BEYOND THE PLUGHOLE - HERBAL BATH SALTS AND THE SNEEZING EPIDEMIC by John Townsend Story 9

It had never happened before, at least not down the Plughole, nor ever to a Plugolite.

So when an unusual occurence occured that none of us understood, we all rallied to support each other, however this was out of the question, as the occurance affected all the Pluglites at the home of the humans, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter.
It started one Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Baxter was running herself a bath and was about to enjoy a relaxing half hour soaking in the bath sprinkled with herbal salts. She relished in the aroma as she lay back in the warm water.
However the first signs of trouble was begining to unfold down the Plughole, as her body mass displaced some of the bath water down the overflow.
It was Plugolite Gordon Gofer who got the first wiff of the herbal additive, as the overflowing bath water ran away down the waste pipe. Suddenly he sneezed, an event he has never experienced and one that caused him great concern.
From around the U-Bend Mabel Spanner had heard the loud unusual noise and climbed up the waste pipe to see if Gordon was alright. As she did she too became a victim and started sneezing loudly.
Raffles, who was at the overflow, rushed to see what was going, as he hurried to the bathroom waste area he too became a victim, and along with the other two they sneezed unrelentingly.
So strong were their sneezes that the percussion was enough to cause Mrs. Baxter's bath plug to pop out of the plughole. She was singing so loudly that she was unaware that her bathwater was rushing away, pouring down the waste pipes of Holly Bush House, as it did causing all twenty Plugolites to fall victim to the great sneezing outbreak.
As Mrs. Baxters bathwater ran away she became aware that she was no longer immersed in warm water but shivering in a breeze from a small open window, 'Oh my where has my water gone?' she shouted. But all she could here was the Gurgle Alarm, then as she stepped out of the empty bath she though she could hear faint sneezing's
Down in the network of waste pipes, all the Plugolites had fallen victim to the herbal bath water, the pungent smell had reached their nostrils, causing an irritation like no other.
What with Mrs. Baxter's moaning in the bathroom about her ruined bath, and the insessant sneezing from down the plughole, it was a most unfortunate afternoon.
As Mrs. Baxter started to rinse her bath around and clean it, she could still hear the faint sounds of sneezing. Believing it to be her husband out in the rear garden she stuck her head out of a half opened window and shouted, ' Arthur, do go and blow your nose and stop that noise.' With that she shut the window leaving her husband very confused as to what she was on about.
As she cleaned her bath, the water began to flush out the odour of the herbal bath water. Soon the sneezing outbreak of the Plugolites was begining to diminish, until order was restored.
When two of the Plugolites discovered what it was that had caused them so much sneezing, they vowed to not let it happen again. late that night, the two emerged out of the bathe overflow, in their hands a drill. Their mission to get rid of the offending bath salts. The container was on a shelf to which they climbed, there they drilled a hole to the side of the bath salts container, it was enough to cause a steady flow of bath salts to escape and fall to the floor.
Mission accomplished they returned back through the overflow on the bath, order had been restored. 'Hope she never uses that again.' said one of the Plugolites as he blew his nose.



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