Book 4: Chapter 25: Trouble Follows
Bob
July 2334
Elbow
Another day, another town. Touring with a band could be so boring. According to Garfield, anyway. He seemed to be on a rock star metaphor, for some reason.
We’d floated for a full day and eventually arrived at the town of Elbow. Yeah. Elbow. Didn’t seem to be short for anything, either. It was situated at a bend in the river, though, so maybe that.
We pulled our dripping butts up onto the dock, shook off—Quinlans did something very similar to dogs to shed water—and moseyed into town. Elbow seemed to be larger than average, with a robust performing arts subculture. Or maybe there was a festival on. It seemed like every third person was either carrying a musical instrument or dressed up like a minstrel. Or maybe a clown. It could be hard to tell.
We saw at least two stages, with people performing on them, and one children’s theater with a Muppets kind of a thing going on. No Kermit—that would have been freaky—but the lead character did have a Fozzie-ish kind of look. I stopped to watch and got an elbow in the ribs from Bridget.
Grumbling, I rejoined the group. Bridget buttonholed a couple of people and asked about a library. The second individual gave us an unnerving once-over before responding with directions.
“That was odd,” Bill said as we continued on. “Are we underdressed or something?”