We'll be soon home!

Shah Tahmasp I and Humayun. From Chehel Sotoun palace, Isfahan  

      
     See What Happens

The candles went out, and the room was plunged into darkness; it was time to go, so they left the room hastily.

Uncle Larry blew out a breath, " I feel better now, I wasn't able to breathe there." then turned on his flashlight. Shining it in his assistant's face, he asked, "Have you brought everything with you?" 
Mr. Assistant lifted his basket up, shook it in Larry's face, he said, "Yes, everything. Our Haft-Seen Collection is here, sound and safe."
Uncle Larry, dropping the golden key in the basket, said, "Great! let's go to the next tunnel. The exit must be over there."

Mr. Assistant's eyebrows knitted together in confusion; Uncle Larry had told him that the door was locked, so how he would unlock the door? It seemed that he had missed something. Mr. Assistant was deep in thought when Larry proudly showed him a card, as if he could have read his mind. "Don't be surprised, now we have the key as well as the code number!" Uncle Larry said.
Mr. Assistant looked even more puzzled now, "What's this card for? have you hidden something from me?"

--, "This key card was pasted on the door. I tried to open the door with it, but it was impossible, I didn't know the password."
Mr. Assistant put his basket down, only to look closely at the card. "Nice card, is it Parmis's?" he asked.
The plastic card was a deep coffee color that green words stood out clearly against the dark background. Mr. Assistant couldn't read the words, they were written in Farsi script. On the back of the card there was a beautiful Iranian carpet with this sentence, "What is the best way of cleaning a carpet, especially after winter?"
Mr. Assistant turned to Larry, "Well, what's the best way of cleaning a carpet?"
 "Washing the carpet... I tried it before, but the door didn't open." Uncle Larry replied as he began walking along the tunnel. Mr. Assistant didn't follow him, he was standing there, staring at his Easter bunny with pain in his eyes, then closed his eyes, broke off its head, crammed his mouth with the head, took his basket, and ran fast to join his friend.
As Uncle Larry saw him, shook his head sadly, "Don't you think it's bad for your heath eating too much chocolate?"
"Take it easy, I'm awfully hungry... then you cracked the code, so what's it?" Mr. Assistant asked, chewing chocolate. Uncle Larry shook his head again, "Sorry, don't ask me."

*

Then, the men walked along together, until they came to the main tunnel. There, they turned right into the next tunnel, and went straight ahead.

Mr. Assistant, eating the head of Easter bunny, thought about Iranian carpets. He was intensely curious about the coding. What had Uncle Larry found in the snowy room that helped him solve the puzzle?" Suddenly his eyes shone, "Garlic." he shouted happily.

"No, it's a 13 digit code." Uncle Larry said as he quickened his pace a little.

Mr. Assistant sighed, "Oh, well, tell me what that Persian script means?"

Uncle Larry responded with a meaning smile, "Haftsin Parmis means Parmis's Haft-seen."

--, "The mystery starts with H?"

--, "Yeah, do you remember that picture Parmis drew of my house?"

Mr. Assistant murmured, "Your house was shaking." He stood, staring up at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression. A minute had gone by when a sweet smile came to his lips; the answer to problem had emerged. "House Cleaning?" he asked.

Uncle Larry patted him on the back, "Excellent! you're very smart."

Mr. Assistant's cheeks were glowing with pride, "Thanks." then broke one hand off his Easter bunny.

After the men walked for about ten yards, they stopped at the cherry door set in the wall, with the touch screen keypad near it. Mr. Assistant stood waiting in the dim light as Uncle Larry shone his flashlight on the lock for a while. Then he turned the flashlight to his assistant, the Fear was mirrored on his face. Uncle Larry tried to soothe his friend, "We'll be soon home, you'd better eat up your Easter bunny."

Mr. Assistant swallowed hard, before he could say, "I can't... it's gone, since I broke off its hand." he felt a teardrop shine in his eye.

For a moment, Uncle Larry stared at him in disbelief, "What? it fell off?"

