It's One of Those Days!
written by David & Frank Kocourek
It was a hot, bright, sunny morning in Hollywood. The ground was mostly dry from the previous night's rain. People were busy walking to places, driving to work and opening stores with the usual hustles of a new day. Sawyer, on the other hand, was in no rush this morning. She was taking a casual walk to meet Danny at his place, then have breakfast with the others. She had rarely had such a relaxing morning's walk like this. Before her new life as a star started, hurrying to her job at 'Farley Wink's Animal Agency' was the rule of the morning. While walking past a barbershop, a black cat stepped out of the alley just before her, obviously in a hurry. He tipped his hat off to her just for a moment, before quickly hurrying across the street to the other side, dodging the traffic. She paused a moment, then continued on her way.
'Nah...! So what if he's black?', she thought to herself. 'He couldn't help being a black cat any more than I could being Persian. It's simply silly to think that a black cat brings bad luck.'
A couple steps further, her purse slipped off her shoulder and fell to the ground, spilling its contents. "Oh, bother." While she bent down to pick up her things, a man reading a newspaper bumped into her from behind, knocking her forward onto the ground.
"Umph! Hey, watch it!", she shouted, indignant. The man continued on his way, only pausing long enough to offer a brief 'Excuse me.' She brushed herself off, put her things back in her purse and stood back up. The barber from the barbershop walked to the doorway.
"Excuse me, Miss. Are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you. That man didn't even bother to stop. How rude."
The barber nodded and walked back into his shop. She continued her walk to more familiar buildings.
"Ah, there it is. Danny's place is right..."
A loud crash sounded right behind her, making her jump, startled. She spun around to see what had made the sound. A shattered flowerpot lay on the ground nearby. She blinked a couple times and took a deep breath, then looked up to see why it'd fallen. On the third floor of an apartment building, a young boy with his hand over his mouth looked down out of a window with a small ledge. Seeing Sawyer looking up at him, the boy disappeared inside. She hurried away for a short distance, looking back for a moment then slowed her pace back to a walk. She arrived at Danny's place and rang his doorbell. Danny opened the door.
"Good morning, Sawyer. Come on in. I'll be ready in just a minute."
She walked in the hallway and paused in front of a mirror hanging there. Looking herself over, she brushed a couple locks of hair back in place. Nearby, Danny finished putting on his vest and hat and straightened his bow tie.
Sawyer let out an audible sigh. "What a morning I've had."
Danny looked at her. "Is something the matter?"
In a slightly sarcastic voice, she replied, "Oh, no, nothing in particular. First, I drop my purse and everything falls out and when I try to pick it up, some guy knocks me over. He didn't even look. Then, I nearly got hit with a flowerpot someone knocked off their windowsill. All this right after some black cat walked out of an alley - cutting me off, mind you - walked across the street and.."
Danny interrupts, "Did you say a black cat?"
Sawyer shrugged. "Yeah. So?"
Danny pointed at her. "Maybe you've got bad luck."
Sawyer gave one of her disbelieving laughs. "Bad luck?" She looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "You believe in bad luck?"
"I don't believe in bad luck but some people do. Take T.W. for example..."
She waved a hand, outstretched. "No, no, no - I don't have bad luck. I don't believe in bad luck. Danny, don't be ridiculous."
Danny put on his straw hat and walked to the door, opening it. "After you."
Danny held the door open for her while she walked outside, then followed. Not really looking, Danny shut the door and immediately Sawyer shouted. Danny quickly opened the door and Sawyer pulled the end of her tail to herself out of the doorway.
"Oops! Sorry, Sawyer! I didn't know your tail was still in the door." Danny said, apologetically.
Sawyer brushed her pained tail for a moment, giving him a very displeased look for a moment, but decided to let it pass. "Forget it, Danny." Danny paused a moment and she gestured to the sidewalk.
"Shall we walk?"
Danny nodded cheerfully. "Sure!"
The two of them continued on their way, passing by various stores that where opening up. Danny inhaled deeply with a smile. "I love the smell in the air after a good rain. It kinda reminds me of Kokomo."
Sawyer smiled. "Do you miss Kokomo?"
Danny looked around. "From time to time but my heart is here in Hollywood." He gave a quick admiring glance at Sawyer. Danny started to hum and dance ahead of Sawyer. "Hmm, hmm, bop, bop, doo-wop, wow!" Sawyer couldn't help but smile. "He'll never change."
Ahead, a storeowner changed flipped a sign on the door to read "Open" and walked outside. He looked for a moment while Danny tap-danced by and started to crank a lever. As Sawyer was walking by, the awning in front of the store opened up and captured water from the rain poured off of it... right on top of Sawyer.
"Ahhh!"
