Two Black Opals Ch. 3

Chapter Three: Scheming and Wedding Announcements

A long black and orange snake was slithering its way down a tree. This snake had been hiding in the Halloween Town forest for almost two years now. Mr. Snake was trying to . . . Pull itself back together, if you will. He had tried, unsuccessfully, for two years now to restore his wonderful body, devilishly good looks, and impeccable charm. Alas, with out any arms it was extremely difficult to pull together insects. It was also extremely difficult to get a burlap sack big enough with out any sewing skills. Mr. Snake knew that there was next to no hope of pulling himself together unless he had hands, feet, and incredible sewing talent. Why didn’t he just go get the help of his little henchmen? Simple, he cared too much for them to actually get them into trouble again. Yes, Mr. Snake was actually showing compassion for another being. It did seem impossible, but when you raise three children for God-only-knows-how long and they loyally do your bidding with out another question or the morality of the issue, you had to start loving them sometime, right?

I’m incredibly sorry. I forgot to introduce Mr. Snake properly. His name is Oogie Boogie. Mr. Oogie Boogie was really just that snake. But, a more or less intelligent snake who wanted nothing more than power and possibly the latest gambling craze. Oogie had tried for several years to attain such things with out a body or henchmen, but... His efforts were futile. Now, Mr. Boogie was trying to get himself back together with out dragging in the only creatures he had ever loved. Easier said than done.

Now, I’m sure, dear audience, that you are sitting at your’s (or someone else’s) computer reading this and wondering, “We saw all of the insects die. How did this ... ‘snake’ manage to escape?” I shall tell you. You see, the real brain in Mr. Boogie was nothing more than the Mr. Snake we have been talking about. He had control over all of those bugs, threatening to eat them if they tried to crawl away. (Of course, Mr. Oogie didn’t like eating bugs. He just had to say that to keep them in order.) When Jack Skellington had pulled Oogie’s thread, we saw that all of his bugs were falling into that extremely hot soup-type-thing, killing them all. What we didn’t see was Mr. Snake, who we just discovered was Oogie Boogie’s ‘brain,’ so to speak.

“Finally! All those idiots in Halloween Town have completely forgotten about the Christmas fiasco. While they still haven’t forgotten the name Oogie Boogie, they know that I’m dead. Since I so cleverly kept in hiding until they were sure I was dead, they no longer suspect that I could remotely come back to life! Ha! How ingenious I am!” Mr. Oogie began to rant.

“How can I take my revenge on Jack and Sally? In what possible way can I ruin their perfectly happy lives?” Mr. Oogie started to question. You think the idiot would have been plotting during these two years.

Just then, right in the middle of his scheming, three little Halloween Town children just happen to be walking in the woods.

“Shut up, Shock!” screamed Lock

“I wish you would just go away!” screamed Shock.

Ah... His minions. Or, should we say, his old minions?

“Hey, did you guys hear that Jack and Sally are finally getting married?” Barrel asked out of the blue.

“That’s it!” Oogie exclaimed. He started his evil scheming. . .

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

“Jack, I don’t know. I don’t think that I can tell Father,” Sally said. She was sitting at Jack’s dining table with him right next to her. They were trying to enjoy a nice cup of tea. It wasn’t working very well.

“You can’t just marry me without telling him, Sally!” Jack rationed as he poured more milk in his tea, “We have to find some way to tell him.”

“But how?”

Before Jack could even begin to shrug his shoulder bones, Jewel burst right into Jack’s dining room door.

“JOHN SKELLINGTON AND SARAH FINKLESTEIN! There you two are! I finally found you! Jack, you are cordially invited to the Finklestein residence for dinner at six o’ clock PM. It’s the perfect way to make announcements, if you get my drift. Sally, you will have to come home and help get everything ready. I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. See you in five minutes, Sally, ” Jewel exited just a quickly as she had entered.

“. . . Well, that answers your question,” Jack replied only slightly confused. (Yey! We’re proud of you, Jack.)

“I guess I had better g–“ Sally was cut off by a kiss from Jack. Although, I still DO NOT understand how he can kiss her. He’s a freakin’ skeleton! How is he going to kiss that ragdoll with a skull? How does he even have lips! I mean sure, the movie was stop-motion animation, but COME ON!

Eh-hem. Sorry about that.

Later that evening. . .

Jack was standing right outside the Finklestein’s door. He was in his best tuxedo and all of his visible bones were shining to perfection.

He took a deep breath in and rang the doorbell.

Sally answered the door with a smile, “Hello, Jack. You’re punctual, for once.”

“Well, I thought it was important enough not to wait around for,” he replied as he stepped in.

“Jewel and Father are in the dining room as we speak.”

Seated at the table, Jack was poking at his spider spaghetti not very hungry. He was too nervous to be hungry. He had remained mostly silent through out the appetizer and now the main course.

Jewel cleared her throat and said to Dr. F., “Darling, Jack and Sally have something very important to tell you.”

“Really? Let’s hear it then!”

Oh great. This was the moment. How was he going to say this? There were butter flies in his rib cage. No, wait, that was a moth. He would have to get that out of there. Could cause an embarrassing scene later.

“Uh... Well...” He really couldn’t do this.

“Speak up, my boy! If it’s important, I should hear it immediately.”

“W-well, Father, you see...” Sally said just as nervously as Jack.

“...Well?” Finklestein inquired.

There was a silence.

Jewel gave a sigh, “Oh for Halloween’s sake! Jack proposed to Sally!”

Finklestien at first looked shocked. Then, he smiled. “That’s wonderful news! Why didn’t you tell me before! I’m so happy that you could find love. I had to make it,” he gave a laugh after this. Along with everyone else.

“I believe this is a cause for celebration!” Jack said as he pulled out some monster themed alcoholic beverage.

After pouring the glasses, Finklestein made a toast. “To Jack and Sally. May they be happy for the rest of their lives!”