Ian, Kozo and Moto all saw the problem at the same moment.
As their eyes had adjusted, their depth of field improved, and there, in the far corner of the gallery, was a sight that satisfied their deepest fears. Not only had the strange animals come loose from their paintings, but they had captured and tied up a human. The poor man was bound to a chair with strands of thick hemp, his mouth stuffed with a deformed persimmon so that he could not scream for help. His eyeglasses were askew, in such a way as to drive a person to insanity. His eyes bulged as he struggled. He repeatedly flipped his head back, trying to right his eyeglasses, but unable to get them into a more comfortable position. He was clearly a desperate and unhappy man.
"This is just TOO creepy", said Moto.
"Yeah, you're right about that. Let's get the hell out of here", said Kozo as he turned towards the stairs going back down to the ground level.
"Wait a minute," Ian spoke softly, "I think I know that man. It looks like my eye doctor."
"Your eye doctor? What is your eye doctor doing here?" Kozo asked quietly, all the time thinking it would be better to hold this discussion downstairs.
"He comes by after work sometimes. He was going to bring me a thermos of home madecarrot soup one night this week."
Looks like he is a "Special Guest" tonight, said Moto. "I think we ought to go back to the Cafe and have some milk now."
So far, none of the strange animals had noticed the quiet trio standing in the shadows on the second floor landing. They seemed to be preoccupied with moving about, as if they had never had such freedom before. They twisted and turned, leapt and danced, sped up and then skidded to a halt. A small goat like creature was repeatedly taking a running leap at a Nigerian hut rug. He would stand about fifteen feet away, get a running start, then leap, butt first, onto the rug, which in turn, would skid across the shiny museum floor another fifteen feet.
But more disturbing was the apparent torture of the Optometrist tied up in the back corner of the museum. A beast with striped legs and an "illustrated body" was sitting on the prisoner's feet. Occasionally turning a page with a hoof, it was reading something to the unlucky eye doctor. As Moto and Kozo and Ian watched in horror, the man would twist and try to yell for help as the creature read from the book.
"We've got to get back downstairs" said to the two cats.
But Moto and Kozo had already taken the initiative and half way to ground floor.
The three met up in the Cafe. None of the creatures on second floor had noticed them, but, nonetheless, all three were visibly shaken.
"So, this is your "surprise", said Kozo, "REALLY IAN, we could have passed on this scene."
"Sorry, but this isn't exactly what I was going to show you. I thought another cat had come to live in the museum. I had never gotten close to him, but I had seen him a couple of times. He was kind of different looking and I thought maybe you two could approach him first."
"Yeah, "different looking, like with horns and swirly things painted on his body, and tying optometrists up and crashing into display cases and inviting his weird freaking friends to come out and play? Like THAT? Real cool, Ian!"
"Yeah, waaaaay cool Ian", repeated Moto, "like, WITH HORNS!"
"Well, anyway, we've got to get Eric out of there." said Ian
"Eric. Eric! Eric who?? How? What? Where? When? Are you completely bonkers?" Kozo shot back.
"Eric the optometrist. That's who. And we've got to get him out NOW." Ian seemed to be getting a little irritated.
"Like how?" Moto chirped in, "there must be ten of those weirdos up there and they seem to have plans for Eric. What do you think we're going to do? Put on masks and try to scare those creeps? I don't think so!"
Well, first, let's ring Eric's wife and see if we can't increase the odds in our favour a bit."
"Hey, THAT'S a plan! Why don't we ring everybody you know and see if they want to come over and battle creatures from another dimension. Just say it's a big costume party and we'll be serving party poppers and fruit punch after the "fun, mock battle" on the second floor."
"And explain why Eric is tied to a chair with a persimmon in his mouth and a psychedelic zebra is reading him a bedtime story! That ought to get lots of people to come running right over!" Moto got his tuppence in.
But Ian had already picked up the phone to ring Susie. He knew that Susie would organise a rescue party and wasn't wasting another moment listening to talking cats.
Moto was switching his tail and looking around nervously
"Hey, YOU WITH THE SPEAKING INSTRUMENT" a voice boomed from the door.
Moto and Kozo backed up and Ian's mouth froze even as he was telling Susie about the strange situation. In the doorway stood a very large and very pink cat with Neon Yellow swirls all over its body. It was a good four feet tall and speaking in perfect English to Ian. Behind the pink cat stood yet another multi-coloured animal, this one about six feet tall and wearing some familiar spectacles.
Chapter 3
Links to other sites on the Web
Jane's art
Special thank you to Jane Sharvina, who is responsible for animating Mr. Moto. Please use the above link to see more of Jane's art work and photography.
© 1997 phildynan@msn.com