Danny stopped and spun around to see a drenched-looking Sawyer. The storeowner snuck inside his store, not wanting to be confronted by a wet cat. Danny walked to her side while she stood there wide-eyed.
"Are you alright? At least your hat helped a little."
She took off her hat and shook it off, then started to shake water off herself. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I do have bad luck."
He grinned. "There's no such thing as bad luck, remember? It could just be a lousy morning."
She flicked some water at him. "You're the one who brought it up in the first place."
Danny smiled. "True, but I never said you did have bad luck. C'mon, let's find you a place where you can dry off."
Danny ushered her along, passing in front of a small, two-story candy factory. Inside, a man was wheeling a large can of liquid licorice and tripped. The barrel hit the side of a window and toppled, spilling its contents outside. Outside, Danny and Sawyer were suddenly doused in a black torrent.
Danny blinked, looking at himself. "Huh??"
Sawyer held up her arms, looking at herself. "Ick!! Wha-what IS this?"
Danny took a sniff. "Mmmm! It's licorice."
Sawyer stood there for a moment, eyes flat and narrowed in disbelief. She sighed and tried to shake it off herself but very little of it comes off, Danny also trying.
Danny pointed at her. "Sawyer, that's a new look for you - black."
Sawyer pointed back. "Oh really? You're a black cat, too! Ohhh, what else can go wrong?"
A tall, skinny man ran up to them and excitedly said, "You two are perfect! You're great! You're just right!"
Both of them looked at each other in confusion. The man ushered them a short distance into a building before they could react. "My name's David Fitzgerald. I need you two for a cat food commercial! I've been looking all week and suddenly, there you are!"
Danny hesitantly replied, "Um, we really don't want to..."
The advertiser cut him off and held out a contract. "Don't be shy now. Here, sign this! You'll be rich, famous even!", holding out a pen to them.
Sawyer reached for the pen but stopped, finally regaining her wits. She'd had this pulled on her before, by a certain professional called Farley Wink. "Wait a minute, Danny! We're already stars. We don't need to do this."
Without further ado, she turned around and started to leave - and immediately stopped. Outside, Cranston, Tillie and Woolie were just beginning to walk by the window on their way to meet them for breakfast.
"Oh, no." She hurried to Danny and pointed outside, whispering, "The others are coming. We can't let them see us like this. We'll never live it down."
Danny whispered back, "I guess we'll have to do the commercial." Turning to the man, he said, "Okay, we'll do the commercial."
Mr. Fitzgerald looked ecstatic. "Wonderful! Sign here..." Sawyer & Danny signed the contract. The man eyed the contract as a couple gobs of licorice dripped off of it. "Um, right... now here's the script. We'll do the script first, then take a picture of you two enjoying the cat food."
Danny & Sawyer uneasily smiled and waited, avoiding looking at the window. Outside, Cranston paused by the window, looking in. "Hey everyone, look at this."
Tillie, T.W., Francis, Pudge and Woolie stopped and looked through the window. Cranston laughed aloud. "Those are two of the dirtiest cats I've ever seen."
Pudge laughed also. "Yeah! Danny and Sawyer should see this."
Tillie smiled and looked around outside for a moment. "Speaking of them, where are they? They're supposed to meet us for breakfast."
Inside, Sawyer and Danny could hear their friends talking and laughing outside. Sawyer again whispered to Danny, "They're watching us. You don't think they recognize us, do you?"
Danny shook his head slightly. "No but just the same, we'll have to finish the commercial. By then, they'll go away."
Outside, Cranston and the others watched Sawyer and Danny read their scripts. Tillie looked at Woolie. "Won't we be late to meet Danny and Sawyer?"
Woolie watched, not taking his eyes off the twosome. "I believe not. We have a little time for this momentary, humorous view, Tillie."
After only one reading of the copy, the script was completed perfectly. Fitzgerald clapped his hands together. "Wonderful! Stupendous! I knew great talent when I saw it."
Sawyer wryly said to Danny out of the side of her mouth. "If only you knew."
The advertiser ushered the two of them to a small set to the side where the picture would be taken. "Okay, now there's your cat food. Just eat it and look HAPPY!"
He stepped away and the cue was given for them to eat. Sawyer sniffed it, then held it away. "Phew!" The man gestured to them to go on and do it.
Danny took a bite, chewed three times and instantly spits it out! "Yuck!"
The man hurried over to them. "How can we take a picture showing how much you enjoy it when you're doing that?"
Sawyer looked at the cat food. "It's not very appetizing."
Danny looked at it with a frown. "It doesn't taste good."
Sawyer didn't pause a moment. "It stinks!!"
Outside, Cranston and the others were laughing and chuckling at them. Cranston smacked his leg with his hand, trying to stop laughing. "Did you see that face?! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Woolie also tried to stop laughing. "Ho ho ho! Yes!"
