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Dusk Sea
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NINO: Err... How do we... What?
UNCLE REMUS: How you come on? What, don't nobody say that anymore? Then, "How do you do?"
NINA: Oh! Well... I suppose we're doing well.
NINO: Pretty okay. Uhh... How you come on?
UNCLE REMUS: Pretty good, sure as you're born, Honey.
NINA: So... Are you the one who's supposed to tell us what's been happening?
UNCLE REMUS: Reckon I might be. But it's an awful long story. Yes, sir, mighty long. And I ain't exactly sure that I can tell it all in one telling. I'm an old man, and I ain't so full of energy as I used to be.
NINO: We don't mind. Right, Nina?
NINA: Well, no... But we have so many questions.
UNCLE REMUS: Don't know if I can answer 'em. But, let's see now....
He sits back in his rocking chair and closes his eyes for a moment.
UNCLE REMUS: Why don't you children settle yourselves down?
He gestures to a bench off to the side of the porch.
UNCLE REMUS: Y'all can sit on that if you move it a might bit closer.
Nino grabs the bench and drags it in front of Uncle Remus' rocking chair. We sit, and the old man slowly opens his shining eyes.
UNCLE REMUS: Well, sir, it all started long, long ago. I reckon the story don't get started for a while yet, but as far as I know, the story starts in the year 1866... It was one of those zip-a-dee-do-dah days...
NINO: Zip-a-dee-do-dah? What's that?
Uncle Remus smiles at Nino, and when he opens his mouth, his voice is lower, softer. It's almost hypnotic, really. I feel as though I'm floating...
UNCLE REMUS: Well, Honey, a zip-a-dee-do-dah day is the kinda day when you can't open your mouth without a song jumping right out of it. Normally, I'd sing right along with it. But this story's long enough as it is. And so, on that beautiful zip-a-dee-do-dah day in 1866... I saw a rabbit hopping down the road. But it weren't no ordinary rabbit. This here was Br'er Rabbit, the most bodacious critter that ever lived.
The light of the sun itself starts to go dim, as if watching a scene on film. I see Remus standing at the head of a dirt road, a rabbit wearing a pink shirt and blue pants hopping down the road in front of him.
This is so trippy and weird! His voice is super-faint, and when I hear him speak again, it's the Uncle Remus from the vision.
UNCLE REMUS: Br'er Rabbit? How is this possible? I thought you was just a story!
BR'ER RABBIT: That I is!
UNCLE REMUS: Now I knows I ain't nothing but a foolish old man. If you's just a story, then how come you hopping down the road, real as you please?
The rabbit seems confused... What is even happening?
BR'ER RABBIT: Now, that I don't rightly know. But I suspect you's got something to do with it.
UNCLE REMUS: Me? What did I do?
BR'ER RABBIT: You tell the stories like no one ever told stories before, Uncle Remus. Crazy as it sounds, I suspect you's the one what made me real.
UNCLE REMUS: Made you real? But that ain't even possible.
BR'ER RABBIT: Don't shoot the messenger, Uncle Remus. 'Course, I suspect that means old Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear are real, too, so I gotta take my foot in my hand! So long, Uncle Remus!
The rabbit hops along down the road, leaving Uncle Remus looking confused.
Faintly, the real Uncle Remus' voice continues.
UNCLE REMUS: I sure didn't know what happened, but I aimed to find out. So I kept telling my same old stories. The children loved them, especially little Johnny. Him and Ginny and Toby, they started seeing Br'er Rabbit, too. So, I reckoned I couldn't be too crazy if those sweet children were seeing him, too.
The scene changes. I can see Uncle Remus sitting in a cabin with three little kids. It's weird, but they almost feel like old friends.
I can see them: Johnny, scratching desperately at an uncomfortable-looking collar; Ginny, fussing unconsciously with the tattered ribbon in her hair; Toby, grinning from ear to ear and stretched out leisurely on the floor; and Uncle Remus, sitting in his rocking chair like a king among his faithful subjects.
JOHNNY: Come on, Uncle Remus, tell us another story!
UNCLE REMUS: Another one? Honey, it's getting awful late. I know Miss Sally said you could stay out tonight, but what about Ginny? Shouldn't she be getting home?
GINNY: Momma doesn't mind. One more, Uncle Remus?
