Suddenly Fuzzy's tummy flipped over. He stared at the flyer in horror, and said in a worried tone: "This party is being hosted by the gazette! Oh dear oh dear my bosses!! I need to call in right away; I sent them an email with my pictures from the reunion. I am going to get fired, I just know it. How can I explain what happened, when I am not even sure what happened?"
Rufus chuckled and then said: "Well, take it from me when you have something hard to do it's best to do it quick. Do not ponder on it or will drive you mad. Use my phone. I have some work to attend to. Be back in little while."
With that Rufus left his office and poor Fuzzy to face the music. It took awhile for Fuzzy to work up the courage to make The call. Ring ……Ring ….Ring, and for brief moment Fuzzy dared to hope that no one would answer, but that hope was soon dashed by a voice on the other end:
"Hello, Ozman here how can I help ya ?"
"Uhmmm this is Fuzzy sir, I was calling to let you know I was back."
"Oh good, my boy, we have all been worried about you, but no time to talk now - busy busy busy don't ya know; party just round the corner it is, lots to do. Need you to report here right away. Need all hands on deck for this event. Make your way out of the village, travel thru Darken Wood then follow the road to the east. Soon you will reach Old Echo Meadow. Go up the hill thru the gate and we will be waiting for you . Must go now, no time to waste" said Ozman.
Fuzzy was stunned. It seems he still had his job. Fuzzy plopped down in the chair and felt a bit of relief come over him; it had been what seemed like forever since he felt at all relaxed. After few minutes he went out into the garage of the transport building to find Rufus, which did not take long. Rufus' booming voice could be clearly heard over the other ambient sounds of the shop. He was giving some instructions to a cabbie who seemed to have a bit of a hearing problem.
"What do you mean you lost the paper work!" scolded Rufus, "TimTim, not sure why we keep you around sometimes" said Rufus with bit of a sarcastic tone. Rufus forgave old TimTim much out of respect; you see, it was TimTim who got Rufus his job at the transport company. The guy seems to have been around forever, but his hearing was becoming a bit of a problem, not to mention his absent mindedness.
"Hey, Rufus!" yelled Fuzzy across the floor, "I have to get going. My Boss needs me up at Old Echo Meadow."
Rufus smiled. "So you still have a job then. Well, Tim Tim here was just going that way to drop off a few packages at the Academy of Magick, and I will have him give you a lift."
"That would be great; I need to get there fast as I can" replied Fuzzy.
Rufus turned back to TimTim "I want you to take Fuzzy here out to Old Echo Meadow up the hill to the grave yard, and I need you to get there fast as you can. You can drop the packages off on your way back" Said Rufus.
TimTim smiled nodded his head, and then turned to Fuzzy and said: "best get in boy, seems I am in a hurry. He giggled a bit then made his way around to the driver's side door all the time mumbling to himself. Fuzzy watched TimTim and found himself feeling like he had seen him before; not here, but some were else. He dismissed the thought and turned back to Rufus: "So I do not know how long I will be up there," said Fuzzy.
"No problem. I will meet up with you later; have to go get my costume. And we will get to work on that little job we discussed", Rufus winked.
Oh no, thought Fuzzy, a costume. I do not have one; what am I going to do? I guess I will have to sort that out later. "Well, see ya later, eh, Rufus" Said Fuzzy as he climbed into the back of the cab, which was no easy feet since the seat was filled mostly with boxes for the Academy. And he could not shake the feeling nagging at him that he had been here before.
The ride was pleasant enough and TimTim might not hear that well but he sure could drive. Before Fuzzy knew it they had arrived.
"Out You go," stated TimTim.
"What here? but the site is up the hill," questioned Fuzzy.
"Well, that might be boy, but this is as close as I will get to that graveyard. No sirree, Old TimTim be in a grave yard soon enough, not going to rush the event. You will be fine; just follow the road straight up the hill. You best get going; be dark soon."
Fuzzy's feet had no more touched the ground when TimTim sped off. Fuzzy turned and began to make his way up the hill so wrapped up in trying to think of what he was going to say to explain himself that he never noticed the dog that was walking along side him. That was until he reached the gate and the dog let out a small whimper. "Well hello little guy, what you doing out here?" Fuzzy gave him a quick pat on the head. "Well here goes" He pushed the huge Iron Gates open and they let out an awful sound. "Oh yeah, this is just great, a creepy graveyard, what next? Then he turned to pat the dog again only to find he was quite alone. Hmmm, that was strange he thought. But the event slipped from his mind as he made his was up the path.
