The Wedding Guest's Tale

Platypuss here. I'm in the process of shopping the minds of the BBL Animals and gathering stories of the wedding to post. It's a bit tricky because the Animals are fast asleep after this three-day festival and the images are all tumbled together, just like the Animals on the bed, merging into each other... One thing is clear, however. An unexpected guest arrived from the distant land of Annalu and Sally and Eric, bearing kumquats. And the Animals cried out: "Just what we were missing! A guest of honor! What's your name?"

"Speedy, of course," said Speedy.

"Welcome Speedy! Hooray!" said the Animals. Bink thought this was all somewhat disorganized and tried to make Speedy feel more comfortable by offering him a choice of wedding possibilities: "Would you like to make a speech now or tell a story later?" Bink asked.

"I would like to tell a story. I will tell it now," Speedy answered, and all the animals gathered around happy as could be because they could tell, just by looking at him, that this Speedy Animal had good stories to tell. Speedy looked right at Goat and said in the most fascinating way: "This is a story of-- Adventure." Like many of the most ancient and wonderful story-tellers, Speedy spoke in someone else's voice - in this case, the voice of Sally, Annalu's most favorite mother - so he could put himself in the story! A great number of Animal eyes were fixed on him and you could have heard a corsage drop in the Wedding Gazebo they were all so quiet, waiting for him to begin. And he began:
Speedy's European Adventure One day, Speedy was with Anna Lu at a shopping mall while she was having lunch and he got dropped by accident on the floor. Someone picked him up and threw him in the trash, and poor Anna Lu thought he was lost and gone forever. Her BEST toy! However, when I went to England about 6 months later to a conference in Sheffield, I checked into my hotel room and there in bed was Speedy! He had new ears and a new nose and smile, but otherwise, he was as I remembered him. Here was the story he told me, which I went home and told to Anna Lu: Speedy's garbage can was dumped into a dumpster that was dumped into a dump truck that was dumped onto a trash barge that sailed all the way around the world to Amsterdam. When it docked there, Speedy jumped off and hopped on a train to Germany. He was made in Germany, so he was very eager to go back and see his old home town of Bad Waldsee, where Anna's cousin Judith, who is a fashion designer and very good at sewing, lives.

Speedy rode on trains of many kinds with minor adventures too numerous to mention, until finally after several weeks, he did arrive at Bad Waldsee, only to get into a very bad situation with two nasty old cats, right in front of cousin Judith's house. Lucky for Speedy, Judith came out of her house on her way to work just in the nick of time and chased the mean old cats away, who were fighting over Speedy and about to tear him to shreds. Not much was left of Speedy when cousin Judith found him. He was torn up and most of his face was ruined or just missing. All the same, Judith recognized Speedy, since she had met him with Anna Lu many times in the past and had even mended one of his ears on a previous visit to California. Being the amazing talent that she was, Judith mended Speedy this time, and she let him stay with her as long as he wanted. He stayed for many months, very happy to be back in his native land, but eventually, he began to miss Anna Lu, so he decided to try to make his way back to California. His efforts, which, again, involved an elaborate series of adventures, landed him in the hotel in Sheffield, England, where by a miraculous coincidence he was reunited with me. You might think that the story ends quickly here, but that is not the case. Speedy, worried that Anna Lu would not want him back, given how very different his face now looked, refused to come home with me in my suitcase. He decided to stay in Sheffield until he knew for certain that Anna Lu still loved him, even in his altered form. So he asked me to take some pictures of him, with his new friend, David, at the train station, in his new bed at the hotel, etc. (I have several others as well). He told me to show them to Anna Lu when I got home and ask her if she wanted him to come back. If so, he promised that he would find a way to get home. Wanting to be helpful, I left him with a self-addressed Manila envelop, postage paid, so that he could mail himself directly, should he decide to return. When I got back from my trip, I showed Anna Lu the pictures and told her the story. She looked carefully at his new ears and nose, then said, yes, she definitely wanted him to come back. It was now more than 6 months since she'd seen him but she was still devoted to him. So, we wrote Speedy a letter and sent it to his Manchester hotel address, and about 10 days later, Speedy arrived back home in the mail. Anna Lu was overjoyed to see him. That was July 2005. Anna Lu sleeps with Speedy always to this day, although he no longer goes out shopping. He still attempts to go on other great adventures (you should hear about his island hopping efforts in Hawaii!), but so far the European escapade was his last.
"WHAT A STORY!" cried the Animals when Speedy was done, and they all picked up their hula hoops and began to dance with Annalu. Note from Pinky Your Hostess: You will be hearing more about Speedy and his amazing Monsters, Sally, Eric, and Annalu!