Silly and Serious were the two most opposite characters that ever had character. Serious and Silly were identical as identical twins. Silly and Serious were as real and actual as you or I can be. Serious and Silly were as imaginary as you or I can imagine.

One day, as Serious and Silly were walking home, when they were approximately almost exactly two blocks from the doorknob on their front door, they both noticed, at the same time, that there was really nothing else to do - nothing else, that is, except walking home. It wasn't really that they were bored. Just that they'd gone on that very same walk so many times before. It wasn't really that there wasn't anything to do. There were all kinds of things to look at: the sky and the clouds, the street lamps and the telephone poles, the houses and the people walking by, the cars, the birds. It was just that they needed something new to do. And everything, even the things they hadn't ever noticed before, seemed, well, old. All they need, really, was something else to be doing while they were walking - something else to do or think about, just until they got home.

About half a block later, Silly came up with a Silly idea. Wouldn't it be fun, Silly thought, to pretend that something, something really scary, is following us? Something really, really scary Something that could catch us and eat us, in some kind of pretend way, completely up!

For the next half-block, Serious thought very hard (which, for Serious, was just about as fun as possible). Serious thought about the implications and ramifications, about being scared and about scary things and about the effectiveness of pretending to be afraid as an antidote to boredom. Serious thought about the pros and cons, the ups and downs, the ins and outs. In the mean time, Silly thought about the scariest possible things, and how fun it could be to pretend them into being - big things with lots of teeth and very, very bad breath.

And, at the very moment when they were each exactly one block from home, Serious made a decision. Yes, Serious decided, pretending a scary thing into being would in deed be an effective distraction and simultaneously a meaningful exercise of the pretend muscles. And, by sheer coincidence, Silly had decided exactly what the pretend thing looked like, precisely what it sounded like and absolutely how it smelled.

So, for the whole next block, the closer they got to their house, the closer the Pretend Thing got to them. When they were three-quarters the way home, they could almost see the Pretend Thing's teeth and eyes and claws. When they were half-way home, the Pretend Thing was exactly twice as close and the Pretend Thing's teeth and eyes and claws were twice as big. When they were a quarter-way home, the Pretend Thing was four times closer, and the Pretend Thing's teeth and eyes and claws were four times bigger, and the Pretend Thing's breathing was four times louder and the Pretend Thing's breath was four times smellier. And, when they were an eighth of the way to their house, they could hear the Pretend Thing's toes scratching on the sidewalk. Eighteen toes. All on one horrible foot that smelled even worth than its breath which now smelled eighteen times worse than it did before. They could even tell exactly how horrible it's horrible smell smelled!

And, by the time they were in front of their house, they could hear the Pretend Thing's terrible growl - like the growling of a big, angry, hungry, and very upset stomach.

Just as they got to the door, Silly was almost not pretending at all. Silly was almost really, really scared. And Serious, even Serious was getting Seriously scared. Very Seriously.

And, just as they got the door finally opened, and the Pretend Thing had dug all of its eighteen pretend toes deep into the front step, and scrunched itself into one big angry, smelling, gurgling coil of very mean muscle absolutely and totally ready to pounce and grab and bite - Serious and Silly jumped into the house and slammed the door completely shut right in the made-up face of the horribly pretend Pretend Thing.

"Wasn't that," said Silly, shaking and sweating and breathing hard, "fun?"

"Most," answered Serious, holding on to Silly as tight as Silly could be held, "amusing. Most amusing, in deed."

"Well then," said Silly, with a particularly silly grin, "how about if we open the door and invite the Pretend Thing in?"

Serious thought for about one-half of a half-second, and said "I don't think so. No, come to think about it, I really, actually, genuinely, honestly and totally seriously don't think so."