Pins and Needles -Toon- -Trade-

CRACKABOOM!  Another strike echoed throughout the area.

Walking by the Sparkling Shore Bowling Alley, one might be forgiven for thinking there was a thunderstorm in the area.  It was open 24/7, and always populated with excellent bowlers who had a knack for taking the pins down.

Abbe Sabel got off the bus, carrying a bowling ball bag, and took a deep breath of the seaside air.  She and her sister (cousin?  friend?  Alternate self from another dimension?  There's been some speculation as of late), Lizzie, were visiting the bowling alley as part of a little world trip to trade sports skills with people around the world.

"Are we there yet?" came a muffled voice from Abbe's bag.  The blue wolf let out a frustrated sigh and unzipped the bag, taking out a strange green bowling ball with a wolf's face.

"I've told you one thousand, four hundred and six times, Lizzie, we're... oh.  I guess we ARE there."

"Awesome!  Let's go!"

Abbe pinched her "bowling ball" in two key locations and pulled, and with a POP it returned to the shape of a green wolf.  Lizzie cheered as she skipped towards the bowling alley's entrance, Abbe following.

Inside, the bowling alley was... well, it was a bowling alley.  About twenty bowling lanes made up the play area, every single one of them in use by a bowler.  Looking around, Lizzie and Abbe also made out a large rack of bowling balls, a row of vending machines for between-frame snacking, and a desk that rented out bowling shoes.

After renting their shoes, Lizzie and Abbe patrolled the area, waiting for someone to leave so they could claim a lane.  An hour went by.  Two hours.  Three.  But the bowlers were dedicated, and weren't going away peacefully.  (Thankfully, bowling shoe rentals were indefinite as long as they didn't leave the bowling alley.)

Finally, someone left-- only to be immediately replaced by a buff-looking mountain goat with horns as big and strong as the rest of him.  The goat was preparing to bowl when Lizzie stopped him.

"Excuse me, sir, would it be okay if my sister and I went first?  It's just that we were here before you did, and we've been waiting for..."

WHAM!  The goat's horns slammed squarely into the green wolf's chest, sending her flying over the bowling lane.  Abbe could only watch from a distance as Lizzie slammed into the wall above the pins, then fell onto them, knocking them over.

"I wonder if that counts as a strike," the goat commented.  "I'll pretend it does."

Lizzie moaned and pushed herself to her feet, stars circling.  But her problems were only just beginning, as the "pin-pusher" suddenly came down and shoveled the toppled pins-- and Lizzie-- back out of sight.  Seconds later, the pin-setter came down and lined up ten new bowling pins... but the frontmost pin was green.

Abbe double-taked.  She whipped out a pair of binoculars to check, and sure enough, that pin was Lizzie.  Her head was intact, but from the neck down she looked just like a green bowling pin; her limbs and tail had been squashed so tightly against her body that even the seams weren't visible.

The goat grinned.  He took an actual bowling ball, held it, and rolled it down the lane.  With a loud CRACKABOOM the pins were all taken down, Lizzie included.  Once again the pins were shoveled away, and once more the pin-setter lined up ten more... only this time Lizzie was nowhere in sight.

Abbe glanced around frantically before catching a glimpse of green in another lane.  Indeed, that lane's pin-setter had just included Lizzie in its lineup.

Of course, Lizzie was having the time of her life getting knocked down and set up again; it felt like the only thing that mattered to her.  Spotting another unusual pin in her lineup, the wolf-turned-bowling-pin decided to strike up a conversation.

"Hi."

The pin was dull brown with a porcupine's head.  Lizzie couldn't help but admire how neatly his spines had been smoothed down.

"Oh, hi.  You must've gotten trapped in the pin-setter, too.  Me, I've been a bowling pin for three days.  Haven't had a bite to eat the whole time, either."

"You sound so glum.  I know I'm enjoying myself."

"You won't be once you've been here for as long as I have.  Completely helpless, toppled every few minutes only to be set up again, never a break since the alley is open 24/7... WHOA, HEADS UP!"

CRACKABOOM!  The pins tumbled once again.

Back at the front of the alley, Abbe paced back and forth, wondering how she was going to save her sister.  Unconsciously she wandered up to the vending machines and glanced at the selection.  Various snacks and drinks were on sale... chewing gum, deli sandwiches... dental supplies?  Clearly the alley catered well to long-stayers.

A crazy idea snapped into the blue wolf's mind.  She bought a few packs of gum and some dental floss, then began to chew the gum while she approached one lane where an unsuspecting lizard was bowling.

Without warning, Abbe grabbed the lizard and wound his body in on itself until she'd squashed him into a perfect ball shape.  Then she used him to bowl a few frames, stopping when a familiar green pin landed in her arrangement.

Then came phase two.  Abbe smothered the lizard ball in a sticky layer of chewed gum, then attached a string of floss.  Then she bowled once more, keeping the other end of the floss tied around her hand.

Sure enough, the blue wolf's bowling ball stuck to the pins as it struck them.  Abbe finally gave the string a good pull-- and nearly got her hand pulled off by the ball's inertia, but stood strong.  Slowly she reeled the ball back in, until the pins were within reach.  She plucked each pin off and tossed it back until only the Lizzie-pin was left, which she took and cradled.

"Lizzie!"

"Abbe!  Being a bowling pin is really fun; you should try it sometime!"

"Maybe later.  C'mon, let's go get some refreshments; after that incident I want to get away from the bowling alley for a little while."

Abbe paused only to give her "bowling ball" a good kick, popping it back to its normal shape.  The lizard sighed and began picking gum from his scales as the two wolves left.

---

I haven't seen that green wolf in a long time.  I hope she didn't forget about me, the porcupine bowling pin mused, shortly before being knocked down in another strike.