Memories of the Dance We Shared

A Goofy Movie Fanfic

By Auburn Red

Chapter Two: Goofy and Max: What Hurts the Most

Max laid in his bedroom a sobbing heap, not wanting to talk to either his father or his daughter when they entered. Every time, he would wipe his tears with the pillow, the accident came to his mind, the lights, the voices especially his mother's "Maximilian, I am trying to watch the road!", the force of his body as he hit the driver's seat all came flooding back to him. Then his lip would quiver and he would cry again.

Trixie tip toed into her father's old bedroom. "Are you okay, Daddy?" she asked.

"I'm fine, Trixie," Max said softly.

Trixie was about to exit the room when she looked at her Daddy lying in a heap on the bed, his back turned to her. He didn't look like her father at all. He looked weird! She crept to her Daddy and climbed on the bed. She then wrapped her arms around her father and kissed him on the cheek since that's what he and her Mommy always did to help her feel better. "Will this make you feel better, Daddy?"

Max couldn't respond to his daughter except to say, "Thank you, Trix. Can you go on please? I want to be alone for a little while okay?" How could this sweet little girl ever trust him? How could Max ever trust himself with her, knowing what he knew now? He didn't deserve to have Trixie in his life.

"I love you Daddy," Trixie whispered.

She waited a moment before her father answered, "I love you too, Trixie." She waited for her father to say "to the moon and back" like he always did. But when he didn't, Trixie sadly turned from the bed and walked out the door.

As his bedroom door closed behind him, a sickening realization swept over Max: Trixie's three-years-old, the same age I was when she died! And Roxanne isn't here what if-?" Panic filled Max's entire body as he reached for his smart phone and hit his wife's contact number. What if something happened to Roxanne? Would he be able to take care of his daughter alone? Wasn't this what he would have deserved? If his mother couldn't remain in his life, what made him think that his wife would?

Roxanne's phone rang three times and Max hoped beyond all hope that his wife would pick it up. "Max," he sighed with relief as he heard her sweet voice, so light and fun loving. She was clearly having a good time at the wedding unaware of her husband's emotional state.

Max just listened in silence until her voice called his name. "Max, are you still there?"

He hesitated, feeling ashamed for having called her. "Hi Rox, how is it going?" He said trying to sound casual, but inside he was desperate.

"It's been going great," Roxanne said. "Jill and Luke are such a sweet couple! The reception was hilarious. You should have seen Daddy dance with Uncle Ed and Aunt Lilly-"

She was about to continue with the story when she could hear an almost strangled sound coming from her husband's voice, somewhere between a gasp and a sob. "Max, what's wrong? Is Trixie alright?"

"Yeah she's fine," Max said softly as he continued to shake.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

No, Max wanted to say, I'm not! Please don't ever leave me! Instead he tried to keep his feelings inside as much as he could. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said as his voice quivered. "I'm um, just wanted to see if you were okay and everything is alright-"

"-its okay," Roxanne said seriously sounding concerned. "But it's clearly not with you. What's going on? You're scaring me. Do you want me to come home?"

More than anything, Max thought, but he tried to keep his strength up, tried to deny this feeling was anything but a knee-jerk reaction to his discovery of his mother's death: "No, don't. I'll be fine. We're doing okay, you know us Goofs. We fall down and get up again. I think we fall down, just so we can get up again!"

Roxanne didn't sound convinced and thoroughly confused and Max didn't blame her. "Is there anything I can do?"

Do you have a time machine so I can go back in time and stop myself from killing my mother? Max wanted to sarcastically ask, otherwise no. "No, I'm fine, Rox, really fine. I just wanted to hear your voice. Look, Babe, I have to go."

"Alright," Roxanne said. "I love you."

"You too," Max agreed as he hung up the phone. He no sooner set aside his smart phone than his lip quivered and he sobbed again, flinging himself on the bed.

It was later that evening when Goofy opened the door to his son's bedroom. "Don't you ever knock?" Max said hoarsely all derision, life, or energy gone from his voice. Instead it sounded dead and hollow.

"I think under the circumstantial, I decided to forget all nice teas," Goofy said purposely using the wrong words so his son could correct him or roll his eyes and say something like, "Come on, Dad." In other words so that Max could act normal again.

Goofy gently sat down on the bed across from his adult son. He rubbed his back but Max didn't turn around. There was something lost and gone from his son. Didn't that feller from Hanna-Barbara, Yogi Bear say something about "déjà vu all over again?" (Maybe it was Snaggle Tooth or Huckleberry Hound). But whoever said it, Goofy remembered that he had reacted the same way after his wife died. He just couldn't fathom why Max was acting this way. He didn't understand what had happened up in that attic that caused Max to fall into such despair. "Are you okay, Maxie?" he asked.

Max didn't answer his father's question. "How's Trixie doing? She must have been scared to death."

