Stuffed Convention Trouble

Dee stared at the stuffed animals. They were so innocent. Yet she had a knack for making trouble when she played. She remembered back when she had pretended Pythagoras the Platypus was training Pops the leopard to be a robber, just for the sake of a storyline. The pink fox came alive in her hands, stretching out and yawning. Dee set the toy down and asked, “Excited for the convention?”

“Yeah, I am,” Rosy replied, looking around. “Wow, I’ll never get used to how different it looks in the real world.”

“Probably not. I can’t even imagine what it’s like in your world,” Dee replied.

“Look, Dee, I want this convention to go well this year. This is Debrah’s first one. Could you not make trouble?”

Dee chuckled.

“You know me. I can’t not.”

“Please, Dee. It’s just one day, after all.”


The parade began, and Rosy saw Debrah among the animals in the Remarkable group. She was the one child left and had joined the Dee-Tribe since the last convention. Daniel led the parade, as the leader of the Dee-Tribe. He was soon joined by Muffin, the leader of E-Tribe, and her parade.

Rosy could hardly believe that Daniel was her uncle. Though every member of Dee-Tribe was related, it was quite a thing to be the niece of the lead-fox. Locksy, Rosy’s mother, hurried forward and muttered something in Daniel’s ear. Daniel stopped walking, and everything went quiet. He whispered with Locksy briefly, and she hurried off.

“Apologies. There’s a bit of an emergency. But my police are working on it now.”

Locksy was the chief of police. Rosy ducked through the crowd and caught up with Locksy.

“What’s wrong, mom?” she asked worriedly. “What’s the emergency?”

“Your brother’s missing.”

“What?” Rosy stopped, surprised. Then she continued going. “Who? Which one?”

“Johnny.”

“When?”

“Just about an hour ago. Wandered off and never came back. I’ve been looking everywhere for him. Not even his wife’s seen him. He just vanished.”

Rosy sighed. Dee was always making trouble.

“Keep looking, mom. I’ll do what I can to find him.”

Rosy turned and headed home. To bed.

“Dee, where’s Johnny?” Rosy snarled. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t cause trouble today!”

Dee put her head in her hands and said, “I don’t know where he is.”

“What?” Rosy gasped. “You don’t know? How could you not know?”

“I came in here an hour ago and he wasn’t there. I can’t find him. He’s gone.”


“Luke! Luke! I need to talk to you!” Rosy gasped. The small fox turned to her.

“Yeah?” he said. “What can I do for you?”

“Luke, I know how Special you are.”

“Of course.”

Some Specials were so special that they earned the title Super Special. They always lived in both realities at once.

“I was wondering. About an hour ago, did you notice anything strange happen in the real world. With Johnny?”

“Sorry, no. I was busy helping prepare for the convention. Speaking of the convention, the meeting’s about to start. We’d better get going.”


Everyone was sitting down in the large meeting room when Cynthia whinnied and stood up.

“Has anyone seen Debrah? I can’t find her!”

This sent the room into a panic, looking around and searching for the lost lobster.

“Debrah!” Cynthia squealed. “Debrah, baby, where are you?”

No answer. Luke, who was sitting next to Rosy and her husband, Samuel, squinted and muttered, “That’s not possible.”

“What’s not possible?” Rosy asked urgently. Luke turned to her, his face a mask of confusion.

“It’s a tiny human,” he muttered in a low voice. “A toddler. He’s stealing us in the real world.”