Una Morales's week is not going so well.
To begin with, her twin sister, Paz Morales, has disappeared.
To top it all off, Una is bedridden, sick with the flu and oh so dreadfully bored.
She is not the only one coughing.
Una's faithful young tomcat...
The car's radio lid snapped open and miniature five-piece ensemble band curtsied to Una.
"Un poco de música for the road?" Ms. Cockroach inquired.
"I knew it! Why, I always did think there were tiny men dancing and singing inside the car stereo!" Una cried out.
"This is just one of our jobs, lil' lady. We work inside traffic lights, too."
"You turn reds lights into greens! Is it difficult, to have two jobs?"
"Aye, sometimes. But we gotta mouths to feed at home. An artist's life is sweet, but it don't pay them bills. Now, how about some jazz?"
Carefully arranged musical notes sloped upwards from the itty-bitty instruments.
One of them circled the tip of Duo's nose.
He went cross-eyed as he observed it.
The other two notes swooshed into Una's left ear and zoomed out her right one.
She giggled and waved her hands in the air, trying to latch onto them.
"Notes only appear to be pitch-black. They blow up in thousands of disconcerting colors, hues and undertones in our mind." Duo smacked several notes with his right paw.
"How rude," the chamber orchestra said.
The lid slammed shut.
"Duo! Now look what you've done!" Una sat up.
"¡Ay ay ay ay! A bad kitty..." Ms. Cockroach shook left and right in disapproval.
"Soy práctico. Those fiddlers are oh so very distracting. We are to focus on a task at hand," Duo said.
Greenish-blue butterflies of worriment wavered in Una's irises.
"The beach is so big, Duo. What if we can't find the petal?"
"You are getting bigger, too, Una. Branching out, to fill the whole wide world."
"I don't feel big. I feel small."
"Humans need positive perceptions of themselves from those that surround them. You are like a car on the road. You see other cars passing you by. But you don't see you. Only the wheel. And the road before you. You need other chum-cars to tell you about you, from the outside."
"And you are... My 'chum-car'?"
"I am. I'm here to tell you that every single particle of you is beautiful. It is becoming beautifuler and beautifuler, as life experiences change you."
"Thank you, Duo! You've made me feel so much better!" Una pulled him into a brief hug.
Duo endured it for a while with a frown.
"In case anyone asks: This. Has not. Happened." The tomcat looked out of the window, feigning indifference.
"No quiero interrumpir the tender moment, pero..." Ms. Cockroach hiccupped. "I think that I am... shrinking some more again! Get out! Now!"
"Oh no! What can we do?" The car door remained handle-tied to Una's finger-pleas.
"¡EL BOTÓN ROJO!" Ms. Cockroach bleated.
Duo punctured the red HAZARD SWITCH (eject button for bad kids) with his tiny nails.
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