"She's okay," Goofy said. "She's asleep in the guest room and yeah she was pretty scared. Do you mind telling me why she was scared or why my daughter-in-law just texted me asking what was going on with her husband?"

Max winced with guilt, but he couldn't say anything, so Goofy asked. "Max, you know you can tell me anything and that whatever it is, I will understand."

Max shook his head feeling like he was a kid again asking for forgiveness for some horrible prank that he had been caught committing. "I can't," Max said. "You'd hate me!"

"I could never hate you, Max," Goofy wrapped his arms around his son. "Max, I can't help you if you don't let me."

Max nodded and sat up. "While I was in the attic-which I found my birth certificate by the way-I found some things-"

"-What kind of things?" Goofy asked.

"Well some photos-"Max began.

Goofy cleared his throat embarrassed. "Well, Max, it was at your Uncle Mickey's bachelor party and your Uncles Mickey and Donald and me got really really drunk and we-"

"What?" Max started-no doubt Goofy didn't really think that this was really why Max was this hysterical, whatever it was that those old guys got up to. He was probably trying to make his son laugh or purposely annoying him. "No, I meant I saw some pictures of Mom."

Goofy nodded understanding sort of. "Well I see," Goofy said. "You were so little and it's hard to see her again-"Wouldn't Max be more sad and wistful, not hysterical? Something told Goofy that it was more than seeing photos of his late mother that gave Max this reaction.

Max shook his head. "That's not all. I also saw this." Max showed his father the photograph of the wrecked car and the caption.

Goofy blanched at seeing the photo the memories of his wife's accident filled him once more. Damn Bureau Crazy, he thought angrily to himself, to tell me to keep the accident information for my personal records and damn me for forgetting to throw it out so Max would never find it.

He remembered that awful day. It never left his mind. He remembered kissing Penny good-bye in the rain as she was about to leave to get some things at the store including a new pair of shoes for Max.

A clap of thunder hit as Goofy hugged his toddler son and kissed his wife good-bye.

Penny went over the list out loud. "So the shoes, milk, eggs, bread, fabric softener-"

"-Mommy can we go now?" Max said jumping up and down on his feet excited, Old Stuffed Bear in his arms as always.

Goofy and Penny laughed and rolled their eyes, exasperated and amused at their little one's antics. "-Cereal. I guess that's it," she said. "We'd better go."

"Dinner will be ready by the time you get back," Goofy promised.

"Is it going to be good?" Penny asked.

Goofy shrugged. "Well you may want to get the fire extinguisher, you know just in case."

Penny gently tapped her husband on the shoulder. "I'm sure it will be wonderful, you silly goof."

"Mommy, let's go," Max demanded again.

"In a minute, Max," Penny said. She turned towards the car and waved good-bye.

"Drive safely," Goofy said.

"I will," Penny said. "I love you."

"I love you too," Goofy said as she held Max's hand and the two entered the car. Goofy chuckled to himself as his wife made a wide U-turn out of the driveway and onto the road barely missing the mailbox as she drove past. He shook his head amused. "She made it!" He chuckled. "And they say I'm a bad driver."

Goofy wasn't too worried about them until four hours had gone by and neither his wife nor his son had returned. Goofy looked out the window at the evening sky. What could be keeping them? Maybe Penny had run into Minnie or Daisy on the way home and the three had one of their gab sessions. While he knew that the girls were still uncomfortable around Penny, for their own reasons, they were fairly good acquaintances. Maybe that was the reason or maybe Penny had forgotten something else and went back to get it. Goofy opened the pan that held the chicken. Already, the food was getting cold. He placed the lid back on top of the chicken and sat down on the chair, lowering his brow in worry.

The phone broke into his thoughts. The house was so silent, that Goofy had jumped about a mile. Goofy was so lost in thought and concern that he didn't realize that another hour had gone by before he heard the phone ring. Five hours since Penny and Max had gone. He reached over and answered the phone. "Hello, Goof residence. This is Goofy speaking, ahyuck," he called out jovially.

"Mr. Goof," an official voice that Goofy didn't know answered. Goofy listened as the police officer, a Det. Lucky Piquel (a gruff voice that sounded to Goofy a bit like Pete), informed Goofy that there had been an accident. Goofy sank back down on a chair with a lost stunned expression on his face as Piquel told Goofy the news that had made his world collapse in on itself.

Det. Piquel, who even looked sort of like a human version of Pete, showed Goofy the body that had once been his wife. Goofy blinked back tears as he nodded seeing the beautiful red hair that he used to put his fingers through, the lovely mouth that always

laughed at his antics or called him "George" when she was serious or "Silly Goof" when she teased, those big eyes that showed an enthusiasm to observe everyone and everything around her, and those white hands that seemed so small compared to Goofy's huge ones. All of those things disappeared from the corpse that lay in the morgue.

