"All Koma"

"ZIPPER CHUTE AND THE DIME BOYS" - VOL. 2

When we last saw our intrepid heroes, Zipper Chute had decided to embark upon a worldwide quest for meaning...

BUSY

“Ain’t no way, no way at all,” said Magenta Sue, crossing her arms, talking with Zipper in her apartment. “I can’t go off on some worldwide vision quest shin-dig thing. I got stuff to do.”

“Like what?” Zipper asked, eyebrow raised. “Drinking, video games, Japanese cartoons?”

Sue paused.

“Uh…n-no…”

COMMITMENT

“I…actually have a commitment coming up, or something like that,” Sue explained. “I won’t have time for the trip.”

Zipper sighed. “And what’s this commitment?”

Sue thought about it.

“I don’t gotta tell you nothing.”

STARE

Zipper stared at Sue.

Sue started sweating.

Zipper stared even more.

Sue tugged at her collar.

NOT INVITED

“Alright, alright!” Sue said. “It’s uh…uh…my sister, you know, it’s her bachelorette party. Yeah! Her bachelorette party.”

Zipper pondered this. “Hmm, I guess I didn’t get an invitation. Which is odd ‘cuz she said she’d invite me when I last saw her.”

Sue merely shrugged.

“Maybe she just hates you.”

NO CONTACT

“I’ll brain-flash her quick,” Zipper said, a look of suspicion on her face. “‘Cuz she even told me she wanted my help with brainstorming some ideas for the party-”

Sue gripped Zipper by the ears. “You can’t brain-flash her!”

Zipper fumed. “Why not?”

Sue thought about it. “Uh…she’s busy too, ‘cuz she has the party to plan and all…”

TERMINOLOGY

Now alone in her room, Sue brain-called her sister.

“Nee-chan, you gotta help me! It’s something urgent-”

Sue pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I told you before, it’s a term of endearment used in Japan, it’s not something vulgar.”

REQUEST

“A-Anyway, that’s not important,” Sue said. “We have bigger issues. You gotta help me. I need you to move your bachelorette party from next year to next month.”

Sue listened.

Sue frowned.

“Look, I’m not asking you to move mountains here…”

CONSUMPTION

In her apartment, bakelite headset on, Nat Cool played The Big War: The Five-Sense-Experience while sipping milkshake through a straw.

Sue kicked down her door. “Nat, we got a problem! You like your idle life of easy materialism, correct?”

Nat glanced at her milkshake.

Nat nodded.

PROBLEM

Sue shook Nat’s shoulders. “Zipper wants us to go on some sort of quest with her, and she won’t take no for an answer. It’s better than wasting away in your apartment, she says. It’ll cost no money, she says. We can even go to Neo-Neon Tokyo, she says.”

Sue stared into Nat’s eyes, nose-to-nose. “But imagine the pain and suffering we’ll need to endure if we’re away from our couches and beds and comforts for an entire trip.”

Nat imagined it.

Nat started crying.

SOLUTION?

“I tried saying I’d be busy, but Zipper’s gonna figure out my clever ruse,” Sue admitted. “So we’ll need another excuse that’ll keep us from going.”

Nat pondered this, then raised a finger as a light bulb appeared above her.

The two stepped through a door and now stood at the top of the staircase within Nat’s building. Both stared at the hard A-Polymer stairs stretching out below them.

“There’s gotta be a better way to break our arms,” Sue said.

HEY LOIS

Sue gulped. “Say, Nat, since this was your idea, maybe you oughta go first.”

Nat pulled her ushanka tight, then plunged down the stairs.

She bounced around and then landed in a heap at the bottom, an arm and leg awkwardly folded behind her back.

Sue gulped. “Uh…Nat?”

I’M OKAY

Nat pulled herself off the floor.

She examined her body. No bumps.

She examined her arms. No breaks.

She sighed in defeat.

ACCEPTANCE

“Alright, alright,” Sue said with a sigh. “I guess I’d rather go on a trip than break my arm after all.”

Sue grew optimistic. “And who knows? Maybe Zipper’ll be right, and getting out and seeing the world we live will do us some good-”

Zipper popped out from the door behind them. “Hey guys, sorry for being so pushy about the trip-”

Sue yelped in surprise and tumbled downwards.