" Brianna laughed. "I'm already there!" She said and kissed him on the cheek. She kept it ultra short in order not to freak out her newly found boyfriend Davy. Chea and Karen laughed and followed suit. Micky was about to do the same when Peter freaked and ran out the door.
"Hey, I'm thankful too!" He said pretending to give chase.
Karen picked up the paper Peter had abandoned and ripped out the section with the ad. "Heres a phone number." Karen reported. "Klondike five-1976."
"Cool." Chea said already dialing the number. It was TV, but they still had to use phones like normal people, aka actually dialing the number. Peter and Micky came in the door while Chea talked with the man on the other end of the phone. Chea hung up the phone with no expression on her face.
"Well?" Brianna asked. "What happened?"
She looked up with a impish look on her face. "We got the job!"
"What?" The gang said. Chea nodded.
"But how? We didn't even really interview for it." Karen said.
"I know but they are so desperate for help, kids are going back to college I guess, and all we need to do is know how to scoop. And know Chocolate from Vanilla of course." Chea said.
"Davy can help ya there." Mike said.
"Hey!" Davy said. The others looked at him. "Well ok..."
"Anyway we start Friday." Chea said.
"But its Wednesday." Brianna said.
"Prince Spaghetti day!" Micky said with a pot in hand.
"I think she means what do we do in the meantime." Mike said.
"Hmm. I'm sure we can think of something. After all, almost anything does happen around here." Chea said.
"Yeah, but mostly due to the time gadget." Mike said.
"Gadgets." Micky said.
"Wha?" Davy and Brianna asked.
"Come here." Micky said. "Chea and I have something to show you."
A few minutes later
Chea and Micky led the gang into a back room at the gals place. It used to be an old sewing room when a bunch of nice old ladies lived there a month ago. Some of the finished and unfinished creations laid on a chair in a corner. In the middle of the room, on a large round table, laid a whole bunch of electrical equipment.
"What’s this?" Mike asked looking at the mess.
"This is Time Gadget II." Chea said.
"We took a pocket radio that Davy thought was broken and tried to fix it." Micky said. "We didn’t do that well."
"Then we noticed something." Chea said.
"The radio had the same things that made up the time gadget." Micky said.
"Micky thought that if we can make another device, then we would have a spare if or when the other one dies." Chea said. "Or if we want to go somewhere and the device is already being used."
"Right." Micky said.
"I dunno." Karen said.
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Mike said. "Cheas Uncle used stuff that was a lot more advanced to make the originals."
"I have to admit, I'm a little sketchy on us making these things ourselves." Davy nodded. Brianna and Peter stayed quiet. Brianna didn't know as much of the time gadget tale as the others.
"To tell the truth we don't even know if it works." Chea said.
"She’s right." Micky said.
"Hmm." Karen said taking it and looking at it. "I'd have to say we don't use it unless we really have to. A test run might be in order though."
"That would be a good idea." Mike said. "We'll use one and keep track of where they go on this one."
"We had sort of thought you two might use it." Micky said.
"What?" Karen asked. "No way. Plus this one looks more advanced."
"And how would we have tested it anyway?" Davy asked.
"Glad you asked." Chea said. She smiled. Karen shivered. It was short of a creepy impish smile. The same look she got the first time they used it. "Come with us."
The gang reluctantly followed the duo out to the living room.
"What's your idea?" Peter asked.
"A scavenger hunt." Micky said.
"Oh I hate those." Brianna stuck out her tongue. "We had one in elementary school where we had to go all over the school and find suckers." She said. "Unfortunately that really meant us."
Davy chuckled.
"Scavenger hunt?" Mike asked.
"What would we look for?" Karen asked.
"Here is a list." Micky said. It was almost a page long. "Shut up we had a lot of time on our hands. Sometimes in our hands." He laughed.
"Micky!" Chea laughed.
"Wait a minute. This is a list of tv shows and objects?" Karen asked.
"Really?" Mike asked.
"A lot of them are modern tv shows." Karen said. "Two are from our time period. I mean the 60's."
"This is a interdimensional tv scavenger hunt." Chea said. "Each show has a object that is always connected with the show. Like if you were to do the Honeymooners, you would get Ed Nortons hat or vest." She suggested.
"It looks like fun." Karen said.
"Well ok." Mike said. "Me and Karen. But we want to use the original device. Not the copy."
"Sounds reasonable." Micky nodded.
Karen looked at Peter who stared off into space. "Tell you what. Let Peter come with us." She proposed.
"Really?" Peter asked.
"Really?" Mike asked.
"It could be fun." She said elbowing him in the ribs. "It's a great chance to cheer him up." She said under her breath.
"It's a great idea." Davy said. "Meanwhile if they get stuck we can use the backup device to help."
"All right." Micky said. "After all, with three people, it might be alot more fun."
"Each item is a point." Chea said. "If you don't get one, you lose a point. Now all the items can be put in this satchel." She offered them a bag. She went to get the device from its spot.
"Are you ready?" Karen said as Chea gave the device to her.
"As ever." Mike drawled. He was sort of afraid. After the semi scary experience in the last one, he had no idea what to expect.
"All right." Karen said as she programmed the device. "Our first stop is...."
