The Once-ler stepped out of his house and sighed. The air smelled as fresh as it did before he had destroyed the valley. He walked over to one of the tree sproutlings and watered it. This time, he would care for the forest instead of using their fluff for thneeds. He turned around and shielded his eyes from the sun as a bird flew overhead. The Once-ler smiled as it flew by. He then became aware of something else approaching him. He turned again, and to his amaze, it was the Lorax descending from the sky. He landed perched on the "unless" stone.
"You done good beanpole. You done good."
Overjoyed, the Once-ler laughed and embraced his old friend. After separating the Lorax pointed to the Once-ler's face.
"By the way, nice mustache."
The Once-ler smiled. "I broke my razor a few years ago." He stopped smiling and sighed "I wish I had gone and done something about the trees before now. I'm old, and won't be around to see the forest grow back to its original beauty."
The Lorax chuckled. "But don't you remember, I have powers."
Once-ler smiled weakly. "Yeah, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way."
The Lorax looked at him seriously. "Well, you helped re-new my forest, and you have now learned your lesson. So why couldn't I do something?"
Once-ler sat on his porch step. "Yeah, but-"
He noticed a change in his voice. He pulled off one of his gloves and looked at his hand. Instead of usual wrinkly old man hands, he had the skin of a young man. He stood up and noticed that he didn't slouch. He ran inside to look in the mirror and the Lorax followed, pleased with himself. Once-ler gasped at his reflection. "Wow! Speaking of re-new!" He turned to face the Lorax. "This is amazing! I feel great!" He ran down the hallway like a kid and to his bedroom. He found his old jeans and top from before he became greedy and put them on, as well as switching the formal hat with the other one. His doorbell rang and he heard ted's voice.
"Audrey! Look out!" The sound of the claw drew near to the window and the Once-ler turned around to see Ted being held up by his shirt in front of the window.
"Hey!" The Once-ler said waving.
Ted was confused and quite scared. "Who are you?"
The Once-ler slapped his hand to his face. "Right." He laughed and held up a picture of himself when he was the mayor of Thneedville in his green suit and big top hat in one hand, and the big hat in the other. "Its still me. The Once-ler."
Ted's face grew white. "How- How did you?"
The Lorax appeared in the doorway. "Oh! Is this the boy who planted the seed."
Meanwhile, Audrey, who was outside, began yelling. "Ted!"
The Once-ler laughed nervously. "Hold on." He pressed a lever that brought Ted inside and then made it grab Audrey. Of coarse, she approached the window screaming. Ted ran over to her and told her to calm down as the claw dropped her onto the floor.
"Way to make a first impression." The Lorax said sarcastically. Audrey ran over to Ted and looked at the Once-ler. "Who are you?"
The Once-ler sighed. "For the sixtieth time, I am the Once-ler."
Audrey looked puzzled. "How? The Once-ler was in his twenties fifty years ago."
The Lorax jumped up on top of the bed and waved his arms around. "Hello! No one noticed the magical talking fuzzy guy?"
Ted's eyes widened and he finally understood. "Oh! That's the Lorax! Wow!" Ted had told Audrey about him too, so no one needed to introduce him to her.
The Once-ler invited them downstairs for some Sandwiches and lemonade, which he whipped up pretty quickly, and they sat in a table for four. The Once-ler came into the dining room with a plate of sandwiches in one hand.
"Sorry about the simplicity, but it was the only thing I had. And marshmallows, but that's not a real meal." He set the plate on the table and the three guests grabbed them eagerly. The Once-ler chuckled. "Do you guys get fed back at home?"
As they ate, the kids told the Once-ler about how the town was after he had exiled himself. The Once-ler found it hilarious when the mentioned the bottled air.
"So, how is that suppose to work? You might only have a few breaths of air before it runs out! Why did he think that anyone would buy that stuff?"
Ted laughed. "I have no idea, but people are much happier with the fact that the trees will make free air." Then a serious expression grew over his face. "Speaking of the politics, now that our mayor is gone, we need a new one, and people wanted me there, but I'm only twelve."
He paused. "And they said I could pick someone who would lead the town the best, and that's why I came over here."
The Once-ler stared at him blankly. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. "No. No, no, no, no. Uh-uh. There is no way those people would accept me again! I mean, what am I suppose to say? 'Hey, I'm the Once-ler. You know, that guy that killed all these trees to make Thneeds'? Do you think I would get much supporters?"
Ted sighed. "You have a point."
Then, Audrey spoke up. "Well, what if we changed your identity?"
The Once-ler gave her a look. "Do what?"
"Change your identity." She repeated. "You know, change your name, your birthdate and stuff."
She turned her attention to the Lorax who was busily stuffing himself with sandwiches. "How old did you make him?" She asked.
With a mouthful, the Lorax replied, "I made him nineteen years old. The age he was when we met."
The Once-ler's eyes widened and he paused in mid chew. He swallowed. "Nineteen? He repeated in disbelief. I'm nineteen?"
The Lorax rolled his eyes. "Well, duh, what else do you think I said?"
"Ok." Ted inturupted. "So will you do it? Or not?"
The Once-ler thought for a second and then nodded. "I will."
After Ted and Audrey left, the Lorax and the Once-ler busied themselves cleaning the table. They carried the matching blue plates and cups to the sink and had to make a few trips to get all of them.