Goofy asked Piquel where his son was and the police officer informed him that the boy was alive in St. Nowhere General Hospital in Toon Town. Goofy practically flew into the hospital to locate his child. His sighed with weary relief as he saw his son wide-awake in the hospital room. His nose and face were somewhat bruised and the boy sat up listless and tired, but he was alive. Goofy cried partly in grief for his wife and partly in relief for his son as he held Max tightly and listened as the doctor informed him that his son sustained a concussion from the accident and would need medical attention for the next few days.

"I was in the car with her wasn't I?" Max asked returning his father to the present. "The report said that there were two occupants in the car. The other one was me."

"What makes you think that, Maxie?" Goofy asked.

"But it's true isn't it?" Max asked. Even before he answered, Goofy looked at his father's stricken face and knew that it was.

"Was there any investigation into her death-?" Max asked. "I mean she hit another car or the other car hit her-"

Goofy shook his head. "No, there wasn't. The police said that your Mama and the other car swerved at the same time and that it was just an accident." The drivers of both cars had died and no one had the heart to press charges or investigate further. In a way Goofy was fine with that. He was so filled with grief and sorrow for his wife's death, and anxiety for his son's health in the days following the accident, perhaps there was no room in his heart for anger or hatred towards the circumstances causing it. "Why are you asking this?"

"After I found the report and Mom's death certificate, I started remembering things," Max said. "Things like lights and voices and other things-That wasn't how I remembered it before. I just remember waving good-bye at her and then you telling me-! Why am I remembering it like this now? Why didn't you ever tell me that I was with her?! Why didn't you ever tell me that I-!"

Goofy shook his head, "You didn't remember and I didn't want to force you to so I thought that maybe it was better if you didn't. Besides if you couldn't remember, I couldn't forget."

Those days after Penny's death were like a nightmare that played in a continuous loop.

At the funeral, all of Goofy and Penny's friends offered condolences but Goofy could barely hear them. He gave the eulogy when he talked about how much he loved Penny and how he wished he could have had more time with her and even quoted from some of the essays that Penny wrote. Except for the eulogy, he didn't say anything else just held his son close to him.

For many days afterward, Goofy just shut himself down. He didn't go outside his home, talk to anyone, or pay attention to anything. The shades were drawn and no light came inside. Instead he just walked around his house in a mindless fog, unable to even commit to the most basic of his daily activities such as eating or dressing. At night he would lie alone in a bed that was made for two, crying himself to sleep and dreaming of a woman that he would never see in this world again.

Practically, he knew that he had to get back to life again. Bills had already begun to pile up, some already with mean red "Past Due" letters. The mortgage on the house had yet to be fully paid and things were bound to get financially worse now that the sole breadwinner was gone. Goofy would have to find a job and soon. But he could not yet find it in his heart to think about any of this. He couldn't think about tomorrow or next week. All he could think of was this moment and that his one true love had danced out of his life forever.

If it weren't for Max, Goofy was almost sure that he would have contemplated suicide just so his grief could end and he could be with Penny. But Max was still in delicate health from the concussion, so Goofy continued to take care of his son. He rubbed the boy's wrists, ankles, and temples, gave him medicine for his headaches, and monitored him for any changes in his health. He checked his eyes to see if the pupils were different sizes, gently roused him when the boy was asleep to make sure that he could be awakened, and kept him from any physical and mental activities that would have been too straining. (He really didn't want Max to go to the funeral at all for that reason,

but he was so clingy wanting to be near his father at all times. Besides, Goofy was worried about the stress that the boy would have if he were in the house with a sitter. Goofy allowed the boy to come, but he just kept him by his side.) Because Max was so ill, Goofy wasn't sure how much he understood about his mother dying. He just seemed to take his father's announcement with a quiet exhausted acceptance.

As he contributed to care for his son, Goofy gave a silent prayer hoping that God wouldn't be so cruel to take his son shortly after taking his wife. During this time, Goofy's life only boiled down to two emotions: grief for his wife and anxiety for his son. Nothing else remained.

Goofy probably would have remained in this black hole of depression if Donald and Mickey hadn't shown up almost two weeks later encouraging him to hang out with them.

"I was thinking we could have a Guys Day Out what do ya say fella?" Mickey asked in his famous high voice.

Goofy sighed, his voice more robotic. "No thanks. I just don't much feel like it. I still can't leave Max alone."

"-I thought you said he's getting better," Donald said suspiciously.

Goofy nodded. The only time he left the house in nearly two weeks was for a checkup on Max's condition. The doctor said that he had recovered from the concussion and had passed through the worst of it. "He is," Goofy said. "I just don't know if I can leave him alone just now-"

"-Ah come on," Mickey encouraged. "Daisy and Minnie said that they'll watch him. They're going to bring Pluto. You know how crazy Max is about him. It's such a nice day." He nodded at the sunshine and the warm weather. The kind of day that Goofy would have been out in, with his wife and son. Looking at the sun made Goofy angry. How dare the sun be out, he thought bitterly. It would make more sense if it were raining and gloomy. Mickey continued encouraging his friend. "You and Max shouldn't be cooped up in the house all by yourselves. It might do you some good to go outside for a little while."

