A Shadow Man with a Ladder

Once Kairi had found her way out of the woods, she saw a little white cottage with a red-shingled roof, a white brick chimney, blue window shutters, and a small blue front door. In front of the house was a gate that matched the window shutters and door, which was accompanied by a small white brick wall and a long white fence that surrounded the house.

"I wonder who lives here?" she said, as she walked over to the gate. She stood there as she then heard a familiar voice calling out from above an open window.

"Barbara Ann! Where is that girl? Where did she put them? Barbara Ann! Barbara Ann!"

"The pig!" Kairi exclaimed, her face lightening up as she saw Piglet from the window. Just as she opened the gate and headed toward the front porch, Piglet closed the window shutters and opened the front door a moment later.

"No use! Can't wait! I'm terribly late! Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" he exclaimed, as he darted out of the house, holding a gold trumpet in his hoof and wearing a white tunic that had a red heart printed on it and a pale blue court ruff over his jumpsuit.

"Excuse me, Mr. Pig," Kairi said to Piglet, "I've been trying to—"

Piglet turned around and ran over to Kairi, though he had thought she was this "Barbara Ann" person he was calling out earlier.

"Why, Barbara Ann! What are you doing out here?" Piglet asked her, frowning at her.

"Barbara Ann?" Kairi repeated, a puzzled expression forming on her face.

"Don’t just stand there, do something! No, no! Go get my gloves! I'm late!" Piglet barked, hopping in front of Kairi and holding up his large pocket watch.

"But late for what?" Kairi asked him, "That's just—"

"My gloves," Piglet shouted, blaring his trumpet vociferously, forcing Kairi to go inside the cottage. "At once! Do you hear?"

"Goodness," Kairi said to herself, as she headed up the blue staircase. "I suppose I should be taking orders from Thumper next."

Once she made her way up the stairs to Piglet‘s bedroom, Kairi started her search for Piglet's missing gloves.

"If I were a pig," she said, looking through a white wooden dresser, "where would I keep my gloves?"

When she opened a porcelain vase-like jar that was on the dresser, there were cookies in various shapes and colored frostings, and each of them had messages, such as "TAKE ONE" and "TRY ME". These were the same cookies she saw back when she was struggling to get the key onto the table at only ten inches tall.

"Oh, thank you." Kairi said, as she picked out a pink flower-shaped cookie with the words "EAT ME" written in brown frosting and took a bite of it, "Don’t mind if I do." As she looked through a chest full of clothes while humming, however, Kairi started to grow at an alarming rate, and her head hit the ceiling. The cookie had caused her to grow again—just like last time!

"Oh! Oh, no, no! Not again!" she exclaimed.

Piglet tapped his hoof rapidly and looked at his watch with an impatient frown on his face. He jolted in shock and rushed back inside the house, with a fear of being very, very tardy.

"Barbara Ann!" he called out.

Kairi was still growing very rapidly as her arms emerged from the windows, and her right foot was toppling over furniture in Piglet's room, just as Piglet had darted up the staircase to the door of his bedroom.

"Now, you see here, Barbara Ann!" Piglet started to say as he opened the door, only to see Kairi's colossal right foot struggling to get through. "HEEEELLLLP!"

The pink pig gasped in shock and tried to escape, but he was pushed down the stairs by her foot, which had finally found its way through the door, and blared his trumpet again. He then headed for the front door and opened it, only to be pushed through some of his broken possessions by Kairi's now fully huge foot. As he got out from underneath the destruction, the frenzied pig cried out in horror as he saw what was happening to his house. Kairi's arms had sprouted out of the windows, and her feet had emerged from the doorways.

"NOOOO! HELP! MONSTER!!" Piglet shouted in a panic, running away from his house and blaring his trumpet again, "Help! Assistance!!"

Kairi was struggling to get up, but it was no use. Piglet's house was too snug for her to break free, and therefore, she was completely stuck like a fly attached to flypaper.

