Sally woke to the back of a hand stroking her cheek. She smiled, sighed a soft sigh of contentment, and leaned into the caresses as her eyes slowly fluttered open. The moment she saw Jack's face, memories of the wee hours came rushing back.
"Oh!" She sat up and tried to kick off her cocoon of blankets. "Jack, I'm so sorry that I came in without ask-"
A fingerbone touched her lips. The master of fright bent down and pressed a feather-light kiss to her nose. The gentle ragdoll smiled and scuffed one foot under the sheets.
Jack set a plate down on the nightstand and sat down beside her. "Don't be sorry."
His fingers stroked through her pillow-mussed hair. "You don't ever have to be sorry for giving me your company."
Sally saw that she was no longer on the floor, but tucked snugly into his bed. She kissed his hand. He really was too kind. He smiled at her, then picked up the plate again and carefully set it in her lap. Sally looked down. It was a piece of toast, browned just the way she liked it, topped with two side-by-side sunny-side-up eggs. The crusts had been shaped into a smile just underneath the butter pat 'nose'. She giggled softly. Jack smiled, imitating the toast, making her laugh more. As he rested his head on her shoulder, Sally noticed that he was fully dressed. At the same time, she noticed that the sun was shining brightly through the windows.
"Oh," she breathed, "It's late."
"You were exhausted," Jack gently told her.
Her lips set to one side. "Funny you should mention that.."
"JAAAACK!"
The amplified plea rattled the plate of toast. Jack strode to the window and saw the Mayor standing atop his hearse, waving as though he was trying to flag down an ambulance.
The Pumpkin King sighed. "I've got to get going." He cupped her cheek. "Hold that thought."
"Will do."
They stared into each others' eyes (or lack thereof) for a moment, then simultaneously leaned forward for a quick but warm touching of lips. Jack rumpled Sally's hair, provoking another giggle from her, and reluctantly jogged downstairs.
Partway down, he hollered up, "Should I wake Oogie's boys?"
"No, I'll get them ready and take them back home on my way down to the witches' shop," she called down to him.
"Thanks, Doll!"
"Go get 'em, Bone Daddy!"
A few unnaturally long strides later, the front door slammed. Sally watched from the window as she nibbled on one of the eggs, a fond smile playing across her lips as Jack made calming gestures in the hyperventilating Mayor's direction and climbed into the hearse. They chugged through the gates, pulled into the street, and puttered off in a cloud of foul exhaust. As she turned away from the window, Sally caught sight of a small paper sack sitting on the floor beside the nightstand.
"Oh! Jack's lunch!"
She set the plate down and loped down the hallway as fast as she dared to push her patchwork body. Two minutes later, she burst out of her room in a proper dress and a black-and-purple cap that hid her bedhead.
The gentle redhead grabbed Jack's lunchbag, limped downstairs, and nearly flew out the door, breathlessly calling, "Zero, watch the house!"
Slam.
In the guest bedroom, three little grins widened.
"Did you hear that?" Barrel whispered.
Shock rubbed her greenish hands together. "What should we do first?"
Lock stood up on the mattress. "Go exploring, of course! How often are we going to be alone in Skellington Manor?"
Shock frowned. "But Sally-"
"Are you kidding?" Lock scoffed, "Do you know how long it takes for her to hobble anywhere?"
Shock's toothy grin returned.
"YAY!" the trio exclaimed, and hopped down to the carpeted floor. * * * *
After a quick pitstop in the kitchen, the trio headed straight for Jack's room. Barrel climbed into the electric chair and munched on his waffle-Nutella-honey-Snoball-peanut butter-and-cheese sandwich while Lock went through Jack's desk and Shock pulled books off the king's bookshelves. Zero whined as a dollop of syrup and cheese plopped onto the floor. Lock held up a chain of paper snowflakes, examined it, and tossed it aside in favor of continuing the search for something more interesting. Shock held up a volume to the light as she knelt on one of the movable ladder's steps.
"'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?"
"Pokemon cards?" Lock muttered.
Shock squinted in disbelief at a thick purple pop-up book. "'A Brony's Guide to Equestria'? Really?"
Lock set a fistful of bills and coins from around the world on the desktop next to a multicolored rubber band ball and several ribbons of various shades and sizes. Barrel squatted on one arm of the chair, leaning out to pet a snoozing spider. Zero whined and tugged at the brim of Shock's hat. She brushed him off and peered at an unabridged dictionary that was nearly half her size. The ghost dog moved on to Lock and nipped at the devil boy's tail, growling in disapproval. He was rewarded with a pink rubber band to his glowing snout. Zero snorted, shook his head several times, and sneezed once (making his nose flare like a firework). Casting one last reproachful glance at the terrible trio, the little dog misted out the window. None of the three really paid him any heed.
Several fistfuls of Halloween blueprints, various quasi-assorted papers, a plastic drinking bird, a windup frog, and a stress ball shaped like a sandworm plopped onto Jack's chair as Lock climbed down from the royal desk.
"I'm bored."
"Yeah, let's look somewhere else before we completely lose respect for our so-called 'king'," Shock agreed.