"I just don't want to alright?" Goofy said in a tone that his friends weren't used to hearing from their normally klutzy, mellow, happy-go-lucky friend. Instead it sounded bitter, angry, hurt. It wasn't just that Goofy didn't feel ready to go out yet, but he certainly didn't feel like going out with Mickey and Donald.

Goofy was about to slam the door on their faces but Mickey's hand and Donald's foot barred the door from closing. "Listen, Goofy," Mickey said. "We're really worried about you. We're your friends and we want to help you. I understand what you're going through."

"No you don't," Goofy declared. "You don't understand nothing about what I'm feeling right now!"

"Goofy, if something ever happened to Minnie I'd-!" Mickey began but Goofy held up his hand to interrupt him.

"-But nothing did," Goofy said. That was the truth. He couldn't stand to be with Mickey and Donald knowing that they still had Minnie and Daisy. "Don't tell me you understand what it's like to see that book she was reading lying on the couch and waiting for her to turn the pages! Don't tell me you know what it's like holding her clothes to your face just so you can smell her perfume again! Don't tell me that you understand wanting to touch her hand, or feel her lie next to you, or kiss her-"Goofy couldn't continue, because he was so overcome. He continued angry and sad at the same time. "Half of my life has been ripped out and yours are still here!"

"So are you," Donald said firmly. Goofy looked closely at his bad tempered friend. Donald folded his arms and looked straight at Goofy. "You're still here! Penny died, not you!"

Goofy's body shook with grief and ire. He actually wanted to punch Donald for saying that. To his credit, Mickey glared at his friend. "Donald!" He corrected but then he spoke a bit more evenly. "What Donald meant but could have said nicely was-"

"-Don't speak for me," Donald held up his hand and walked towards Goofy. "You're right. We don't know how you feel and I really hope Mickey and I never do! But I also

hope that if I ever lost Daisy and I had someone who depends on me as much as Max does you, that I would at least make an effort! You lost your wife, but you also have a son and he needs you and he needs you to show him that it's okay to live again!"

While Goofy didn't exactly leap up with determination after hearing Donald's speech, he did agree to go with them if nothing else because he knew that the two wouldn't leave him alone until he did. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy had lunch and took in a park softball game. Goofy didn't say much, just listened to his friends talk about some of the things that had happened during his depression. He nodded barely listening, and still felt weighed down by his loss. He supposed at least Donald and Mickey were relieved that he was outside.

Suddenly a miracle happened or what at the time felt like a miracle. A passer-by accidentally dropped his ice cream cone on Donald's lap and the duck yelled, "Hey what's the big idea?"

The other person a very large man towered over Donald and sneered. "What are you gonna do about it, see?"

"Why you doggone little I-!"" Donald threatened him the way he always did and Mickey had to drag his friend away.

"Sorry about that Goof," Mickey said. "Some things never change."

Goofy thought about his friend's anger and how it was predictable almost comforting in a strange way that Donald had fallen into such a familiar pattern. Remembering his friend's constant outbursts reminded Goofy of the many times when he and Mickey had to pull him out of a scrape or a fight. Goofy's mouth slightly rose at the flashback and he started to smile.

Then the miracle occurred: Goofy began to laugh. Mickey started to hear his friend's laugh and even Donald stopped his angry tirade when Goofy added his "ahyuck."

The friends smiled as Goofy laughed and laughed. In fact the laugh was so long, that he began to feel sick so he wandered to the men's room.

He stood in front of the sink trying to keep from laughing but it didn't work. He laughed as tears fell down his face. He then began to cry. It wasn't the same crying that he had been doing for the past week and a half, the tears of despair and grief. These instead were the tears of release and letting go. He washed his face in the sink and smiled at his reflection. He knew that he would miss Penny forever, but he also knew that he had a life to get back to, a job to look for, and a child that he needed to be strong for: all good reasons to leave his grief behind.

When he emerged from the men's room, Mickey and Donald smiled relieved to see their friend's wide grin return. He walked over to his pals, tripping into a park bench and summersaulting on the ground towards them yelling "Yahahahoeyy!"

"Yep Goofy's back," Mickey said as Donald nodded in agreement.

The first thing that Goofy did when Mickey and Donald brought Goofy home was to open the shades and let light back into the house. He was pleased to see Max running happily up to his father and giving him a big hug. He listened to Minnie's report that he had been good and waved at the ladies as they left with their boyfriends and Pluto.

"Maxie," Goofy said. "How would you feel about going on a picnic with me?"

"Okay," the boy called happily.

