Garble stumbled into the next room, leaving his brothers in the cold box. He had never taken a liking to human food, but Mangle loved the sweet breads so much he would eat till he couldn’t move. He sighed at the thought of having to carry Mangle’s share.
Not that the load was very big mind you. This human must be what Hack called a minimalist. While Garble had to admit they were getting better hauls since Hack started labeling the humans, these “minimalists” were not worth the effort. Very few shines, never any pets and almost nothing to hide behind if the human wakes up.
He was putting the coasters in his bag (probably fake metal, but one never knows) when Garble’s eyes spotted the smooth black square on the coffee table. He had never seen a coffee, but Hack assured him that’s what the table was for. Excited that he would be the first to try it, he took a bite.
The square coffee wouldn’t break apart and tasted like metal. Garble shook his head at the thought that humans made whole tables for this.
“Me too!” Mangle had appeared over his shoulder. He tried to grab it out of Garbles hand.
“I want the lounge food!”
“That’s not food.” stated Hack as he joined them. Finishing off the contents of a jar of tomato paste – his favorite – he took the thing from Garble.
“How do you know?” Garble was a little put out it wasn’t coffee.
“It’s metal. Humans don’t eat metal.” Hack turned it over and back.
“Give it back! I found it first” Garble growled.
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“YOU don’t even know what it is!” Garble tried to grab it. The two gremlins scuffled a moment, pulling and pushing until the thing suddenly lit up.
The pair dropped the metal not coffee and all three gremlins stared at it. Just when they were getting brave enough to approach, the light went out.
“Now you’ve broken it! And I didn’t even get a taste!” Mangle began to cry.
“Stop it. Let me work out what it is and then you may lick it!” Hack picked the shiny thing up and began touching every inch of the surface. He had seen humans do this with what they called “mobiles”. He assumed if it felt comfortable enough, it would light up again. He stroked it from end to end.
Garble had seen enough. Mangle was wailing, he himself was hungry and the only interesting thing was now Hack’s new pet.
“I’m leaving.” Garble said, or rather started to say. Hack had managed to make it light up again. THey took a better look at it. There was a series of numbers on it. Hack ran his finger down the middle of the numbers, making them disappear.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“Many humans use that as their password.” Garble tried very hard to look like he knew what a password was.
There were lots of little squares on it now. Garble smirked. Squares within squares, humans were weird. Mangle, running out of patience, tried to grab it. In his haste he pressed on one of the boxes.
Suddenly he was in the square. He yelped and began frantically slapping it.
“Stop! You’ll break it!” shouted Hack
“I’m trapped inside! Let me out!
“No you’re not, you’re right here.” to prove it, Garble slapped Mangle. As the two started bickering, Hack took the thing in hand.
“I’m in it too.” he announced. The others peered over to find they were both in there too. Hack tried a wave, and they saw the second Hack raise the opposite hand.
“He’s not me! He’s trying to copy me!”
“Who is he, and why do they look like us?” Mangle asked, more than a little fearful.
“None who will get away with it!” said Garble sternly.
Hack put the metal down on the table and the three of them hovered over it. The imposters looked as confused as they were.
“Ok. Tell us who you are and why you’ve stolen our appearance.” Hack spoke very calmly, hoping to seem friendly. The Hack in the metal not only refused to answer, but copied what he said.
“Do you think they can hear us?” asked Garble. The gremlins asked many questions but got nothing other than silent mimicry in exchange.
Garble had had enough. He picked up a large black sphere from the bookshelf and hovered over the metal again. The fake Garble had one too.
“If you don’t start talking, I’m going to hit you.” He said it in as menacing a voice as he could muster. The fake Garble stared straight into him. His patience ran out.
Before Hack could stop him, he slammed the sphere down on the gremlins in the metal. The thing broke into pieces, the light was gone and the fakes were nowhere to be seen. The three real gremlins stared at the pieces a moment.
Heavy thuds were heard from upstairs. The humans were waking up. Garble, Mangle and Hack grabbed what they could, slung their bags over their shoulders and dove for cover. The human entered the room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He winced as he stepped on a piece of glass.
“My tablet!” The human forgot all about his foot and picked up the broken thing as though it was something precious.
“Come, before he fixes the gremlin catcher!” said Hack. The three gremlins fled, vowing never to return to the home of the wizard with the gremlin trapping tablet.
C.M. Wellsmore 