Tony by Matt Briggs

Ocean. Not a little ocean, but a vast ocean. The shot can be done with a camera with a weight hung from the helicopter. Is this really how it might be done?

I'm concerned here about the camera disturbing the waves. I want it to be clear that the boat and the boy, have lost their ship because it has sunk without a trace. It is as good as if they had been dropped there in the middle of the ocean from somewhere else completely.

There is the boat, a white speck, a tiny thing, a toy boat, a boat with two shapes in it.

There is a boat with a boy with a peach fuzz mustache, and a tan drinking water out of a gasoline can, and Tony the Tiger of Kellogg fame.

We build brands and make the world a little happier by bringing our best to you each morning.

He is somewhat translucent and pixilated. It becomes clear, quickly, that this is not a commercial because this Tony the Tiger isn't smiling, but has lost some weight, and that you can see his bones through his carefully cheerful and colorful skin.

How do you achieve this translucent effect? It needs to be true translucency rather than a suggested translucency --that is there needs to be the effect that this tiger is made out of Mylar or some kind of see through material rather than merely superimpose the background image over the top of him. The background image needs to pass through the medium that is Tony the Tiger and into the viewer's eye.

This is suggested by the distortion of the light passing through the translucent tiger. The boy and the tiger are getting along as they always do. They are eating seaweed.

How does it taste?

They're Gr-r-Great! But, it is clear as they are eating, from their slowing down, from Tony's prolonged glances at the boy--he would rather be eating something else. The boy, too, can tell, because he would rather be eating something else. "It surely would be good to get my hands on a nice steak right about now, wouldn't it," he says. "A nice juicy piece of meat." The tiger laughs. He can only say one thing (you know--They're Gr-r-great--or laugh, and so he doesn't say his one thing because he would rather keep eating the seaweed than lose the conversation of his friend. They float on the water for a long time. The passage of time is indicated by a time-lapse shot of the boat in the water. The waves speed up and jostle around the boat. The thin clouds sweep overhead, and stars swirl up as the darkness pours over the sky and then it is very dark.

They will not eat each other?

They will not eat each other, but will perish like a civilized tiger and boy. The tiger's will begins to break down. In one instance, he sees the boy shaped like a turkey, dripping baked oils, bread and clove stuffing coming out of his butt. When he leans in to eat the boy, the boy begins to shriek. "What are you doing? I am a boy, not a piece of meat!" And the tiger comes to and sees the boy.

It is a dark moment

Now he is going to eat the boy in any case. Saliva drips on the boards of the boat. The translucent tiger is quite hungry. "A boat," the boy says. "A boat." And they see another boat on the horizon. They jump around on the boat. "We are saved," the boy says. He flashes a bit of metal in the sun. They wait. The boat disappears over the horizon, and Tony looks at the boy again. The boy looks at Tony again. Tony has a bib, and a knife and a fork. Just then another boat appears on the same horizon.

It must be a shipping lane or something.

Tony is undeterred this time. He chases the boy around the boat. The boat jostles in the water, one side dipping down very close to letting water into the boat and then the other side dipping up almost to the top. And then finally, this boat has seen them. Tony is about to eat the boy, and the boat is on top of them, a gigantic freighter, and pulls them to safety.

A close call.

A close call, to be sure.

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Matt Briggs lives and works in a basement near Seattle. His work can be found or is forthcoming at Proximity Magazine, Necessary Fiction, The Golden Handcuff Review, and Birkensnake. His most recent book of stories is The End is the Beginning. A new novel will be published early next year. He blogs here.