The truck raced down the highway. Wind whipped the tarp covering Chad's head and body Suddenly, there was a clang and a thud. Rico stopped suddenly. He got out of his truck, and ran around to check on Chad. The tarp was too short. A broken tree branch lay on the road below him. Ollie came around and picked up Chad's decapitated metal head.
"Hollow? But at least it came off cleanly. You can salvage it as a bust?" Ollie suggested.
Rico grabbed the head, and rolled it back and forth in his hands. He said, "Hm?"
He stuck his right hand inside Chad's hollow head and held it up to his face, and said, "What do you think, Chad, you want to be a bust? Or you want me to solder you back to your body or maybe melt your body down, recast it, and put your head on a remade body? Boy headed dog? A sphinx? Or something else?"
Chad's head was ringing literally, after his head left his body, his hollow metal head bounced around in the back of the pickup bed. Then Ollie was holding his head, it was surreal. Slowly, Chad focused. Then Rico put his hand inside Chad's head. Images from Rico's mind leapt through his fingers, and into Chad's flattened mind. A merman with Chad's head, a Naga with Chad's head, a Chad headed Sphinx, and more. Chad shrieked. "Put me back the way I was!"
Rico dropped the head with a start. He thought he heard Chad order him to put him back the way he was. He couldn't have. He couldn't be aware, let alone communicate, could he? Rico rubbed his hands together as he thought, and he smiled. He murmured, "If only.."
Ollie asked, "If only what?"
"Never mind. Get back in the truck and bring the head. I have a lot of work to do when we get to the studio."
"Busted?"