E03【纯英朗读】Before the meeting

E03 Before the meeting 

“Bad news?” Slinky yelped.

Woody shoved a hand over Slinky’s mouth and looked around. A few nearby toys inclined their heads, listening for any scrap of hot gossip. 

Woody led Slinky a few steps away.

“Just gather everyone up for a staff meeting—and be happy!” he whispered.

“Got it,” said Slinky. He forced a quick laugh, then shuffled off across the room.

Woody heard a floor-sweeping swish and glanced down at a toy snake and a shiny toy robot as he walked toward the end of the bed.

“Staff meeting, everybody,” Woody said, then added, “Snake, Robot—podium duty.”

The snake and the robot grumbled a little, but they crawled out from under the bed to help.

A few paces away, the sheriff heard a squeak. He grinned.

The knobs were twitching on Etch A Sketch, Andy’s rectangular drawing toy.

 “Hey, Etch!” the sheriff called out. “Draw!” Woody’s gun arm shot to his empty holster. Too late.

Etch A Sketch had beaten him to the draw. Etch proudly displayed the revolver he’d created on his gray screen.

“You got me again, Etch!” Woody teased.

“You’ve been working on that draw. Fastest knobs in the West!” 

Woody patted him on the corner of his red plastic frame, then walked toward the podium, which the snake and the robot were building out of some blocks and a Tinker Toy box.

Woody nodded his approval. The meeting would start soon. He’d better make a list.

“Now, where is that— Hey, who moved my doodle pad way over here?” He walked over and picked up the tablet.

Suddenly, behind him—“Roaaaarrrr!”

Woody casually turned around. “Oh, how ya doin’, Rex?”

Rex, the not-very-ferocious-looking plastic tyrannosaur, smiled hopefully, his tiny claws clutched to his chest. “Were you scared? Tell me honestly.”

Woody bit his lip and cleared his throat. “I was close to being scared that time.”

Rex sighed and followed Woody toward the podium. “I’m going for fearsome here,” he explained. “But I just don’t feel it. I think I’m just 
coming off as annoying.”

Woody was about to reply, but a shepherd’s crook suddenly hooked him around the neck. 

One big yank and he found himself nose to nose with a smiling Bo Peep.

“Oh… hi, Bo.”

The slender figurine batted her blue eyes. “I wanted to thank you, Woody,” she said. “For saving my flock.”

Woody blushed. “Oh, hey—it was nothing.”

Bo Peep smiled sweetly. “What do you say I get someone else to watch the sheep tonight?” she purred. Woody gulped.

Bo gestured with her crook toward the alphabet blocks that decorated the base of her lamp.“Remember,” she added, “I’m just a couple of blocks away.” 

With a little wave, she sashayed past a small pile of toy alphabet blocks and headed toward the podium.

Woody’s heart boinged like a jack-in-the-box. He shook his head to clear it and glanced around. All business again, he scribbled some notes on his doodle pad and strode toward the podium.