Buddy and Phillip’s Multi Adventure

 

 It was a normal Saturday for Phillip. His alarm woke him at exactly 7:30 am,

 

making him reluctantly get out of bed and throw on a shirt, some blue swishy shorts, a

 

hat, and some running shoes.

 

 “Ok, Buddy, it’s time for your walk!” Phillip yelled to his wiener dog as he

 

walked around the corner and snatched the leash off the banister. Phillip doesn’t enjoys

 

Saturday mornings. He enjoys spending time with his dog, but that’s about it. He had to

 

promise his mom he was going to walk him every Saturday morning for her to let him

 

have a dog. Phillip loves dogs. All kinds of dogs. He thinks it’s the only species that one

 

can trust completely.

 

 “Phillip Jefferson McCoy, if you forget to take that thank you letter one more

 

tiiiiime…” Phillip’s Mom, Linda, called out to Phillip from her bedroom. Linda was

 

always on Phillip’s case. He just turned sixteen but still acts like he is about seven in

 

some situations. He is grumpy most of the time, and nothing seems to really catch his

 

interest or be that special to him. He is a smart boy. Tall, brown hair, and handsome, but

 

doesn’t have too much common sense. Linda has to keep him on track and remind him

 

about certain things sometimes.

 

 “Yeah, ok mom! Stop nagging me!” Phillip yelled back annoyed as he walked into

 

the kitchen and took the thank you letter he wrote to his grandparents for the check he got

 

for his birthday. He stuffed the letter into his pocket, quickly put the leash on Buddy, and

 

he was out of the door and ready for his normal weekend walk.

 

 Buddy loves his walks in Tilden Park. Sniffing the fresh green trees and galloping

 

through the wet mud, while being accompanied by his favorite owner, Phillip. It’s all a

 

dog could wish for.

 

 As Phillip and Buddy went along their everyday walk, going past the same trees,

 

the same bridge, the same old lady feeding pigeons, the same play structure, Buddy

 

started acting a bit peculiar.

 

 “C’mon, Buddy, what’s wrong today?” Phillip asked his dog as he slowed down

 

to pet him. Phillip stroked Buddy’s neck and ears while Buddy started inching towards

 

some trees. About two seconds later, Buddy erupted with extreme barking.

 

 “What?!!? What is it, Bud? What do you see?” Phillip asked, a little bit scared.

 

 Phillip tip toed next to Buddy to see exactly what was scaring his dog. He

 

couldn’t quite tell what it was. It was ugly. A multi-colored robotic device of some sort. It

 

had lots of different odds and ends, with a whole bunch of different switches. Phillip

 

examined this strange object while maintaining his distance. The machine started to

 

turn around slowly causing Phillip and Buddy to inch backwards.

 

  “Hello, Phillip, I am very glad to seeeee you. Don’t be

 

scared, I will not harm you. Follow my directions and

 

You will go on the biggest, most fun adventure of your life.”

 

 Phillip stood tense and wide eyed. He couldn’t think let alone respond to

 

this…..thing. He turned around and was about to yell for help when-

 

 “Wait! Phillip, trust me. . .” after a slight pause of Phillip leaning back

 

and questioning whether or not this was a good idea to trust this talking robot or not, he

 

decided to just go for it. He didn’t know why, but for some reason, he had a gut feeling

 

that this robot wasn’t going to harm him.
 
 “Sure, what’s up? What do you want me to do for you?” Phillip asked while

 

bending down to the robot’s level.

 

 “That’s more like it Phillip!” the robot responded in a higher pitched

 

voice than last time. “Flip my blue switch on my right arm and ill

 

show you why I am here.”

 

 Phillip turned around again, scanning his surroundings and making sure no one

 

was in sight. He reached his left arm out and just as he flipped the switch on the

 

robots arm a huge shiny map came erupting out.

 

 “AAAHH!” Phillip screamed, amazed. He couldn’t believe what he saw. He

 

closed his eyes, shook his head, then opened them again. It was a map of the universe. It

 

was almost like a virtual tour of it. Inside the map, it moved through light years to show

 

Phillip the galaxies beyond galaxies. He saw Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, all of the

 

planets….plus more?

 

 “Wait, what??!?? What is this?!?” Phillip still stood there zoned into what the

 

robot was showing him.

 

 “Press the red button below the blue switch and you will

 

zoom into my planet,” the robot said, totally relaxed. Buddy on the other hand

 

was getting antsy and tried to tug the leash to make Phillip keep going on the walk.

 

 “Buddy, heal,” Phillip commanded, while tugging the leash so Buddy was right by

 

his side. Phillip pressed the red button, while inside the map the atmosphere swerved

 

back and fourth, up and down. It turned and zipped through the air, dodged rocks, and

 

finally slowed down to something Phillip would never be able to describe to anyone else,

 

let alone have them believe him.

