Pooh

Karoz grudgingly agreed to a private meeting over at the closed town diner. It was about 1:45 in the morning. Lockfry didn’t want Furry Karl or Baker Blinker or any of the others to overhear what they might speak about. Karoz didn’t care one way or the other.

“Listen, I’ve given you my apartment, my *woman of interest*”, started the moss being. “I have nothing left in this town. I sleep over under the red lights of the town museum with the flattie elephants and guerrillas.”

“Over under?” exclaims Lockfry, stretching his arms above his head. “Sounds like my kind of place, though. Have the guerrillas played mind games with you? I hope so. That would be cool.”

“So, what, you’re going to try to talk me out of leaving? Why would you do that?”

“Look, this is hard for me…” spoke Lockfry more honestly than before to Karoz. “We’ve met before. I know Peter SoSo.”

“That’s impossible.” The sound of squeaking and rattling was heard from the door. It was Winnie the Pooh and his honey cart, passing by on the rocky road outside (Cannon Street). Karoz noted the sound but couldn’t see the famous bear from his angle. Lockfry acted like the noise didn’t exist.

A longer silence ensued as Karoz tried to assimilate the revelation. “So you’ve been to Crabwoo?”

“I was enrolled at the college for 3 years, until they kicked me out for cutting the head off that dame and eating her lover. But, heck, we all do crazy things when we’re young and away from the home for the first time. Just kidding about that, by the way. You can take your shocked look off your grassy face.”

“The college stuff or the killings? Because I’m much more inclined to believe the latter.”

“I’m Peter’s friend Dave. We knew each other. Devil Dave, remember? I was pretty evil back then as well. And devilishly handsome of course.”

“Dave?” Karoz scrutinized Lockfry’s face closely for perhaps the first time. “Yeah. Yeah, I can see it. You *are* Dave. A considerably redder Dave, but you were quite pink in those days, so I can see the progression. Trace it back.”

“So you believe me.”

“I guess so.” “Dave,” Karoz repeats after a pause, and then looks at Lockfry again. “How?”

“Heck, everyone who was anyone back then went to Crabwoo to study. It’s not *that* odd.”

“Have you seen Peter recently?”

“Not since the [Linden] takeover. Most of us Ancients lost track of each other in the confusion. The days of Lemony Goodness were over. But, ahh, Crabwoo in its time was something, wasn’t it? Beat the [socks off] Chilbo. But of course there was the curse put on it. The Purse Curse.”

Karoz knew his Crabwoo history. He came to the Maebaelia continent city when it was sliding downward — considerably after the curse. But it was still something to behold. Two sims abuzz with excitement, all nuzzled up to the Blue Feather Sea. Like Lockfry said: everyone who wanted to expand their horizons went there. To study, to experience, to *know*. Know the higher truths. That’s where Karoz was introduced to the concept of TILE and tiling. Dave, if he recalled correctly, was 4 or 5 years older than him. So he could have seen the carcass sprawled out in the central mall, before they hauled it away. Peter talked about it as well, but he remembered the lingering smell more than anything. They couldn’t get it out of the air; it permeated *everything*.

The rattling/squeaking noise was heard again, as Pooh passed by from the opposite direction. Something else was in his honey cart, changing the timbre. He stopped in front of the diner door. His umbrella was both inside and outside the structure at once.

—–

Baker Bloch paused from speaking to his Past Father and turned around to see what the rumbling was about. The reality including Karoz and Lockfry had shifted over.

“Sounds like rain,” said Past Space Ghost.