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Toy Story: Mister Spaceman
Interlude I: Monsters, Inc.
"Reach for the sky."
Five year old Hannah Phillips wouldn't have been able to do any such thing, even if the cowboy doll had been talking to her. Because even standing on a plastic milk crate, she still had to use her hands to push herself up on the fence to spy into next door's front yard. That, and given that one of those hands keeping a firm grasp on Marie Antoinette, she wouldn't be raising her hands anytime soon.
"You'll never take me alive!"
But then, the one-eyed potato wearing a black hat and holding a green pistol wasn't raising his hands either. Standing outside the Larst Chanse Salooon (a run-down establishment in the shape of a cardboard box), he opened fire at the cowboy doll, as he and his deputy dove for the cover on the grass.
"Hang on Woody, I got ya!"
Both sheriff and deputy dove behind some cardboard boxes, both of them rolling across the grass, before the deputy returned fire with his own pistol. Unleashing a hailstorm of bullets at the potato, that just stood there. Holding his pistol, uttering a laugh as evil as any Hannah had ever heard.
"You can't take me!" cried the potato. "I have a bullet-proof force-field!"
"Doggone it!" exclaimed the sheriff.
"Oh dear," Hannah whispered. "They don't seem to have much of a chance."
"Oui, that is correct, madam."
"Got a grave with your name on it, sheriff," sneered the potato. "We gonna do this the easy way, or the hard way?"
There was no answer. Not from the deputy at least. Instead, breaking character, he moved his sheriff on a right-side angle to the potato doll, plonking him behind a washing basket, before returning back to cover to resume play.
"I'm gonna give you to the count of five!" called out the potato. "One…two…"
"Don't do it," Hannah whispered.
"I fear he may have no other choice," Marie Antoinette pointed out, as the deputy checked his remaining bullets.
"Three…four…"
"Alright, I'm coming out."
Hannah stared, rapt with attention, as Deputy Andy stood up, dropped his pistol, and walked towards the potato doll. His hands reaching for the sky, as his sheriff had once instructed.
Hannah bit her lip, and Marie Antoinette offered her no comfort. Indeed, Marie's hands were covering her eyes, unable to bear to watch the scene unfolding.
"I knew you were stupid, Deputy Andy," said the potato. "But never this stupid!"
"He's not stupid," Hannah whispered. "He's brave."
"Oh? Do you think so, madam?" Marie whispered.
"Shush."
"Do not shush a lady, Miss Phillips. That does not become you."
Hannah ignored her. Technically, Marie Antoinette was correct, but there was a gunfight going on, and manners weren't going to save the day.
"Any last words?" asked the potato.
"Yep," said the deputy. "You always gotta check your sides."
"Check my what?"
"Now Woody!"
The cowboy doll burst out of hiding and bonked the potato over the head. Knocking him down, and loosening his gun from his grip, before pointing it down at him. Using both hands to hold the giant plastic weapon.
"There's a poster with your name on it, One-Eyed Bart! You gonna come quietly?"
"Curses! Foiled again!"
"Yep." The deputy turned to his cowboy doll, high-fiving his hand. "Great work, Woody!"
"You're my favourite deputy," answered the sheriff.
Hannah smiled, as justice was served – as Bart was brought before Judge Boulder, who giving the bandit a stone-cold look, sentenced him to a bazillion years of bread and water. As the bars of the washing basket came down over him, Hannah reflected how the sheriff had called Andy his favourite deputy. A bit odd, because as far as she could tell, Andy was the only deputy she'd seen the cowboy doll with, and given how well they handled outlaws, and Injuns, and cattle-rustlers, she doubted the sheriff needed another.
Still, with all the bandits they were bringing into gaol, maybe they'd need a secretary? Or someone to serve them lemonade after a job well done? Maybe one day, the deputy would look at her and invite her to come play.
"Or you could ask him yourself."
She ignored Marie Antoinette, and continued to watch the deputy, now giving his sheriff a ride on his back.
"Go on, ask him," said Marie. "Or are you but a child?"
She bit her lip. Marie Antoinette could be quite bossy, and at their weekly tea party, she'd spoken her mind to more than one guest and left them quivering. Only last week, Janie had been brought to tears, and had only stopped crying after love and cake provided by Sally and Marie Antoinette's little sister, Maria. More than once, she'd considered crossing Marie off her tea list permanently.
But Marie Antoinette always spoke her mind, and it was a trait that Hannah had come to admire. If she just stood here in silence, Deputy Andy would never invite her round to play. But if she spoke now…
"Hi," Hannah whispered.
Neither the deputy nor sheriff answered, too busy celebrating their delivery of justice.
"Hi," Hannah said again, a little louder.
"There's a snake in my boot!" exclaimed the sheriff.
"Oh dear," said Marie. "That doesn't sound very nice."
Hannah supposed not.
"Perhaps you should help him, young lady. Help the poor sheriff with his snake problem and win the admiration of the deputy before you."
"Yo Prissy Pants, you talking to yourself again?"
Hannah didn't get a chance to respond as she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. With a cry, she held Marie close, as she fell back first onto the dirt. She cried out, as pain shot through her back.
But what was below her, was nothing compared to the horror above her. Her seven year-old brother, leering down at her.
"Hey dip stain, what are you doing down there?"