The father and son spent the day together laughing and having a good time. Goofy pushed his son on the swing and spun around on a merry-go-round. The two slid down a slide that was really much too big for Goofy to be on. They had a nice lunch and went home. Goofy smiled glad to see his son return full of life and glad that he himself was. He did a good job of making the boy forget his grief for a little while.

Later that night Max skipped to his bedroom window and sat next to it. "What'cha looking out for there, Maxie?" Goofy asked his son.

"I'm waiting for Mommy so I can see her when she's coming home," Max said.

Goofy's heart sank. Maybe he did too good a job at helping his son forget his grief.

The doctors told him that because of the concussion the boy would have amnesia for a while afterwards and would forget the traumatic events including his mother's death. "He may even ask about his mother again, so you will have to tell him."

Goofy sat next to his son's side unprepared for what to tell him. "Max, your Mommy ain't coming home again."

Max looked stricken. "Why, doesn't she love me?"

"Aww, Maxie, she loved you more than her shoes," Goofy said to his son. "But she can't come home. She has to go live up there among the stars now."

"How'd she get there?" Max asked.

"Well that's what happens when people die," Goofy said.

"But I want her here," Max said crying. Goofy held his son tightly to his chest feeling like he had lost his wife for the second time in almost two weeks.

"I know, son, so do I," Goofy said. "But she can't be here with us."

"So if she can't be here, can I go with her?" Max asked. "If I make myself die, I can go live in the stars and be with Mommy."

"No," Goofy said that with such force that Max drew back in fear. Goofy shook his son hard and looked at him in the eyes. "Max, no! Promise me you'll never say that or think it ever again!"

Max gulped and sobbed. "But I want to be with Mommy."

"I know you do, son," Goofy said. "But I need you here with me. I'm awful lonesome without your Mommy and I'd be even more awful lonesome without you!"

Max looked downward. "I guess I can stay down here to be with you Daddy, so you won't be lonesome," Goofy hugged his son tightly as they cried together.

Max listened to his father's account of the time after his mother's death. "That's how I remembered it before. You telling me that you needed me here so I couldn't go live in the stars with Mom. But for a while there, I did remember the funeral but I always thought that it was after that."

Goofy nodded. "The doctors said that because of the concussion you may not remember the sequins ordering things and you wouldn't be sure what order things had happened."

It took a moment of confusion before Max realized his father was saying "the sequential order of things." He decided not to correct him.

Goofy wiped a tear from his eye. "I guess I haven't always been very good at keeping that promise about staying with you so you wouldn't be lonesome." Max said remembering their many arguments, Max's embarrassment at being compared to his Dad, and his outbursts at him including the one where he told his father to get his own life.

"You did, Max, you always did," Goofy said hugging his son tightly.

"I don't understand," Max said hoarsely. "Why did it happen to her and from a car accident? You've survived worse things! We've fallen down a waterfall; you've hit many things with your car! Hell, I think you fell from the Grand Canyon once and that's not the worst of it! How many of the House of Mouse guests talk about the many things that they survived from! Why them and not her? Why did we walk away and she didn't?!"

Goofy shook his head. "I don't know, Max, I really don't know! But it does happen and you know that!" Max nodded remembering that sometimes the guests talked about their parents or other relatives that had died. Sometimes Max shared in the conversation, so he knew that death was not unheard of for people like them and despite what many thought, was not reduced to only one or two ways to cause it. Mother's Day in particular could be a depressing time at the club and Max recalled many a time when a guest would cry into his or her cups recalling their late mother or father. Of course he knew that his dad and Uncle Mickey and Donald were orphans as well and that Minnie and Daisy had lost their parents as well though they were much older than the guys when it happened.

"She would have walked away if she hadn't been in the car," Max declared. "She would have walked away if I hadn't been with her and-!""

Goofy shook his son by the shoulders. "Max, don't be silly! You being in the car had nothing to do with it!"

"All for a stupid pair of shoes and a dumb bear and she was on the road," Max said angrily.

Goofy didn't know what Max meant by a "dumb bear" but he continued to reassure his son figuring that Max was blaming himself because his mother had to go out shopping for him. "Don't talk that way Maxie, it just happened. It could have been for any number of reasons that she was out on a day like that. You had nothing to do with her being out there."

"I had everything to do with her car hitting the other car!" Max shouted.

Goofy looked at his son in silence as Max continued to speak, his voice choked by his tears. "I'm starting to remember being in the car with her. I remember calling out to her, 'Mommy look at me,' trying to get her attention because God forbid she look at anything else but me! I don't know maybe she spent so much time at work that I missed her or maybe I was just a spoiled selfish brat, I don't know! So I waved my arms and Old Stuffed Bear fell onto the floor! I tried to pick him up but I couldn't reach him-damn Child Seat-and I asked Mommy to get Old Stuffed Bear for me. She looked back at me and yelled, 'Maximilian, I am trying to watch the road!' She looked at me instead of the road and then there were the bright lights!" Max gave a bitter laugh through his tears. "Well, I got her attention alright."

