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Chapter 18 continued...

XL waited a moment for David Flint to catch his breath, and then he said, "Mr. Flint, please tell me what is the problem."

"The hats are late!" he exclaimed. "They were supposed to arrive at Prince Albert two days ago, so I could pick them up. But don't worry, they arrived this morning and my brother is fetching them. He left early and he will be here within half an hour."

"Not only that," he added, "but the advertisements that were published went out without a time. So everyone expects that the Saturday afternoon show will begin at the usual time, which is 1:30. That's why they are showing up now. So I decided to proceed with the movie at 1:30 instead of 2:30."

"But what about the Saucer1 tours we had planned for the kids?" asked XL.

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to do that later, after the movie," said Mr. Flint. "But don't worry, I have it all taken care of. In the advertising, we distributed draw tickets for the hat prizes and saucer ride. On the back side, the parent fills in their name, phone number, and e-mail address, and signs the ride consent."

Turning to the clerk, Mr. Flint asked, "Donald, have you been collecting those tickets?"

"Yes, Mr. Flint," he replied. "And if a family didn't have one already, I gave them one to fill out. See, I have been collecting them in this bucket."

"So, we'll do the hat give-away and rides at about 3 PM?" asked Beeba.

"Hopefully we'll have the hats by then, but if not, I promise to mail all 200 of them to the kids."

"I was hoping we might attract more families," said XL. "My estimate on this line is that we will have hats left over."

"Don't worry," said Mr. Flint. "With your flying saucer floating overhead, people will see it, and more will come. And every one of them will get a discount pass for our upcoming movies too."

"Well," said XL, "this plan sounds even better than the original one."

So, Mr. Flint went into his theatre, while XL and Beeba waited. Within a few minutes, XL's mom and sister returned. After the movie started, a few families showed up who missed the movie, and XL gave them tours of the saucer. It was only a short tour of about 5 minutes per group, but the kids went up the elevator, and from Saucer1 they could look over the whole valley. Also XL had put movie posters up around the inside, for the families to look at.

Then, shortly after 3:00 the movie was over. Mr. Flint gave out the hats (which, fortunately, had arrived before 3 PM), and the families began their saucer tours. Each family was given a pass with a time on it, so they didn't have to stand in line to wait for their turn. They could relax in the town, at the playground, or by the beach, and then come back for their tour.

As the children came to the elevator to get on, Anna would ask their names. Before long, Anna discovered that Susan's children, Dana and Tina, were coming on board with their parents. She used the intercom to inform XL that the "special guests" had arrived.

At the top of the elevator, XL greeted their parents, Susan and Terry. He introduced himself, and they introduced themselves. Having verified that at last he had found them, he said to Susan, "I have something special for you. It turns out that by coincidence, I have gotten to know your mother, Florence, and she gave me this letter for you. I have delivered it to you personally, because she did not know the address."

No doubt this would have been a surprise to Susan, but she paused only a moment. Then she smiled and said, "That is very thoughtful of you. Thank you very much."

Susan and her family continued their tour. They looked out the windows all around, and at the posters, and XL showed them the computer controls for the Saucer. Then the family returned to the ground as XL guided other tourists

The tours continued until about 7 PM. It is fortunate that little children need to depart early, to be home for supper or bedtime; therefore, all rides were done by then. XL, Beeba, Anna, and Larissa were glad, because they were hungry. XL commanded Saucer1 to return to the camp site, while they sat inside eating sandwiches.

It had been a very nice day, and moreover they were pleased to have completed their mission, to give the letter to Susan.

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.