Tucker & Leo - The Floor Is Lava

Are you ready to meditate with Kari?

Lay down in your bed.

Get all snuggly and cuddly inside.

It's time to relax and let go of your day.

Tucker had been going upstairs a lot.

He'd been going upstairs because it had been really warm in the house.

And upstairs in Izzy's room was a fan that made her room nice and cool.

And Tucker was just hanging out on Isabelle's bed,

Having the best relaxing days.

Leo didn't go upstairs.

He didn't go upstairs because he always slept on the wooden steps.

And the landing was all wood and the bedrooms were all wood.

And it was very treacherous and extremely stressful and scary for Leo.

It had actually been maybe two years since he'd been upstairs.

One day though,

In the middle of summer,

Leo decided enough was enough.

Tucker had been going on and on about how cool Isabelle's room was.

Oh Leo,

You can do it,

You know.

You can do it.

You can be really brave if you want to.

I'm going.

I'm going to go without you again.

I mean,

I've been going alone and I've been hanging out in Isabelle's room.

And it's so nice and cool.

And I get her double bed all to myself.

And I can just relax in there.

And if Isabelle's in there,

She plays with my ears and scratches my belly.

And it's so nice,

Leo.

It's just so cool and refreshing.

But if you're not brave enough,

I understand.

If you're a scaredy cat,

I understand.

But I'm going.

I'll see you later.

Tucker got up and plodded his way upstairs with no problems.

Tucker was not frightened of wooden floors.

Leo was stood at the bottom of the stairs.

He was pacing back and forward.

I just want to be cool.

I just want to be cool.

I want to be out of this sun.

I want to just lay on Isabelle's bed where it's nice and cool.

I'm going to be brave.

Leo was trying to talk himself into the horrible dreaded staircase.

He hated the sound of his nails,

How they crunched and tapped on it.

He hated the fact that as soon as he freaked out and he tried to stand still,

He couldn't.

And that would make him do banana splits on the staircase.

And then he would,

Like,

Slide all over the place.

And then before you know it,

He was running down the stairs again.

He just hated all of it.

But it was like everything in life.

Sometimes we do things that we don't like to do because we have to.

We have to be brave.

Like first day of school,

A new teacher or new classmates,

It's like the last thing you want to do in the world.

You're nervous.

What if no one likes you?

What if this is just a horrible teacher?

What if I get sat next to someone that's just not very nice?

All the what ifs completely stress you out.

And that makes you have to be really brave when it comes to that first day of school.

Or it's like going to the doctors when you know you have to have a shot.

Oh,

There's nothing worse than having to have a shot.

But we just have to be brave sometimes,

Don't we?

And Leo was trying to talk himself into being brave.

He'd seen a program just the week before where the floor was lava.

Tucker was laughing at him the whole time they were watching the television program because Leo took it very seriously.

He thought the floor was lava.

Tucker was like,

No,

Leo,

It's just what you say.

You jump on the pillows and you jump from chair to chair or you jump from the chair to the table because the floor is lava.

The floor is lava.

It's just a game,

Leo.

It's just a game.

Leo stood at the bottom of the stairs and shouted up to Tucker.

Tucker,

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to be brave.

I might need some support.

Tucker came tapping along the landing,

Stood at the top of the stairs and popped his head through one of the staircase rails.

You can do it,

Leo.

Just don't think about the floor being lava.

Of course,

As soon as he said that,

Leo thought about the floor being lava,

Which made the whole exercise even more intense and stressful.

Oh,

No,

Tucker.

Now I'm going to be worried about the floor being lava,

As well as it being slippy,

Like super slippy.

I can't ice skate,

Tucker.

I can't roller skate.

I can't do any of that cool stuff.

That's why this is so scary.

Tucker said,

Leo,

You don't have to be able to ice skate to come upstairs,

You crazy,

Crazy,

Crazy monkey.

You just have to be brave.

Just do it slowly.

Do it slow.

Take your time.

Leo took one step at a time on the staircase.

It was 15 steps.

15 steps of death,

Thought Leo.

He was doing it very well at the moment,

Doing it very slow,

Very careful.

His heart was racing.

His little paws were sweating.

He was shaking.

His knees were rattling away.

He was very,

Very,

Very stressed.

His tail was tucked deep between his legs like he was afraid and scared.

He wasn't happy at all,

But all he kept thinking was,

Isabel's cold room,

Isabel's cold room.

I can do it.

I can do it.

Isabel's cold room.

One step after the other.

And then he got to the top of the steps and a memory kicked in.

A memory from the last time he did this.

He was standing at the top of the stairs and all of a sudden he heard a noise.

It was a loud noise,

A noise loud enough to startle him.

When he got startled,

He jumped.

And as he landed back down at the top of the stairs,

He did the banana splits.

His front paws went flying in two separate directions.

His back paws went flying in two separate directions.

He didn't know what to do with himself.

It was as if he was dancing on a pan full of butter.

He was slipping and sliding all over the wooden floor.

And as soon as he hit that spot,

It all came flooding back.

The memories.

It was like he had this horrible,

Terrifying,

Grief stricken memory hit his entire body.

He instantly wanted to go to the toilet.

Oh no,

I want to go to the toilet.

Tucker said,

No,

Leo,

You don't.

It's OK.

Leo,

You're not going to poo your pants.

Don't you stress that much.

It's just the top of the stairs.

You just did the worst thing,

Leo.

You got all those stairs behind you.

Look at you.

You did it one by one.

Every single one of them,

Leo.

You did 15 stairs.

I'm so super proud of you.

Now all you have to do is take about 10 steps and you'll be in Isabelle's room.

Can I can I not go in Mum's room?

