… Mr. Mouton entered his car again. “Fasten back your seatbelts, boys,” he said, turning the car back on. “We’ll go to the back, from there we can enter. Hope both of you are ready.” He gave a smile and a chuckle. Chester gave big one of his own right back, a grin made to strike fear. Mr. Mouton, of course the adult in the situation, turned off the smile and professionally resumed to driving them to their place. He also muttered something under his breath, but that didn’t matter. Tom, meanwhile, could not help but feel like that his life was being taken away again into some strange direction. He had no clue, even less desire to follow, but couldn’t do anything, he felt. Why do people like to take control of everything? As they drove around the building, they entered the parking lot. From there, Mr.Mouton stopped, and said that they have arrived. They found another building, almost looking like a giant shed, which situated really close with the main one. “I’ll open the trunk, and you two take the machine to that building,” he said, pointing to the shed. He then left the boys alone in a car again, this time to visit the smaller building. As Chester stood up, Tom mindlessly caught his sleeve. As the hedgehog looked at him, the cat meekly pulled away his hand. The poor kid couldn’t help but fidget. There was something so unfair about this for him. “Do…do we really have to…give up?” he uttered. He wanted to go against that decision, but not entirely aware of why. And that was, perhaps, what upset him the most. “I mean, we only arrived and…” he muttered, being unable to even finish. Chester smirked. “Don’t worry about that, dude,” he said. “You can play, I just have a bigger plan here.” Tom saw him exit a vehicle, his face never changing through it all. He had already arrived to the trunk, and by the time Tom managed to open his door, he began calling the later to hurry up. Once again, this wasn’t his day. … The door was knocked three times. Jerome Elefantus, the single son of Miss Elefantus herself, lightly raised his eyes from his book. As the door continued on to not open in front of him, he went back to reading, chalking it up to another door dasher. What a devastating state of affairs, that such thoughts became commonplace. Whereas they would sell their apples throughout the town’s centre with ease, considered to be the best eatery throughout the neighbourhood, now they simply abide time until someone just decides to walk in. At this point, he had no real interest anymore, and so as well, he thought, was his mother. It was as if, after that dreadful monster experience, she decided to stop caring about the shop. The door was knocked three times again. Immediately, it was accompanied by a slow, deliberate unbarring of the door. The first that came into the view was the head of a young girl, a lizard, with a pretty, red bow. She then fully entered, giving a good look at her dress. And while it was quite fashionable looking, there were also obvious stains on her skirt and shoes, which were hurriedly wiped away some time earlier. She moved around the room, taking every fifteen seconds to stand by each shelf and corner of the store. First near their basket of apples, then their large variety of pastries, some at a lower price, and even by the picture on the wall that showed Jerome and his mother posing with the farmers. Her hands were behind her back, to prop up that innocent look of hers, which were interestingly, got coupled with her constant head turns to look behind herself. At one point, her met the older elephant’s, who was tiredly trying to figure out what she was up to, and she quickly turned away as if she saw nothing. What an odd girl. Actually, make that two girls, because another one was poking her head through the door, motioning the first one. He recognized her as one of those spoiled rich kids that passed by his store occasionally. The first girl finally moved towards the counter, stopping right in front of him. Then she did a quick twirl, stopped, looked at him in the eyes, and then bent down to look at the shelves below the counter. “Can I help you?” Jerome asked, without necessarily moving from his seat. The lizard girl looked at him, moved her eyes away, turned around to the door, and after the deer just motioned her to keep going, turned back to him. “Oh, I’m sure you have, sir!” she stated with full confidence. He didn’t say anything, but heard a very loud forehead slap from the direction of the door. “Are you…looking for something…young lady?” he asked methodically. Suddenly, her eyes bugged out and she froze. The elephant furrowed his brows and started darting his eyes to see if she saw something, even checking behind his shoulder. Then, very loud whisper came to them, “Compliment him!” The lizard girl then unfroze and vigorously bobbed her head. She once again locked her eyes at the elephant’s, much to his discomfort at this point, and said, “You…um…have a…really…” she took a moment of pause, “Long trunk!” The door creaked very slowly. Apparently the wind blew it open, which would happen when no one would hold it in place, such as that deer