February 17, 2016
Over a week later...

Down south of the Monarossabergie House in Pacific Beach, a different area of San Diego, is the house where the two goalies of the San Diego Gulls, Matt Hackett and Ryan Faragher, reside.

It is a one-story, simple house with a small front yard, small porch, and two windows along with a door situated in the front. Since the Monarossabergie House has a clever name, this house should have one as well!

Let’s call it the Farakett House!

Inside the Farakett House, Matt and Ryan are sitting around the dining table, finishing up their pre-game meal which consists of alphabet cereal, courtesy of the Monarossabergie House, and fruit. On the table next to Matt is Matt’s other friend’s pet hamster, Mr. Ernie.

Mr. Ernie is a small hamster with scraggly brown and white fur and beady, black eyes. It is contently nibbling on a grape as his dinner. Matt is taking care of Mr. Ernie since his actual owner is quite busy with all the business trips she must go through.

Down by the feet of Ryan is his pet cat, Zeppelin. Zeppelin is a gorgeous cat with black, sleek fur, sharp, green eyes, and a white spot on her chest and on her mouth. She is munching quietly on her cat food in a Ducks-decorated pet bowl.

From above, Ryan pulls out his phone and checks up on the time. His eyes fly open. “Oh man!” He peers across the table to his goalie buddy. “We gotta get going!”

Matt looks at him with wide eyes. “Oh-oh-okay!” He immediately jumps up from his seat and takes his empty bowl to the kitchen sink.

Ryan follows him through the same actions, then rushes back to his cat. “Ah…!” He picks up Zeppelin and plants a kiss on her neck. “Good-bye, Zeppelin. We’ll be back in four hours.” He lowers her back onto the ground. “Be good!”

Zeppelin gazes up at her owner with longing eyes.

“Bye-bye, Mr. Ernie!” Matt exclaims as he scratches the hamster’s fur with his finger.

Mr. Ernie does not stop chomping on his grape.

Then with a smile and a wave, the two goalies hurry out of the house, leaving their cereal ingredients behind, out in the open.

Now it is just their two pets in the house.

All alone.

With no one to supervise them.

On her hind legs, Zeppelin gazes around her surroundings before staring hard at the table’s surface. She faces the table and crouches down with a determined expression. She then springs up with sharp agility through the air and lands perfectly on her four paws against the table.

She peers around at the ingredients on the table: tablemats, plastic containers of berries, granola, and the box of alphabet cereal. She eyes the towering box, disliking its height. She whisks over to the box and bats it down to its side.

The box collapses onto its side, spilling its contents all over the table’s surface: various pieces letter-shaped grain bits.

Zeppelin then lowers her head down at the bits and takes a whiff. Approving the sweet aroma of the grains, she begins biting them and consuming them.

From the other side of the table, Mr. Ernie finishes his grape. He perks up at the cat eating the cereal. He then goes on his four tiny paws and crawls over to the mess of cereal bits. He picks up an “E” and begins gnawing at it.

Zeppelin then lifts her head back up. “Finally,” she exclaims in a typical teenage girl’s voice. “I can have human food without Ryan kicking me out!” She licks her fur around her mouth in satisfaction.

Mr. Ernie gazes up at her with now an “I” in his tiny paws. “Oh, um, I can have human food,” he starts off in a nerdy, nasal tone: “grapes, spinach, broccoli, ooo, and sunflower seeds for treats—”

She glares down at him. “Okay, thanks for rubbing it in my face of all the human food you can have!”

“Well, I was just telling you—”

Zeppelin just rolls her eyes and trots away from him. She stops at the edge of the table, looking out into the living room. “What is there to dooo?” she yammers. “This is so boring! I want to go out and chase some birds!”

The hamster approaches next to her with an “O” in his paws. “Well, it’s late outside and it’s dangerous! It’s better to stay in here where we’re cozy and safe.” He stuffs the “O” into his cheek pouch.

She shoots him a flat expression. “Easy for you to say, you got all your knickknacks here.” She eyes Mr. Ernie’s purple hamster ball that is by the leg of the table. “I got none.”

Mr. Ernie points to a bright orange stuffed mouse that is by the foot of the sofa. “What’s that?”

She tilts her head. “I dunno. It’s not amusing.”

He peers up at her. “It looks like a cat toy.”

“Not to me.” Zeppelin gazes behind her, looking at the kitchen. “Ugh, if only I could go where Ryan went!” She turns back to the living room and shouts: “Ryan! Ryan! Come get me! I’m getting bored outta my mind!”

Mr. Ernie nervously plays with his tiny fingers. “Well, um, we can do something fun!”

She reverts her attention back at him. “Like what? There’s nothing fun here at all.”

“Hmmm…” Mr. Ernie gazes around the view before crawling down the table’s leg and hopping onto the floor; Zeppelin jumps right after him back to the ground.

The hamster then scrabbles through the living room. He stops at the foot of the television.

“What’s this?” he asks with his eyes on the television.

Zeppelin sets herself on her hind legs with a frown at the television. “Oh, it’s that lightbox that hypnotizes people.”

Mr. Ernie turns to her with growing fright. “Will it hypnotize us?”

She rolls her eyes. “Puh-leeze, I got a much stronger mind than humans.”

“Really?” His eyes light up. “Ooo, I’ll like to see that!”

Zeppelin faces the coffee table that she is next to and hops onto it with ease. She then trots over to the remote control that is on the other idea of the surface and presses a fuzzy black paw on its power button.

With a click, the television’s screen brightens to life. Once the screen fades in, it is displaying the home page of a karaoke station.

Zeppelin gazes at it with awe. “Ooo, it’s music!” She peers down at the hamster. “I’ve always wanted to sing! Just like how Ryan sings to me!” She spots the karaoke microphone that is next to the remote control and starts pawing at it.

“My owners don’t sing to me,” Mr. Ernie starts matter-of-factly, “But I do have an Instagram account just for me—!”

Zeppelin has her eyes on him as she has the microphone clutched against her chest in a lying position. “Lame.” She then presses a number on the number pad of the microphone.

The television’s screen then fades into a picture of a beach as the introduction of “Hotel California” by Eagles is heard. The lyrics then appear on the screen and after the countdown ends, they begin to change colour according to how the song goes.

Zeppelin sings along to the song in perfect pitch like as if she was singing in a gig to a café crowd. Mr. Ernie gazes at her in awe as the television’s light reflects from his eyes.

“Her voice is so beautiful…!” he breathes out.

Her voice is sweet, full, smooth. No one can argue with that statement.

Or can one or two people do so for another reason?

Notes

E.8 "They Speak!"
Part 1/5
Episode 8/20