Life Could Be a Dream

Chapter 15- Dreams, Nightmares and Promises

Chapter 15- Dreams, Nightmares and Promises

Mater and Fudge played Tag for a couple of hours, some of the other residents joining in for a little bit. When the game ended, everyone headed over to Flo's for a bite to eat before returning back to their stores. Luigi and Guido were going to be busy, sorting some other stuff out to try and improve their shop. So, they asked Sally if she could watch Fudge for a few hours while they did all of that, including possibly putting her to bed, depending on what time they were done. Sally agreed.

The five-year-old girl sat quietly in the Cozy Cone lobby with Sally, drawing some pictures of animals when Sally asked abruptly, "Are you okay?"

Fudge nodded, not looking up from her drawing. "Yeah. Why?"

"You just seem quiet tonight, that's all." She paused before adding, "Your papà tells me you had another nightmare last night."

"Yeah..." Fudge's shoulders slumped.

She was still drawing, but her entire body language had changed. So, Sally was concerned. Gently, she took the crayon in Fudge's hand away from her. "Sweetie? Are your nightmares bothering you?"

"Yes. Because I'm gonna be leaving soon... Where was I gonna go again? If they don't find any humans for me to live with?" She couldn't say find her family because the cars in Radiator Springs were her family.

"Wisconsin", Sally replied.

"Where's that?"

The Porsche pulled out a map of the United States that she had. "We are here." She pointed to a spot in Arizona. "And Wisconsin... is... here." She pointed to a different, distant spot on the map.

"That's really far."

"I know..." Sally agreed sadly, kissing her lightly.

"Would I ever see any of you guys again?" Fudge wondered.

A pause followed.

"I don't know", Sally admitted quietly. "I hope so. Maybe ACAFCA would be able to arrange something, so you can keep in touch with us and maybe even see us every now and then."

"It wouldn't be the same", Fudge declared.

"I know it wouldn't, but it's better than never seeing us again, isn't it?"

The human girl nodded and Sally gave her a sympathetic smile and a kiss.

Since Fudge was still upset, Sally read her stories until she fell asleep. She was alone in her office till she saw some car lights go past. Could it be...

"Customers!"

She was quick to switch on the neon lights outside the Cozy Cone Motel. Only the sign showed up as NO VACANCY. That wasn't right. She groaned to herself as she struggled to fix it, waking Fudge up in the process.

"What are you doing?" the little girl mumbled.

"Oh!" The Porsche turned around. "Sorry, Fudgie. I didn't mean to wake you."

That was when they heard Mater's contagious laughter. "Tomorrow night, we can go look for the Ghostlight!" he suggested to Lightning.

"I can't wait!" Lightning replied unenthusiastically.

"Oh, yeah, I'm tellin' ya!" Mater exclaimed. "Oh, boy, you gotta admit that was fu-un!"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah." Lightning still didn't sound like he'd had as good a time as Mater.

"Where did they go?" Fudge wondered.

"I don't know, sweetie", Sally answered. "Maybe Mater wanted to take Stickers tractor tipping", she suggested, chuckling to herself. The idea of a big city race car going tractor tipping was pretty funny.