Sunday, May 10, 2009

THE GET-TOGETHER

The King, as usual, was the first to show up, straightening his tie as he knocked on the door.

“Good morning, Kong! I’m so glad you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it. You look wonderful! Oh - Mighty Joe will be here in just a minute - I saw him making the turn at the end of the street as I was parking the car.”

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms arrived right after Mighty Joe. Courtly as ever, he had brought flowers. A lot of flowers.

“These are beautiful, Beast! Wherever did you get them?”

“Aw, I trampled a few greenhouses on the way over. It was nuthin’.”

A few minutes later, Reptilicus showed up, followed closely by Rodan and The Giant Claw, the latter two having flown in from the West Coast.

Ghidra was a few minutes late, having gotten the address wrong. Red-faced, he said “Jeez, you’d think I would know better, what with my having three heads!”

Kong laughed. “Yeah, but you’re assuming there’s a brain in each of those heads!” Everyone cracked up at this, even Ghidra, who just blushed a little harder.

“Where’s Gamera?”

“Late as usual,” came Godzilla’s gruff voice from the kitchen, where he was warming up the breakfast casseroles with his atomic breath. “He called and said he was running behind. Hah! Whaddaya expect from a giant fucking turtle? But he said we should just go ahead and get started, not to wait for him.”

They took their places at the massive dining room table then, while Godzilla (with assistance from the Beast) brought out the steaming platters and the pitchers of Bloody Marys. And then - just before they all fell to their meal with a monstrous gnashing of teeth - Godzilla stood up and carefully tapped his water glass with a fork. The resulting “tink, tink,” combined with a strategic throat-clearing, silenced the murmuring conversation of the group.

“I just wanted to propose a toast to the guest of honor,” he said, with an impish wink and a nod toward the figure seated at the head of the table. “Also to thank everyone for coming.

“Happy Mothra’s Day!”

No comments: