The Bikini Break
THE BIKINI BREAK
Prologue - Bygones
by David D. White
Music by James Horner
Master of Incendiaries - E. Nero
Executive Producer - Ponsonby Britt, O.B.E.
Gadget Hackwrench should have been asleep, especially in the hour before dawn. And most especially when the dawn followed a night of celebration and party-hopping about the city. On any other New Year’s Day, she would sleep well into the morning. But a soft thump in the hallway outside her door had roused her, and now she followed the sound by ear. Though the footfalls were soft, the creak of the floorboards indicated they had considerable weight. Monterey Jack was stealing down the hall toward the front room of the Headquarters.
Gadget would have simply rolled over and gone back to sleep, but for two things. Monterey didn’t turn off toward the kitchen, in search of a predawn snack. She could hear him walk to the front door. Also, this was not the first time she had heard this New Year’s trip outside. She had heard him do this on other New Year’s mornings, but she had always been too sleepy to find out what he was up to.
This morning, her curiosity outweighed her fatigue. She flipped back her covers and rolled out of bed. She crossed the room quickly and opened the door a crack. Monty was not in view, but Zipper was, sitting on the back of the couch. Gadget stepped into the hallway and silently crept to the archway that led to the front room. Monty was there, dressed in his favorite sleepwear, a union suit. But he had stopped at the coat rack near the door to put on his overcoat. Zipper flew up to perch on his shoulder like a Pi-rat’s parrot. Then Monty opened the door and stepped outside. A wave of frosty air from the door reached Gadget and made her nose tingle from the cold.
All at once, a different tingle passed through her. A soft wisp of warmth drifted across her neck like a spectral hand and her fur stood on end. Gadget forced her eyes to look slowly to her left and found the source of the warmth was a large red nose.
“Ohhh, Dale.” Gadget whispered, relieved. “I didn’t hear you.”
“I heard Monty get up, then you. What’s goin’ on?”
“I’m not sure,” Gadget said. “I think he’s walking down the landing ramp.”
A soft voice whispered behind them, “And he has some papers in his hand.” Both of them jumped, Dale straight up and Gadget into his arms. Foxglove giggled at their surprise and touched her ear. “You didn’t think you could sneak around in the dark on me, did you?”
They went to the front door, opened it a crack and peeked. “He’s gettin’ out the barbecue kettle,” Dale whispered. “He must be fixin’ a biiig midnight snack.”
“He doesn’t have any food,” Foxglove said. “Just the stack of papers.”
“WELL!” came Chip’s sharp comment behind them. The three of them jumped and landed in a triple tangle of arms and wings. “If you’re so curious, why don’t you go out and ask him? It’s not polite to sneak around on your friends.”
“He started the sneakin’,” Dale protested.
“No,” Gadget said. “Chip’s right. We should just go out and ask Monty.”
They each got a warm coat from the coat rack and stepped out. Near the end of the landing ramp, they could see Monty had set up their small kettle barbecue and had lit a fire. Zipper was still on his shoulder, drowsy at the early hour. As they approached, they saw Monty carefully feeding the fire with sheets of paper.
Monty didn’t look up. “‘Ello, mates. I wondered when you’d get up the gumption to come see what ol’ Monterey was doing.” He fed the fire another paper.
“Monty,” Gadget began. “We don’t mean to be snoopy. Well, maybe a little bit. But we don’t want to intrude. After all, Heisenberg says that the observation changes the condition of what’s observed and thereby the state of the universe and...”
Chip stopped her with a wave of his hand. “Monty, we’re just curious about what you’re doing at this hour?”
“Chipper, me lad,” Monty began. “This is my own little New Year’s tradition. I’ve been doing it since I was named King of the Great Molokai Poi Festival, and that’s been a lot of New Years.
“You see, mates, throughout the year, when I get a bit cheesed with something, or someone, I make a little note of it, just to get it out of me system. Just the same, I make a note when I’ve done something wrong, or hurtful, to someone else, as a little reminder to myself to watch my manners.
“Then,” Monty continued. “When it’s finally New Year across all the world, I take all the old hurts and burn ‘em to ashes, and I leave ‘em all behind. And that way I can start the year fresh.”
“Gee, Monty,” Gadget said. “That sounds great. But does it really work? Can you really leave it all behind?”
“Why don’t you give it a try, Gadget-luv?” Monty answered. “Each of you. Write down one thing in the year that hurt you. And one thing that hurt someone else. Bring ‘em here to burn. Then, I think you’ll see.”
“All right,” Gadget nodded. “We’ll give it a try. It can’t hurt.”