Mum's room is cold,

Isn't it?

Oh,

Yeah,

But it's not like Isabelle's room.

Isabelle's got an air conditioner on the window and it makes the room really,

Really icy cold.

And she's in there right now.

She was just stroking my back and tickling my belly,

Leo.

She does it so nice.

Come on,

Leo,

You can do it.

You're just 10 steps away from Isabelle's icy cold refrigerated bedroom.

And you can lay on her bed because she lets you lay on her bed.

And she'll tickle you and stroke you and kiss you and love on you because she loves us dogs.

She really,

Really does.

She's so nice to us dogs.

She's like a dog whisperer.

She's like the bestie stoner you could have.

She knows exactly when you have a boo boo.

She rubs cream on your boo boo.

She knows when you need like special treats.

She gives you special hugs.

She gives you special doggy treats.

She's so nice.

And she trained us to sit and she trained us to lay down and she trained us to walk nice on a lead because you know I don't like to walk nice,

Leo.

You know I like to go crazy on my lead because I like to eat all those puppies.

And if there's a cat,

That's the worst thing in the entire world because I'm going to hunt it down and I'm going to chew it and I'm going to bite it and I'm going to shaggy my mouth.

No,

I'm not.

No,

I'm not.

No,

I'm not.

I'm OK.

I'm not going to do that,

Leo.

Anyway,

Don't think about me hunting down little puppies.

Think about you ten steps away from the refrigerator.

Come on,

Leo.

It's so hot today,

Leo.

It's like living in the tropics.

Come on,

Leo.

You can do it.

Leo was doing really well.

He took three steps forward.

He got off that horrible spot that was his dreaded horrible spot where he did the banana splits last time.

And when he got away from that,

It helped because he was no longer traumatized from that horrible spot at the top of the stairs.

Seven more steps to go.

He could hear his nails scratching and clicking on the floor.

And it was freaking him out horrendously.

Like every step freaked him out.

But he kept going and he kept going.

And then as soon as he got in Isabelle's room,

She has a rug.

So when he got on the rug,

He was safe.

The floor is lava,

Said Leo.

I'm safe.

I'm safe.

That's right,

Leo.

The floor is lava.

The floor is lava.

Leo jumped onto Isabelle's bed,

Circled three times and then laid down.

It was so nice and cold in there.

So cold.

Tucker jumped onto Isabelle's bed and ran around going,

The floor is lava.

The floor is lava.

Wagging his tail all over the place.

He jumped on Isabelle.

Leo jumped on Isabelle.

They all like piled on the bed together.

And then the dogs settled down.

And Leo was so proud.

I'm so proud of myself.

Oh,

It is nice and cool in this room.

I told you,

Said Tucker.

So cold.

It's like laying in a refrigerator.

It's so delicious.

We could be ice cubes.

We could be lollipops.

We could be fish sticks.

I like fish sticks.

We could be fish sticks.

Oh,

You know what we could be?

We could be ice cream sandwiches.

I like ice cream sandwiches.

Leo said,

Yeah,

We could be frozen French fries.

See Leo?

I knew you'd be happier once you got in this nice cold room.

It's just so pleasant,

Isn't it?

Downstairs is so hot and sweaty.

I don't know how mum cooks.

She's always down there cooking and cleaning and doing everything in that hot,

Sweaty mess down there.

California is just too hot,

Man.

We need to move somewhere where they have seasons.

I like it when they have seasons.

I mean,

It's September.

We should be moving into that time where all the leaves start to change colors on the trees and they fall on the ground.

And you can run and play them and they're all crispy when they get dried out.

And you can make crunchy,

Crispy noises in big piles of leaves.

I love it.

I love it.

And we don't get that here in California.

It's September and it's still like 85 degrees out there.

It's redonkulous.

Leo said,

I think I would like seasons.

But then I might be really allergic to the snow.

Have you ever played in the snow,

Tucker?

Yes.

I've no,

Actually,

No,

I haven't.

I thought I had then for a minute.

Do you know what we need to do?

Do you know what we need to do,

Leo?

We need to make up like a pretend story or something where me and you,

Tucker and Leo,

Go on adventures in the snow.

And what we need to do is like talk to mum about the snow because mum's from England and you know,

In England it snows and she can tell us all about the snow and she can make stories up for us that we can act like we're actually in the snow and we can get to feel it,

We can get to see what it smells like and we can get to see on its clean days when it's all nice and white and we can get to see it and experience it when it's not on its clean days,

When it's been there for a few weeks and it's all slushy and dirty and horrible because everybody stepped on it.

I know that because I've seen that on telly.

But yeah,

I'd really like the snow,

Leo.

I don't think you'd be allergic to snow.

Do you know why you wouldn't be allergic to snow,

Leo?

Do you know why?

Leo said,

Why?

Because it's just rain and you're not allergic to rain and rain is just snow,

But it's just cold.

So when it's cold outside,

The rain rains and then the rain turns into snow and then the snow lands on the ground,

But the snow is not made of something different than rain.

It's just rain,

Leo.

Leo said,

I think that's the smartest thing that you've ever said,

Tucker.

Tucker said,

Oh,

Thanks,

Leo.

It's because it's so nice and cold in here.

It makes all your brain crispy and smart and fresh and you know,

I don't know.

I don't know,

But it does.

Leo said,

I think I'm going to take a nap,

A nice cold nap.

Tucker said,

Well,

I'll shut up then,

Shall I?

All right,

Let's get comfy.

The dogs got super comfy.

Isabelle was laid on her phone stroking both of the dogs at the same time.

And Leo and Tucker fell asleep in a nice cool room with Isabelle,

The bestie.

The end.