"How many sandwiches did we eat?" asked the Lorax in a joking manner while washing the dishes. The Once-ler, who was using a small thneed as a dish towel, laughed.
"We? I think you consumed two full plates all on your own."
The Lorax smiled sheepishly. "No, actually, I ate three."
The Once-ler stared at him for a moment before he spoke again. "Seriously, am I going to go broke in a few months just by grocery expenses?"
The Lorax looked puzzled. "How in the world did you get groceries?"
The Once-ler sighed loudly. "I didn't have to, I lived off of food storage since I was only feeding one person. But that's soon going to go out, and the process would speed up if it's like I'm feeding four people for every meal!"
The Lorax raised one of his bushy eyebrows. "Don't you still have all that money? I don't remember anyone suing you. But they should have." He added the last sentence quietly.
The Once-ler sat in one of the chairs at the table and put his head in his hands. "No, I wasn't sued. My family took all of it and left me…" He paused. "They basically left me for dead."
He quickly sat up. "But that's alright, I guess. Because when they left, they threw the birth certificate out of the car window, and I found out that I was adopted." He chuckled sheepishly. Changing the subject, he added, "So, what have you been doing all these years?"
The Lorax shrugged. "I don't know. Visited this place called lake Erie, and they got a little better, and all these other places like the Amazon Rainforest. They are still cutting down that one. It was easier going against one company than going against a whole government." He groaned. "And those weren't the only two places that had problems unfortunately." He looked at the Once-ler. "And occasionally I'd check up on you, but you'd always be moping around, mostly by your window. And one time you yelled at your cereal."
The Once-ler raised one eyebrow. "When did I do that?" The Lorax chuckled at the memory. "About five years after your fall."
The Once-ler opened his mouth to protest, but he closed it, remembering the incident. "Right, yeah, I got kind of lonely and I wasn't used to it at first. I think I also beat up a broom and buried it outside."
The Lorax stared at him uncomfortably. "I'm not gonna end up getting eated or anything am I?"
The Once-ler slapped his hand to his face. "No fuzzy, your not. After I realized that someone else still cared about trees, I kind of got my head back in order."
The Lorax looked relieved, and then he jumped down from the counter top. He walked over to door.
"What are you doing?" Asked the Once-ler as he stood up from his chair.
The Lorax turned the handle. "We need to go into town, get you some modern clothes, and go to Ted's house so we can start working on your new identity."
The Once-ler looked offended. "Modern clothes?" He repeated. "Are you calling me old fashioned?"
Ignoring him, the Lorax stepped outside and picked up an old bike.
The Once-ler stood by the door and watched as the Lorax scrambled around, finding random objects and attaching them to the bike. The Once-ler gasped as the Lorax turned the bike into a motorcycle with a small seat in the back that you could fit a pet or a small child in. The Lorax jumped up and sat in it.
"Close your mouth beanpole, and lets go to Ted's!"
Realizing that his mouth was gaping, the Once-ler closed it and walked over to the Lorax. "That's a fine idea, but we have one problem. How are we suppose to go to his house, if we don't know where he lives?"
The Lorax chuckled. "You don't, but I do. Just drive into town and I'll tell you where to go from there."
Sure enough, once they got through the entrance of the town, the Lorax began directing like a GPS. The Once-ler felt a little uncomfortable by the people on the highway who would occasionally stare at him for a long time. The Lorax caught his eye.
"Hey, don't worry. Some of these people weren't even born before your fall."
When they drove up to Ted's house, Ted, his mom, and his granny walked outside. Ted looked confused.
"How did you-"
"It's the Once-ler!" He was cut off by his granny.
The Once-ler held his finger to his lips. "Shh! I don't need a mob of people trying to kill me!"
Granny chuckled. "Don't worry, everybody's mad at Mr. Ohare right now. They wont lay a finger on you."
The Lorax jumped out of the motorcycle and stepped forward to stand next to the Once-ler. "Ok, we are here to get this guy a new identity. Ted wants him to become the next mayor, and we all share the same concern, that no one would accept him after what he had done. So, lets break out the food, and some good name ideas and change this guy!"
He walked past the family and into the house. The Once-ler began to follow. Turning to Ted's mom, he added,
"By the way, you don't have to get any food. Honestly."
Ted's mom laughed. "But he's so cute! Could I get him just a little snack?"
The Once-ler sighed. "Alright, go ahead. But you'll regret it. Trust me."
Turns out, her idea of a 'little snack' was two huge trays of cookies. The Lorax watched how many cookies he ate as they sat around the table coming up with names.
Curious, Ted's mom asked, "So, Mr. Once-ler, how old are you now after you've been changed?"
The Once-ler looked up from the paper he was using to jot names down. "Nineteen."
Ted's mom's eyes widened and she nodded quickly. "Yeah, we should stop calling you Mr. Once-ler."
After a few names were called out and rejected, Ted read his last one.
"I'm just joking around, but Bob."
Everyone at the table laughed except the Lorax.
"Actually, how about Robert." The Once-ler thought for a moment tapping his pencil to his chin. "I do kind of like that name."
Ted's mom turned the paper over. "Ok, now the hard part. Last names!"
After about an hour of random, and some bizarre names being called out, Harrison was the one chosen and Ted and his Granny were on their way to the store to buy new clothes for 'Robert'.
