Surprises*

In a different time and place, Powder walked out of the front door of the house onto the porch and closed it behind her. She patted her stomach, burping. Having eaten her fill of the food on the kitchen table, she hopped down the porch steps, heading to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's as the invitation had said. At the bottom of the steps, she stopped.

There was a polite noise from behind her. She turned around and looked up. Standing on the roof above her was a boney, hairless cat, identical to the same boney, hairless cat she had seen on the grounds at home. So, identical, it had the same piercing green eyes. Not buttons.

"Huh… Ekko has a cat like you at home," she said to it, "Not the quiet Ekko. The one that talks too much. You must be the other cat."

The cat leapt smoothly from the roof to the railing along Miss Spink and Forcible's staircase. It licked its paw and rubbed its head.

"No, I'm not the other anything. I'm me," said the cat. Its voice sounded like the voice at the back of Powder's head, the voice she thought words in, but a man's voice, not a girl's.

"Um… I can see you don't have buttons for eyes, but if you're the same cat, how can you talk?" she asked hesitantly.

Cats don't have shoulders, not like people do, but the cat shrugged in one smooth movement that started at the tip of its tail and ended in a raised movement with its whiskers.

"I just can."

"Cats don't talk at home."

"No?"

"No," said Powder.

"Well, you're clearly the expert on these things." It began to walk away, its head and tail held high and proud. It leapt onto the root of the fallen tree across the driveway and looked back at her. "After all, I'm just a big, fat, wuss puss!"

Powder covered her mouth, her stomach dropping. "Oh, come back. Please? I'm sorry I called you that. I really am. How did you get here?" she asked.

Unbothered, the cat held its chin high. "I've been coming here for a while," the cat said.

Powder watched as the cat walked slowly across the root. It walked behind a fork in the root but didn't come out the other side. Powder stared in surprise. The cat was gone.

"It's a game we play," a voice said behind her.

Powder turned and saw the cat had hopped out of a hole in the tree trunk.

"She hates cats and tries to keep me out," the cat said, nodding to the house. It stuck its head into the hole again, but across the driveway, where the other half of the trunk was, the cat's head popped out of another hole in the trunk, between leafy branches. The cat purred proudly, "But she can't, of course. I come and go as I please."

"The other mother hates cats?" Powder asked.

The cat cackled, climbing out of the hole with the rest of its body. Its boney back arched as though bent in half from laughing so hard. "Not like any mother I've ever known!"

"What do you mean? She's amazing!" Powder exclaimed.

The cat padded its way up a branch toward the porch roof, rolling its eyes. "You probably think this world is a dream come true, but you're wrong…" he hissed, "The other Ekko told me so."

"But that's nonsense. He can't talk," Powder replied.

"Perhaps not to you," the cat retorted, its chin held high, padding across the roof shingles with light steps Powder was envious of. "We cats, however, have far superior senses than humans." Powder rolled her eyes, but the cat didn't seem to notice. He continued lecturing, "And can see and smell and…"

He suddenly stopped and sat up straight. His ear silently twitched. It made Powder stop and listen too.

"Shh! I hear something," he whispered, "Right over…"

Then he suddenly dashed off, as though chasing something, without a word. In a moment, he disappeared, out of sight.

…

Unable to follow after the cat left, Powder walked down the brick steps to the Miss's Spink and Forcible's front door. Around Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's door were blue and red lightbulbs that flashed on and off, spelling out words. The lights chasing each other around the door. The blue and red lights flashed on and off. The door was open, just slightly.

She knocked on it, but her first knock made the door swing open. And Powder went in.

She was in a dark room that smelled of dust and velvet. The door swung shut behind her and the room was black. Powder edged forward into a small empty room. Her face brushed against something soft. It was cloth.

She reached up her hand and pushed at the cloth. It parted.

She stood, blinking, on the other side of the velvet curtains in a poorly lit theater. Far away, at the edge of the room was a high wooden stage, empty and bare, and a dim spotlight shining onto it from high above. There were seats between Powder and the stage. Rows and rows of seats.

