The Curious Diary of Ramses Niblek

Ugh! Worst. Day. Ever.

We went to the market this morning, which was awesome. I saw an open door and a bunch of people with robes and funny, tassled hats were inside, munching on cookies and milling about. It looked like amazing fun. Plus, I was pretty sure my cricket friend was lost in there somewhere.

I called out to my friends that I was going in. They had the funniest expressions on their faces. Relief maybe?

Anway, I’d just grabbed a cookie and was starting to look for Cricket when everyone took a seat. Oooh! A play, I thought. Awesome. Dinner and a show!

Out comes this grizzled old man. He stands at the podium for a bit. You know, building tension. Everybody got super quiet!

By now, I’m in the middle of a row of seats, kind of trapped to be honest. Normally, I’d sit toward the edge, but I thought I heard Cricket calling from someone’s pocket so I had to investigate and then Cricket jumped to someone else’s pockets and, well, they were all moving about so quickly that I didn’t really know where I was when everyone just sat down, you know?

Anyway, I didn’t mind too much because I love a show! I didn’t quite catch the name but I know it had the words “agenda” and “meeting” in the title.

Note: Look up “agenda.”

Well, the grizzled old man was the chorus and he gave a long preamble to set the stage. It must have been a sequel because he began by reciting previous plays. He said it would only take a minute, but it was, like, at least 20 before the show got underway.

But it wasn’t really a show after all. Or at least not a very good one. There was a lot of action, but it was repetitive. Mostly just people standing up, delivering their lines, and sitting down again.

Cricket called from the robes of some people sitting in front of me, but he scuppered off as soon as I got close. Mischievous devil.

Did you know there were exactly four chandeliers in the room, sixteen rafters, and that each seat had 38 rivets? I know. I counted them all. Three times!

Something about something called a “budget” whistled by my ears but I couldn’t catch a glimpse of what it was.

I was really starting to get worried about Cricket. By now, the play had been going on for an hour and a half, at least.

Another half an hour crawled by and it began to dawn on me that there might not be an intermission.

Curiously, many in the audience were writing in journals or reading books so it didn’t seem to bother them too much as I was squirming through the aisles looking for Cricket.

That’s the trouble with small friends like crickets. They’re so small and fast that you can never really keep up with them and they can hide anywhere! I like hide and seek, but with so many shifting in their seats, crossing and uncrossing their legs, well, I worried that Cricket might get stomped.

I looked and looked for at least an hour but I never did find Cricket. I did learn, though, that the robed people in the tassled hats were having trouble finding workers for some reason so I decided I should tell my friends because we’re always looking for odd jobs and these people seemed like they could offer some very odd jobs indeed!

Just outside the door I caught up with Cricket hiding under a table. I asked him if he wanted a ride and he did so I gently scooped him up and placed him in my pouch along with several bits of ribbon, three quills, two corks, an abacus, a journal, a blue ring, half a cookie, and three copper pieces with funny faces. I have no idea how they got there!

Well, that’s when things got kind of funny. The play had been going for hours so I thought it might be hard to find my friends in the market. If they were even still there!

Wouldn’t you know it, though, they were just coming back to see what had happened to me but they must have crossed a wizard or something because they swore I had only been gone a quarter of an hour so the wizard must have frozen them for some reason. This sounds interesting! I’ll come back next week to see if he’ll freeze me, too.

With half the day gone from the play and looking for Cricket, I just went back to the inn, thoroughly exhausted.

I forgot to tell my friends about the jobs. Dammit!