TOBY: Yeah! Tell us the one about the tar baby and the briar patch! That one sure is my favorite. I suspect Br'er Rabbit's the cleverest critter that ever lived.
JOHNNY: That's a good one, Toby! Tell that one, Uncle Remus.
GINNY: I'm not sure I've heard that one, yet. Tell it, Uncle Remus.
UNCLE REMUS: Alright, Honey, alright. I suspect we's got time for just one more. And since you're all so keen on that one, I reckon that's the one I's gonna tell.
JOHNNY: Oh, boy!
UNCLE REMUS: Well, sir, once upon a time... Not your time, nor yet my time, but one time.... I was going fishing... And I was just thinking how the flowers and critters was curious things. They can look in your heart and tell when it sings. If it's whistling a tune or singing a song, they all say "Howdy" when you come along.
Suddenly, a flood of beautiful, translucent butterflies pour into the window of the cabin. The children stare, transfixed, while Remus smiles as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
BUTTERFLIES: Howdy, Uncle Remus!
UNCLE REMUS: Good morning! Good morning, Girls!
The scene fades as the butterflies begin to sing, and I can hear Uncle Remus still telling his story.
UNCLE REMUS: I reckon my stories was better than ever. I was getting mighty old, though. One day, I... Well, I reckon I can't say exactly what happened, but I found out that my stories weren't just foolish old stories. They was mighty special. And I stopped getting any older after that.
NINA: What do you mean, you "stopped getting any older?"
UNCLE REMUS: I reckon it means exactly what it sounds like it means, Honey.
NINO: Uncle Remus, you said you were an old man in 1866.
UNCLE REMUS: What year is it now?
NINO: Uhh... 2013? So... are you actually 200 years old?
UNCLE REMUS: I reckon I might be about that old. Maybe a little older.
NINA: But that's impossible. How did that happen?
UNCLE REMUS: That's a story for another day, children.
He settles back in his chair, as if the conversation had never happened.
UNCLE REMUS: If'n I remember correctly, the children never questioned it. I reckon they thought I'd never die. Not when Miss Doshy died... Not when... when Tempy died...
He sighs sadly, allowing everything to go dark for a moment.
UNCLE REMUS: There were good times, too. Johnny and Ginny up and got married, and moved to Atlanta. It was the most beautiful wedding you ever seen. Some of their folks raised a bit of a ruckus, 'cuz Toby was the best man. But I reckon it didn't bother them none. They was best friends until the end. And Toby, after he got married, he wanted to learn all my stories to teach to his children. I sure didn't expect him to learn them like he did, but sure enough, he could make Br'er Rabbit appear just as you please. He taught his children, and I reckon they taught theirs, and I reckon they taught theirs. Why, I reckon they is still telling those stories to this very day!
He falls silent for a moment, smiling mischievously, and lights his pipe. He blows steady smoke rings, before continuing.
UNCLE REMUS: But I reckon that's a story for another day. I wasn't planning to, but I lived longer than Johnny, Ginny, and Toby... And soon I realized I didn't know nobody no more. Things was happening fast, and I say those inventors and tinkerers sure must have took their foots in their hands. Flying machines, radios...
He pulls a cellphone out of his pocket, smiling and shaking his head. It's not even that good of a phone! It's, like, an ancient flip-phone from '05. But he stares at it like it's some kinda alien device.
UNCLE REMUS: Even things like this. I reckon y'all know what this is. Well, sir, I didn't know what to do about it. I changed my name, I stayed indoors. Every day I saw the world change all 'round me, and I didn't know which way was up. Everyone on Miss Doshy's farm moved to the North, or to Atlanta, and I was all by my lonesome. I'd never lived nowhere else before. But one day, some young fella bought the land, and I hopped on the first train I could find. Soon, I was all the way out in California. I reckon that was about 1940. But soon, I met the most bodacious critter, excepting Br'er Rabbit, that anyone ever heard of.
A scene appears, and I see Uncle Remus sitting in a diner across from a much younger man with dark hair, a large nose, and a little mustache.
???: I still find it hard to believe you're who you say you are, Mr. Baskett.
UNCLE REMUS: Well, Sir, I reckon impossible things might be the most fun.
The man laughs and smiles a warm, genuine smile. There's something oddly similar about the two of them, despite the fact that they look nothing alike.
???: I've always believed that to be the case. Did you ever consider that your stories would make a great movie?
