Chapter 3: Whybie's World
Sorry HotaruofKonoha, but Whybie was always meant to be in this story (I suppose the"character filter" and the summary became obligations to fulfill).
Reviews/constructive criticisms are greatly appreciated.
DISCLAIMER
*Oh, and I forgot to mention this in all of the other chapters, but yeah…just in case there was some confusion (I highly doubt that)…..there is no way I could ever own the rights to "The Addams Family" or the "Coraline", movie or book…all elements belong to Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick as well as the proprietors of "Laika" and "Focus Features" studios…elements of"The Addams Family" belong to the creators of the "Addams" New Yorker comic strip as well as to the numerous studios that produced the sitcom, films, and cartoon show….so….please don't sue me….*
Whybie steadied the titanium tripod and loaded an SD card into a camcorder. He was on the floor in his bedroom with the blinds pulled down on his window and with his bedroom door shut. Hanging on the door handle was a hand-drawn cardboard sign that read "Do Not Enter Studio: Filming in Progress!"
Whybie wiped away a drop of sweat from his brow as he walked towards his closet. Double checking that the door was firmly closed and that his window was blocked, he opened his closet haphazardly. If anyone saw what he was about to do, the taunts would live with him until the grave. Whybie moved boxes around until he removed a plastic dollhouse from deep within the small room. Using both hands, Whybie sat the doll house in front of the camera with the open half of the house facing the lens. The frizzy-haired boy then pulled a pile of magazines from under his bed.
A few months ago, the incident with the Beldam sparked an idea in Whybie's impressionable psyche. The Beldam rewrote reality with her "dolls"….so why can't he do the same? Coraline was able to experience a fantasy world….albeit it turned out to be a hellish, dystopian world, but a fantasy nonetheless…..so why couldn't he?
Whybie flipped through outdated and current issues of "People" and "Us Today" magazines that he had taken from his grandmother's coffee table and began cutting images out with a pair of scissors. Four weeks ago, Whybie found his mother's old dollhouse from the seventies. His grandmother kept the dollhouse in the attic for sentimental reasons. Although the dollhouse was a bright, Barbie pink, Whybie quickly remedied the problem with a blue construction paper and marker sign that read "Whybie's Crib".
After cutting out images from magazines and gluing them onto popsicle sticks, Whybie walked over to his bulletin board and removed the photo from the summer of him and Coraline at a Theme Park. He began cutting away at the images of them and glued them onto popsicle sticks just as he had done with the others.
The neighborhood boy propped a popsicle stick picture of Angelina Jolie sitting on one end of the couch. The picture that Whybie chose was the one of her walking down the red carpet in a skimpy, elaborate dress for the Academy Awards Ceremony. Sitting on the opposite side of the couch was a popsicle stick cutout of Megan Fox during a demonic attack scene from "Jessica's Body". Propped up against the prop refrigerator was a popsicle stick-cutout of Rihanna during a scene from her "Umbrella" video. Sitting on the floor in front of the prop tv was a popsicle stick cutout of Halle Berry dressed in the infamous "Catwoman" costume.
"And the finishing touches."
Whybie placed his popsicle-framed avatar on the couch in between Angelina and Meagan. He placed Coraline's avatar at the front door, as if she were just walking in.
Whybie pressed the power button of the camera.
"Lights!" He flipped the knob of a desk lamp so that the bulb was lit and positioned just above the dollhouse.
"Camera." He let his finger rest on the Record button.
"And….action!" He pressed Record and zoomed in on Coraline walking through door.
"Whybie? What do you think you're doing with all these….other women?!"
Whybie grabbed Rihanna and made her body move with his index finger and thumb while providing a feminine and slightly accented voice.
"He is ours now! He is a much better boyfriend than our past lovers."
"Yeah," said mini-Whybie, "You rejected me, so what is it to you?"
Demonic Meagan Fox leapt off of the couch and beared her fangs at Coraline.
"Yeah, only an idiot would ever reject him! In fact, he is such a good boyfriend that we all decided to put our selfishness behind us and let him have all of us…at the same time!"
Halle Berry chimed in from the floor, "That's right. The rules of monogamy don't apply to Whybie Lovatt because he is too good of a person to be restricted by such archaic limitations!"
Mini-Coraline's face drooped to the floor, "I didn't know….that you were in such high demand now Whybie…I guess that I shouldn't have rejected your date proposal on the ferris wheel at the amusement park on that hot, sweltering, summer day…..this whole time, I just thought of you as some disposable friend and I took you for granted….I never thought that the day would come that I would grovel at your home and beg to come back to you….But please take me back! I don't care if I have to share you, just as long as I am with you!"
Mini-Whybie sat on the couch as he -imaginarily-stroked his chin and hummed.
"Well….I am a very generous guy….so yes, you can come back. But under one condition"
"What's that?"
"You must square off with Megan Fox in a catfight. It's not a fight to the death or anything, but it's a Saturday and house rules dictate that every Saturday is Catfight Night. Since you are knew to the house, it is tradition that you must fight with the first woman that joined the house.
"Whatever you say, Whybie! Thank you for being so generous and offering me a second chance!"
'And….cut!" The boy stopped filming. Well, scene number one was finished and there were ten more scenes to go before the episode was finished. Whybie sighed as he prepared the photo-cutouts for the next scene. The pictures of him and the celebrities were slightly out of scale-Whybie and Coraline's heads were about the size of Angelina and Megan's hand—but this was as close to a fantasy world as Whybie could make it.
If only it were real. He lamented.
Wait…what am I saying? Yeah it would be nice if Coraline said "yes" to my date. It would be "nice" if I lived with beautiful women. But that is the same thinking that got Coraline in trouble with the Other World. Reality is the way it is for a reason and I have to remember that.