Barrel bade a goodbye to the groggy spider, clambered down from the chair's arm, and fell on his hiney.
"Come on!" Lock called impatiently from the doorway.
Rubbing the seat of his pants, the skeleton boy jogged over to his cohorts. Midway down the hall, Shock stopped at the bathroom. The boys filed in after her. She stepped on their shoulders, then heads, and pulled herself up onto the bathroom counter.
"Ow! Hey!" Barrel complained.
"Hey! Watch it!" Lock snapped.
Ignoring them both, the crazy-haired girl opened the medicine cabinet and grinned.
"Ooh."
"What? Let me see!" Lock demanded.
Barrel, meanwhile, had found a box of dental floss and was curious as to just how much floss was actually spooled up inside it.
"Let's guess who uses what!" Shock suggested, and held up a black can. "Skull polish."
Lock tapped his chin. "Oooooh- tough one."
They all dissolved into a brief fit of snickering.
Recovering, Shock examined a bottle of perfume. "I really hope this is Sally's."
"What's in it- fabric softener?" Lock cracked.
For some reason, this remark really tickled Barrel, and Lock eventually had to headbutt him to get him to shut up. Holding his tummy and glowering ruefully at Lock, Barrel scooted a ways away where he could conduct his floss experiment out of assault range. After going through several items of an uninteresting nature (such as cologne, spare tubes of toothpaste, toothpicks, and nail files), Shock found a prize. She held it aloft and crowed. Both boys put down their respective floss and toilet paper and craned their necks to see. Shock hopped down, laughing so hard that she nearly fell flat on her nose. Lock snatched the bottle from her and read the label. He too became infected with hysteria.
"Let me see! Let me see!" begged Barrel.
When Lock finally calmed down enough to give Barrel a glance, the younger boy rolled on the tile floor. Neither Lock nor Shock could read aloud from the label without breaking down in howls, but they tried.
"'Crampies'-"
"Safe and-"
"Effective-"
"Relief for-"
"Unhappy…tummies!"
At last, wiping tears of excessive mirth from their eyes, the trio trotted down to Sally's room. Barrel brought the floss along. Lock examined the ragdoll's extensive assortment of needles and sewing scissors with an unhealthy interest. Barrel sat in the corner on a worn brass-studded chest and unspooled floss while Shock rifled through the room's one wardrobe. She tried on several handmade scarves and outfits and modeled them while imitating their owner's gait and mannerisms, much to the amusement of the boys. Lock sauntered over, pocketing a pair of particularly sharp scissors, and had a look inside the wardrobe. He found a sparkly box painted to look like a night sky and shook it. Its insides rustled.
"Hey! Maybe it's money!"
That got Shock and Barrel's full attention. The three climbed onto Sally's bed. Shock and Barrel crowded in on either side as Lock upended the box and dumped its contents onto the bed. Anticipation sagged into disappointment.
"Awww, it's just papers," Lock grumbled.
Barrel had a peek at one. It was covered with loopy, fancy script and had bats and hearts sketched in the margins.
"I think these are love letters!"
The trio's disappointment evaporated. Shock snatched up another folded paper to confirm this hypothesis.
Lock unfolded the paper nearest him, took it up, and began to read aloud. "Hello, Babydoll…."
A good five minutes passed before anyone was capable of properly exhaling again. They took turns narrating, occasionally pausing to wipe away more tears or launch into personal commentary. Shock found what was arguably the most entertaining document of the lot: a list of potential pet names that Sally had written down while brainstorming. These started off with 'Skeletal Strudel'. Eventually, the three were too nauseous to read on any further. Barrel wadded the letters back into their box as Lock and Shock amused themselves by playing tug-of-war with a plushie of Jack.
"It's so soft," Shock noted, poking vigorously at the plushie's tummy.
"She probably stuffed it with locks of her hair," snickered Lock.
"Actually, I used cobwebs."
The three twitched and turned slowly to face the doorway.
"Oops," mumbled Barrel. * * * *
It was a long and quiet trip back to Oogie's tree. Lock set a pace that was just behind Sally's steady limp.
"I can't believe our stupid bathtub ran away," Shock muttered.
"Well, it's never liked storms," Barrel reminded her.
Silence once more descended, awkward and stifling. Barrel quickened his pace just a bit and tapped on one of Sally's leg sutures. The clever experiment looked down.
He twisted his white hands. "Are- are you going to tell Jack about…the pumpkin?"
"No, Barrel. I'm not."
Her reply was terse but not snappish. Somehow, terse was worse. The group stopped just short of the tree. Lock, eager to get away from this tension as fast as possible, had dropped into a runner's crouch when he happened to look up. Shock dropped her bag, which landed on Barrel's toe. Barrel didn't so much as holler. Rusted segments of the feeding pipe jutted from the tree and the earth surrounding it like broken fingernails. The cage sprawled on its side, as dented as an old soda can. A weather vane stuck out of the ground like it was rising from the dead. Sally's tiny hands moved to her lips. The trio's living quarters, which had always been somewhat exposed to the elements to begin with, had been reduced to matchsticks.