UNCLE REMUS: I can't rightly say. I've never been much for moving pictures.
???: Why not? You're an actor, aren't you?
UNCLE REMUS: Yes, Sir, but that's just what I do to stay fed. I reckon I'm just a foolish old man, but I like my old stories best.
???: I like them, too. Movies are wonderful, Uncle Remus. They breathe new life into old stories, and make them last forever.
UNCLE REMUS: Sure would be nice to know my stories would really last that long. But forever's a powerful scary thing.
???: Well, if you've been alive this long, I guess you've already met...
Suddenly, the scene goes completely silent and disappears.
NINA: What happened, Uncle Remus?
UNCLE REMUS: I'm sorry, Honey. I suspect I just don't remember that part of the story as well as I ought.
NINO: Who was that man?
UNCLE REMUS: Why? He look familiar?
NINO: No... But everyone else you showed us, it's like I knew them already. But... it's like there's something in my mind that doesn't want to recognize that guy.
NINA: I know exactly what you mean! It was the same for me!
UNCLE REMUS: That man...
Uncle Remus laughs, shaking his head, as if at a funny memory.
UNCLE REMUS: I was afraid of the new-fangled stuff, but that man loved 'em all. He saw that I was suffering, and he gave me a place to stay.
NINA: Here?
UNCLE REMUS: That's right, Honey. Right here.
NINO: I don't understand.
UNCLE REMUS: That man created the entire multiverse. His name was Walt Disney.
NINA: Disney? I've heard that name before.
NINO: Yeah! The head-voices mentioned it!
NINA: Nino...
UNCLE REMUS: Don't worry, Honey. It don't surprise me none.
NINO: It don't? I.. I mean, it doesn't?
UNCLE REMUS: No, I can hear 'em, too. I can't tell you much more than that, but... It's the truth.
NINA: So... you're from the same world as we are? And so was this Disney?
UNCLE REMUS: Yes, Honey.
NINO: How did some guy make an entire multiverse?
UNCLE REMUS: I suspect it's the same way one foolish old man can tell stories and make a rabbit appear, sure as you're born. But that's a story for another day.
NINA: So... What happened?
UNCLE REMUS: I didn't want no attention like a motion picture. But it was the only way I could live here. So, we made a little deal. He made his motion picture, and I told my stories. When those two things came together, it made a kinda door, and I walked right on through. I never went back. But there ain't no place for a foolish old man like me no more. I made sure my stories lived on in Toby and his family, and had Mr. Walt lock up the motion picture forever. Least, he said he would.
NINA: He didn't?
UNCLE REMUS: Well, it would have looked mighty suspicious if he never showed it to nobody. So, he treated it like any other motion picture. Said he'd re-release it at least once before he died, too. But then they'd pull something clever, start a rumor so's people wouldn't even want to see it no more. Once Mr. Walt died, everyone who worked for him said the motion picture weren't no good for new-fangled audiences. Just a foolish old motion picture about a foolish old man who don't know how to talk proper and don't represent modern ideas. I'm sure some people still watch it somehow. Mickey told me about something he calls the "Internet," but I don't rightly understand. But I don't care. So long as no one pays me any mind.
NINO: I still don't get it. Why don't you want any attention? You must be lonely!
UNCLE REMUS: No, Honey. I've lost enough friends. Here, I gots friends like myself who can't die. Friends like Mickey and Donald and everyone else. And once y'all save the multiverse, all my other friends can come back.
NINA: What do you mean?
UNCLE REMUS: Well... Used to be that the multiverse was all connected. People could go from one world to t'other right easy. But when the danger started, Mickey suspected that all that hopping around would make it spread faster. So, he put walls down between 'em all, and erased almost everyone's memories of all the hopping. Even my friends who was here before me, like Snow White, Peter Pan, Alice... they don't remember me none. But once you've saved all the worlds, things'll go back the way they was.
NINO: What about us? If this guy Disney made a bunch of cartoon movies, then how come I don't remember them?
UNCLE REMUS: That ain't the same. I can't tell you any more right now, not yet. Gotta wait until you're all together. You got three more friends a-coming. But once you've saved the multiverse, all your memories'll come back, sure enough.
I have so many questions, but I don't know where to begin. I guess he won't tell us everything, but... this is a lot to take in all at once.
This is super-scary! Is he saying that I might have lots and lots of friends that I just don't remember? This is super-cray!
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