Goofy rocked his son back and forth while the boy droned, "It's my fault. It's all my fault." Goofy kissed the top of his son's head. "Maxie, that's not true. It's okay."

"I should turn myself in," Max said. "Manslaughter isn't that what they call it?

When you cause someone to die but you don't intend to kill them?"

"Max," Goofy said trying to comfort his son. "It's not your fault. Don't do this to yourself!"

"Why the fuck not?" Max practically shouted. "I probably didn't intend to kill her, but then again maybe I did! Maybe I was a rotten little sociopath who deserved to lose his mother-"

That was as far as he got when Goofy slapped his son hard. "Max, stop it! You were just a little boy. Nobody would blame you! I don't blame you!"

"You can't possibly forgive me for this," Max said to his father.

"No," Goofy said. "Because there ain't anything to forgive. What happened to your mother was just an accident, a bad luck accident. It is no one's fault least of all yours! You need to forgive yourself!"

"I don't know if I can," Max said sadly. "All this time I always hated that I never really knew her or anything about her. I could barely see her face and sort of hear her voice, but it's like she was far away or in a fog. Now I know I'm the reason for that fog. Now, my only real memory was how much of a brat I was to her and how she yelled at me and then nothing. I'm the reason that I don't know her and that I never will."

Max lowered his head as Goofy held his son by the shoulder and hugged him again.

Goofy silently entered his bedroom. He waited until Max had cried himself to sleep. Listening to the boy's tirade reopened the wounds of Penny's death and now it was Max not he who was dealing with the grief. Goofy sighed. 27 years and the grief of losing Penny was sometimes still naked and raw as it was the day that he received the phone call.

How could he help his son? He truly didn't hold Penny's death against his son; not at all nor more than he held it against Penny, or the other driver, or the rain or anything. The circumstances weren't relevant. Penny died. End of story.

Goofy knew that besides blame, Max regretted that he never knew his mother, barely had a relationship with her. Maybe the young man had told himself many times that it didn't matter, that he couldn't miss her. Maybe even fooled himself into thinking that he was alright without her. Now, remembering her death also brought back the abandonment that Max felt and the unanswered questions about his mother.

Goofy thought for a minute then snapped his fingers as something came to him. He opened his closet and tensed as he waited for his clothes and other items to fall out. When they stayed put, he shrugged and managed to feel his way through the mess inside. Smiling thinly, he pulled out what he had been looking for: a white box with green ribbons and the name 'Penny' lovingly written in glitter though the "n" and "y" had long faded with time. He paid no attention as he took the box out of the closet and the other things fell on the floor behind him.

Goofy hesitated feeling a stab in his heart as he opened the box. He felt a sense of sadness and longing as he fingered the items inside the box, but he knew that he wanted Max to see it. Goofy knew that it was time that Max should meet his mother.

Max didn't say much the next morning. He just ate soup silently even as his daughter chatted amiably. As he ate his soup, he looked downward his hand on his forehead as he stirred the letters thoughtfully. He dipped the spoon into the bowl and out. "Daddy, can we go to the park later?" She asked.

Max sighed. "I don't know Trixie," he said softly. How could his little girl still love him? How could anyone? "I don't think so."

"But you said-," Trixie pouted crossing her arms. Max recognized that look and that voice and knew a first class argument was about to begin from the little girl.

"Never mind what I said," Max half-shouted. "I said, I don't know!"

Trixie looked distraught as her eyes filled. Max instantly felt remorse at snapping at her. It wasn't her fault. "I'm sorry, Trix," Max said. "Come here." He held out his arms and Trixie fell into her father's embrace.

Max lifted Trixie onto his lap. "Come on. That's a big girl. You're getting to be a handful." He said as he kissed her on the cheek. "Enjoying your 'Hi Dad' soup?"

Trixie looked confused. "What's that?"

Max smiled. "When I was little, I used to spell out words in alphabet soup like 'Hi Dad,' so Grandpa and I used to call it 'Hi Dad Soup.' "

"Like what?" Trixie asked.

"Well, 'Hi Dad' that's a given," Max said. "I also spelled 'Maxie,' 'ahyuck,' 'Bye bye,'

and 'I love you.' "He said the last words with a kiss on his daughter's forehead.

"Can you show me?" Trixie asked.

Max arranged some of the letters in his daughter's bowl. Trixie spelled them out loud carefully. ' H-I-T-R-I-X-I-E', Hi Trixie!"

"That's right," Max said.

"My turn," Trixie said. She then spelled out some words on her own in her bowl. Max read: "I luv Dady".

Max smiled and said. "I love you too, Trixie."

"To the moon and back?" Trixie asked.

"To the moon and back," Max agreed.

Goofy ambled downstairs grinning at his son and granddaughter. "Hi you two." He said.

"Hi Dad," Max said.

