Us Toons
Amburr was our for her daily walk to Johnny's pond. The sun was shining, birds were singing, but her animator was in a foul mood. Or should I say, a 'fowl' mood ...
"Skwaaak!" she heard from offscreen somewhere. "This coffee's terrible!" Simultaneously, her legs became wavy and useless, like jello. She kept walking but she wasn't getting anywhere. Her lips moved but no sound 'came out'. She heard the sound of blubbering and a paper cup being crumpled violently. She looked at the camera wide-eyed. You can never go wrong with that, she always thought. But this time no one noticed. They were looking off screen. She had always feared the land beyond the edge of the screen, but she thought she might take a peek, now.
She put her hand up in front of here eyes and then moved her fingers up until you could see one eye thru them. It bugged out between the fingers for a moment and then went back and hid. "Johnny?" she heard herself say to herself softly. There he was. Out 'there'. But he was flat, two-dimensional, and black & white. And he was perfectly motionless. She stared, fascinated. A cardinal landed on her shoulder.
"Is it you?"
"If I have to deal with this kind of incompetence again, I'm never going to finish this project!" she heard back. Johnny sounded different. Terrell the purple Cardinal flapped up in surprise, squawking silently, feathers flying off of him at an alarming rate (though he never looked like he had any less of them, of course). An unnaturally large face came into view. A terror of a face. It was wielding a big stick. And speaking softly.
"Hold still, little one," came the breathy words. "We must begin again, you and I." And the soft scary end of the stick came at them. This time, Amburr squawked and ran in the other direction. She tumbled off the screen and onto Johnny's sketch pad.
"What the ...?" the animator said, stupefied.
Terrell and Amburr grabbed up the pad between them and skittered across the table. They made their escape in the end. Have you seen them?