 

 Phillip’s jaw dropped as his eyes were glued onto the virtual map. He couldn’t

 

quite see anything on the planet, but it was very colorful. It was round, and almost

 

glowing. It looked similar to Earth with spots of water and land, but there were spurts of

 

multicolored light shooting off the planet in three second intervals. He stood there

 

studying this amazing planet for about two and a half minutes when he flipped back to

 

reality.

 

 “Sorry, this is just too amazing. Is it real?” he asked the robot, totally interested.

 

 “Is it reaaaal? Of course it’s real! It’s my home town.

 

Now if you don’t mind I’m kind of in a time crunch and my boss

 

wants me to bring you with me. . . Just for a month or so.”

 

 Phillip didn’t understand.

 

 “You want ME to go to ANOTHER PLANET with YOU?! Are you out of your

 

mind? That is possibly the most ridiculous suggestion I have ever heard! BUT I AM SO

 

DOWN!” Phillip responded, getting hyped up and energized. He picked Buddy

 

up and swung him around, dancing.

 

 “But wait, I can’t just leave my home right now with nothing and just go with a

 

ROBOT to another PLANET…” Phillip said, still elated.
 
 “Yes, yes you can Phillip.”

 

 Phillip thought to himself, then asked Buddy, “Is this a good idea? What the heck,

 

sure I’ll come, how could I pass up this opportunity?“ Phillip agreed with the robot.

 

 “Right answer Philly! Let’s get ready to go!”

 

 “Alright, I guess I’m ready!…I don’t have to bring anything right? Oh! What

 

about my dog!?”

 

 “Bring buddy, he’ll like this adventure as well.”

 

 Phillip was somewhat unclear as to why he was actually going through with this.

 

It was a crazy idea, but why not? His life was pretty boring on Earth, so what could be the

 

big deal?
 
 “Wait, my mom is going to worry if I’m gone for a month.” Phillip said,

 

remembering the “responsibility speech” his parents gave him on his birthday a week ago.

 

 “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to mention that you will be a

 

month on our planet, but it will only be an hour on yours.”

 

 “SWEET! And you will bring me back after a month?” Phillip asked, just to make

 

sure he wasn’t going to be stuck on that multi-colored weird thing forever.

 

 “of course! You have my word.”

 

 “Ok so are you going to pull out some alien spaceship or something?”

 

 “Guess again Philly! press the button on my head. The red

 

one, above my eyes.”

 

 He did what he was told and out came another screen. But this one had a wooden

 

door that was in front of it.

 

 “What is this? A time warp?” Phillip asked while laughing.
 
           “Correct! How did you know?”

 

 Phillip’s laughter got cut off as he suddenly looked like the robot just said

 

something crazy.

 

 “I was just making a joke, but jeez that’s extremely cool.”

 

 “ha-ha alright well brace yourself for a second, this

 

planet might be a bit odd to you at first, but when you’re

 

ready, go ahead and open the door and step through it with

 

Buddy.”

 

 Phillip took a deep breath in through his nose and out of his mouth. He picked up

 

Buddy and held him under his left arm as he reached his right arm towards the door

 

coming out of the robots head. A bright light shined through and Phillip couldn’t see a

 

thing. He hopped through the door with Buddy and BAAM, he was in multi world.

 

Phillip scanned his surroundings and nothing looked  too out of place or peculiar. Yet.

 

 “Jeez, that was really strange, are we actually on another planet?” Phillip asked

 

the robot.

 

 “Well yes we are sir. Planet multi. Now if you would come

 

with me ill introduce you to my boss. And don’t worry, the

 

whole town knows you are coming, so no need to hide

 

yourself.”

 

 Hide myself? Phillip thought to himself. He didn’t really know what to expect so

 

he just kind of giggled as he followed the robot around a turn. He was just minding his

 

own business looking around when he suddenly froze at the sight of…..a human? She had

 

blonde hair, was about 5’7”, she was wearing a normal blue shirt, but everything else

 

about her was WEIRD. She had three legs, way too many fingers, and it looked like she

 

had webbed hands from Phillips distance from her. Her face was very strange. Her eyes

 

were below her nose, she had four ears, and barely any chin.

 

 The girl made eye contact with Phillip and came right up to the robot and him.

 

She reached in her pocket and got out something that looked like a telescope. She put it

 

right in front of her mouth and spoke.

 

 “Hello Phillip, nice to meet you,” she said while stretching out her hand to

 

shake his.

 

 “Uuh hi, um, what is… your name?” Phillip asked stuttering.

 

 “Pazoo Onya Wackinswiver, but go ahead and call me Paz,” Paz said while still

 

talking into this telescope thing.

