Date:          August 2005
Title:         Walk-Around Character
Author:        Jeroen Verbeek, Copyright (C) 2005. All rights reserved.

Summary:       In the skin of Donald Duck I'm enchanted by the divine 
               beauty behind Goofy.

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Walk-Around Character


I parked my car in the Disneyland parking lot and walked to the park 
entrance. Fortunately, I found a line with no waiting. The toll collector 
gave me a couple of handouts, and the next moment I was magically 
transported into the Happiest Place on Earth. I started up Main Street, 
cutting through the shops in order to avoid the crowd watching the parade. 
There were half a dozen characters at the entrance end, and it was good fun 
to watch them playing with the little kids. I still enjoyed meeting the 
walk-arounds who greeted the guests and posed for pictures. They maintained 
the magic of live costumed entertainment, a mysterious process to enhance 
the real spirit and personality of cartoon characters. 
     As I made a pit stop at one of the gift shops, a wiry young man with a 
goatee asked me to step into the skin of Donald Duck. He told me that one 
of his staff members was ill, and he had no replacement. After a moment of 
thought I said, "Why not? Fantasy is such a wonderful escape."
     Half an hour later I ended up at the front of the restaurant where 
Donald usually resided. It was character picture time and I quickly had an 
enthusiastic audience of youngsters. Their smiles were huge, and nothing 
compared to the excitement in their voices when they hugged me. Donald Duck 
made their whole day in a few minutes! So far, so good.

I never realized that being a walk-around was such a hard job. Wearing such 
a thick fleece suit was like being trapped in a sauna with no air supply. I 
already wore as little as possible underneath, but the underpadding and the 
fur worn from head to toe made me swim in sweat.
     After a while a red heat rose inside my head. It felt like my brain 
began to boil within my skull. The heat tormented me, raising my body 
temperature to near exhaustion limits. I could feel all of my energy and 
strength being sapped out of me. I nearly fainted dead on the spot! (Well, 
I did not though.)
     I fought through the wave of dizziness and nausea that tried to knock 
me over. My pounding headache became almost unbearable, and I had to force 
myself not to vomit. I stumbled, regained my step and left the character 
interaction area. Finally out of the view of the guests, I desperately 
needed to be free of clothing. God, I was exhausted! Twenty minutes of 
magical entertainment had certainly taken its toll.

Panting from the exertion, I kicked my head and body off, profusely 
sweating and red faced. (At that point, I didn't really care if anyone saw 
me naked.)
     Just then a blond, full-bosomed woman walked in, carrying the head of 
Goofy, his dog-body still loosely around her waist. She was over six feet 
tall, and wore a white tankini top with spaghetti straps (which covered 
more skin than just a bra). The stretchy thin material clung to her firm 
breasts. With her nipples poking out she looked like a wet T-shirt contest 
babe, soaked and sexy.
     I watched her closely as she freed herself from her heavy suit. Beads 
of sweat dripped down her glistening body. Her skin was flushed a reddish 
hue, and some loose strands of her shoulder-length blond hair were matted 
on her forehead. This beautiful woman, resembling a ravishing Nordic 
goddess, held my eyes captive for just a moment too long. She caught me 
peeking at her, and I felt a hot rush as a blush hit my cheeks. 
     "I'm sorry, Goofy," I apologized, slowly regaining my composure.
     "No harm done, Donald," she smiled. "I don't mind you're looking at 
me." 
     Then she made a funny face, punched me playfully in the stomach, and 
said in her best Goofy voice, "Gawrsh".



The End



----- This work is copyright (C) Jeroen Verbeek, 2005, all rights reserved -----