Trixie smiled and tried to fit the soup letters on her spoon but some of them didn't work. "Daddy they won't fit," she said.

Max smiled and arranged some words on his spoon. "Grandpa, we got something to show you," Trixie called.

"What you gotta show me?" Goofy asked. He looked down at the words on both his son and granddaughter's spoons. On Trixie's spoon Goofy read: Hi Gra-"and Max's spoon finished: "-ndpa."

"Hi Maxie, Hi Trixie," Goofy said with a fond grin.

"Max, could you come upstairs for a minute," Goofy said. "I got something to show you."

"Sure," Max said.

Goofy glanced down at his granddaughter knowing that they may be up there awhile. "Trixie, you want to watch a movie?"

"Okay," Trixie asked. "Can I watch Zootopia and Big Hero 6?"

Goofy nodded. "Sure," he said remembering what Hiro, Nick, and Judy said

about the film versions of their stories. That they were mostly accurate, but some slight liberties were taken.

Curiously, Max followed his father to his old bedroom. On his bed lay a white box with green ribbons. Written on the top were the letters "P-E-N" and some faded letters in green glitter.

Max sat down next to the box touching it like it was a holy relic almost afraid to open it. "Is this about Mom?" He asked.

Goofy nodded. "After she passed on, I put some things of hers in here, some reminders, photos, a scrapbook, and some other things that reminded me of her."

"How come I never saw this before?" Max asked. He wasn't angry that his father never showed it before, just confused. "We moved a lot, I never saw you take it out."

"I moved it with a lot of my things," Goofy said. "I wanted to show it sooner, but every time I took it out well-I just felt-" Max understood. He felt grief every time he looked at it, so he never did. Maybe Goofy wanted to keep a part of his wife for himself.

"What's in here?" Max asked.

"Well you'll never know if you don't open it," Goofy encouraged.

Max opened up the box to see various items lay haphazardly inside the box. He first pulled out a green bow and ribbons. "Your Mama used to love green," Goofy said. "It was her favorite color. She wore it all the time, even when she wore other colors she always had a green ribbon in her hair or a pin."

"She must have loved St. Patrick's Day," Max said. Next Max pulled out a small paperback book of Modern Poetry. He opened the front cover and saw the index card holder revealing that it was a long past overdue library book. He read the table of contents recognizing some of the poets like W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Stevie Smith, H.D., ee cummings, Ezra Pound, and Dorothy Parker.

"She loved to read," Max said. "I would always find her with her nose in a book usually liked them old classics and poetry. She also liked to read the newspapers and find out everything she could about anything and kind of like to show off her knowledge a bit."

"That must have been annoying," Max said.

"Nah it became a game with us," Goofy said. "Whenever we were watching the news or something and like there'd be something say the politics of Thembria for example, she'd say 'Well things have been unstable since the war of 19 whenever and their leader, Col. Spigot, is a big tyrant and a dodo bird and has been since…' on and on. She'd have gotten a kick out of the Internet knowing that she could find out all of that information with just a click of one of Mickeys relatives."

Max smiled slightly as he took out a photo that showed Goofy dressed in a fancy blue

suit holding the hand of a woman in a long light green dress with a blue barrette tying her hair back. Her back was turned to the camera but Max could tell she was his mother.

"She was so beautiful and smart and had the most wonderful personality," Goofy said. "She probably could have had her pick of a hundred guys."

"And she chose you," Max quipped. "What was wrong with that woman?" Goofy glared at his son, but couldn't stop the smile coming to his face. He was glad to see his son's snarkiness returning, because that was a sign that he was going to be okay.

"I admit I asked myself that every single day," he said. "She always said that I made her laugh. She had the greatest laugh and I just loved to hear it. I would do things just because I knew she would laugh at them." He held up another photograph of Penny this time more casually dressed in a long green dress, her red hair down to her shoulders. Her mouth was open wide to show that she had been laughing at something.

Max then took out a ticket stub for a disco. "She used to love to dance almost as much as I did. We would dance the night away to ABBA, KC and the Sunshine Band, Earth, Wind, and Fire all the greats." Max didn't say anything, but the terms "great" and "disco music" were contradictions in terms in his mind. "She also loved romantic soft rock songs. I remember many a time where she would hold you and would sing something from Carole King, Carpenters, or Carly Simon or someone like that."

He showed his son a program for a Screwball Comedy Film Festival. Max looked at some of the titles, some of which he knew: It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, My Man Godfrey, Some Like It Hot, and others. "Your mother loved a good romance or comedy movie. The funnier the movie, the happier the ending the better she like it. Perhaps that's why she loved this big adorable goof you see here." He pointed at himself. "I'm just one big walking screwball!"

"No argument here," Max said dryly.