"Oh, dear!" she complained, placing her left hand on the rooftop. Just then, she heard Piglet's voice, as he had come back with someone to help him.

"A monster! A monster, Cat! In my house, Cat!"

"A cat." Kairi repeated in an unamused tone of voice, as she recalled seeing him in the ocean and him ignoring her desperate call for help while rolling her eyes.

Piglet was hopping around the Cat in the Hat, who was walking with him down the dirt path back to his house.

"Settle down, old chap," the Cat in the Hat calmly said to Piglet, as he twirled his cane with his right hand. "Can't be as bad as all that, you know."

"My poor house..." Piglet said to the Cat in the Hat, still worried about his precious home. "Ohhh, my beautiful roof and rafters...all my walls, and—there it is!"

The Cat in the Hat stopped in front of the house, and his hat flew off his head as his eyes widened in shock, and he almost dropped his cane in the process.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and his shocked expression changing into a smile, "Jolly well is."

Kairi's giant hands opened the shutters, and she peeked through the open window to see Piglet and the Cat in the Hat, her eyes blinking with curiosity.

"Well, do your thing, Cat!" Piglet exclaimed, pushing the Cat in the Hat through the open gate and hiding behind it.

The Cat in the Hat approached the gigantic Kairi and examined her carefully, before replying as he tapped her slip-on shoe with his cane: "Yes, indeed. An extraordinary situation, but..."

"But-but-but-but what?!" Piglet exclaimed, finally coming out from behind the gate.

The Cat in the Hat blew his nose on his light blue handkerchief and put it away before placing a hand on Kairi's foot and crossed his right leg over his left.

"But I have a very simple solution!" he said, delighting the giant Kairi.

"Thank goodness!" Kairi said in response to the Cat in the Hat's announcement.

"W-W-W-What is it?" stuttered Piglet.

"Simply pull it out the chimney."

"Yes! G-G-Go on, go on! Pull it out!" Piglet exclaimed, running over and trying to push the Cat in the Hat, who was simply immovable.

"Who, me?" the Cat in the Hat questioned him, "Don’t be ridiculous! What we need is a...Er...Hmmm..."

A whistling noise was heard once the Cat in the Hat started thinking, and he turned to see a tall, skinny man with purple eyes, a thin mustache, purple eyes, a gap between his front teeth, long, boney fingers, and lanky arms and legs, wearing a black cord with a couple of crocodile teeth attached to it, a dark crimson undertaker tailcoat with a black collar, black pants, a purple vest that shows his bare midriff, a red waistband, tall black shoes with white spats on them, and a black top hat with a skull and crossbones, a red band, and a large purple feather stuck in the band. He was also holding a broom in his right hand and a long ladder in his left as he was walking by Piglet's house.

"A shadow man with a ladder!" the Cat in the Hat exclaimed.

"Hmmm? Oh, Facilier!" Piglet called out to the shadow man, grabbing his attention, "Facilier!"

Dr. Facilier lifted his hat up as a part of greeting the two, but he then felt himself being pulled through the gate by Piglet.

"We need a ladow man with a shadder...A shadder..." the pig said to Facilier, "Can you help us?"

"At your service, governor!" Facilier replied kindly to The pig, saluting to him. He suddenly dropped his broom when he felt the Cat in the Hat‘s hand on his shoulder.

“Facilier, my lad," the Cat in the Hat said to him. "Have you ever been down a chimney?"

"Why, governor," Facilier said. "I've been down more chimneys!"

"Excellent, excellent!" the Cat in the Hat said with a smile, "You just pop down the chimney and haul that monster out of there."

Kairi was confused by the Cat in the Hat's choice to have Facilier pull her out of the chimney, for she was simply too big to fit right through it. *Why would they have a small shadow man pull me out of such a tiny chimney?* she wondered, *I don’t think this will help me out at all...*

"Right-o, governor!" Facilier said, climbing past by Kairi. Just then, he moved back down to see Kairi through the window and cried out in alarm, "Monster?!"

