Appropriate Container

Wyso pulled at the crumpled tab on the top of his nub. The melted plastic encasing him was of the crinkly, thicker type, the kind used to cover English cucumbers.

Cucumbers could be eaten in many ways, to scoop bean dip or in salads or layered in sandwiches.

Ah, sandwiches. Wyso had a dim memory of sandwiches, filling the mouth with such delicious chewiness.

He could not open his own mouth now, much less take the stiff plastic covering off his nub. That went against the entire order of things and would accomplish nothing useful anyway.

So what if he exposed his nub to the world and the elements? What would happen? Would he be free like in dreams of flying up far above the clouds in the sky to sweep and dive in the forever blue of creation?

He stared out through the glass covering of the container. He was in a gray corridor and could not really move much at all.

The one behind him never spoke. He tried turning to see her, but only caught a brief glimpse of golden hair and a stiff, sad smile.

“Do you hear me, beautiful girl?”

Was she lonely?

Wyso said, “Maybe this world isn’t really worth the effort. But isn’t there something you find interesting?”

He thought he heard a faint whisper. “Barbie.”

Wyso felt his pulse quicken and something almost palpable thicken in him as her words eked out.

“Beautiful?”

“So beautiful that my nub is fit to burst, my dear Barbara.”

Myso heard her cry and felt a lone tear roll down his own cheek, slipping slowly over the hothouse cucumber plastic and pooling down his legs at his feet.

“Do not cry, dear one. Though I am serious, I am also profound and loving, I really am.”

“Wyso serious?”

Which happened to be the precise moment when the child turned the knob on the vending machine and Wyso fell down the long tunnel on his way towards his next adventure.