She heard a shuffling noise, and a light came towards her, swinging from side to side. When it was closer, she saw that the light was coming from a flashlight, being carried in the mouth of a shape that looked like a small, fluffy, black Scotty dog. Its muzzle gray with age.

It circled around her once, sniffing, then trotted off into the dark. Powder followed him.

Then the space opened up around Powder and her head craned back to find the ceiling far above her. Like with Dr. B's circus tent, the basement was much, much bigger than it seemed on the outside.

Powder realized the seats were all occupied. Passing the rows and rows of dogs, Powder couldn't help but smile as the dogs seemed to smile back at her. There were dogs all the way from the front row to the balcony wings above Powder's head. They were all fluffy like Miss Spink and Forcible's dogs, but even rounder, and in all different kinds of colors, like cotton candy. They sat on the velvet theater seats, panting with their tongues out and looking eagerly around at the stage as though waiting for a doggie treat.

When the usher got near the front of the stage, he stopped and shone the flashlight to an empty seat. Powder sat down and the dog wandered off.

"Hey, Ekko!" she whispered, sitting next to him. He waved back.

Soon, the lights dimmed, and the unseen orchestra quieted down. There was a creaking, like a pulley system and the curtains were drawn open.

A backdrop of an ocean sat behind a prop boat with mariners rowing. Fabric spun in corkscrew fashion to simulate ocean waves.

A giant fish reared its head out of the water beside the boat. A fishhook from one of the sailors, yanked on the fish's lip, ripping its head off.

Just when Powder thought that was a mistake on set, her eyes went wide when she saw Miss Spink was inside the fish, wearing a bikini bra and a braided wig with a crown. She was supposed to be a mermaid.

Powder shook Ekko's arm. "She's practically naked!" she whispered, trying not to laugh.

Then Miss Spink started to sing.

I'm known as the siren of all seven seas,

The breaker of hearts by the bay!

So, if you go swimming with bowlegged women,

I might steal your weak heart away!

Then she blew a kiss to the prop mariners and dropped away through the floor as the curtains drew closed. Powder and Ekko clapped politely. Some dogs yipped for applause. A moment later, the curtains opened again. The scene changed.

It was a different ocean backdrop with a view of the horizon. Prop angels on wires hung from the ceiling. A giant clamshell sat in the middle of the stage. It opened and revealed something Powder would never have dreamed of.

"Oh my god," she said, pressing her back against her chair.

Miss Forcible was also wearing a wig, golden with long hair meant to simulate its blowing in the wind. But the wig was practically all she was wearing. Powder saw more skin on the woman than she expected to see in her life. Nothing but rhinestones in the shape of shells covered her privates.

Miss Forcible sang and danced, making use of her legs, her bouncing breasts difficult to ignore.

A big-bottomed sea witch may bob through the waves

And hope to lead sailors astray,

But a true ocean goddess must fill out her bodice

To present an alluring display!

As Miss Forcible took a deep bow, Powder clapped impressed. More dogs yipped and barked. Suddenly, the scene changed back to the boat and Miss Spink rose out of the stage floor. It was clearly not in Miss Forcible's plan to be so quickly taken off the stage in her clam shell.

Beware of old oysters too large in the chest

Let's banish them from the buffet

I'm far more nutritious –

Miss Forcible rose out of the stage floor and pinched her nose.

You smell like the fishes!

Miss Spink put a hand to her ear.

Did I hear a banshee?

Miss Forcible held a hand to her heart.

You're sea green with envy!

Miss Spink swished her braid.

This mermaid enchantress –

Miss Spink held her arms up, belting.

No! I, Birth of Venus –

They both belted at the top of their lungs.

Will send sailors swooning all day!

A rope snapped and something swung onto the stage, knocking Miss Spink over in her fish body. Things fell and toppled like dominos. The fish's head fell off the hook and onto Miss Forcible, blinding her. They both stumbled around, failing to recover their balance and composure. The curtains drew closed and there was a giant crash behind them.