He then saw a blue ribbon from a Toon Town Elementary Field Day. "Your Mama told me when she was little that she was something of an athlete and used to love to run and play soccer," Goofy said fondly. "I didn't see that myself, because I guess her parents didn't really want her to get involved in sports or something. They thought it was unlady like or something. But she did like to jog and in the mornings or whenever she was upset about something she would go for a long walk or a run to clear her head."

Max looked down confused at the next picture. It featured a young girl, obviously Penny, but she was with two other girls that Max certainly recognized. "That's Aunt Minnie and Aunt Daisy."

Goofy nodded. "She was friends with them when they were little girls kind of like how I was friends with your Uncle Mickey and Uncle Donald."

Max was confused. "How? I mean they never said anything. They never talked about her that much. I always was under the impression that they didn't know her that well, that she was kind of a 'newbie' to your group." Max didn't elaborate but figured that his aunts and uncles behaved how many members of a tight circle of friends did: They liked her, but they didn't know her that well and just thought of her as "Goofy's wife" rather than a friend in her own right.

Goofy scratched his head. This always confused him as well, but he tried to explain it as best as he could. "I don't rightly know myself. But from what I understand, your Mama's parents didn't care much for Minnie and Daisy so they made her stop being friends with them."

"Why did her parents do that?" Max asked.

When Goofy spoke next, his voice was bitter. "I'm not really surprised that they did. Her folks were really rich and didn't approve of anyone who was not part of the hoi polli," He pronounced the term 'hi 'Polly.' "They didn't care for me very much neither. Didn't think I was good enough for her. They wanted me to stay away from her."

"What assholes," Max grumbled.

"Right, but your Mama was nothing like them," Goofy said. "She stuck to her principles no matter what. She really had a strong sense of fairness and what was right and wrong. She once said that she always felt guilty that when she was growing up, she had so much and others had so little, so she wanted to write and stand up for them."

"So she was a writer then," Max asked.

Goofy took out a small scrapbook and opened it. Max saw that a lock of his mother's red hair hung from one of the pages. He gently brushed against it. It felt smooth to the touch. Goofy pointed at the articles inside the scrapbook. Max looked at the titles and authorship, all written by Penny Goof. The articles had titles that spoke of things like union strikes, racism, and sexism, social programs to aid victims of homelessness and poverty, and other causes. Max read the first paragraph of one of them that spoke of a family that would soon be on the streets: "Ada wondered if her family's three story white house was haunted. 'I used to search the attics and closets for ghosts,' the six-year-old said. 'Now I wonder if the ghosts will be lonely without us' Now, it is Ada's family who will be haunting another location, because they are one of the many families soon to become homeless…."

"She was a news reporter, one of the best," Goofy said. "I used to cut out all her articles and put them in this little book. She had such a gift for writing and letting people live through her words. I remember she'd always been writing in her journal."

He snapped his fingers and reached down at the bottom of the box. "In fact, you might be interested in reading this." He pulled out a small burgundy leather bound book with gold lined pages. Max opened the cover which the inscription read: "My Journal By Penelope Pooch." Max also noticed that the "-nelope" later had been crossed out and an "ny" had been added to the top and that a hyphen and the name "Goof" had obviously been added later than the other words to her name.

"If you really want to know about your mother, maybe you ought to hear it from her," Goofy suggested.

Max opened the first page and read the opening line: "I just had to sneak out again."

Goofy nodded getting the feeling that his son needed some alone time with his mother, so he stood up. "I'll look in on Trixie," he offered.

Max nodded as he looked up from the book and leaned back on his bed. "Dad," Goofy turned to hear his son's voice. "Thanks." He said.

Goofy nodded. "You're welcome, Maxie." He then walked downstairs as Max opened the journal and began to read.

Author's Note

Det. Lucky Piquel from Bonkers has a cameo/guest appearance as the police officer who informs Goofy of Penny's death. Goofy's observation that he looks and sounds like Pete is a reference to the fact that they are both played by Jim Cummings.

Just to be clear, Penny died before Donald adopted the nephews, so Donald saying that he didn't have anyone to depend on him the way Goofy has Max was true at the time. I thought it was a nice bit of foreshadowing for Donald to say all of that, plus I can imagine Donald doing the more forceful "Bad Cop" routine trying to pull his friend out of his despair.

This is the second time that I have written a story in which a Jason Marsden character is filled with guilt and despair and confessing to a funny light-hearted absent minded character about his involvement in a death or near death to someone close to him. (In my Boy Meets World fic, "What it Takes" Eric Matthews' friend Jason Marsden confesses that he considered smothering his two young children with a pillow and committing suicide instead of leaving a homeless shelter and returning them to a life on the streets). Maybe the voice is really good to picture for dramatic dialogue. Maybe Marsden just has that guilty look about him.

Thembria and it's "tyrant complete dodo bird" of a leader, Col. Spigot are from Tale Spin. Considering that Tale Spin is set in the 1930s that's pretty amazing that Spigot has been the leader for so long! He's the Fidel Castro of animated dictators! :D