They retreated to the Headquarters, each taking up a pencil and paper. Although it had seemed a simple task, they all sat for long minutes, writing a little, thinking a lot. At last, they gathered back at the barbecue where Monty and Zipper waited.
Chip stepped forward first, bearing his quarter-creased paper in both hands. He had made many mistakes in the past year, felt all the more keenly because his friends looked up to him. He had also said and done things in moments of anger or frustration that had caused pain to those he loved the most. And there were times he felt his colleagues expected too much from him. He had watched Dale capture something precious with Foxglove, and it awakened a desire he didn’t know he could feel. And there was Gadget, seemingly oblivious to his affection for her. He could tell that, at least some of the time, her cluelessness was a sham. Chip placed the paper in the fire tried to let all the pain burn away with it.
Suddenly, the emotion of the moment seemed to overwhelm him. He turned to his longtime friend and spoke as if he couldn’t stop himself. “Dale, we’ve been chums for as long as I can remember. Now everything seems to be changing. Your friendship has been the one constant thing in my life. Please, be my friend.”
Foxglove followed after Chip, the paper folded over just once. The family ties she had broken long ago had been remade this past year, yet the people she called relatives seemed to be strangers still. Only here, with the Rangers, had she felt the real bonds of family embrace her. She felt regret that she might never feel kinship with those whose blood she shared. But it was here, with these few, that she was at home. She could feel herself on the verge of a wonderful new life if she could just hold on to Dale. Hopes, wishes and little hurts went up in a flash of fire with the paper.
Chip’s outburst had struck home with her, and she faced her friends in turn. “Chip, you can see where my heart is, but love and friendship are different things. I don’t want to take your friend, I want to be your friend. Please, be my friend.”
Dale stepped up next, his writing paper folded into an airplane shape. He had many small transgressions over the year to choose from, and had been, in turn, hurt by the words of others, mostly Chip. Deep inside, he held a certain resentment towards his closest friends for the way they sometimes treated him. He knew he was the cause of much trouble, but he never intended to cause harm. Now, he took the opportunity to let go as much of that ill-feeling as he could. He placed the paper in the fire, and tried to let the feelings burn away with it.
Since it seemed the right thing to do, he bared his soul as well “Gadget, I know a lot has changed with Foxglove ‘n me ‘n everything. I can’t let go of her but I don’t want to lose you, either. I know you can’t be my girl now, but please, be my friend.”
Gadget stepped to the fire nervously, her paper folded in careful, perfect thirds. She sometimes let her rashness and over-exuberance run roughshod over her friends feelings, and sometimes they were a little thoughtless of her sensibilities. Worst of all was that her heart knew not its way. It would not be guided by reason nor stilled by logic. Dale was growing ever closer to Foxglove and seemed to rarely notice her now, and Gadget had watched other feminine eyes settle on Chip. Her heart clearly could not decide to make a move, and she was beginning to wonder whether the move would even be hers to make. She placed the paper in the fire, knowing no ritual could relieve her of this dilemma,
Though admitting her emotions was hard for her, she also faced her friends. “Foxglove, you’re so lucky to have found the love of your life. Dale’s always meant a lot to me, and I know he means everything to you. Don’t be afraid I’ll come between you two. Please, be my friend.”
Gadget stepped back and reached for Chip’s and Dale’s hands, as Dale reached for Foxglove’s wing. Monty stepped up and dabbed his eyes, perhaps from the smoke, perhaps not.
“This is a rare thing for me, mates,” he said as Zipper dozed on his shoulder. “to be among friends on this New Years morning. Rarer still to see them reach out to each other with all their heart. Me an’ Zipper would be lost at sea without you. So, please, all of you, be our friends too.” As Monty fed the last of his papers to the flames, they stood silently and held fast to each other as the fire consumed the past. “There you are, mates. How do you feel?”
“I do feel better,” said Dale. “I’m not sure why, but I do.”
“Me, too,” Foxglove agreed. “It’s like letting go of something very heavy. I feel like I can fly free again.”
“I suppose I feel better too,” Chip said. “Even though this doesn’t solve everything, it’s a start.”
“Yeah, Monty,” Gadget said sadly. “I guess a few papers in a fire can’t make the past go away.”
“Of course not, Gadget-luv,” Monty said. He stepped behind them and caught them all in a huge Monty-hug. “It never makes the past go away. Any more than you can keep the future from arriving. But this helps put the past behind you. And it makes you face the future with a clear mind and a clean slate.”
“Come along, mates!” said Monty jauntily as he set them all loose. “Breakfast is on me this morning. Cheese-flaps for everyone!”
They walked back to the Headquarters, knowing come what may, they would face the new year together. As the best of friends.