A Day as Sally Sunshine

I remember going to bed in a worn out white T-shirt and slim, black leggings with dotted-line patterns on them. I woke up this morning in a yellow dress and pink-and-orange stockings.

It took me a second to even realize, which was weird in of itself. My bed wasn't my bed anymore, but a double-decker with invisibly thin curtains and white cottony decoration on the top and bottom, giving a sort of cloud effect. The room around me was covered wall-to-wall in navy blue and white stripes. I looked to the side of my new bed to find two big, furry, pink slippers. Unsure of where I was or what I was doing here, I simply put the slippers on and walked towards the white door in the center of the main wall.

I entered a light orange room with a darker orange trim that came up in jagged triangles. There was some other furniture in the center of the room. They gave off the shapes of building blocks.

I debated sitting on the bridged-shaped block when a huge brown bear with a yellow T-shirt and an orange and yellow cap and no pants. "Hey there, Sally! Today's such a beautiful and lovely day, huh?"

"I don't know...bear. I just woke up. I haven't even gone outside yet."

"Why of course you have, silly! We're going outside right now!"

The bear took me by the hand and dragged me to the next room. Through the light orange door that matched the majority of the room, we entered a room with cyan walls, a green floor, and cardboard cutouts of trees, bushes, and a lake. "Wow Sally! Look at how beautiful everything is! Listen to the birdies sing!" What sounded like a generic bird sound effect flooded the room, on what I assumed to be a loud speaker. "Yeah, Bear! It's such a beautiful day. What do you think we should do on such a pretty day?"

"Why don't we name all the things that are the color blue?"

"Okay, well the sky of course!"

"Yeah, and that lake over there!"

"And I think that bush over there has blue berries on it."

"And there is Miss Caterpillar! She's the bluest blue in the world!"

I followed the bear's pointing finger to meet a navy blue caterpillar wearing violet heels on all six of her legs to match her gloved hands and the flower atop her hat. "Why, hello there my friends! I was wandering through my garden when I came across a few pesky leaf-eaters. I was wondering if someone could help me deal with them." She remarked with a gleam in her eye.

"I'm afraid I can not help you Miss Caterpillar. But Sally can! Right, Sally?"

"I suppose I can..."

"Wonderful! We can start right now! Follow me, Miss Sally."

I did as she said and we made our way into the next room, which held a giant ceramic mushroom that was fashioned to look like a house. Miss Spider and I were surrounded by surprisingly realistic looking tomato and cucumber plants.

"Now Sally, take these clippers and snip off a leaf that has a bug on it." Miss Caterpillar cheerfully instructed.

"Okay, but won't that damage the plants?"

"Silly Sally! My plants are extraordinarily sturdy, and they will grow back in no time! Now get to clipping! Those pesky flies aren't going to clip themselves!"

Miss Caterpillar walked inside her ceramic mushroom, closing the plaster red door behind her. I quickly got to work.

I found the first bug pretty easily. I immediately snipped off the leaf. Afterwards, I caught three more, just before they got to the stalk. After that, I started counting each bug that I snipped off. By the time I finished, I had cut off fifteen bugs from the tomatoes and twenty from the cucumber plants. I was getting pretty tired, and I thought I could smell something inside the house. As my stomach started to growl, I quickly set down the clippers and headed through the round, red door to Miss Caterpillar's mushroom house.

The inside of the house was dark. Two circular windows allowed some light to sneak in, but it did little to illuminate the entire room itself. I could hear some shuffling in front of me, and then, Bear's voice came from five feet away from me. I thought I caught a growl right before he spoke. "Heeey, Sally....you wanna come in? Miss Caterpillar made a snack for us." A singular lamp-style light immediately turned on. It lit up a small, circular table that had three seats, one for Bear, one for Miss Caterpillar, and one for me. "Just pulled this out of the oven, dearie. Why don't you come take a slice?" I looked to the table again and found a huge pie, a slice already cut out and placed outside the tin. The empty space where the slice used to be now flowed with what appeared to be tendons and meat, and I thought I could catch an eyeball sticking out of the side of the open pie. My mouth started to water. "You both stuff your faces. There's plenty more where that came from!" Miss Caterpillar gestured all around her. Her small mushroom house was revealed as a giant warehouse-like room, filled with meat, bones, and colored fur from several friends. I nodded in reply. Soon, I, Bear, and Miss Caterpillar, all sat around the table and began scarfing our meal down, getting the dark red blood all over our clothes. The people on the other side of the wall were terrified.

I immediately woke up and glanced at the dark red alarm clock. Three AM. I know I got back home late, but I really should not go to bed when I am hungry. I also shouldn't fall asleep watching bizarre nostalgic kid-shows. Those cheap costumes and big sewn-on eyes look so much creepier at night. I shrank away from the couch and stumbled over to the kitchen to make myself some toast and jam. And while I was at it, I'd make me some coffee as well. No use going back to sleep now. I guess I'd have to explain this to Jim somehow, but I was too tired to come up with a good excuse. I'll just make something up when I get there. Now, where are my keys?