Powder and Ekko could only wince with the audience of dogs and wait.

A spotlight came on and shone in the middle of the stage. A dog came out between the curtains, pushing a barrel of water with his head. He pushed it to the center of the stage and looked up. Everyone in the audience did too.

The spotlight split into two and waved back and forth over the curtains as they climbed up, and up, and up. On both sides of the stage were two ladders that climbs up, and up, and up, nearly to the rafters in the ceiling. At the top of the ladders were long diving boards. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible were somehow already up there, waddling and stumbling closer and closer to the edge of their diving boards.

"I can't look!" Powder whimpered, hiding her eyes.

Ekko patted her arm and pointed up at them. Only with his encouragement did Powder peek open one eye between her fingers.

"Ready to break a leg, Scratch?" Miss Spink shouted across the distance.

"Our lives for the theater, Songbird!" Miss Forcible replied.

All the dogs thumped their tails and barked enthusiastically. The old ladies started jumping up and down on their diving boards. Powder wasn't sure how they were going to survive this stunt.

Then as the old ladies jumped, they reached to the top of their heads and unzipped their costumes and opened them. But their costumes weren't all that opened. Their faces opened too, like empty shells.

Then out of the old fluffy bodies stepped two young women. They were thin, and pale, and quite pretty. And had black button eyes.

Miss Spink wore green tights and Miss Forcible wore pink, like in their poster. Trapeze bars swung in the air and the young woman leapt up from their diving boards, grabbing onto them. They swung and met together, holding each other's hand, holding a pose in midair.

Powder's mouth dropped open. The dogs yipped in applause.

Then they let go and started swinging on their trapeze, spinning and flipping, like gymnasts.

"What a piece of work is man!" Miss Forcible said, quoting Shakespeare, "How noble in reason!"

"How infinite in faculty!" quoted Miss Spink, "In form, in moving how express and admirable!"

"In action like an angel," said Miss Forcible.

"In apprehension how like a god!" said Miss Spink.

As Miss Spink swooped down above Powder's head, she grabbed Powder's hands and Powder found herself being swopped out of her chair. She screamed in alarm at first but found it amazingly fun as she was flung up and caught by Miss Forcible.

"The beauty of the world!" said Miss Forcible, flipping Powder around, tossing her back to Miss Spink.

"The paragon of animals!" said Miss Spink, catching Powder as she laughed.

Then she was swooping over the audience one more time and was flung up to the rafters. Powder grabbed onto the rafter, holding herself up as she cheered Miss Spink and Miss Forcible.

They jumped off their trapeze and summersaulted in the air as they dove perfectly straight into the barrel of water on the stage below. Except it didn't splash water, it blew out puffs of confetti glitter.

The rafter above Powder's head rotated back into place and it jostled Powder's grip. Powder screamed as she lost her grip and found herself falling toward the stage. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible rose out of the barrel, one standing on top of the other's shoulders. Powder landed on her feet on top of Miss Spink's shoulders and completed the tall tower.

Powder laughed as she found herself easily regaining her balance. It was better than any flying dream she'd had.

The dogs woofed and howled in applause. Ekko clapped and threw a rose from inside his coat. Powder caught it as she balanced in the air. She would've bowed, but she wasn't sure how to do so without falling. She just smiled and accepted the barking applause of the dogs in the audience.

…

In a time that felt like forever and nothing at all, Powder found herself walking out of the theater and back up the stairs outside. Her other mother and father were waiting for her at the top of the steps, standing side by side. The full moon lit them from behind. Father was still in his pajamas. Mother was wearing a brown dress that flattered her hips and ended above her knees. They were smiling at her.

"Hey, there!" the other father waved.

"Was it wonderful, dear?" asked her other mother.

"Oh, yeah!" Powder exclaimed, waving her arms, "They swooped down and pulled me right out of my seat, Spink and Forcible, only they weren't old ladies! That was just a disguise! But then, I was flying through the air, and it was… It was magic!"

The other mother seemed pleased. "You do like it here, don't you, Powder?"