girl, who was busy burying her face in her hands and then rubbing her temples. Jerome, without missing a beat, replied it with, “Why yes, I do!” He was feeling a bit prideful from that. “I’m glad you noticed it! Believe it or not, not many people do, but I do, in fact, have on of the longest trunks an elephant could have! I mean, they do say that big noses are a sign of intellect! Did you know that? Oh, I wish people knew of it. But, I guess when the only other elephant in this town is your mother, well, who else to compare it to?” He then gave a gleeful chuckle, with a smile beaming on his face. In all that laughing, he hadn’t noticed the deer girl standing there with her jaw falling to the ground. “Um,” the lizard girl uttered, trying to get his attention again. “Yes?” he said, halting. And then immediately she began to stammer again. She apparently was trying to get something out of her, but was having some difficulty. She was looking around the place, perhaps to find something, until her eyes landed on the deer girl. From there, she finally came to something, and looked at him again. “Can I have…one free…apple cupcake?” she asked him. Then she went to correct herself, “Actually, no, two! Two cupcakes! One for free, and another, I’ll pay myself!” She finished it off by flashing a smile. He stared at her for few minutes. There was a sound of someone, perhaps a young girl, banging her head against a wooden wall. Finally, he sighed, realizing that it was time for a lunchbreak. Then before he could do something, the backdoor opened, and in entered a young wolf cub. There was a cupcake in his paws, which he was ripping open to see what it had inside. “Hmmm…raisins,” the boy mumbled. He then looked up and realized where he ended up. First he greeted Jerome, and then he froze after seeing the girl. “Who are..?” Jerome stood from his chair, but the boy had already made his way towards the lizard. “Hi,” he said, very meekly. “Hello!” the girl replied, giving him a small wave. The boy glanced down and fidgeted. Despite his fur, he was clearly turning very red, up to his ears. “Do…um…do you want a cupcake?” he asked, and without raising his head up, presented her his treat. “Oh, is that raisin? Sure, I love raisins!” she said. “Me too!” the boy exclaimed, jumping in joy. However, he got even redder, and after shoving the cupcake to Jerome, run back to where he entered. The elephant furrowed his brows, checked the cupcake, and then the lizard girl again. “So, um…Hey! I can have that cupcake, right?” she asked. After Jerome looked at it, and gave a shrug, she said, “Great! I’ll have another extra cupcake…which I’ll pay for!” “Five dollars, young lady,” he said. She paid and brought both of the cupcakes to her deer friend. “I got the cupcakes!” she said to her. “You….” The deer began rubbing her forehead, before throwing her hands up and nod that, “Yes, sure, you got it.” Both girls exited and closed the door shut. Jerome got back to his book, and checked the time again. Maybe he could spend few more minutes. Where is the world coming to? … “We are really close now!” announced Lily. “Really?” asked Bobby, limping his way to her. One of his heels came undone while they were shopping for baking soda, turning his walk into a goofy triple-step. Lily waited patiently for him, waiting until he caught up and walked right beside to the painting store. Miss Elefantus told them that this place had all the supplies they needed, and for cheap too. Apparently, that man loved kids, and would give stuff for free. They entered in, and immediately were met with the collection of every possible painting, made with every style under the sun. Both Lily and Bobby awed a bit, at the brightly lit, and terribly organized mess of colors. It also had that strong smell of paint and wood, which Bobby, based on how long he took to sniff it all, liked. “This is heaven!” he exclaimed. Lily looked behind the counter, and noticed the owner, who was hid behind a giant canvas. She asked Bobby to stay behind, and to try not to do anything while she was away. “You still have baking soda, right?” she checked. The young mole nodded, and pulled it out of his pocket. “Good, keep it safe.” She went around the counter and into the inside of the store. The owner was a peacock, his feather colors bright blue and emerald, who was painting a giant, grey blob on the canvas. And he was very focused on it too, not even spotting the young bat coming to him or hanging by his shoulder. She looked at the painting, and at few others around the back, which were just as weird as the grey blob. There was another, unfinished canvas right by his side, in more wilder colors. And on the wall opposite, laying on the floor, was a giant picture of a river in France. Lily got back to standing right next to the picture. She loudly cleared her throat, getting the attention of the artist. “Hello, Mister Gogh!” she said. The owner was surprised, but nevertheless put on a smile. “Welcome,” he answered, putting down the brush. “How…long have you been standing there?” “Not too long.” “Thank goodness,” he said, truly relieved. “May I help