Gumby and Friends Find a Body

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GUMBY AND FRIENDS FIND A BODY

 

Vim, the smaller of the two twins, and the fastest, is the eternal optimist.  stock-vector-illustration-of-cartoon-dinosaur-vector-114351466His cup is always half full. His head is sometimes in the clouds with dreamlike reality, but he mostly helps his friends keep going, move forward toward their goals. His favorite quote is: “Onward!”

 

Vigor, the bigger twin, is grounded in reality and doesn’t believe in dreams or having heads in the clouds, or moving too fast into anything. stock-vector-illustration-of-cartoon-dinosaur-vector-114351466He is practical and strong. He also has gotten his brother out of more scrapes because of misunderstandings.  His cup is neither too full nor too empty, and he doesn’t understand all that anyway. Who cares? His favorite quote is: “Go slow, and be sure of yourself.”

 

 

                                  gumby-waving-drivingGumby wanted to leave as soon as he met Vim and Vigor. He desired no more than his couch and TV. Just as he was saying good bye to the crew, Pokey suggested they drive to his friend’s house and go for a swim. Vim jumped around Gumby and coaxed Gumby to go with them to Pokey’s friend’s house. Vigor didn’t think it was a bad idea, either, but he wouldn’t swim, just watch. He was too big and not very fond of the water. Gumby changed his mind about going home, and brought them all to Pokey’s friend’s house. After all, he loved the water, and the beach, and the sand. He still wasn’t sure what he wanted in life, and thought a travel agent really wasn’t such a bad career.

Pokey wondered why his friend wasn’t home. pokeyThe pool gate was locked, and his house seemed empty. Vigor gave Pokey and Gumby a lift over the fence. Pokey thought his friend wouldn’t mind if they took a little swim in his pool. Afterall, Gumby needed his spirits lifted.

Gumby loved the pool 149401597.zLhhmrqD and couldn’t wait to dive in.

Pokey gasped, then pointed to a body floating in the pool. Someone Pokey didn’t know. A female, with her face down in the water and her long hair fanned out from her neck. She was orange with blue hair and dressed in a black suit with what appeared to be heels on her feet. (The pool idea came to me when I went to the gym and thought about swimming. The door to the pool was locked, and rubber tubing was floating in the water.)

They all stood in shock. “What are we going to do?” Vigor asked as Vim ran around the pool. “Gumby, jump in, and get her, and I’ll call the police,” Pokey suggested. Gumby in poolGumby jumped in the pool, but stopped swimming when he neared the body. “There’s something under her,” he exclaimed in a high voice. “I think it’s alive!”

 Stay tuned!

Gumby, Gumby, Gumby. What was I thinking?

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Someone name Peter Schmidt photographed his travels with his little green companion, Gumby, to Florida. I guess Gumby could work as a travel guide. Maybe not.

During the holidays, I thought about Gumby rarely, I must confess. I started to wonder if I had picked the right character for my next short story. I can’t imagine why now, but at the time in Santa Barbara, I felt a zing in my imagination, and said, “Gumby could be the ONE. Noodle some ideas around in your head and see what pops.” Nothing popped. In fact, Gumby fizzled. Gumby, Gumby, Gumby. Judy, Judy, Judy. Character. Imagination. Plot. Imagination.

Gumby went to Florida. Stood by a palm tree. No coconuts hit him. He pointed out the swimming pool. No one kicked him in. He swam at the beach (or kissed the sand), and didn’t drowned. He rested in a beach chair to get some sun and a deep, deep forest-green color. No one sat on him. What next?

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A symbol of what I should do with my idea of a short story involving Gumby?

No! This is the beginning of how a short story forms. Anything goes, until something hits and whala! Maybe I have to look more into the heart of the character. It can’t be fun being so small and green, not to mention not even being alive. There is no heart in this character. Now I have to create the heart.

I’ll have to noddle this some more, maybe even get Pokey involved. Pokey was a horse, his friend. Pokey is female, well, I don’t know that for sure. But in my story, Pokey will be a female. She’ll be fun and feisty and full of herself, and an energy that introduces his boring world to vim and vigor. Hey, I can make them characters! Vim and Vigor are twins. Parents of twins often do that … like Janet and Joan … Peter and Paul … it’s a shred of believable reality that we can pull into the story. Yeah, I like it. I’m feeling invigorated again. Okay, so Vim will be impulsive, not thinking things through before acting, a bit weak when it comes to confrontation, but fun. Vigor will be the essence of the action, the strength, the grounding rod for Vim. So now we have Gumby, and Pokey (his best friend and one of his few), who acquaints Gumby to Vim and Vigor.

Gotta get Gumby out of the travel business … get his head out of the sand, and into something much more exciting.

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Onward …