Mr. Rubberman's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Mr. Rubberman stretched his neck across the whole town square, but he still could not find the trouble. His job was simple: erase every bad and evil thing from Storyland. His rubber body could reach anywhere. His twisted legs could bounce over fences and coil around poles. But being able to reach evil meant nothing if he could not find it first. He pulled his neck back with a wet snap. Three days ago, someone had stolen candy from a child. He arrived too late. Yesterday, a kind old woman lost her purse to a thief. Too late again. Evil kept spreading in corners he never watched. He could stop any bad deed, but only if he knew where it was. He bounced home to his springy rubber house. The smooth walls wobbled as he leaned against the orange door. "I can stretch to the moon," he muttered, "and I still miss what's right under my nose." Something scratched inside the house. Mr. Rubberman coiled his arm through the window and felt around. His fingers found warm fur. He pulled, and out came a sleek gray ferret. Its blue eyes shimmered. Its whiskers twitched fast, and its whole body pointed east like an arrow. "Who let you in?" he asked. The ferret did not answer. It squirmed free and darted toward the door. It stopped, looked back, and twitched its nose east again. Then it made a low, worried sound. Mr. Rubberman had never seen an animal act this way. He held still and watched. The ferret sniffed the air, and its fur stood on end. It scratched at the door, desperate to leave, always pointing the same direction. He stretched one finger and pointed east too. "Is something wrong out there?" The ferret spun in a happy circle. It understood him. His heart bounced. This creature could smell what he could not. It could sniff out the bad deeds before they spread. He did not need to watch the whole town at once. He only needed to follow the ferret's nose. He opened the door. The ferret shot outside and raced across the grass, tail low, nose to the ground. Mr. Rubberman stretched his twisted legs long and bounced after it. "Wait for me!" The ferret led him past two houses and stopped hard. Its fur bristled. It stared at a cellar door where a faint groan leaked out from below. Mr. Rubberman pressed his rubber ear to the ground. He heard a voice, weak and scared, calling for help. Someone was trapped down there. Someone had put them there on purpose. He now had a nose for evil. But the ferret had led him straight to a crime already in progress, and whoever caused it was still close.