you with something?” “We need art supplies,” Lily answered. “Of course, of course, right this way,” the owner, Mr. Gogh, said and got up from his chair. He led her further back, and showed shelves stacked with, frankly, everything. From every measurements of canvases, every style of brush, and every set of painting supplies like acrylic and watercolor and more. There were even different types of stands there. “What do you need young lady?” he asked, his tone even and friendly. “A big sheet of paper, a picture frame and some markers, if you have some,” she told him. “Also, maybe some tubes with color? Actually, we’d need pencils too. Some like using pencils more.” Mr. Gogh cocked his head, looking amused. “Would you like one kid set? It has everything you ask for, and it’s pretty cheap.” “Of course!” He nodded, and went to rummage through his shelves. While she waited, she noticed more pictures hanging even behind the shelves. Some of them were actually very gorgeous. “Wow, you have a lot of pretty pictures, Mister Gogh,” she uttered. “Did you draw them all yourself?” The owner chuckled. “Actually, few of them I got from my friends around the country,” he noted, already pulling a wooden case from lower shelves. “Really? So many?” Lily asked. “Yes.” He brought the case to her. “I don’t really live here, actually.” “Oh, why not?” Lily asked, while opening the case, to see what was inside. As he said, it had pretty much everything she asked for. “That’ll be around twenty dollars for you,” he noted. Closing it, he continued, “Well, it’s not like I don’t want to live here…But there isn’t a lot to do in a small place like this. Still, it’s nice to come back to this place. It’s where I got most of my inspirations.” “Oh, really,” Lily commented, her eyes still wandering around. There were still more pictures here, it was magical. “Let’s go to the front and then you-“ A bell rang from the front door. Immediately, something metallic fell, and a young boy’s yelp reached them. Lilly looked behind her and gasped. She dashed right in, and pulled the rolling bucket back upright, which had been spilling red all over the floor. Some of that paint ended up on that France picture too. Lily looked up to Bobby, who was at this point, was standing in that red colored puddle. “I didn’t do it!” he exclaimed. Lily grew cross. “Bobby!” “I swear, I didn’t do it!” he insisted. Lily turned around to Mr. Gogh, whose beak was covered from glancing at the ruined picture. “We’re so sorry, Mister Gogh! Was it one of your friends’ pictures?” she asked, cringing already from possible answer. “Actually, yes, it was.” He sighed, and rubbed his own, thin neck. He moved in closer for a better glance, and after standing there for a few seconds, stated that, “You know what, it doesn’t look half bad…” “I swear I didn’t…” Both of them turned to him, as Bobby was looking his hands together and wouldn’t dare to look back at them. “Bobby, it’s not good to lie,” Lily told him. He answered rather loudly with, “But if I do tell the truth, you still gonna send me to my room and tell me not to do stuff with everyone anymore! Tell me to learn to stop doing that cause you’re tired. And…and call me a klutz and tell me I can’t play with anyone!” There was a moment of silence. Bobby kept looking away, while Lily just shook her head in disappointment. “Ah, you are a klutz,” Mr. Gogh said. Both children looked at him. He continued, “you know, I have a friend who used to be like that. He’s a mechanical engineer now.” “Really?” Bobby said. “What’s an engineer?” “It’s a very important job, with lots of machines. He is actually pretty good at it!” he said, while returning to the back of the room. In there, he began rummaging, pulling a bucket and a cloth. “He also does a lot of messy art, where he throws some stuff on giant white wall. It actually looks good.” Bobby looked surprised. As he began filling the bucket with water from nearby tap, he mentioned, “This picture over there, by the way, was one of his creations.” Bobby’s jaw dropped. “Really?” “Yeah! He likes messy fun, but can draw well too. It takes a lot of work, though, so he switches between one or another.” “Can I also paint like this?” Bobby meekly asked. Mr. Gogh laughed. “Oh, you surely can! But I guess you’ll need some material for that first. How about you and your friends come over here to for some painting classes?” Bobby positively beamed once he heard that. He turned to Lily, as if hopping if it was allowed. “That sounds cool, we should ask Miss Cheshire about it!” “Yeah!!!” Bobby said excitedly. “Wait, where’s the baking soda?” Bobby froze and then looked down again. “Oh Bobby…” “I…” He looked away again. “If you need some baking soda, I can give you some of my own, for free.” Both kids looked at him in awe. “You can!” Lilly asked, very surprised. “No problem.” “YAY!!!” Bobby shouted, splashing the paint around with his jumps. Everyone moved away from him, but also laughed. The atmosphere became positively delightful. “Spare me,” said someone. All three looked to the counter and saw a clown. The painter fell down, as his body enveloped by darkness …