Tillie grinned. "Yes, it was funny, but I think we should leave soon."
Inside, Fitzgerald held up the contract. "Look, you two signed a contract. You have to eat this."
Sawyer touched her licoriced arm and said to Danny hurriedly. "The licorice is beginning to dry!"
Danny nodded, also noticing. "Then we have to finish this fast. We have to eat it."
Sawyer eyed the food dubiously. "All right."
They get ready to do the photo again. The cue was given and both eat the food and swallow. The moment the picture is done being taken, Sawyer gulps, slaps a hand over her mouth and runs to get a drink of water." Danny spits a couple of times. "Yech! Blech!"
The others laugh heartily at Danny and Sawyer's reactions. Tillie nudges Woolie. "We simply must be leaving if we want to meet them."
Woolie nodded. "All right. Let's go, everyone." Everyone leaves to meet their friends for breakfast.
Danny grabs Sawyer after she's finished drinking the water. "Forget everything, let's go!" They both run out. Danny looks down the sidewalk.
Sawyer, we have to hurry if we're going to meet them."
Sawyer threw her hands up. "But, what about the licorice?"
Danny scanned the street for a moment, then smiled. "There! C'mon!"
Sawyer followed Danny down the street to an open hydrant, where children where playing in the water and cooling off. The two of them hurried up to them. Danny pointed at the water, "Mind if we join?"
The kids laughed in delight. "Yea! Sure! Come on in!"
Danny wades into the spraying water while Sawyer starts with each arm, then each leg. Globs of black licorice spray off of them and onto the kids.
"Iiiiihhhhh! Yuck! Gross!" They hurry out as they're splattered with black goo. Danny stepped out, soaked but clean. Sawyer took a breath and stepped into the cold, spraying water to get the rest off. Finally, she's also clean.
While they started wringing the water out, Danny smiled at Sawyer. "At least we're clean."
Sawyer shook her arms to get the water off. "Yeah, except for the fact I'm drenched. You know, whenever I'm around you, I end up wet."
Danny chuckled. "Lucky, I guess."
Sawyer pointed at him, smiling. "Oh, no! Don't start that again!"
Meanwhile, having given up looking for Danny and Sawyer, the others headed towards the diner. Pudge spied the two of them walking towards them and tapped Cranston's arm. "There's Danny and Sawyer."
Danny and Sawyer walked up to them, dripping wet.
Tillie curiously stepped up to Sawyer. "Sawyer, what happened?"
Sawyer hesitantly smiled. "You'd be surprised."
Cranston laughed. "You two look like a couple of drowned rats."
Pudge said to Danny. "Boy, are you soaked!"
T.W. smiled at them. "What'd you do? Take a bath?"
Danny spoke up before Sawyer could. "Not exactly. We, um, we just got... wet."
Sawyer groaned and looked upwards while the others laughed again.
Cranston waved his hands at the two cats. "You two look as sorry as these two other cats we saw earlier."
Francis nodded. "It was hilarious. Too bad you missed it.
Danny faked a laugh, looking at Sawyer. "Too bad we missed it, huh?"
She gave a self-conscious laugh. "Yeah..."
Cranston went on with his story. "They were absolutely filthy!"
Woolie quickly added, "Covered from head to toe in, well, what appeared to be some kind of tar."
Francis slowly nodded in agreement. "True, but heaven knows why someone would use such dirty cats is beyond me!"
Tillie smiled at everyone. "Well, now that we're finally all together, let's get something to eat. I'm starving."
Cranston muttered to himself. "That'll never happen."
Tillie looked down at him. "Did you say something?"
Cranston quickly shook his head, smiling as pleasantly as he could. "No, of course not. I was just thinking aloud."
Tillie shrugged and continued walking. Cranston let out a long breath of air. They passed by the building where everyone had seen the two of them. T.W. pointed at it. "They were right in there."
Cranston cocks his head slightly, raising an eyebrow. "Hmmm... say, you two wouldn't know something about it, would you?"
Danny laughed to cover his embarrassment and waved his hands. "Oh, no! Who? Us?"
Sawyer added with another self-conscious laugh, "Ridiculous!"
Woolie leaned down slightly towards them. "Well, if you two can stay dry long enough, might we have a spot of breakfast?"
Both of them replied in unison, "Of course!"
Danny whispered to her, "Good think we didn't..."
Sawyer cut him off quickly. "Not another word."
They looked at each other and smiled. They were just about to enter the Brown Derby when Danny couldn't resist himself any longer. "Hey, Sawyer!"
She paused and looked at him.
Danny grinned at her. "Guess this is our lucky day, huh?"
Sawyer groaned.
The End