The man in white/Follow the second search party
From Create Your Own Story
Following the brief family team huddle, Sharon and Betty gathered themselves and began to prepare for their trek deep into the Umlaut acreage where the girls had earlier spotted Sticky. The two set themselves to the task of preparing for the search with the diligence of women ready to defend their family name, all the while hushed under the weight of separate secrets weighing on each of their respective shoulders.
"You know," said Betty breaking the longstanding silence,"before we get involved with this there is something you should know about Sticky."
Sharon looked up from tying her hiking boots at the sound of his name. "You know anything about the Malahues?" asked Sharon quietly, not breaking her gaze with betty.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do," she said cautiously, "but whatever you do you can't reveal this to the boys and their mother." She paused for several more seconds. "I have been doing some research on the Umlaut family tree - turns out there is more of a connection between our family and the Malahues than just our business dealings. Sharon, the Umlauts and the Malahues come from the same stock. As far as i could find, the families are the one and the same, it was only during the great Shenandoah brum wars of the 1880's that the Umlauts branched off when a dispute over the fibers used in making our beloved family product separated the original organic polyester nylon farmers from the business-minded young bloods who preferred the cheaper synthetic cotton."
Sharon was silent for several moments, a glassy film beginning to cover her eyes. "You can't mean we Umlauts came from the Malahues," she whispered, her dry voice choking with emotion at the horrible secret that had just been revealed to her, "this means all along the boys and Joy have been concealing the true roots of our family lineage to hide the greed of our ancestors."
Betty and Sharon resolved to find an warn their distant cousin Sticky of the imminent raid on his crop and him. They jumped into their SUV and drove with extreme urgency towards the GPS coordinates they had overheard Kim calling out from the basement beneath them. Going 80 mph through dense forrest, the mothers whizzed by oaks and maples, once nearly smacking straight into a locust tree. "How many times have I asked Peter to take down that tree!?" complained Sharon. They skidded to a stop as they arrived at the GPS coordinates and began looking for the tell-tale signs of polyester nylon in bloom. The clean, slightly acrid smell; the slightly lower density of air; and the rustling of nylon shoots in the slight breeze led them fairly quickly to the crop site just over a nearby ridge. They spotted Sticky Malahue walking through the crops, periodically bending over to inspect a polyester flower.
"Sticky!" Betty whisper-yelled. "We don't have much time! The rest of the Umlauts are coming to find you and ensure your crop fails permanently - and you too!"
Sticky wasted no time asking questions about why these Umlauts were suddenly helping him. He just bolted. Malahue sprinted straight back to his small cottage on the edge of the field and grabbed a bag of polyester nylon seeds and stuffed them in his pocket. With this small bit of hope safely secured, he pumped his legs as hard as he could and ran into the woods.
