Room had been very empty for several days. So had Other Room. But Papple wasn't quite sure if this was only his own perception or if indeed much time had passed since he had last seen Ella and Maher. He wondered listlessly through Maher Place, occasionally knocking on Wash Wash Room doors and peeking in when there was no response.
With a sigh, he plopped himself down on the couch in Couch Room and tried, for the umpteenth time, to see if he could access Small Room. He shook the rectangular magic stick that he often saw Maher using in activating television Small Room. Nothing worked.
Papple walked over to the fridge and used the stepladder that Maher had purchased for him to climb up and open the fridge door. He achieved this by grabbing onto the rope that Maher had slung on the fridge door handle and using his body weight to swing the door out. Once the door was opened, he clambered back up the ladder but noted with melancholy that the fruit supply had dwindled down to a couple of grape stems and empty bags.
As Papple climbed back down the stepladder to go to Room for a nap, he heard a knock at the door. Maybe dis Boy! he thought to himself. In his excitement, Papple ran to the door, having forgotten Maher's warnings about leaving the front door closed at all times and never opening it for strangers.
Foregoing protocol of looking through the peephole to see who was on the other side, Papple quickly pushed the stepladder to the door and unlocked it. He scrambled back down and used the rope attached to the L shaped door handle to pull it down and open the door. He was indeed a very strong little robot. The smell of mangoes, guava and mint enveloped the little fruit.
"Where you been, Maher!" he exclaimed as the front door to the hallway swung open. "You smell different!" Only when Papple's eyes refocused to the light from outside, he quickly realized his mistake. It was arguable who was more shocked at this moment--the roly-poly plush toy or the large, muscular man standing in the hallway . . ..
"Shoot," said the man in the hallway, who could give any linebacker a run for his money.
"Damn," said the little pineapple, whose eyes were popping out of his head. "You big, big, big man mountain."
"Am I tripping?" the big man said, mainly to himself, as he rubbed a large hand over his closely cropped hair.
"No, you okay," replied Papple. "You no fall down."
The man in the hallway shook his head, squeezed his eyes shut for several seconds before he reopened them. "You're still here!" he exclaimed.
"You knock on my door," replied Papple quizzically. "Why me no be here?"
"Give me a minute," said the man, setting down his bags of groceries.
"No problem," said Papple, sensing the man was not feeling well. "You want me get you some fruit?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, wait," Papple said sadly. "They is all gone. I forgot. Me eat them all already and Maher no is here."
Suddenly remembering why he had knocked on the door in the first place, the man asked, "Uh, is Maher here now?"
"No," said Papple. "Me no know where he is."
"Oh," replied the man. "Well, I'm his neighbor and I was going to invite him over to my Hawaiian themed party tonight."
Perking up at the words, Papple said, "You have Hawaii party tonight?"
"Ya, little guy," replied the man. "Tell him that Marlon dropped by. I mean if this is a real conversation and I'm not having it in my head." The man turned around and headed back down the hall, shaking his head slowly as he went.
"Okay," said Papple dejectedly, and he began to close the door to go back into lonely Maher Place.
"Wait!" said Marlon, turning back around again. "I need to make sure I haven't gone mad. If my friends can see you, that means I'm not crazy, right?"
"Yes," said Papple, with a little skip in his heart. "Dis make sense. But you no crazy--well me think you no crazy."
"Do you, uh, are you allowed...I mean, do you want to come to the party?"
"You have Hawaii songs and fruit at party?"
"Of course," Marlon replied.
"You lean down for one moment?" asked the little guy.
Confused, but obliging, Marlon bent down and Papple, scrambled back to the top of the stepladder, leaned forward and sniffed his bald head. "It's you! You smell the mango, guava mint. You good man. Me can come!"
Half lead by his stomach, but mainly convinced by the kind and comforting smell that emanated from his new friend, Papple jumped onto Marlon's broad shoulders and headed off to Not Maher Place for what promised to be a very fun Hawaiian party.
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