episode 10 - "All You Need Is Love"

There is something about friendship that cannot be explained. Sometimes words are not sufficient for things. There might not be magic in this world, but there are things that broder on the magical. And in the right time and right place, friendship is one of them.

Having Sumo bounce along on his side, transformed Claude. It started slowly at first, but then quickened. He started to clean his fur, not totally at first, but surely and irrevokably. The most egregious spots and stains and bits of slime and good were removed. Fur that had not been exposed since the Nixon adminsitration, basked in the steam the subways let out into his tunnels.

Sumo might have only been plastic, but he was real in a way to Claude. Claude suffered no illusions about Sumo, but he meant something to him. And Claude felt that even though Sumo might have only been plastic and resin and paint, perhaps Sumo, through some strange working of the interconnected universe, felt something too.

Sumo did feel something. Perhaps not what humans would feel. But he did feel. He missed his old owner, and while Claude would never be, could never be as beautiful and cool as she was, he was a good man (well, good Sasquatch) and Sumo could be happy dangling from his fur.

Sumo and Claude spent every moment together, as the days flew by.

Maggie was beside herself. She had never been able to find that Sumo. And yet, perhaps, finding it was the wrong thing to do. No one knew why the Custom's department looked out for them; no one, except for her and a few of her superiors. She had heard a rumour haat a Sumo might be arriving and thats why she was at JFK that day, almost 3 months ago now. Her strange shadow boss, who she just refered to as Mr. Bender, was on a rampage about these things. She was told that they were dangerous and represented a threat to all of man. She was not sure she believed it; it had just looked so cute.