Waldo

“Hey, have you seen Waldo?” asked Jim.

“No, I thought he was with you,” replied Kay.

“No, I went to go to the bathroom and left him with you!”

“You’ve got to be kidding, not again…” Kay sighed, rubbing her eyes.

“We can’t go anywhere without loosing that guy!” he said, as he threw his hands into the air in despair.

“Is he with the wizard?” Kay suddenly realized this was a possibility.

“No, I just ran into the wizard. He wasn’t with him.”

“Did he go somewhere with Wilma?” asked Kay, hopeful.

“No, Wilma is up on the third floor looking at the impressionist art. You know Waldo hates that stuff.” They both stood still, trying to figure it out. “He’s gotta be on this floor, somewhere. He wouldn’t have gone to the second floor without us, right?”

“Yeah, he knows we’re really excited about the abstract art exhibit, he wouldn’t go without us.”

They moved over to a bench and sat down. Jim pulled out his phone and pressed on the screen a few times while grumbling. He then started to hold it up into the air. “I can’t find any service,” he sighed.

“Here, let me try,” said Kay, pulling out her cell phone too. She did the same, holding it up in the air. “Absolutely no signal? How is that possible? What place on Earth still doesn’t have cell phone service?”

“I guess the answer to that is art museums?” replied Jim, with a smile.

“Shut it,” she sighed. “We need to find him before we do anything else though, cause otherwise we’ll never find him. Remember that time at the zoo?”

“Do no remind me,” grumbled Jim, “I wanted to kill him that day. Oh, or remember that time at the gypsy festival?”

“Oh my god, that was just a nightmare.”

“Oh look! Wasn’t Waldo wearing his striped red and white sweatshirt today?” asked Jim, excitedly.

“Yeah, I think so, he usually does. You haveta wonder if he ever cleans that thing…” said Kay, looking off with a slight sneer on her face.

“Then there he is!” exclaimed Jim, standing up and pointing across the room.

He and Kay jumped up and ran across the room to where the man was in the red and white striped sweater stood.

“Waldo!” screamed Kay, while grabbing a hold of the man’s sweater to then realize it wasn’t Waldo.

The man turned around, and although he did resemble Waldo very much, he wasn’t wearing Waldo’s constant, ridiculous round glasses, and he had sideburns.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” apologized Kay, releasing the man’s shirt. “We thought you were our friend. Sorry to be mistaken.”

“That’s fine,” laughed the man, as he turned and walked away.

“I swear, isn’t that guy everywhere we go?” asked Jim.

“I know, and I can’t believe that we fall for him all the time!” shouted Kay. “He might as well be a strange clone of Waldo.”

“Oh wait, there he is!” shouted Jim.

Again, the two of them ran off towards who they thought was Waldo.

“Dude!” shouted Jim, punching the man in the arm. “Where have you been?! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not him,” replied the man.

“What are you talking about Waldo?” asked Kay.

“I’m not this Waldo guy!” the guy shouted back.

“Dude, this isn’t funny,” sighed Jim.

“It’s not supposed to be…”

Jim stopped and looked up and down the man. He was wearing the exact clothing that Waldo had been wearing when they got to the museum and had the same ridiculous glasses, and even had the same face and voice as Waldo. He was Waldo. He had to be! But then Jim noticed something that only a real close friend of Waldo’s would notice.

“Could you just lift up you pants’ leg for a second?” Jim asked, politely.

The man sighed, and lifted his pant leg, and Kay made a “aaah,” sound.

The man’s sock was white. Waldo only wore striped socks. He thought they were fun. Jim was always asking him where he found so many striped socks, but Waldo would never give him an answer.

“So sorry, man,” apologized Jim. “but you have no idea how similar you look to our friend. As well as some other guy we just ran into…” he pondered the thought. “You three could easily be triplets.”

“That’s great, but my wife is calling me to come over to her,” replied the man. “Good luck finding your friend.”

“Thanks,” Jim and Kay replied in unison.

“Now what?” asked Jim. “I mean, we already attacked two random strangers who were near carbon copies of Waldo, what do we do now?”

“Oooh,” smiled Kay, “Isn’t that Odlaw over there?”

“Odlaw?” replied Jim. “That nasty jerk that’s always messing up our plans and tries to ‘thwart’ all of Waldo’s fun? That Odlaw?”

“Yeah,” said Kay, in a way to say, “What’s the big deal?”

“The last time we saw Odlaw he almost convinced that group of Vikings to kill us when we were transported back to ancient Norway!”

“Oh come on,” laughed Kay, “even still, you know that was a fun trip!”

“Yeah,” replied Jim with a laugh as well, “the things that happen when you’re friends with Waldo, you know?”

“So we’re going to go talk to Odlaw?”

“Fine…”

They walked over to the man in the yellow and black striped sweater. “So, hey Odlaw…” Jim said, tentatively.

Odlaw turned around and grimaced at Jim and Kay. “What do you two want?” he asked harshly. 

“Well, first off,” began Kay, “why do you have Waldo’s dog?”

“Um,” started Odlaw, “this isn’t Woof, this is my dog, Foow.”

“Odlaw, he’s dressed in a red and white striped shirt and he’s wearing glasses. No other dog on Earth actually would agree to wear glasses,” replied Jim, yanking the leash away from Odlaw. “And you can’t even bring dogs in here!”

“Secondly,” cut in Kay, “have you seen Waldo? We can’t find him. Again.”

“Why would I want to help you, and in so doing, help my arch nemesis?”

“Because then we’ll leave you alone?” replied Jim. “And we won’t tell the cops that you stole Waldo’s dog.”

Odlaw grumbled, “Fine,” he frowned, stomping his foot slightly. “He’s over there,” he said, pointing.

“Finally!” exclaimed Jim and Kay, running over to Waldo.

“Where have you been this whole time?” Kay asked excitedly.

“Um,” replied back the man, “I don’t know who you think I am, but…”

“Wait,” Jim stopped him, grabbing Kay’s shirt sleeve and pointing down. “He’s wearing black shoes…”