"Uh-huh!" Powder nodded.

The three of them walked back up to Powder's other house together.

She waved over her shoulder. "Good night, Ekko."

Together, they went inside.

What Powder didn't see was Ekko at the foot of the porch steps, frowning sadly, rubbing his arm. The other mother gestured to him to smile, then closed the front door.

"You could stay here forever if you want to," the other mother said.

"Really?" Powder asked.

"Sure!" said other father, excitedly, "We'll sing, and play games, and Mother will cook your favorite meals."

"There's just one tiny little thing we need to do," said the other mother.

"What's that?" Powder asked.

The other father chuckled. "Well, it's a surprise."

They came into the dining room and sat at the table. The other mother picked up a present box and slid it to Powder across the table.

"For you, our little doll."

Smiling, Powder pulled at the ribbon and lifted the lid. But the inside was not what she expected. Then… she stared at the bottom of the box. Inside sat a spool of black cotton and a long, silver needle. And besides them, two large, black buttons.

Powder's heart started to beat faster even before the full realization hit her.

"Black is traditional," the other mother said with a smile as though she were talking about hair color. "But if you'd prefer pink or vermillion or chartreuse…" Hers and the other father's button eyes started to change colors, matching as she talked. Her fingernail tapping the side of her eye was incessant. "…though you might make me jealous," she giggled.

Her forehead immediately began to sweat. With a cry, Powder quickly pushed the box away, shoving it across the table. "No way! I'm not letting you sew buttons into my eyes!"

The other mother smiled, pushing the box in front of her again. "But we need a 'yes' if you want to stay here."

"So sharp you won't feel a – ow!" the other father exclaimed, getting kicked under the table and poking himself in the finger with the needle.

Mother stood up, seeming taller than before, walking around to Powder's shoulder. One hand on the back of her chair, the other holding the box in front of her. "Of course, it's your decision, dear," she said. "We only want what's best for you."

Powder pushed away from the table, standing up. "I-I'm going to bed. Right now!"

Other mother cocked her head to the side, frowning in concern. "Bed?"

The other father did too. "Before dinner?"

Nodding, Powder faked a yawn. "Yeah, I'm… really, really tired. I just need to… sleep on things."

"Well, of course you do, darling," the other mother said, taking a step forward, "I'll be happy to tuck you in."

Powder's other mother stroked Powder's hair with her long, white fingers. Powder recoiled, forcing a smile. "Oh, no thanks! You've already done enough –"

"You're welcome."

Powder had to close her mouth before she could scream in fright. She could've sworn she had seen the other mother was standing in the dining room, but the instant Powder turned to approach the staircase, the woman was standing there at the bottom of the steps.

If she was a woman at all.

"And I…" she said, motioning for the other father at her side. "We aren't worried at all, darling." She stroked the line down the bridge of Powder's nose, which gave Powder chills. "Soon you'll see things our way," she said, calmly.

They watched Powder as she climbed up the staircase. Powder tried to smile like them, even if it was forced. Then the moment they were out of sight, Powder raced up the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could, her heart pounding in her chest.

She threw her bedroom door shut, panting as she braced against it. Her paper dragonflies floated around her head, asking, "What's wrong, Powder? Don't you wanna play?"

Powder scowled at them, then plucked them from the air. She grabbed all her other toys, the tank, the dinosaur skulls, the squid, and shoved everything into her toy chest.

With all her might, she shoved the heaviest things in her room, the toy chest, a vanity, a rocking chair, and a trunk, in front of her door.

"I'm going home tonight, robots, and I won't be back," she muttered as she worked, grunting with the effort.

When that was done, she threw her shoes off, not bothering to change into pajamas, and dove under her bed covers.

It took forever, curling into herself, trying to convince herself she was safe under the blankets. "Just go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep," she repeated like a mantra.

She pretended that the other world didn't exist outside of her bedroom door. Not until the precise moment that she would decide to open her door again. That somehow made it a little easier to not feel like she was holding her breath as she tried to find sleep.