11
Horton was happy with the way things turned out. I, on the other hand, wasn't. What would the Cat say when he found out? He would pop in and out of my mind now, and when he returned, who knows what in Seuss he might say!
I sat alone in the middle of the grassy field where no one was anymore, just me and my Thinks - no, they weren't Thinks. They weren't. Frankly, I didn't get why the Cat wanted me to Think, anyway. Thinking wasn't like thinking. Lowercase-t-thinking was logical, formal, and orderly. Uppercase-T-Thinking was wild, unpredictable, and just overall not useful. Thinking never helped anyone, except maybe Dr. Seuss himself. But even Theodore didn't Think all the time. He wrote newspaper articles and war cartoons for, like, fifteen years. Look where it got him.
I reached into the file folder that was my mind and pulled out the file with my To-Do list. It was getting pretty long, and I hadn't crossed anything off yet.
To-Do:
-Get out of the Cat's body
-Keep Jojo in military school
-Get Jojo to not be so angry at me
-Switch Gertrude and Mayzie back
-Clip Mayzie's feathers
-Make sure to throw the clover into the patch
-Sing How Lucky You Are
-Get eggs and milk
I crossed off the last one in my mind. That didn't seem so important now.
The other ones were, though. It seemed like just too much for one person to handle, even if that person was the Cat. What I needed were helpers, workers if you please. I needed...
That's it!
A box. I had to find a large red box. With a hook on it. And a sort of a flap door. They would be in there.
But where might I be able to find such a box? Surely, there wasn't one around here. There wasn't much of anything around here, for that matter.
What was a Cat to do? I couldn't go too far from here or I'd never make it back to this exact spot again. The hat didn't have a back button. But I couldn't create things out of nothing. That was impossible.
Or was it?
He was back, but at this point, I didn't even care. I knew what I had needed to do to catch up with everything, and even though it would contradict everything I believed in before, I needed to do it.
So I sat down in the grassy field and took off my hat. Setting it next to me, I leaned back and took in a deep breath. It had been so long that I had almost forgotten how to Think. Almost.
There were two types of Thinks: singing Thinks and non-singing Thinks. Being the Cat now, I had decided that I was going to reestablish myself in singing Thinks. So, fudging with the words a little bit, I began to re-sing my little ditty to myself.
"Oh, the Thinks you can Think
Oh, the Thinks you can Think
When you need a few friends
Like a sock-wearing fox
Think up a big red box
Where the fun never ends
If you open your mind
Oh, the Thinks you will find
Popping out of thin air
Soon your great big red box
Will be right...
"There!" I finished, opening my eyes and sitting up. As my vision cleared of all the Thinks that I probably shouldn't have Thunk up, my red box was there, sitting about twenty feet away from me. It was about four feet tall and in a cube shape. And it had a flap door and a hook keeping the door closed, just like I had wanted. When I placed my hand (or paw, I guess) on it, I could feel it trembling with excitement. Slowly, I reached towards the hook, ready to unlock it-
"Hey! You!"
Startled, I whipped around to see a panting Mayzie staring at me. Apparently, she didn't make the connection that I was Dr Dake, because she was looking at me like she had never seen me before.
Mayzie, breathless from the chase, had her hands on her knees as she tried to recompose herself. "Have you seen my Horton, my big elephant?"
Her Horton? Horton was hers now? I didn't know that Horton was a possessive object.
"He just left with the clover. By the way, he is elegant."
Obviously angry that she and Horton kept crossing paths, Mayzie had a small fit. "Urgh! Why won't he notice me?! I see him through and through! If only, when I noticed him, he'd notice me too!" Then, sadly, she slumped into a heap of feathers on the ground.
Leaning on the big red box, I sighed. So this was what love was. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, life's hard for a bird. The struggles of love, when you just can't be heard."
"I know, right?! Life sucks when you're me!" Mayzie whimpered.
Knowing that obviously, things could be worse, I scoffed. "Girl, stop whining, you're as lucky as could be." But I did feel a little bad for Mayzie. It wasn't her fault that Horton didn't like her. It was mine. So, with a sigh, I walked away from my box and sat down next to the depressed bird-child. "It's taken all your courage to approach him, not to mention all your stamina to follow him across the hills and deserts but you feel as if you're ready to confess to him the feelings that you've hidden with great diligence and labor..."
Mayzie perked up a little bit at the chance to sing and immediately started to as well. "...behind the facade of his odd little next-door neighbor!" Then, pausing slightly, she looked around frantically. "Is there a guitar around here?"
Gertrude knew how to play guitar. Mayzie didn't. I guess that that was one more thing I needed to change. "There is now," I said to her, reaching into my hat and pulling out a vintage polished guitar. I swear to Geisel, that hat was like Mary Poppins' carpet bag or Hermione's rucksack or the TARDIS - bigger on the inside.
Handing the guitar to Mayzie, I began to back up towards the box.
Now, just open it up and get everything done!
