“Are you the ice-cream boy?”
They all flinched, frightened for an instant. Then, they looked up. The street was flanked by houses, and it was in one of their many windows where the voice was coming from. Jack saw a young couple leaning out in their pajamas, watching the five of them.
“Yes,” Jack said, not able to mask the desperation in his voice.
“Why are you here?!” the young man asked.
“We have no time for this,” Amadee whined.
Jack thought differently. What else is there to spend the time on?
With a careful breath, he made a good attempt at morphing the desperation in his voice into urgency. “We are here to rescue the Cheese stone. Without it, the sweetums go mad with pain and rage and start wreaking havoc. Attacking everyone.”
The two opened their eyes wide. “No. That is simply
