At the Movies

Reginald was so excited. Another Perry movie! He had loved the first one and thoroughly enjoyed the second movie despite a few middle-chapter problems. The promoters promised that the third movie would knock everybody’s socks off. After rolling her eyes and muttering something about a “ninety-five-minute glorified Fallifurton commercial,” Mama had agreed to take him.

Everything would have been perfect except there was that snotty Theo just ahead of him in line.

Reginald hated Theo.

They used to be best friends, but all of a sudden, Theo decided he was too good for Reginald. Now he ignored Reginald and chatted with the penguins. Mama said it was no skin off Reginald’s nose because Theo was a bad influence anyway. All he did these days was hang out with penguins and that old, fat, diabetic bear who, Mama said, had taken to drinking. That’s where keeping company with the penguins will get you, Mama said.

Reginald hated the penguins almost as much as he hated Theo. Why did those stupid penguins have to come anyway? They had no manners. They threw popcorn and they never appreciated the show. Like, remember when all those evil environmentalists thought Perry should stay on the ice in the Arctic, and he fought all of them off with his kung fu kicks so he could get home to the zoo? That was so neat, but the penguins just laughed.

Maybe Theo was being so nice to the penguins because he figured they’d let him have some popcorn. Well Reginald didn’t care. He didn’t want any of their dumb popcorn. He had his brand new Polar Buddy Sish Poppers®. He hadn’t tried any yet, but he couldn’t wait, because the people who made them said they were yummy. Theo had said they were just Sish Sticks cut into smaller pieces and deep-fat-fried in “God knows what kind of fat.” (Mama said Theo picked up expressions like that from you-know-who.)

Well, Reginald just wasn’t going to let any of that bother him. He had been waiting months for this movie, and he was going to enjoy it. He was sure it didn’t mean anything that he gagged every time his nose got too close to his bucket of Sish Poppers. That was just excitement over the movie.