Chapter 1

Saturday

January 9, 2016

"It's nice to see you two working on that robot again," Ortensia said as she leaned into the garage from the house doorway. She leaned her back against the doorframe and smiled as she asked, "Are you sure you know what you're doing though?"

"Send Mickey into a parallel dimension one time and you're never gonna let it go, are you?" Oswald asked, smiling up at his wife with his hands in the cow's back.

"Probably not, it's kinda funny," Ortensia admitted.

"I'll still stay away from her head until she's working," Mickey admitted, keeping to his spot next to Oswald's toolbox.

"Hand me that flathead, will yah?" Oswald asked, holding a hand out to the mouse.

Mickey did as ordered before looking up at the cat in the doorway. "Oh, Minnie mentioned something about you two planning a vacation?"

"It's nothing set in stone yet," Ortensia said with a shake of her head. "We don't even know where we want to go. Just that we need some time to ourselves."

"I can understand that," Mickey said with a laugh as a voice else where in the house cried out something incoherent. "Just let me and Min know when you're going so we can watch the kids."

"Thanks Mickey," Ortensia said with a smile.

"Uhm, the police are here looking for Daddy," a voice said, turning all eyes to the blue bunny walking up behind Ortensia.

"The police?" Oswald asked as he gave a grunt to give one last twist to the screw he was working on.

"He said his name was O'Hair?" the child asked, unsure.

"O'Hara?" Mickey corrected.

Oswald pulled his hands free from the cow's insides and sat his tool where it belonged beside Mickey. "Why isn't he coming in?" Oswald asked, grabbing a rag to wipe his hands. He looked at his child and said, "Tell him I'll be out there in a minute."

The blue bunny turned around and disappeared from sight into the house.

"You don't think they've escaped," Ortensia asked, eyeing the brothers as she remembered their past encounters with the police.

"But if he's not coming inside…" Mickey left his question unfinished, his eyes lowed in thought as he let other ideas fill his head.

"Well come on," Oswald said, dropping the rag to the edge of his toolbox. Silently he led the way back into the house and to the front door where the police chief stood just inside with his hat in his hands.

"Chief, you know you can always just walk right in and look for us if the door's unlocked," Oswald said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You wanna at least sit down in the living room?"

"Thank ye," O'Hara said, giving them a polite nod before walking to the room just inside the entry way.

"How's your foot doing?" Ortensia asked, taking the recliner as the old dog took a side of the sofa. "It's good to see you standing on your own again."

"Gotta wear this boot fer about a month," O'Hara offered, stretching out the injured leg to show them the gray device. He let out a sigh before looking up at Mickey. "M'boy, I'm glad yer here because this case has me hands tied."

"Well, what's happened?" Mickey asked.

O'Hara reached into his uniform jacket pocket and pulled out a worn piece of paper. "We've found an outstanding warrant fer Oswald's arrest," the chief admitted as he unfolded the paper.

"What for?" Ortensia exclaimed.

"Well, that's where it gets tricky," O'Hara said, holding the piece of paper to the brothers.

Mickey took the old paper, quickly noticing Oswald's face prominently under the words Wanted Dead or Alive.

Oswald let out a laugh, looking down at the police chief, and said, "Man, you really had us going!" O'Hara gave him a confused look, getting Oswald to take the wanted poster from Mickey's hands to wave back at the chief. "This is from a movie I did back in the 30s."
O'Hara shook his head before leaning forward to place his elbows on his knees. "Technically, yeah, but legally…" He separated his hands as he looked up at the rabbit. "My hands are tied legally. There's never been a cartoon that jumped companies with any type of warrant out for them."

"Wait a minute, what about that time we all worked on Roger Rabbit's movie? Toons were crossing company line almost every day," Mickey pointed out.

"But there was also a joint police force," O'Hara explained. "And other than a few squabbles, Yosemite Sam was the only one any of us needed to jail." The chief shook his head as he looked Mickey in the eye. "That's why I'm asking ye, Mickey. Casey doesn't even know what to do about this. The higher ups want me to go ahead and bring him in."

"Have they given us a deadline for clearing his name?" Ortensia asked.

"Forty-eight hours from time of notice," O'Hara offered.

"So what counts as proof?" Mickey asked. "Universal did those differently than Walt always did."

"And if it was in company we'd have the story board, script, some proof it was fake." O'Hara shook his head as he added, "All we got is video, and this."

"But how do we even look?" Ortensia asked. "We haven't set foot in Universal since '35."

"I, um, don't worry 'bout that," Mickey offered, looking out the window behind O'Hara.

"I didn't hear that," the dog said, eyeing Mickey. "Just clear his name before I'm forced to lock him up." He slowly rose to his feet, favoring the still injured leg, as he added, "I'll leave ye to yer work. Good luck."

Oswald looked down at the wanted poster in his hands as the police chief let himself out. "That stupid Lantz," he mumbled under his breath. Raising his voice he added, "I never even wanted to shoot Hells Heals."

"We're gonna get this fixed," Mickey said, pulling out his cell.

"How?" Oswald eyed his brother as he added, "Apparently it's illegal now to go between studios, so how?"

"It's not illegal, per say," Mickey tried to explain. He hit one last button on his phone and put the device to his head to hear it ringing on the other end. He gave Oswald a glance before saying, "I'll take this outside."

Oswald watched the mouse leave before turning to Ortensia and motioning the flyer towards the front of the house. "How is that supposed to make me feel better? Do we have to break rules to clear my name?"

"Oswald," Ortensia tried.

"What? This is a life sentence," Oswald pointed out, starting to pace the living room. "You'd think I've already spent one of those."

Ortensia rested her head on her hand, propped up by the arm rest, as she watched her husband panic.

"Find proof, he says," Oswald continued, looking at the poster in his hands. "Universal didn't keep things. Walt was considered weird for how much he did save. Nobody expected toons to last a hundred years much less- much less for something like this to happen."

Ortensia took a deep breath and pushed herself up out of the recliner. She stepped over to Oswald and placed hands on both shoulders, ordering, "Stop."

"But-"

"No. Sit down." Ortensia forced him so he was standing in front of the sofa and pushed him down so he dropped into the seat. She took the wanted poster from his hands and sat it on the side table before knelling down to look him in the eye. Noticing him looking at the poster, she grabbed the sides of his head and ordered, "Look at me."

Oswald did as ordered, looking into his wife's eyes.

"We will figure this out," Ortensia stated, keeping eye contact. "You will not end up in prison for this. You got that?"

Oswald nodded his head, her hands still holding him.

"You got that?" Ortensia repeated herself.

"Yes ma'am," Oswald said. He gave her a half smile as he added, "I feel like one of the kids."

"Somedays I feel like you are, you and Mickey both," Ortensia said as she released his head.

The front door opened, reminding them of the mouse in question. Ortensia rose to her feet and fixed her waist band as the couple eyed Mickey.

"If we get going now, we'll be able to get to Universal before dinner," Mickey informed, pocketing his cell phone. "I've called a taxi to get us to Disney Studio and another one to get us from there to Universal."

"Let me call Minnie," Ortensia said, walking out of the living room.

"You're coming with us?" Mickey asked as she passed him.
"Of course."