 

 This is possibly the weirdest thing IN THE WORLD. I am shaking hands with

 

some sort of alien mutant girl and she thinks it’s totally normal? Where the hell am I?

 

What the hell am I doing? And why am I hereeeeee?

 

 “Hi Paz, I’m Phillip….But I guess you already knew that. May I ask why you are

 

talking into a telescope?”

 

 “Hahah, this isn’t a telescope Phillip, it is a language adapter. Planet Earth hasn’t

 

come out with it yet. I do not speak English, but when I speak my language into this, the

 

language adapter translates my language into yours. Nifty huh?”

 

 Phillip almost felt like running away. He was blown out of his mind, not to

 

mention still very confused. He stood there looking at this girl while holding Buddy. He

 

looked over at the robot then back at Paz.

 

 “Um cooool.” Phillip responded.

 

 Um cool? UM COOL? The only thing I could think of to say was…um cool? I am

 

an idiot.

 

 “Alright well it’s time to get going to see my boss, see

 

you later Pazoo,” the robot said while motioning to Phillip to come with him.

 

 “Bye,” Phillip said to Paz as he and Buddy followed the robot down the street.

 

 “Alright Phillip, we have to just talk to my boss really

 

quick, run a few tests then we’ll go have some fun ok?”

 

 “Um ok, but can I ask you some questions first?”
 
 “Sure, anything you want Phillip.”

 

 “Why did you pick ME to come with you to this planet? Why am I coming in the

 

first place, and what kind of tests is your boss going to do to me?”

 

 “Oh Phillip. I’m sorry I didn’t make this all clear to you.

 

You are here because our map of the universe can only zoom

 

into certain places on certain planets. For planet earth, it

 

was Tilden park in Berkeley California. We have been watching

 

you for about two years and since you go on runs with buddy

 

every Saturday morning, we knew you were going to be there,

 

so it would be easy to meet up with you. You seemed like a

 

happy go lucky kind of kid so we decided to use you!”

 

 Phillip processed all of this information, and after a slight pause, he asked…

 

 “Use me? Use me for what?”

 

 “Oh, just a few tests. We run tests on many organisms

 

around the universe. Just to study them and see how they

 

differentiate with one another. It’s actually pretty

 

interesting.

 

 Am I losing my mind? Did I do acid last night or something and this is just my

 

acid trip? Or is this actually happening? I guess I’ll just go along with it.

 

  “Um ok. Sounds fine to me,” Phillip responded.
 
 Phillip and Buddy followed the robot until they got to this weird building. It

 

almost looked like a play structure at an elementary school, but had many different

 

rooms. Buddy took one look at this building and got weird again. He just stopped in mid

 

stride and didn’t budge. Phillip bent down and petted his dog. He picked Buddy up and

 

reassured him everything was ok.

 

 “Alright Phillip, this way!” the robot pressed the little red button on

 

the front door and it swung open so fast Phillip could have missed it if he blinked an eye.

 

 Phillip was nervous. He didn’t like this place. Everything was red inside. The only

 

things that weren’t were his blue swishy pants, Buddy’s green collar, and of course the

 

multi colors that the robot was flashing all over his body.

 

 “Hahhahaha, nice job Greg! It’s nice to actually see Phillip in real life,” called out

 

a very deep voice that was sitting in a chair at the way end of the hallway.

 

 “Yes of course, lando. anything for my master,” the robot

 

replied in a way more mature voice than Phillip has ever heard him.

 

 “You never told me your name was Greg,” Phillip whispered to the robot.

 

 “You never asked,” the robot responded, a little bummed.

 

 “Faster! Bring him to me!” Lando demanded in an even deeper voice.

 

 Just as Phillip was three feet away from Lando, Lando got up from his chair. He

 

was very tall. About 7’9”. He had black curly hair that was very messy, and a very large

 

nose. His skin was pale and flakey. As he walked, he clunked his heavy boots loudly, so

 

Phillip could hear the echo bounce off the wall at the end of the red hallway.  He walked

 

slowly with his three legs around Phillip, examining every centimeter of his body. Phillip

 

didn’t know exactly what to do. Should I speak? Should I ask him a question? He thought

 

to himself. No, I should just keep my mouth shut. Is this guy a bad guy? What is going

 

on?

 

 After Lando was done with his third circle around Phillip, he picked Greg up,

 

flipped him upside down and yanked out a red ribbon from between Greg’s legs. All of a

 

sudden the robot wasn’t multi anymore. Instead he was turning all red. Lando put Greg

 

back onto the floor and Greg turned around slowly. His eyes were red, all of his switches

 

were red. Phillip felt a shiver crawl up his spine as his stomach turned upside down.

 

 “Fooled ya philly! Hahahaha,” the robot said in a scary deep voice that

 

was identical to Lando’s. The robot and Lando looked at one another while laughing.