He let out a frightened scream and scurried down the ladder, only to be pulled on the coat by Piglet and the Cat in the Hat. The two were trying to calm him down and get him back up the ladder so he would do his job, but Facilier was too frightened by the horrific vision of the gigantic Kairi to do so. Facilier scurried back down the ladder again, only to be carried up by the Cat in the Hat.

"Settle down now. That's better," the Cat in the Hat said to the frightened shadow man in an enthusiastic voice. "Facilier, lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity."

"I am?" Facilier repeated, a smile of delight lightening up on his face.

"You can be famous," the Cat in the Hat added, as he was still taking Facilier up the ladder. That added the fuel to Facilier's budding excitement.

"I can?"

"Of course!" the Cat in the Hat chirped. Once they reached to the top of the roof, the Cat in the Hat placed Facilier into the chimney.

"There's a brave lad! In you go now," he continued to say to Facilier. "Nothing to it, ol' boy. Simply tie your arms around the monster's neck and drag it out."

"Bu-But-But, governor!" Facilier started to reply, only to be shoved down the chimney by the Cat in the Hat.

"Good luck, Facilier."

Just as Facilier was completely pushed down the chimney, smoke came out from the fireplace, shrouded the room, flew up in the air, and tickled Kairi's nose. She felt her head lifting itself up. The poor, giant Intergalactic girl was about to sneeze!

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

The Cat in the Hat wobbled on the roof once he felt Kairi's head bouncing him around, and he jumped onto the ladder as fast as he could.

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ahh...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Piglet took refuge behind Kairi's giant foot as the smoke emerged from the open window.

Suddenly, Kairi sneezed loudly.

"Ah-ah-ah...AH-AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Facilier swiftly flew out of the chimney and into the sky like a rocket launching into outer space. It was quite a surprise to Piglet and the Cat in the Hat as they watched him flying into the clouds above them and disappearing out of the view.

“Well, there goes Dr. Facilier!" the Cat in the Hat, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Poor Dr. Facilier!" Kairi said as her eyes gazed from the open window, and her hand was in front of the window.

Now that Facilier was no use for the monstrous problem, the Cat in the Hat had something else in mind. So he took out a match and used it to light up a pipe that had been in his mouth the whole time he was present. "Uhh...perhaps we should try a more energetic remedy!"

"Yes!" Piglet replied to the Cat in the Hat, pointing to his pocket watch, "Anything! Anything, but hurry!"

"I propose that we, uh..."

"Yes! Go on! Yes!"

"I propose that we...YOW!!!" the Cat in the Hat cried, as he had felt the flame of the lit match burn his fingers.

"By Jove, that's it!" exclaimed the cat, "We'll burn the house down!"

"Yes!" Piglet replied, chuckling and nodding in response to his suggestion, "Burn the house—WHAT?!" But his eyes widened in shock because he knew that would mean he would lose his house to the burning flames if they would choose to go with it.

"Oh, no!" Kairi said, also alarmed by the Cat in the Hat's new plan.

The Cat in the Hat started gathering any of Piglet's valuables that would be used as firewood as he started to sing a joyous tune of his. The first item he picked out was a chair, much to the poor pig's worries.

Cat in the Hat: (spoken, laughing) Ho, ho, ho!
(singing) *Oh, we'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll put the beast to rout*
*Some kindling, just a stick or two*
*This bit of rubbish ought to do*

The Cat in the Hat picked up a pale pink-colored grandfather clock with disinclined help from Piglet. The clock was tossed into the wall and smashed into thousands of pieces, shocking Piglet. "Oh, dear!" he said fearfully, as the Cat in the Hat gathered more items with a pink wheelbarrow that belonged to the pig.