Still. Whybie flipped through his sketchbook to skim over the drawn storyboards for the fight scene between Coraline and Megan Fox,
It still doesn't hurt to pretend….does it?
Whybie sighed and put a bedsheet over the dollhouse. The fight scene would have to wait; for now he needed to ride his bike to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of prune juice a denture cream for his grandmother.
Whybie left his room and ran downstairs. He hopped onto his bike and started peddling down the street. As usual, he would take the route through Coraline's street although it was somewhat out of the way. Perhaps with other people, there encounters would be awkward after the certain incident but this was not a problem for Whybie since he and Coraline were still friends even though she turned him down. Instead of talking about it, they agreed to never speak of it to each other again.
Whybie turned the corner and spotted the Pink Apartments. He stopped peddling once he saw the ostentatious black hearse.
Who could that belong to?Morticians? Whoever they are, they must be Coraline's visitors considering that the other tenants don't exactly get a lot of company.
Whybie saw the front door inch open and decided to hide. In one swift move he stooped down so that the top of the hearse obscured his head and pushed the bicycle flat onto the ground.
Wait…. my first reaction was to hide so I can spy on her and her company? Is that weird?
The first figure to appear from the door was a thin-stick like girl. She had long black hair in a braid and a relaxed smile drawn from the corners of her lips. Once Whybie noticed her eyes, he was mesmerized by their half-lidded shape.
That is definitely not Coraline.
Whybie was about to emerge from behind the car until two more people appeared from the open front door. The first was a round, overweight boy who seemed to be about the same age as the girl. Unlike the girl, he seemed to have a genuine smile and eyes wide open with enthusiasm. Lastly was Coraline carrying a large burlap bag.
Once Whybie was certain that the trio had turned the corner of the house, he walked his bike away from the car and left it on the front lawn.
Twenty minutes ago-
Gomez sat in one of the blue living room chairs while he watched a television program about predatory arthropods.
"Ah…." Sighed Gomez as he took a puff of his noxious cigar, "Nature in its full splendor! I couldn't imagine a more beautiful sight."
On the screen was a closeup of a black imperial scorpion stabbing a desert mouse with its venomous tail. Coraline was transfixed on the screen, more out of awe at the scorpion's swiftness than out of fear.
She bent on her knees and continued sweeping the vase pieces into a handheld dustpan. It hasn't even been a full day yet and the Addamses were already breaking things. Oh well, it was better than the boring Saturday morning that would have happened if she had never invited them.
Coraline stopped sweeping and cocked her head to the side in order to train her ear onto a nearby noise. She turned behind her and then brought her attention back to the mess on the floor. Then, she turned over her shoulder again.
That sound…..wasn't something moving just then? Maybe it was rats or something.
"Something wrong, Mel number Two?" Coraline turned to see Gomez moving his attention from the television set to her. His face seemed genuinely concerned, but the eyes seemed to be looking beyond her, as if something was behind her.
"Um….it's nothing….I just thought I heard something move on the floor."
"Uh….huh…." Gomez' gaze strayed away from her face. The young girl followed his gaze to catch the scene behind her. Of course, nothing was there.
"What are you looking at Un….Uncle Gomez?" Coraline hesitated to call him by the familial name….it seemed….strange to do so.
"Umm…what? Nothing…nothing. Well, how has school been going, Coraline?"
As Coraline complained about how boring the new school year was, she did not notice that behind her back, something small and spider-like shuffled on the floor in circles before crawling inside of one of Lurch's large leather boots that were lined up along the staircase.
"Well at least Thing is out of sight…." Gomez mumbled under his breath
"What was that?"
"Nothing dear….Well I think that's just great that you can socialize with other children at your school. Wednesday and Pugsley are homeschooled by their mother and Grandmama now since the other schoolchildren never really took a liking to them. Speaking of homeschooling, I think that you two were assigned a science project for the weekend?"
He then eyed the two children sitting on the floor who were intently studying the scene of a tarantula seizing a rat with its forelegs.
"Aww….can't we wait until this is over? Her eggsack is about to hatch!"
"Now Pugsley, you two know that if you don't finish your project by tonight, you will have detention with Grandmamma tomorrow….although she is your grandmother, she is still your science teacher and a strict grader."
Wednesday pouted and raised her body up from the floor.
"Come on Pugsley….we might as well do it….Coraline, do you want to help us out? We could always use another lab partner."
Coraline had finished throwing the broken pieces into a trashcan and was now sitting on the couch.
"Umm…alright. What will we do?"
"Come with us," ordered Wednesday as she walked over to a suitcase and pulled a burlap bag from inside of it. "We will explain it once we see Grandmama out in the garden." Wednesday cautiously handed the bag to Coraline and told her to be extremely careful while holding it.
The children walked out of the door and turned the corner towards the backyard garden. Coraline felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to meet the mysterious fourth traveler. Coraline jumped at first from being startled but then calmed down once she saw Whybie's unassuming blank expression.
"Whybie! You scared me…..you're such a creeper! How do you always sneak up on people without them knowing?"
Whybie shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I kind of learned it from when my grandma would take naps and I would try to walk around the house without waking her up. Believe it or not, I sometimes do it without realizing it…..like now for instance." Whybie turned his attention to the adolescents behing her.
"Who are they?"
The title of the chapter was a play on the movie title "Wayne's World". I meant for the title to be interpreted in two ways ("Wayne's World" was about the titular character's homemade television show and of course Whybie was living through his fantasy world). I halfway got the idea for Whybie's fantasy dollhouse by sort of switching gender roles in the scene from "13 Going On 30" when Beaver gave Jenna her fantasy dollhouse (could you tell?), but then I tried to make it just a little bit weirder by having him roleplaying his feelings of rejection.