 

 “Uhhh, haha, what’s happening, what did you fool me about?” Phillip asked,

 

trying to make it seem like he was in on the joke and nothing was wrong. What the hell do

 

I do?…What the hell do I dooooo?

 

 Phillip held onto Buddy tight. It was his only sort of comfort. What is he supposed

 

to do? He is in a red ugly scary room with a demon robot and some ugly alien that is

 

obsessed with the color red. He’s been fooled but is unclear about what he has been

 

fooled about, and really just wants to be back at home with his mom nagging him about

 

anything right now.

 

 “Don’t be scarred Phillip. Don’t you like it here on planet

 

multi?” the robot asked very sarcastically.

 

 “He is a dumb kid. He actually just followed you to another planet, believed all

 

your bull shit about going back after a month of having an adventure of a lifetime, and

 

now is stuck here forever to be trapped in a cage all his life. Poor boy,” Lando said in

 

some sort of idiot baby voice.
 
 Phillip could feel his heart speed up with each word Lando was saying. Should I

 

make a run for it? Where will I run to? All there is, is a hallway leading to a door that

 

has no handle. Think think think.

 

 Just as Phillip was in thought, a bright blue light shined in from the opening of the

 

door. Buddy leaped out of Phillip’s arms as Phillip bolted after him. He knew that this

 

was the right idea.

 

 “Catch him! Quick Greg! Catch him!” Lando yelled as the robot sped off towards

 

the door. It was too late. Phillip and Buddy were out.

 

 Phillip looked left, looked right, looked up and down.

 

 “What do I do?!?“ Phillip screamed to mid air. Buddy came rushing over to him

 

barking, trying to lead him in one direction. Phillip followed. He followed down one

 

street and around a corner. Past trees, and alien weirdoes. Buddy leaped over logs and

 

Phillip leaped too. After about three minutes of intense following, Buddy came to a stop.

 

There were about six other normal looking dogs that Buddy had found. They were all

 

normal except they all had some sort of muzzle on. A muzzle with a speaker by their

 

snout.

 

 “Don’t be alarmed sir. The lucky ones find us,” a golden retriever spoke out.

 

 “Ok, that’s it, I’ve lost it. I’ve lost my mind completely,” Phillip said while

 

throwing his hands over his head.

 

 “No, sir. I know this is weird talking to a dog and all but you have to get over it if

 

you want to go home to planet Earth safely. Got it?” the retriever said as if he were an

 

authority figure. I mean I’ve always trusted dogs, they are one hundred percent

 

trustworthy. I guess this is my only hope.

 

 “Ok, what do I do?” Phillip asked.

 

 “You have to find a robot. A robot that has a blue button above his eyes. Make

 

sure it is blue. Press it and a door will come out, similar to the one that you went through

 

to come to this planet. Step through it with Buddy and you guys will be back at the same

 

spot you were this morning,” the retriever said, relaxed.

 

 “Thank you so much, I really appreciate it,” Phillip responded as he picked Buddy

 

up and walked down the street to find a robot. Did I really just talk to a dog?

 

 “Look Buddy! There’s one!” Phillip screamed happily. They both rushed over to

 

the robot as quickly as possible.

 

 “Excuse me but my dog and I need to go back to my home, can you do us a favor

 

and let us use your door?” Phillip asked as politely as possible.

 

 “of course! Press the blue button above my eyes.” the robot

 

responded very kindly. Hearing this robot speak reminded him of the nice Greg. Phillip

 

sighed as he picked Buddy up, opened the door, took one last glance of planet Multi and

 

was blasted back to Tilden Park.

 

 Phillip looked around. The same trees, the same old lady feeding pigeons, the

 

same play structure. Phillip smiled. He sat in the same spot for about an hour just

 

watching his surroundings of normal two legged people swinging on the swing set,

 

walking their dogs, watching their children with only two ears. He was back, and loving

 

planet earth.

 

 “Where were you?!?” Linda called out worried as she heard the slam of the font

 

door.

 

 “Oh, I was hanging out on planet Multi. Just getting talked to by a girl with three

 

legs and four ears. She actually wasn’t that ugly. Then of course the talking dogs, and the

 

voice adapter. Not to mention the robot named Greg that took me there through a door on

 

his head who was really nice when I first met him but turned out to be possessed by his

 

master named Lando. Yeah…I had to escape and that was kind of scary. But hey, I’m

 

home now and I love you. And I appreciate everything much more now. And it’s all

 

because of you,” Phillip responded in the most nonchalant way of speaking. Linda just

 

looked at Phillip totally confused as he walked off down the hallway with Buddy in his

 

arms.

 

 “You can understand me can’t you Bud. Too bad we didn’t snatch you one of

 

those muzzles huh?” Phillip said to Buddy as he followed him up the stairs, “ I love you

 

Buddy.”