“What do you think you’re doing? Keep your hands off of my stuff!”
Rex put up his fists. “Make a move, Porky!”
Hamm jumped on Rex. The two toys grappled.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Buzz shouted. “No fighting! Break it up!” He opened the cubby. Hamm and Rex tumbled out.
“Take that, Walnut Brain!” Hamm shouted at Rex as he bopped him on the head. “No wonder you’re extinct!”
While Buzz was distracted, trying to break up the fake fight, Jessie and Bullseye climbed up to the shelf overhead.
“Hey, you can’t hit each other!” Buzz pulled the two toys apart. “That’s my job!”
“Yoo-hoo!” Jessie called. When Buzz looked up, Jessie and Bullseye leaped from the shelf and slammed a clear plastic storage bin over him. Hamm and Rex hopped on top of the bin, pinning it to the floor.
“Help!” Buzz shouted, but his voice was muffled by the plastic. “Prison riot!”
Buzz charged at the side of the bin, but Hamm and Rex held it down. The bin stayed put.
Bullseye went over to a locker and pulled out a lunch box. Jessie opened it and grabbed a tortilla from inside. She slid it under the door that led to the playground. Then she knocked on the door and ran off.
Mr. Potato Head’s ear heard the knock. His hand hopped over to the tortilla and dragged it back into the darkness. Then the arm stuck itself into the tortilla. The other arm did the same. Eyes, nose, ears, feet, and even the mustache all attached themselves to the flat bread.
Mr. Tortilla Head stood up. He was a little wobbly— the bread was not as solid as a potato, but it would do. He strode off toward the playground.
Meanwhile, back in the dollhouse, Ken was showing off his karate outfit. “Hai-ya! Wah! Wha-a-a!” he cried as he demonstrated his martial arts moves. He stopped. “Uh, Barbie?”
She had disappeared. Ken looked around.
Suddenly, Barbie jumped out from behind a clothes rack and tackled Ken, pinning him to the floor. “I don’t have time for games, Ken,” she snarled. “What did Lotso do to Buzz, and how do we get him back to normal?”
“You can’t make me talk!” Ken cried.
It didn’t take long for Barbie to rope him to a paddle with the paddle-ball string. Barbie knew that the only way to get information from Ken was to go after the thing he loved best—his clothes.
“Let’s see,” Barbie said as she sorted through the tidy racks. “Hawaiian surf trunks.” Barbie pulled them out and heartlessly ripped them apart.
“Oh!” Ken cried out as if she’d torn his heart in two. “Barbie, those were vintage!” He took a deep breath. “It’s okay! All right, go ahead, rip them—I don’t care. They’re a dime a dozen!”
Barbie pulled out a sequined suit. “Ooh! Glitter tux!” Rip! She tore it in half.
Ken groaned as she tossed the pieces at him. “Who cares? Who cares? Sequins are tacky! Who cares?”
Barbie picked up a green jacket with a high collar.
“Barbie!” Ken begged. “No, please—not the Nehru!”
“This is from, what—1967?” Barbie smiled slightly.
“The Groovy Formal Collection, yes!” Ken gasped. He could hardly breathe.
“What a shame,” Barbie said, picking at the jacket’s seams.
A stitch popped. Then another. It was too much for Ken. “There’s an instruction manual!” he cried. “Lotso switched Buzz to Demo Mode!”
Barbie held Ken in her steely gaze. “Where’s that manual?”
Back in the office, Woody poked his head out the door. A security truck patrolled the hall. Woody waited for it to pass. Then he signaled Slinky Dog, who loaded a slingshot. Slinky fired the key across the hall and under the door of the Caterpillar Room.
Jessie was waiting. She stopped the key with her boot, then picked it up.
Outside, Mr. Tortilla Head struggled to climb onto a tricycle. From the handlebars, he pulled himself onto a window ledge. He looked down into the Butterfly Room. Lotso was asleep.
Mr. Tortilla Head reached for the trike’s mirror. He caught a
Letting Go 2: Stepping Stones