Sid's cronies laughed. Vincent and Alex. Both of them as tall, both of them wearing leather jackets, both of them leering as Hannah, trembling, tried to get up.
"Mud not good enough for you, Princess?"
"Leave me alone, Sid." She got up, clutching Marie Antoinette close.
She knew how this worked. Sid and his friends got to play in the yard (playing, as in, sticking nails into Army Men and leaving them in a 'trench'), and she had to head inside. If she complained, she'd get a Chinese burn. If she didn't, there was a chance that she wouldn't get one.
So she headed for the back door. Not so fast that Sid would chase her, not so slow that she had to spend a second longer in the back yard than was necessary. Slowly…surely…
"Heads up!"
She let out a yell as the milk box was plonked onto her head. In the shock, she dropped Marie into the dirt.
"Sid, stop it!"
"Beep-boop. My-sister-is-a-robot."
Vincent and Alex burst out laughing as Hannah struggled to get the box off her head, while Sid forced it down. Eventually, he let go, allowing Hannah to take it off.
"Oh wow! The robot is a girl!"
Hannah desperately looked for Marie.
"No, it's an alien!" said Vincent.
Don't cry, Hannah told herself. Don't cry in front of him…
"She's certainly ugly enough," Alex said.
Hannah sniffed, as she saw Marie. Looking up at her blankly. Uttering not a single word, now that the real world had caught up with him. Her light blue dress dirty. Her little porcelain arms chipped.
"Ugly, ugly," Vincent rhymed.
"Ugly fugly."
Hannah knelt down and scooped up Marie. Her once perfect face smeared, her golden hair tatty. Her dress as dirty as her owner's pink butterfly shirt.
"Ugly ugly bumhead ugly."
The boys laughed as Hannah's eyes watered. As they met Marie's. As she turned and looked at her brother, leading the trio in song, as they described how ugly and stupid his sister was.
"Stupid ugly, fugly ugly."
"Pug ugly!"
"Ugly wuggly."
"That's not even a word," Hannah whispered.
She knew as soon as Sid stopped taunting her that she'd crossed a line. Knew, as he walked over to her, that she should have bit her tongue and headed back inside.
"You say something, Princess?"
She held Marie to her chest. Her eyes red and watering. Her lips quivering.
"I said," Sid repeated, "did you say something?"
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"Didn't catch that, Princess."
"You're…" She struggled to speak. "You're…"
Alex and Vincent sniggered. Sid just stood there, smirking. Basking in the invulnerability that he'd enjoyed his whole life.
"You say something, sis?"
Invulnerability that Hannah knew she couldn't break. But even so…
"I said you're ugly!"
She had to say something. Anything. Anything to get back at her brother, in whatever way she could. And for one brief moment, she saw in her brother's eyes that she'd got to him. After all, he'd just started wearing braces, and they didn't do his mug any favours.
It was a moment of triumph replaced by a moment of terror, as Sid ripped Marie Antoinette from her hands.
"Hey!"
"Keep away!" Sid declared.
"Give her back!"
The boys laughed as they tossed the doll between them.
"Sid, please!"
Marie Antoinette was her favourite doll. It had been given to her by her grandmother for her second birthday. A strong lady for a strong girl, who would grow up to be a strong woman. Or so she'd said, at least.
"Sid, come on…"
"Doll needs to go in the garbage!"
"Nah! Garbage is too good for her!"
Hannah didn't feel strong right now. She hadn't for a long time. Maybe Gran Gran had been incorrect.
"Sid!"
Then again, Gran Gran had died before her third birthday, so there was no way to ask her about it. She barely even remembered her.
"Sid, please…"
He held it in place, his cronies laughing as Hannah tried to jump up to get it. Sid was too strong to attack, and too tall to reach Marie.
"Poor Hannah," Sid said. "Ugly girl gets ugly dolls."
She sniffed. Even Sid had his limits. He'd loved Gran Gran as well…he knew what Marie Antoinette meant to her…
"Here," Sid said, taking Marie into both his hands. "Let me make her pretty for you."
For a moment, Hannah thought that her brother was going to give her her doll back. And technically, she was right.
Or right, at least, in as much that she got the bottom part, as Sid ripped the doll's head off.
"Marie!"
The boys ran off laughing, carrying the head of Marie Antoinette with them. She tried to grab Sid's arm, but was pushed into the dirt as a response. Hitting it with a thud, the cries of "ugly!" ringing in her ears.
She scrambled up. Her knee bleeding. Her ears ringing. Her eyes filled with tears, as she looked at the doll before her. Her dress stained with mud. Her head missing. Her body, ever so tiny, as she broke into tears, and clutched it to her chest.
"I hate you," Hannah whispered. "I hate you…"
She sat there, and wept. Wondering what Sid would do with Marie Antoinette's head.
Wondering if her parents would do anything.
Wondering about the boy next door.
If, one day, the sheriff and the deputy might help her. Or if she might one day talk to him.
Unlikely, she knew. For the head of Marie was gone.
And her doll would never speak again.
A/N
In case you're wondering, the interludes came about later in the story. Realized that I wasn't fleshing out Hannah enough in later chapters, so decided to use an interlude/flashback format. Kind of promoted her to a deuteragonist, but (hopefully) also served to reinforce the story's intended themes.