A Skilene-Filled September
Scenario 14: "Someone Else"
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

"OK, your majesty," Maurice called over to Julien as he saw Marlene walking toward the lemur habitat, "now's your chance. Just remember what we talked about."

Julien nodded, straightened his crown, and then climbed onto the wall of his habitat to greet Marlene as she came by.

"Hello, my otter subject," he said as she walked up to him. "How goes the morning?"

"Pretty good," Marlene replied. "And yours?"

"Oh, about the same," the king replied. "Except for this one royal thing I have to do soon. Really soon. Like right now." He cleared his throat. "I, the king, would like to officially ask you in."

"In?" Marlene asked. She then heard a faint sound that sounded a lot like Maurice coughing somewhere behind a bush, but she decided to just ignore it.

"Ah, out, I mean," Julien corrected. "Yes, I invite you to join the royal me for a date."

Marlene stared at him for a moment. "This is all kind of sudden, don't you think? Why do you want to go out with me? What about all those girlfriends you have up in Canada?"

"Oh, they all, um, moved to New Zealand," Julien replied. "We had long-distance relationships before, but now they're, um, just too long to work. Yes, that is it."

"Right," Marlene said as she rolled her eyes. "Well, please don't be offended, but I'm going to have to decline. I'm sorry, Julien, but I only want to be a friend and neighbor to you—I have no desire for anything else."

"What! But I am royal! How can you say no to the kingliness that is me after falling hopelessly in love with me in the park?"

"Two reasons," Marlene replied. "First, I'm sorry if you were misled by my feral behavior, but I was totally wild out in the park and had no idea what I was doing. And second, I'm afraid my heart—" She stopped for a moment. Sure, she wanted to tell Julien the truth, but would it be too much for him to accept? "My, well, my heart belongs to someone else," she continued. "I can't go on a date with you when someone else is always on my mind."

"That squirrel again?" Julien asked. "What's he got on me? Come on, Marlene, if you go out with me I'll let you rub off all of my royal foot calluses with a scouring pad. It's much more fun than it sounds!"

"OK, first, that's disgusting," Marlene replied. "But as for who my heart belongs to, it's not Fred at all. It's actually someone who doesn't have any idea about the way I feel about him—it's Skipper."

"Me?" Skipper asked as he suddenly waddled over.

Marlene jumped. "Skipper! Where did you come from?"

"I hatched from an egg twenty-one years ago. Why?"

"No, where did you come from? How did you just suddenly appear right here next to me?"

"That's classified. But I'll tell you something that's not classified, Marlene: I just heard everything you were talking to Julien about."

Marlene blushed a little. "So, are you mad that I have a little crush on you?" she asked. "Or that I just turned down a date with Julien by telling him that?"

Skipper smiled. "I think those are questions you can soon answer yourself," he said as he placed a flipper on Marlene's back. "Would you like to go on a date with me tonight?"

[This scenario edited March 27, 2016.]