A contest that I won...Forget I was the only participant! :)
It's a typical lovely day in the lives of our bumbling buddies, Stanley and Oliver.
"Good morning Ollie," Stan greets Ollie with a warm smile.
Oliver has something square and black held in his hands. The way he holds it made it look like he wants it to be a secret. "Good morning, Stanley," he grumbles.
"Sure is a lot of weather we've been having lately," he observes.
Ollie continues fiddling with the small square object.
"What's that you have, Ollie?"
"I don't know!" he snaps.
Stan frowns. "Well, can I see it?" he asks tentatively. Before receiving an answer, he reaches out and tries to grab the gadget.
Oliver slaps Stanley's hand away three times. "No. My wife found it for me the other day."
Rubbing his now red hand, he questions, "What's it do?"
The black box buzzes and the front of it lights up. Yelping like a little girl, Ollie drops it.
"Oh," says Stan.
"Mmm mmm mmm! It's been doing that every five minutes, and I can't for the life of me understand why," Oliver explains, exasperated.
Stan bens down somewhat hesitantly and lifts it up. The screen says TEXT...FROM HAL ROACH.
Ollie flings his hands in the air. "What does that mean, Stanley?"
After a moment of deep pondering, he says, "Maybe...maybe he's in there."
"How do you mean?"
Stanley launches into his rare flashes of brilliance. "Well, text is a type of writing, and he's always writing. In fact, I think-I think he's writing something for us right this minute. Maybe he wrote himself into this buzzing box. Maybe he's trying to tell someone."
"Hmm." Oliver grabs the small black box back. "Tell me that again."
And just as soon as the moment came, it's gone. He'll give it a shot anyway. "Alright. Box is a type of writing, and...he's buzzing right now to text us something, and... he's trying to write someone about the box right this minute.
"You know...you're finally making some sense." Ollie smiles. Then...BUZZ!
Stan reaches for it. "Lemme see."
Ollie is all protective. " No, it's MY buzzing box, i get to keep it."
Without any gracefulness whatsoever, Stanley fumbles around until he finally wraps his itching fingers around the thing, much to a red-faced Oliver's chagrin. "What does 'slide to unlock' mean?"
"How would I know?"
Stan holds his hand to his chin, pondering. He then bends down and slides the black buzzing box along floor. It skids daintily along until it abruptly smashes into the wall.
Ollie is going to get into SO much trouble. "Oh, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into! What is she going to say now that you broke the buzzing box?"
Stan is on his knees, pointing a shaking finger to the broken box.
The truth hits Ollie. "Is...is he...?"
Stan nods, tears leaking from under tightly closed lids.
Slowly, he walks over to his buddy. He takes his hat off and holds it in front of him, respectively. "Well, we must smile, Stanley. Even without Mr. Roach, there's always a silver lining in the clouds."
This seems to cheer Stan up, at least a little. "And blood is thicker than water," he declares.
The two friends decide to have a funeral for their dear friend Hal Roach. Oliver gently carries the broken bits of the buzzing box outside while Stan digs a small hole with his hands.
After an argument and a brief physical fight over who does the honours, Ollie is decided upon since he isn't the technical murderer.
"What a way to go," Stan says, still sniffling like mad.
"Indeed, Stanley, indeed."
With that the two friends, with their arms wrapped around each other, stare down at the buried little black buzzing box, their good friend, Mr. Hal Roach.