Cat in the Hat: *We'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Kairi was watching the entire scene with her bright crystal blue/indigo eyes as Piglet scurried over toward the Cat in the Hat.

"No, no, no! Not my beautiful birdhouse!" he exclaimed, but it was already too late for the anxious pig to stop him. The Cat in the Hat had already taken a white birdhouse and split it in half, scaring a small group of bluebirds away. He then tossed it into the pile of the destroyed furniture as Piglet bonked his head onto the broken gate.

Cat in the Hat: *Oh, we'll roast the blighter's toes*
*We'll toast the bounder's nose*
*Just fetch that gate*
*We'll make it clear that monsters aren't welcome here*

"Oh, me, oh, my!" Piglet said with a nervous look on his face, as he carried the gate over to the pile and placed it there. Then the Cat in the Hat placed a hand out in front of him, indicating that he needed something from him.

"Match," he said to him.

"Match?" Piglet repeated, as he handed a matchstick to the Cat in the Hat. Then the Cat in the Hat used Piglet to light up the match and placed it on the stack of roof shingles and the obliterated furniture.

Cat in the Hat: *Without a single doubt*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Then Piglet sang along, as well.

Piglet: *We'll smoke the monster out*

"Nooo! No! My poor house and furniture!" he exclaimed, as his worries had only heightened due to the Cat in the Hat's recent action.

White smoke started to rise up from the pile of the furniture, making Kairi feel sorry for the poor pig.

"Oh, dear! This is serious," she said. "I simply must—"

Kairi suddenly let out a short gasp of shock, and her eyes focused on a small garden of carrots located on the left side of the house.

"A garden!" she gasped, as she reached her gigantic hand for a carrot, not noticing Piglet running over to the carrot and grabbing hold of it.

"Perhaps if I eat something, it would make me grow small." Kairi strained.

It was a brief struggle, but soon, Kairi lifted the carrot and Piglet from the garden and up toward her face. Piglet was struggling to break free from her grip as he swung around in a panic.

"NO!!! Let go! HELP!!!" he cried fearfully, thinking that he would be eaten by her.

"I'm sorry, but I must eat something." Kairi said to Piglet.

"Not me, you...you...you barbarian!" Piglet shouted, aiming the carrot at Kairi as if it were a sword. Kairi took a big bite of the carrot and the tip fell off, surprising Timothy. He fell off, free from the female's grip.

"Ahh! Monster!" Piglet yelled.

Kairi was shrinking at a very rapid pace, thanks to the carrot she found in Piglet's garden. The Cat in the Hat was still blowing the smoke in an attempt to make a fire, whereas Piglet was scurrying away from Kairi and tripped over her shrinking foot.

Kairi had shrunken down to the size of a small figure again, just like when she drank the bottle of the multi-flavored liquid.

"Ahh! I’m late!" Piglet exclaimed, as he had taken yet another look at his pocket watch. "Oh, dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late! I'm late!"

"I say, do you have a match?" The Cat in the Hat asked Piglet. However, he was given a rapid handshake by the pig instead.

"Must go! Goodbye! Hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Piglet exclaimed, as he then hurried off on the dirt path and disappeared once again.

Kairi had made her way from underneath the front door, yet she still had to go after Piglet.

"Wait! Please wait!" she exclaimed, running over to the front porch and jumping up and down.

"Ahh, young lady," The Cat in the Hat said to the miniature Intergalactic girl. "Do you have a match?"

"I'm sorry, but...Mr. Pig!" was all Kairi had to say to The Cat in the Hat before hurrying off.

The Cat in the Hat shook his head and raised an eyebrow as his fists were placed on his hips. "No cooperation," he said of Kairi and Piglet. "No cooperation at all. Well, can't have monsters about. Very well have to carry on by myself."

Then the Cat in the Hat took the broken legs of Piglet's furniture and used them to make a fire, and he blew some smoke once a small flame formed inside the hole of the broken piece.