"Oh, well, maybe we better check in to our hotel." Carrie said, her eyes still on the balloons. John nodded and pointed the direction they needed to go. The couple walked arm in arm back through the park toward the street with the hotel. It took them only a few minutes to find the right place and then find the hotel.
The front door of the hotel had a doorman who, upon looking closer, was a hound. Quicker than they could see, the hound doorman opened the door and welcomed the two in a most dry voice. Carrie and John walked through and into the lobby and over to the front desk. No one appeared to be there. John rang the bell on the counter. The sound of a gust of wind brought a tiny mouse scurrying up a stool and onto the counter.
"Welcome to Hotel Toon, do you have a reservation?" High-pitched and quite female, the voice of the mouse cracked John up. He couldn't help himself as he laughed out loud. John blushed and kept laughing. He couldn't stop himself and turned away desperately trying to contain himself. Carrie came quickly to his rescue.
"Yes, yes, we have a room. John and Carrie Alida."
"Ah, yes, you have room 213." The mouse receptionist took out a pencil twice the size of her, wrote a note and handed the pencil to Carrie. "Please sign here." Carrie did and took the key offered by the mouse.
Finally, John and Carrie managed to get into their room. John flopped down on the bed and idly tugged his balloon down. Carrie had her hands on her hips and was glaring at John. "John! That was so rude, I can't believe you were making fun of her voice like that! Even if she was a mouse, that still doesn't mean you should laugh like that." John pulled the balloon down, untied the string and took a draught from the helium inside.
"But, I couldn't help it! She sounded sooo funny!" John started laughing again from his own very high voice. He took another breath, "C'mon, were in Tooworld, we're supposed to laugh. Right?" Carrie had gone silent and kept staring at him, her eyes grew wider. John wondered if she was really that mad.
"John..." Carrie managed weakly, all traces of anger were gone. Her voice was edged with something. Fear?
"What?" His voice remained high-pitched.
"You've...you've got, um...John...your ears..." Carrie couldn't manage to get out a full sentence. John put a hand to the sides of his head and found no ears where there should have been some. The sides of his head were smooth. He moved his hands to the top of his hand and ran into something he didn't expect. Feeling around, he found them to be smooth, pointed on the top and rather like a balloon. He could move, fold and squeeze them in anyway he wanted. But the most disturbing thing was the he FELT them. Them felt like his ears, just at the top of his head and like, well, a fox's ear.
"Carrie..." John said, his voice remained high pitched. Carrie would have laughed if he hadn't been so frightened. "What's going on?"