The Beach.
Noodle, sick of being cooped up in Kong, has managed to con Muds into taking her and the others for a day trip to the beach. At first Muds wasn't interested, but after being lectured by the young girl, about the importance of fresh air and sunshine for three hours, decides that anything, is better than listening to her for another second longer. The band members load up the car, and are finally on their way.
Murdoc is quietly driving along, humming a tune to himself. 2-D is sat next to him, watching the scenery fly by. Russel has settled down for a nap and Noodle, happy she got her way, is playing with her Gameboy beside him. 2-D decides to strike up a conversation with Murdoc and turns to the old man.
"Hey Muds?" he says and quietly waits for a response. Murdoc, lost in a small daydream, just clicks his tongue and keeps on humming to himself. "Muds!" 2-D says a little louder. Murdoc stops humming and turns his eyes to the young man, a little annoyed at being disturbed.
"Wha?" the bassist hopes that whatever the 'Dullard' has to say will be brief. Given he's already been lectured, by the 'Small, walking Tsunami.' the last thing he needs, is to be driven to gnawing off his own limbs by 'This idiot.' He smiles to himself at that thought and checks his rear view mirror.
"You know the Lincoln Memorial?" the keyboardist inquires, studying the old man for a reaction. Murdoc flips the indicator and overtakes a slow moving vehicle, giving it's driver a look of annoyance as he passes it.
"Not personally, but yeah, I've heard of it. What about it?" Murdoc says as he pulls back into the right lane."Slow idiot. Can't drive for...." he mutters. 2-D, happy he got an almost civilized response to his question, but not quite understanding the last bit, given it isn't really about driving skills, smiles and continues.
"Well, Lincoln fought for black people right, so they could vote and not be slaves no more, yeah?" Murdoc turns his head for a moment and looks at the keyboardist, clicks his tongue and looks back at the road ahead.
"Um, yeah. Summink like that. I dunno I wasn't there." the bassist replies and shrugs, not really interested in the conversation. He's more interested in the large tanker coming up behind him. Deciding he doesn't really like this conversation anymore and would rather think about something else, he presses down on the accelerator, speeding the Geep up, almost as if he's trying to drive himself out of listening to 2-D altogether. 2-D carries on oblivious.
"Well...Why's it white then?" Murdocs brain does a mini back-flip, not quite sure he understood. 'Must've missed some of that conversation.' he thinks and pulls into the beach car park.
"Huh? Why's what white? Who?" he pulls into a space and switches off the engine, then turns in his seat to face the young man. "What are you...? Nope. Fergit it. I don't think I need to know." he unbuckles his seat belt and steps from the car. 2-D not wanting to stop the conversation, continues regardless.
"The statue. Why's it white?" Murdoc grabs the stuff from the back and elbows Russel in the arm to wake him. The large man snorts and opens his eyes.
"Wha? We dere den?" he replies sleepily, as he rubs the sleep from his vacant eyes.
"Yeah. Take this." Murdoc answers him and drops the stuff on top of the drummer, burying him completely. Murdoc smiles at the sight, of the large man trying to tunnel his way out from under the pile and catches the look on 2-Ds face, from the corner of his eye. He thinks back to the last thing 2-D said and sighs. "I dunno Faceache....Maybe they ran outta blue?" he answers the keyboardist, then giving him an over-emphasized shrug, waves him off.
A few moments later, down on the beach. Noodle is very happily playing with Russel. Giggling splashing and playing chase with him in the waves. Muds is almost lost under an over-sized beach umbrella, drinking Scotch straight from the bottle and flipping through a porno. 2-D is sitting just across from him, cross legged, hunched over a dark scowl on his face. Annoyed he never got a decent answer, to what he thought, was a decent question, he can't bring himself to have any fun. Muds peers at him, from over the top of his magazine.
"Oh Sweet Satan. WHAAT!?" Murdoc drawls angrily and slams the magazine down in his lap. 2-D looks up at him and sighs.
"I only asked a question. That's all." he sulks and looks away from the bassist, towards where Noodle and Russel are playing. Muds rolls his eyes.
"Yeah. And I answered it. Coz they ran outta blue." Murdoc answers quietly, then swigs from his Scotch bottle. 2-D turns back to him, trying to imagine a blue Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the only thing he can manage, is the image of a hamster, running around in it's wheel. He shakes the image from his head.
"That's silly.... isn't it?" he replies a little bit confused, but more concerned that saying anything that Muds says is silly, might get him a smack in the ear. "Heh, heh. Hamster." he giggles, as the image of the hamster returns. Murdoc, who was halfway to taking another swig, stops and sharply turns his eyes to the young man, trying to work out how a rodent could possibly fit into this. 'Or did he just insult me?' he thinks. Deciding that the only way he can get some peace, may be to let him win, he gives up.
"Okay, okay. What color do YOU think it should be then? Hmm? Yellow? Purple? A nice shade of peach?" he responds sarcastically.
"Grey." the keyboardist answers, in a very straight forward tone. Murdoc stops and considers it for a moment. Surprised that 2-Ds answer, to a point, made a whole lot of sense to him as well, but given 2-D was the one who said it, Murdoc decides to leave the answer in the air for the time being. In the bassist mind, everything would ride on what the young man would say next.
"Well, ok. Why?" Murdoc presses him. 2-D looks down at the sand and draws a small circle.
"Well. He was a white dude. And he was fightin for black dudes. And if ya mix white and black, ya get grey. It just makes more sense to me, that the statue shouldn't be so white then." 2-D responds adding a smiling mouth and two eyes to the circle in the sand. Murdoc tips his chin to his chest and smiles at the young man.
The day trip over. Russel is once again weighed down with their belongings. Noodle races past Murdoc, a towel wrapped tightly about her shoulders. They pile into the car and are soon on their way home.
Back in the Kong car park, Muds turns off the engine and climbs out, Russel reaches in the car and picks up the sleeping Noodle and walks to the corridor door, careful so as not to wake her. He's about to reach for the handle, when he stops and looks about. The large man suddenly realizing, they're short one band member, looks back to Murdoc, who is about to open the Winnies door.
"Murdoc." the drummer hisses sharply, but quietly. "We forgot 2-D." The bassist smiles evilly at the large man and opens the Winnie door.
"Who?" he replies and stepping inside, closes the door behind him.
Back on the beach, tucked neatly between two dunes, up to his neck in sand. 2-D struggles vainly to get free.
"What did I say?" he whines and struggles some more. "Help!.....Anybody? Murdoc? Are ya still there? I need a shovel."
