"Are you sure no one's going to come in here?" said Martin.

"Relax. Even if someone does, they won't know us, and I'm here with you." said Keith. "Besides, people do this in laundromats all the time. I've seen it."

"You sure?" asked Martin.

"Of course I'm sure." What he didn't tell Martin was that those times he'd seen it, it had been on some television sitcom his grandmother was watching, and invariably the people doing it got into some sort of trouble. "Besides, we don't have much choice."

"I… guess not." said Martin, unbuttoning his shirt and removing it, and then very reluctantly unzipping his pants and pulling them off. Keith did likewise with less hesitation.

They loaded the clothes into the massive machine, Keith tossed in a packet of detergent his grandmother had given him, closed the door, put the money into the slot, and started it up. "How long do you think it'll take?" asked Martin.

"Uhhh", said Keith and tried to stuff his hands into his pockets and then he noticed that there were no pockets since he wore just a pair of light blue underpants. He folded his arms instead and thought back to the time he once had been here. "I think about maybe… half an hour?" He didn't sound nearly as sure as he would've liked to, and admittedly he wasn't. Laundry wasn't exactly something he paid much attention to.

"Okay", said Martin and scratched his bare arms. He was still somewhat dirty and the dirt was itching.

"We'll just have to wait for the machine to turn off. Come on, there's a restroom next to the arcade. We can get our faces cleaned off in there. And our arms."

It didn't take too long to wash off. There was a long roll of paper towels in the restroom, and a few minutes later, Keith and Martin and cleaned the road mud from their faces, arms, and even hair. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the clothes to be clean.

It was when they exited the restroom that Martin first spotted the sign on the wall, which had been well above the boys' heads when they walked in. "Oh, no. Keith…"

Keith read the sign. "NEW SAFETY FEATURE — LAUNDRY MACHINES LOCK FOR SECURITY UPON ACTIVATION. FULL LAUNDRY CYCLE… 3 HOURS."

"Three hours!?" exclaimed Martin.

Keith felt bad. He honestly hadn't realized. But it made sense. Three hours was a pretty long laundry cycle. At least he guessed it was. The price, he supposed, of having a machine that did the washing AND the drying all in one. And it also made sense for the machines to lock upon activation, since most people wouldn't want to hang around the laundromat for that period of time. They'd want to go elsewhere and run errands or something, and come back just in time for the machine to finish up. But they'd also want to know that their clothes weren't going to be stolen or anything in the meantime, hence the automatic lock.

Of course, most people wouldn't be stuck in just their underwear.

"Ohhhh, man! Is that for real? What do they mean by 'three hours'? How can anybody stay here and wait for THREE HOURS?!" exclaimed Martin, turning a bit red, half from anger, half from potential embarrassment. He looked a bit weird in his white underwear combined with black shoes and socks, and he knew it.

"Are you expected home anytime soon?" asked Keith, sincerely concerned. He was already trying to think up some excuses for Martin's behalf.

"No, not really," said Martin. "Aunt Matilda was going to be visiting all day. Mom said as long as I was home by dinner that was fine. But Keith, what are we going to do? I mean… three hours?"

"Nothing." said Keith. His major concern had just been addressed. No one was going to miss Martin that soon. "Nothing we can do. We'll just have to wait it out." He put his hands on his hips, trying to look more decisive, but this made him feel even more weird. Funny, how skinny he suddenly felt while standing in underwear in a somewhat public place. The feeling made him shiver a little though the air was pretty warm. But he couldn't very well let on that he felt almost as uncomfortable with this situation as Martin did.

Martin scowled, unconvinced. Keith sighed. "Look, we've got the arcade. Okay, most of the games are older than we are, but that just means we probably haven't played them before, so that can't be too bad. And there's a soda machine in there, and another one with candy and crackers in it, so we won't starve. Try to see it as an adventure."

"In our underwear," said Martin sourly.

"This from the kid who survived being tossed into an interplanetary brig on a spaceship with less than that?" said Keith, trying to sound cheerful and encouraging. "Come on, what's a couple hours in a laundromat in your Fruit-of-the-Looms compared to that?"

Martin cringed. "Don't remind me. That was awful."

"But…?" asked Keith, trying to sound upbeat.

"Okay. I guess that was worse than this." said Martin.

"And you survived that." concluded Keith. "So you can survive this. Now come on, let's see what sort of video games this place has."

They were just about to head over to the arcade area when the door to the laundromat opened, and trouble walked in. It was a huge lady that could have been a cousin of Martin's aunt Matilda. She carried a bright colored plastic basket with clothes in her massive arms and headed for one of the machines. If the lady was alone, there was the chance that she might go away after she had unloaded her laundry. But unfortunately, there was somebody in her company, a girl of about ten or eleven years.

Keith swore. "Couldn't they pick another day to do their laundry?" he whispered.

"I'll go and play a little", said the girl, jingling with some coins in her hand. The fat lady just sighed and put the basket down in front of the chosen machine. And then the girl came straight towards the small arcade room where the two boys in underwear hid behind a corner.

"Keith, what do we do now?" whimpered Martin. Getting caught in undies by grown-ups was bad enough. Getting caught in the same situation by a girl of their age was a fate worse than death in Martin's book… and Keith's as well, frankly.

"Sssshhhhh!" said Keith and pushed Martin deeper into the corner behind a candy machine, already trying to think of a way out of this mess but not immediately seeing one.

Luckily, the girl had no reason to think that somebody else was already in the arcade. So she had only eyes for one of the archaic games that, fortunately for the boys' present location stood in an opposite corner. Soon she was absorbed in the game that made funny sounds and some awkwardly primitive music, her attention completely diverted.

There were multiple rows of laundry machines, and fortunately, one was leading to the exit far enough from the fat lady's view. "C'mon." said Keith flatly and dragged Martin with him. Keeping low, under the level of the rows of machines that were between them and the lady, Martin and Keith sneaked to the door. Then, Martin stopped and held Keith back.

"But where are we supposed to go? And suppose these people are still here when we get back? And what if they take our clothes?" said Martin in rapid-fire succession.

"Later," said Keith. "Let's get outta here first."

"You seriously want us to go outside on the street, in our underwear?" cried Martin quietly.

"I can't see anybody outside. You'd rather hide here for three hours?" argued Keith.

Martin swallowed. "Okay… let's go."

The boys managed to slip outside without anybody noticing. Then they ducked quickly into the nearby alleyway where Keith had parked Martin's bike and his skateboard. "Keith, what about our clothes?" demanded Martin. "They might steal them, or still be there when we get back!"