Rolling my eyes as Mayzie began to strum, I tiptoed through the grass the fifteen or so feet to the box. Quietly, I reached for the hook and slipped it out, and the door started to fall open.
"My eyes are too small, I have very large feet," Mayzie sang to who knows who. "And I'm not very proud of my pitiful..." Then, to my surprise (and my ears' as well), she let out a loud screeching sound that seemed to vibrate my soul. "...TWEET!"
I could see a fairly friendly face poke out from a crack in the door and a whiz of blue hair.
"But I've now got a tail that is something to see..."
"One-hundred-one, one-hundred-two, one-hundred-three," I muttered to myself, counting the seconds for no apparent reason.
Mayzie sighed and continued to strum. "Oh-h-h-h, notice me, Horton, feather by feather, this is your next-door neighbor calling!"
Meanwhile, I could hear chatter escaping from the box. As the opening became large enough to climb through, the Things were able to do so. Their cotton-candy-colored hair still frizzed up perfectly, like they popped out of a book. Maybe it was because they did.
Mayzie was strumming the guitar loudly now. Golden strings flowed through my mind as she continued to sing. "Notice me, Horton! Put down that clover! This is your next-door neighbor calling! There's a new leaf your neighbor's turned over..." Then Mayzie stood up and started to walk around, her rainbow-colored tail swirling behind her.
So, kid, you got help, I see? Frankly, I would have done the same thing...
I felt like I needed to tell the Cat a quick "thank-you". But Mayzie was singing. How could I...
Sitting next to my two blue-haired friends, I sang Horton's part on the song Mayzie was playing. "I was just a no-one only yesterday... You showed up and showed me something more..." Giving a small laugh about the next line, I really hoped that this would calm the Cat before I told him what happened. "Now I've become a someone who has someone to believe in and to be there for..." I stopped singing there, but Mayzie kept going.
"I will not give up hope! I was hooked from the start when I noticed your kind and your powerful heart!" Mayzie was sure one dramatic chick. "So notice me, Horton... Notice me, Horton... Notice me, Horton! The way I notice you..."
Mayzie stood up, sighing and turning to me. "Again, which way did Horton go?"
"He walked that way," I said, pointing to a faint jungle in the distance on my left. "But how far, I don't know."
The bird nodded a quick "thanks" to me ants ran off, her long tail dragging yards behind her. Turning to the Things, my Cat mind was racing. "So..." I said to them. "Can you two run fast?"
Even though the Things couldn't speak, they could make sounds and understand what I was saying, like a form of mutism. Grinning, they nodded in unison, as if there was nothing they'd rather be doing. Then again, there probably wasn't.
"Great! Then this is going to be a blast! Now, here is what I need you to do; go find Horton and bring him back. I'll have a reward for you."
Happy to do their job (that made one of us), Thing 1 and Thing 2 ran off together in the general direction of the jungle of Nool. As they chased each other away, I heard the Cat's voice return. Hey, kid. Did you enjoy singing along with Mayzie?
In the time that I used to ignore the inevitable, I thought about the Cat's voice. You wouldn't think that his voice would match up with someone like... him. His voice was deep and calm, yet in some ways, overly excited and practically ecstatic. I know that he was portrayed by Mike Myers in the live-action movie and Martin Short in the kids' show, but the real Cat seemed different. He was smoother, I guess. Like he got all the ladies. Of course, he wouldn't act like that when I told him...
"Hey, Cat? There's something I need to say," I said, trying to sound as cool and collected about this as possible.
What is it, kid?
"I... um..." I couldn't bring myself to tell him. It would break his heart to know that I failed him. "I just hope you have a wonderful day."
Thanks, I guess? Anyway, where's Gertrude's nest?
"Calm down, Cat. It'll be a while. Three million clovers to look through. He'll search for his in style." As the Cat seemed reassured that it would be okay, I wondered if I should tell him. Then a voice - my own Thinking voice - talked to me, so quietly that not even the Cat could tell. Don't tell him just yet. Wait a little. Things will smooth out.
Maybe my Thinking voice was right. I mean, it wasn't that huge of a deal, was it? How bad could things be?
Jojo: Did you leave yet?
MagicalAwesomeness: Calm down. Not 'till the end of Act 1.
Jojo: Well, get me out of this military fast! I can't take that place much longer!
MagicalAwesomeness: I'll try.
Cat: What's wrong, Talia?
Talia: N-nothing. Everything's okay.
Cat: But-
Talia: EVERYTHING'S FINE!
Cat: *silence*
Jojo: *silence*
MagicalAwesomeness: *momentary silence* Anyway, don't forget to follow, favorite, and review this story! The more feedback, the better! Maybe one day, when I work alongside Lynn Ahrens and Eric Idle, I'll show them this!
Cat: Go to sleep.
MagicalAwesomeness: Why? I mean, it's pretty late, but...
Cat: The only way that'll happen is in your dreams.
Jojo: That was pretty funny.
MagicalAwesomeness: Ugh.
