A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Second-Bannana Heaven

She woke up with a gear shaft jammed against her back.

Blinking, she groaned; blinked her brilliant eyes against the harsh lights blinking at her from the floor. Carefully, gingerly, she sat up, staring blankly at her surroundings.

This wasn't Alabama anymore!

Memory came back to her in a horrified rush; coming home from a house show tour...sitting out in the middle of her cousin Bob's corn patch, where she'd fallen asleep...not noticing the thunderstorm when it arrived...

She remembered it all, in a murky haze; a white-haired, cherubic man, welcoming her to "Second-banana heaven"....the way his babyish features scrunched up...some mistake?

"Oh poopie."

The words echoed in her subconscious. The last things he'd said to her before announcing that she had to be sent back. It was repeated with wide eyes when she didn't quite make it back down to earth...

Molly studied her cramped but rather futuristic surroundings, her hands locked behind her back, afraid to touch anything. What was mamma's golden rule?: lovely to look at, delightful to hold; break it, you brat, and I'll make your nose fold?...

A whooshing sound, followed instantly by the cranking of metal, issued at her side; turning around, she stared awkwardly as a passageway opened. Three forms moved towards her, down the length of a well-lit tunnel; the closer they came, the easier they were to make out: a golden, birdlike robot, walking on elongated legs. Beside it, a man, blond, speaking to it as though the robot were a thinking, living creature (she realized, quickly, that it was when it let out a nasally laugh). In the arms of the man was another robot; much smaller, with the head of a small bubble gum machine and a little beak-like mouth...which emitted a strong, baritone voice.

Molly stood there and stared at them while they went about their business; discussing a movie...something Spider Island? Maybe it was her concussion, or the overload of information into her sweet, simple brain; suddenly, her head raced downward, to meet with the floor...

But her fall was broken by a coil of cable. With her last ounce of rational though, Molly followed the length of the tubing upward, where it ended in a huge purple head. Then, blackness evaporated her existence..

Her sotto-voiced savior shook her head, the form of a small blond woman entangled in a gentle grip. Mike and her fellow bots, completely oblivious, continued to babble on.

"Guys," Said Gypsy simply, "I think we have a situation here..."


Go On