Icy

Icy the snowman stepped off the bus in downtown. The snowman had a broom, a scarf and two black coals for eyes. He wandered around the block looking at a map of Parodiopolis. Then, he stopped off at a stationary store and purchased a postcard.

After he purchased the postcard, he scribbled a message on the back. “Dear mom, I’m fine. I’m in the city now.” Then, Icy dropped the postcard in a mailbox.

Icy looked at his map once again as he walked around town. He hailed a cab and got in. He wanted to be taken to the Lair Legion. The cab drove to the Lair Legion. Icy got out and looked up at the mansion.

The cab driver stuck out his hand. Icy dug into his wallet and found a twenty. The cab drove away and Icy walked up to the Lair Legion mansion. When Icy knocked on the door a Hippo opened it.

“Um, I’m looking for Mr. Hatman,” Icy said.

“One moment.” The hippo turned and closed the door. After a few moments the hippo returned.

“He’ll see you now.” Icy walked to Hatman’s office. He opened the door and Hatman waved him in.

“So good to see you uh, Mr. Icy?”

“Yes.”

“I found your ad online.”

“Alright.”

“The kids need a new snowman. Someone crashed their jeep in their old one.”

“I’ll stay through mid-January.”

“That’s great,” Hatman said. He and Icy made their way to the front lawn. “Sometimes the kids like hide and seek.”

Hatman left Icy on the front lawn. Icy stood there and waved at Legionares as they entered the mansion.

***

Maggie and Griffin wandered around the corner of the LL Mansion. Maggie saw Icy and said to Griffin, “It’s a Snowman!”

“Hello,” Icy said.

“Hatman said he got us a new snowman. CSFB crashed into our old one.”

“That’s horrible,” Icy said.

“Do you want to play a game?” Maggie asked.

“Sure.”

“Ok, tag your it.” Maggie tagged Icy. Then she and Griffin ran into the Mansion. Icy followed them. Maggie and Griffin ran into the living room. There was a large Christmas tree still set up.

Icy tagged Griffin. Griffin chased Icy and Maggie out the door and onto the front lawn. Just when they called it quits, Samantha Featherstone walked up the driveway.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?”

“We’re playing tag,” Icy said.

“Oh.” Samantha said.

“Why don’t we play hide and seek?” Maggie suggested.

“Good idea,” Icy said.

“I’ll count to ten and everyone hide.” Maggie closed her eyes and began counting. Griffin ran into the mansion and hid in a closet. Icy hid behind some hedges. Samantha ran into the LL garage.

When Samantha was inside the garage, she climbed into a jeep. There were keys in the ignition. There was a garage door opener on the visor. Samantha pressed the button on the garage door opener. The doors opened. Then, she turned the keys and started the jeep. She put the jeep in reverse and backed out of the garage. She couldn’t change gears, so she kept going in reverse.

Maggie opened her eyes. She saw Samantha backing out of the garage in reverse. She ran towards Samantha.

“Icy, Griffin! Samantha is in a jeep.” Icy came out of hiding and watched Samantha back out of the driveway. He chased after her. He caught up with the jeep and jumped in.

“Can you stop it?” Samantha asked.

“Hold on.” Icy took his broomstick and depressed the brakes. The jeep stopped. Samantha got out. Icy couldn’t drive stick, so he shot out snow from his hand over the brake. Then, he coughed on the snow. The snow turned into dry ice.

After the jeep was stuck there, Icy got out. He went into the LL mansion and told Hatman about the jeep. Hatman took care of the jeep. Icy found a driver’s manual. He gave the manual to Samantha. Then, all of them went into the mansion and drank hot chocolate.

* * * * *

"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up!" Hatman called to the children and the animated snowman as they made their way into the Mansion. He looked at the jeep in the driveway and assessed the problem.

The first part was easy. Using his Miami Heat cap, Hatman slowly melted the dry ice from the brake pedal. He was careful to go slowly as he didn't want to melt any of the jeep's components.

With that taken care of, Hatman replaced the Miami Heat cap with his regular black Hatman cap. He hopped into the driver's seat and did up his seatbelt; even though he was only moving the car 20 feet or so he felt he should set a good example for the kids.

Hatman started the Jeep and put it in gear. He made it about a foot before he stalled out. "No problem, just working out the kinks," he told himself as he started the jeep again.

Hatman tried again, and promptly stalled out again.

"Gah!" he cried in frustration. He undid his seatbelt and exited the jeep. Looking around to make sure nobody was watching, he put on his Pittsburgh Steelers cap and quickly pushed the car into the garage.

Hatman quickly removed his cap, hoping nobody had seen him. "Nice day for a walk, isn't it?" came a voice from behind him.

Hatman whirled around to see Visionary, who had presumably just walked over from his lighthouse. "Uh, hey Vizh."

"Don't mind me. Wouldn't want to stall any of your plans for the day," he chuckled. "I'll just be on my way."

Hatman looked past Visionary at the possibly fake Legionnaire's car. "Umm, Vizh?"

Visionary turned back to Hatman. "Yeah?"

"Is that your car rolling towards the bay?"

Visionary turned to see his prized Pinto rolling down the bank and into the bay.

Hatman couldn't help but grin a little. "Weren't you supposed to get the parking brake checked last week?"

Visionary grumbled an answer in the affirmative.

"Well, I'll leave you to your walk then. Seems like you'll need the practice," Hatman couldn't help but take a little potshot back at his teammate.

Vizh continued to stare at his car sinking in the cold water. Hatman slapped him on the back and pulled his Steelers cap back out. "C'mon Vizh, let's pull it out and we'll get Al to fix it up."

The duo walked towards the car, and Vizh couldn't help but think that wherever Kerry was she was laughing.

~Hat~