Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 22:04:08 -0500 From: Phanny Subject: INT: Island: Entering the haunted house The group plods up the trail.... up, up, up.... around and around.... some stopping to rest or admire the tropical vegetation and it's beautiful varigations and blossoms. Suddenly Vinnie, the pigtail macaque, leaps smoothly onto Phanny's back and pats the top of her head, pointing excitedly at the house. Phanny squints in that direction in the waning light and sees Hagatha at a window. She waves and Hagatha raises a hand somberly in return. Someone who looked like Bunny, sort of.... goes flying past another window on another floor. "Hagatha is waiting for us! This is gonna be such a treat!" "Ummmm.... Phanny?..... Ummm... you dropped something there...." Tom says hesitantly with a smile. "Wha....OOOOPS!" Vinnie's jump had broken the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder -- coconuts and twine -- and it lay on the ground, broken near a large rock. No one seems to notice or mind, except Tom, who is studying Phanny intently. THWAPPP!! "All right, you derty ol man!! Ain'tchu never seen a phemale before? Would you like a picture? Here.... I'll see wot I kin do with a palm leaf er two. Vinnie, go phetch me a couple of them leaves, willya?" Vinnie stays securely hugging Phanny about the head, still eyeballing Hagatha at the house. "Xiao! Yo! Will you git me a couple palm leaves? This worthless Vinnie...." Xiao comes loping up the path around people, grinning like a monkey, and does her bidding. She plants a kiss and a large island phlower on top of Xiao's bald head. The group proceeds to the door of the haunted house, whereupon it swings open, creaking and groaning. Vinnie has become a permanent kind of winter hat on Phanny's head. Xiao is likewise glued to his dad, Rqy. Everyone else is wide-eyed..... all but Dustin. Dustin is inebriated, celebrating Cleveland's berth in the Whirled Cereal. He plows through everyone else phrom the rear and marches up to the door, expecting some courteous being to welcome him. Dustin enters the great entry and yells "We're here! Which way to the seance?"