There was a huge fire burning ahead; a welcome sight to ease his fright, and wow! What a tent. He never seen anything like it. People were rushing here and there, all busy making ready for the event. And then he saw Joe the caterer.
"Hi, ya Joe," yelled Fuzzy. Well. A friendly face. That was nice and a bit of a comfort. He walked over to where Joe was setting up the bar.
Hiya Fuzzy, long time no see. So you're here to help out then?" Asked Joe.
"Yeah I hope so. I work for the Gazette you see." Well I hope I still do, he added under his breath. "So have you seen Ozman?"
"Yes he and Apooka are all over the place putting on the last minute touches? So what do you say, like a drink before you get started?" Joe asked. "Just tapped a new keg of honey beer. And we got some fine pumpkin juice and goblin ale. What do ya say?"
But before Fuzzy could respond he heard another voice say, "I think pumpkin juice will be just fine Joe, Don't you Fuzzy?" It was his boss, Ozman. And I will have one my self." Fuzzy turned to look at Ozman and timidly said, "Yeah, think that will be fine." |
Ozman patted Fuzzy on on the shoulder and said: "I think you have had enough honey beer adventures for awhile, right my boy?"...Ozman said with a smile. "So we have all been worried about you; glad you made it back. We can use all the help we can get. So I think you and I should have a little chat. You see, I was there at the bar the night you went missing and think I can fill in a few of the blanks."
Filled with curiosity and a bit of relief, he listened as Ozman explained how he had been at the playhouse that night to check out the band in the hope he might hire them for this party. And had seen Fuzzy at the party. He went on to tell him that: Seems you were served a peanut wine, by mistake."
Right! Then the night started to come back to him. He remembered, yes, they had all just been given new drinks to toast Dora's birthday.
Ozman continued: As you know, seems you are allergic to peanuts, and well that's where the trouble got going. You became sick right away; in fact you threw up all over the cake, and that Dora was mad as a wet hen.. Your little buddy Shakey and The girl Nora knew right away what to do. They got you into the bathroom and gave you a potion and changed your clothes. And everyone thought you were going to be alright. You fell asleep and Shakey left you for a few minutess to go wash out your cloths and sneak a peek at Nora on stage.
"Then he and I went back to check on you and, well, you were gone. That poor Shakey was beside himself and set right out to find you. It seems you had woken up and asked the bartender to call you a cab."
Slowly the events unfolded in Fuzzy's mind and suddenly it all coming back to him and he simply said: "TimTim…"
"Yep," said Ozman, "the old guy seems to have been taking people all day to the Aw reunion."
"I think I remember," said Fuzzy, "I asked him to take me home to Wisteria Inn on Union Street."
"Well, seems that old TimTim is be hard of hearing; he dropped you off on the west side of the reunion" continued Ozman, "Shakey went right after you but was unable to catch up to ya. That's some friend you have there. That boy searched for you all night. He finally came back to Yellow when I told him we had heard from you. He's been helping us get the party ready. You should go talk to him let him know you are here. Then I will need you to get your costume on and help out as well. Lots left to do; will need you to take lots of pictures tonight. I hope you are ready to tuck in."
Fuzzy was more than willing to get back to normal but there was one problem... "I do not have a costume" said Fuzzy.
Ozman smiled. "No worries there, got one for you, and you can thank Apooka for that. But before you see her I better warn ya she is going to have you on the carpet. But don't worry; she really just been worried about you. But if I were you I would stay away from honey beer for awhile prove to her that it was good idea to give you this job.. We are all counting on you so you need to be on your best behavior tonight."
"Ok, thanks Ozman sir, I promise I will not have anymore strange adventures for a while." Feeling much better, and just happy to be back to normal, he set off to find Shakey.
Before Fuzzy had a chance to go looking for Shakey, he nearly had the life scared out of him. A guy in one of the scariest costume ever tapped him on the shoulder. "You Fuzzy?" asked the bear in the zombie outfit.
"Yeah, I am," said Fuzzy.
"Hi, I am Butch. Apooka sent me to get you, she's over by the bonfire handing out the costumes, said she wants you right away. Ok, well you best get moving if you want to get a good costume."
