Chapter 1

The middle-aged woman smiled as she looked down at the body of the guard. It was too easy to convince him to try some of her goulash. She had been assigned kitchen duty when she and her four sons had been sent to this minimum-security prison almost a year ago; a duty she had enjoyed. The woman had used her considerable charm to convince the management to let her add a few things to the food to improve the flavor. Separately, the spices and herbs were harmless; together, they made a potent sleeping potion which she used in this evening's meal. Now, everybody was asleep and all she and her sons had to do was leave the facility.

She glanced up at the clock in the guard's room. It was almost time. When the clock stuck seven, the door opened and her beloved `grumchicks' came into the room.

"Ah, mama!" Marco, Zeppo, Rocco and Kiko cried.

"Everyone asleep?" She asked.

"Everyone, mama." Marco said with a smile.

"Good, good!" She said, bending down to take the outside door key from the guard's key ring. Finally finding the right key, she opened another door that led to the outside front lawn. The five of them walked outside and they spotted a car pulling up to the chain- link fence. The car lights blinked twice and immediately they knew their ride was here.

"Right on time! Good girl Tanya!" The lady said smugly. "Quickly, boys, let's go."

The five of them quickly walked down the sidewalk, through the un- gated fence and got into the car. The car slowly pulled away, so as not to attract attention.

It wasn't until several hours later when the night shift reported for duty that it was discovered that the gypsy Maria and her four sons had escaped.




The next day, Mike was reading the morning paper. The TV was in the shop, so the paper was their only source of news for a few days.

Ignoring the front section Mike had gone to the sports section to see how the Texas Rangers faired last night. Finding out the Rangers had won; Mike smiled…until he heard a small explosion coming from Micky's chemistry set. Mike looked up to see Micky trying to contain a spill from a broken beaker, but he was afraid to touch whatever it was he made.

"Hey, guys!" Micky yelled, "Get me something to wipe up this mess!"

"Peter to the rescue!" Peter yelled, and then grabbed the front page section off of the breakfast table; the section Mike hadn't read yet.

"Pete, wait!" Mike yelled to his friend.

But Peter ran over and used the paper as a blotter to keep the spill from spreading. When the paper had absorbed all of the liquid, Peter deftly tossed it in the trash.

"Thanks Peter." Micky said with a smile.

"No problem, Mick." Peter answered.

"Except that I didn't read that section yet." Mike added as he walked over to the two. "Now, I'll have to go buy a new paper."

"Why bother?" Davy said, coming down the hurricane steps, "It's just gonna be more bad news about Vietnam and inflation and all that."

Everybody agreed and everybody later read what was left of the newspaper.

Because the front section was missing and the TV was broken, the Monkees never found out Maria and her sons had escaped from prison.


Chapter 2
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