Mickey Mouse in the Public Domain

Chapter 6

Mickey, Oswald, and Minnie stumbled through the snow of the desolate peaks, following the map closely, but growing colder and colder as they went.

"We need to stop for the night," Minnie called out finally. Of course it'd be Minnie who surrendered to the elements first. Not very progressive if you ask me. 1928 girls, sigh...

But perhaps she was the more sensible one, because Oswald and Mickey had ice beards and mustaches plastered to their faces, a result of being too stubborn to stop and take a break out of the wind somewhere, despite being dressed up in their usual toon wear, and not being bundled up for this weather at all. 1928 guys, sigh... Not that progressive if you ask me.

Okay, enough progressiveness, time for a little conservatism-

Or better yet, let's just cut the politics entirely and get back to the story! :)

Oswald, despite his stubornitism, realized it was getting dark, and agreed it was best to stop for the night.

"At least I still got our supplies," Oswald said, pulling out the suitcase from earlier from who knows where, and plopping it out onto the ground.

Oswald pulled out a tent, and Mickey went up to help him with it, but Oswald just looked at Mickey and said, "I'll take care of the tent. Why don't you do something else, like start the fire or something."

So Mickey and Minnie went out to find firewood.

They found a piece here, another piece there...

Mickey found a loose piece of wood jutting from a tree, he tried to pull it loose, it was stuck. He pulled harder, his hands slipped...

The branch shot up, then whopped back down, knocking Mickey on the head before snapping off and falling on the ground beside him. Mickey rubbed his head and looked at the wood indignantly.

As Mickey and Minnie headed back to the camp with their firewood, Minnie paused a moment to climb over a fallen log, and looked at Mickey.

"Do you ever think of them? About the friends we may have had on the other side?"

Mickey paused a moment, then shrugged. He didn't remember remembering them, but he guessed he probably had them, 95 years was a lot of time not to make any friends, and you didn't need to push on the limits of copyright infringement to figure that out. That is, if they weren't canceled shortly after being brought into being that is. Perhaps Oswald was wrong and they only did exist in 1928, and this was it. Perhaps Minnie was the only long term friend he would find in the next 95 years, what did any of them know?

"I guess not really," Mickey said, "What's the point, if they do exist, they're under copyright and we're not. We couldn't remember them if we wanted to."

Mickey didn't say it, but he couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy for those "friends". Must be nice, knowing who your owners were, your future secure. But here Mickey was, out in the middle of a frozen nowhere, following a rabbit he hardly knew, running from a complete psychopath of a future self that he could potentially become himself because that's what happens with characters in the Public Domain!

But then he looked at Minnie, a deep fondness filling him. She was here with him. No matter how far he had fallen from the world and the life he was supposed to know, she was still here at his side, a sense of familiar and companionship against it all. He didn't know if he deserved her, but he sure was grateful.

But he still couldn't get Oswalds words out of his mind. As much as he cared for and was glad to have Minnie at his side, there was still 95 years of unknown ahead of them, could it be possible that him and Minnie weren't forever.