"Yeah, thanks. Nice to meet you." Fuzzy was excited. Wow what a great costume; sure hope I get one that scary. |
When he got to the bonfire Apooka was talking to a few more guys in equally scary outfits. This is going to be some party, he thought. Just then he noticed Apooka had spotted him. She waved him over, and much to his relief was smiling at him.
"Welcome back, looks like you are no worse for wear. Now there is one costume left over in the basket. Get it on right away. It's nearly party time. I am very happy you are home safe, but after the party you and I are going to have to have long talk" she said giving him a stern look followed by brief smile.
He was not sure if it was her or the costume she had on but wow did he feel a chill in the tone of her voice. "Yes, Boss,: he replied.
Now I need you to go find Shakey. Hes been a great help since you've been away. Good little fella he is. He has been doing your job. You owe him a thank you. Now, he's in the tunnels under the graveyard crypt in place called the Blood Bank; the boys can show you the way. You need to fetch him and then meet me back at the main party tent. I will tell you what your duties are for tonight."
Fuzzy was excited to see what gruesome out fit he would get to wear , but his heart sank a bit when he saw what was left an ordinary wizard outfit. He turned to look at Apooka who just smiled and motion him toward the grave yard. Clearly this was her little punishment. Oh well thought Fuzzy as he wiggled in to the outfit, you know, it's not that bad and it fits too.
"Hey come on we need to get going'. Called out one of the ghoul boys.
"OK, I'm ready," called Fuzzy as he ran along to catch up. By the time Fuzzy and the boys had made it through the grave yard and down into the crypt tunnels he was not afraid to admit he had huge case of the Heebie-jeebies. They had only been in the crypt tunnel for a few minutes when one of the ghoul boys stopped and said: "OK, this is where we part ways."
"You are leaving me?" Fuzzy blurted out, not at all happy with the idea of being in this creepy place alone.
"No worries mate, just go straight down the hall and you will find Shakey in the room at the end," he said pointing behind Fuzzy. Fuzzy turned and looked down into a long black spinning hallway with a huge black and white spiral rotating inside, He gulped.
"Down there, are you sure?" he asked, but when he turned around he found himself alone. Well nothing to do now but Bear up, he thought. So with a deep breath he entered the spinning tunnel. As he made his way along he could not imagine his timid pal Shakey of all people coming here. No, there must be a mistake; wires crossed somewhere, Shakey would never willingly come down here.
But what Fuzzy saw next was one of the greatest shocks of his young life. Oh, it was not that he found himself in a room filled with Vampires. No indeed. There in the center of the room, dressed in a Fantastic vampire count outfit, was Shakey. But that was only half the shock. Not only was Shakey not scared he was in charge, giving out cool instruction with firm command of the situation. Fuzzy had never seen Shakey so - well, not Shakey. |
Fuzzy just stood there gob smacked. Finally he called out "Shakey is that you?"
Shakey turned, fixed his eyes on Fuzzy. Slowly a smile crossed his face then he turned back to his task with out a word. Fuzzy shoulders slumped and his heart sank. He is really mad at me, he fretted. Well just have to face the music and take it like a bear. He walked across the room and tapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, you got to talk to me. I am really sorry."
With his back to Fuzzy, Shakey started to laugh. He turned and said: "Glad to see you finally showed up." Then he gave Fuzzy a big hug. "Got ya there for minute, you know you deserved it."
Then Fuzzy slapped his pal on the back. "Yeah, your are right again. I am really sorry."
"Hey glad you came to see me, but shouldn't you be working, helping out? Lots to do you know," Shakey half scolded
"I am working; Apooka sent me down here to fetch ya. We need to get back up to the main party tent." Fuzzy replied.
"Well then let's get going" said Shakey and off he went. Fuzzy was still amazed at the confidence Shakey seem to have gained and the two had a nice chat catching up on their way back. Buy the time they reached the tent they were truly getting into the party mood.
Once there they spoke to Apooka and Ozman, and got there instruction on what was expected of them. They meet the guys from PK Tunes who would be in charge of the music and announcements. It would be Fuzzy's job to make sure they got the information they needed, and to take lots and lots of pictures. Apooka sent Shakey off to help get the band in order as they had arrived late. And before Apooka walked away she got eye to eye with Fuzzy and said: "I want you to have fun tonight, but please no honey beer for you, and no getting lost."
"OK, I promise. I will be on my best behavior" affirmed Fuzzy.
"All right then let the party begin," she said as she walked away. |