Mr. Assistant laid his basket down on the ground, began to crack his fingers nervously, "Yes, Half the bunny fell on the floor, Poor little bunny!"

Now Uncle Larry felt sorry for his buddy. For minutes he was hesitating what to do, at last he decided to unlock the door. So he put the key card into the slot. As the display lit up, Mr. Assistant moaned, "What's going to happening to us? I wouldn't be surprised if dragons suddenly appear, and burn us alive with their fire."

--, "You're not afraid, are you? Don't worry, guy. We are strong enough to fight. Plus this must be the burrow's exit, maybe an elevator."

--, "Really? Are you sure?"  

_,"No, it's just a guess. However, we have to open the door, unless we want to remain here forever... well, are you ready?" Uncle Larry said, and then began to enter the 13 digit code carefully: 4687325326464. 

When he tapped the last number on the keypad, the green LED lit, and the screen flashed a message:"Enjoy your trip, you are my first passengers.  Master. E:)"

First nothing happened, a few minutes later the door swung open, and they could see an accordion gate.The both men began to giggle. Mr. Assistant said, "It's an elevator, you were quite right." 

 

The elevator dinged, and the accordion gate slowly opened, the LED ceiling lights turned on as they entered the elevator. Uncle Larry's eyes glittered with delight when they saw new surprise: A coffee vending machine in the elevator cab was actually a big surprise!

On the machine, there were a bunch of flowers and a pretty box with a note in Parmis's handwriting. Uncle Larry read the message aloud, "Happy Birthday, Uncle Larry. Enjoy a strong black coffee. With much love, Parmis." 

Mr. Assistant asked,"Do you have a quarter?"  

"The electric current is too weak to make the machine work." Uncle Larry replied as he untied the package. There were seven cupcakes inside the box. As he lifted his head up, he noticed his assistant's frown, so he said, smiling, "I was only joking, It's free to use. Tea or coffee?"

A grin spread across the assistant's face, "Cappuccino." 

Uncle Larry entered their selections and waited, as the machine dinged, their cups were prepared to drink, Uncle Larry handed the cup of cappuccino to his assistant, "There you are, You look so tired, you'd better leave your basket on the floor."

"Okay." Mr. Assistant said as he took the cup.

Uncle Larry stared at the flowers, the blue hyacinth cut flowers tied with a lime green ribbon. The number "80012" was printed on the shiny ribbon, he picked up the flowers.

Mr. Assistant looked at Larry's hands. In a hand he had his coffee, while he was holding the bunch of flowers in other hand. Mr. Assistant immediately put his basket down on the floor. He said to Larry, pointing at the box of cupcakes, "You have too much belongings, so you will have to pay extra, let me keep your cupcakes." 

Uncle Larry agreed, "All right."

 After Mr. Assistant put a cupcake in his mouth, he asked, "Which floor number do you want me to press?"

Uncle Larry's eyes rounded with horror, "Don't press any buttons please."
Mr. Assistant laughed, "Calm down, I was only joking."

In fact, there wasn't any buttons in the elevator, but  an emergency stop switch for safety.

 As soon as Uncle Larry took a sip of his strong coffee, the elevator dinged and the accordion gate began to close. Uncle Larry leaned back against the wall, and Mr. Assistant started eating the second cupcake as the elevator moved.

The elevator cab was well lit by the LED ceiling lights, the air was filled with aroma of fresh coffee and Iranian hyacinth, Uncle Larry enjoyed drinking his coffee, and Mr. Assistant was busy with picking confetti off his clothes, everything looked pretty, and any dragons hadn't appear yet.

There was only one cupcake left in the box. Uncle Larry was so deep in thought that he didn't notice his assistant ate all the cupcakes. He was thinking about his trip and strange events. It was not an easy trip, but the parts of the trip were funny and interesting. 

As Mr. Assistant ate up all the cupcakes, the elevator stopped at the destination. They came out and found themselves on the green sward. The sky was over their head, and the earth was soft beneath their feet. Mr. Assistant smiled and breathed deeply, "I'm very glad to be on the ground again."

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