~1 year later~

A koala spins around in the chair in his office above the Moon Theater. "The name Buster Moon will go down in entertainment history. And I should know because I am Buster-"

"Moon!" Buster is interrupted in his monologue by an angry animal banging on a door outside the office. "Open this door!" A lizard shaking with old age comes into the office. It is apparent that one eye is glass.

"Good morning, Mr. Moon."

"Miss. Crawly, what uh......what's going on?" Buster asks, trying to see over the desk.

"You gotta lot of animals waiting to see you, Mr. Moon." Crawly answers, pointing a trembling claw to the hallway.

"I do?" Buster runs over to the window and peers through the closed blinds to see a group of animals. "Holy, moly I really do." The group of animals continue to shout for the koala.

"Yeah, it's the stage crew from your last show. They say their checks bounced and-"

Buster jumps off the desk and whispers to his assistant. "Tell 'em I'll call up the bank and make sure they're paid tout suite."

"Oh, I got Judith from the bank holding on line 2 right now, sir." Miss Crawly pointing towards a red light flashing on Buster's landline.

Buster slightly flinches at the name of the llama. He grabs a briefcase and dashes across the room. dashes across the room. "Oh. What should I tell her this time?" He moves a large old poster to reveal a small hole in the wall. "Tell her Buster Moon is out to lunch!" And with that, he vanishes through the hole. He crawls across the narrow planks that crisscross high enough above the stage and house to be considered a catwalk. The angry animals, especially a chimpanzee, continue to scream at Buster.

"Moon, open this door! Come on Moon! I know you're in there!"

Buckets, half-filled with rain water, have been placed beneath holes in the roof, line his path. Buster steps onto a large wooden crescent moon prop. He releases a tethered rope. A counterweight rises, forcing the moon to drop with Buster riding it like an elevator. The crescent moon carries him down from the rafters to its normal placing just above the stage. He exits the theater just a moment later, the poor building in dire need of major repairs. He jumps on his bicycle and pedals off down the street, leaving the stage crew none-the-wiser.

Buster pedals down the hill at top speed and nearly hits a garage truck. He swerves, avoiding cars. As he passes by an alleyway he misses the sound of a beautiful, soulful voice singing acapella.

"In your mind could you ever be really close to me?
I can tell the way you smile.
If I feel that I could be certain then,
I would say the things I want to say to-"

Sadly the sound of a walkie-talkie cuts the young gorilla off. He looks around the corner, quickly ducking back into the shadows just as the police rhinos appear, looking around with their ears moving to listen better. "Huh. Thought I heard someone singin' there. Ah, whatever."

The gorilla whispers urgently into his own walkie-talkie. "Guys! Listen! Stay where you are! The cops are here and-" He is cut off again when two full grown gorillas,wearing bunny masks, carrying their load smash through the window above the teen, with the alarms in the building ringing.

"What the-" "Hold it right there!" The rhinos yell out, being alerted by the alarm. The police chase the gorillas down the alleyways. The cops charge past the teen, but are forced back against the wall as the gang's truck roars around the corner, the charges right past them.

"Go, go, go!" The leader yells from the bed of the truck, he slams on the hood for good measure. As the truck passes the teen, he leaps onto the back where the two other gorilla's cling to their loot. The leader reprimands the youngest member of the gang. "Johnny! You were supposed to be keeping a lookout!"

"Sorry Dad!"

"And where's ya mask?" The young gorilla, now known as Johnny, awkwardly pulls on a bunny mask. Sirens wail as the truck takes a hairpin bend and zooms past an apartment where a mother pig washing the dishes while singing along to a song on the radio.

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
drifting through the wind
wanting to start again?"

She turns off the tap to the sink just before a jug of water overflows. Turning around, she kicks a football out of the ay and carries the jug to the table where her 25 children eat everything edible off the table like barbarians.

"Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin..."

As she refills their glasses, some of the piglets cringe at her singing. Another piglet leaps on the table. "Look at me- I'm Mommy! La la la!" He crudely mimics her singing and his siblings explode with laughter.

"Casper, get off the table." His mother reprimands. Following the stereotypical little boy, he doesn't listen so his mother picks him up. A male pig comes down the stairs wearing a suit and tie.

"Rosita, have you seen my car keys?" He asks his wife. Their children continue to mock Rosita. She pulls said keys out of Casper's mouth and hurls them at her husband without looking.

"Normal, would you please tell them what a good singer I am." He checks his phone as he walks up to her.

"Oh yeah, you were great honey." He kisses Rosita's cheek and rushes to the door. "By the way, the bathroom sink is blocked again. Bye, honey!" He exits leaving Rosita in the midst of chaos. She walks to the window, turns up the radio and gazes wistfully into the distance as she leans against the windowsill. Norman's car drives through town into the center, past a tikibar. Inside on the stage a surly goth porcupine duo performs an original song.

"I don't wanna talk to you"

"Nothing to say!"

"I don't wanna walk with you"

"Outta the way!"

"I'm not gonna play for ya!"

"I don't need anyone else!"

"I live my life by myself!"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"I live my life by myself!"

"I can't stand the things you say"

The male plays it cool but the girl gets carried away, kicks over her own mic and joins him on his mic. They start shoving each other from the mic. The music suddenly cuts out and the owner looks at the two aghast. "Oh my gosh! I thought you guys said you were musicians!"

The two are backstage packing up as the next auditions is going on onstage.

"Ash, babe, I'm the lead singer, okay? Just stick to the backup vocals."

"Sorry, I-I get carried away." Ash replies to her boyfriend.

"Yeah, I know, right, it just kind of ruins my song, ya know?" An ice cream truck passes by the couple on its way to the closest neighborhood.

The same ice cream truck passes by a yellow one story house where in the window a young elephant lights the last of the 70 candles on a birthday cake. She carries the cake into the dining room while singing Happy Birthday. Her voice is beautiful.

"Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Grandpa.
Happy Birthday to you."

Her family looks at her in admiration. "Awww!"

"What, come on, make your wish."

"Humph! I wish you'd join a choir, a local band or something–"

"I tired–"

"--Bah!"

"Hey, hey, dad, we've been over this." The girl's mother tries to calm her father down."

"So she's a little shy- so what? If I had a voice like Meena's I'd be a superstar by now. Just singing 'Oooh yeah, I'd say oooh yeah.'."

"Sure you would, Grandpa. Now blow out your candles."

"Humph." Grandpa closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and blows out the candles with a great blast of his trunk. The breath not only puts out the candles but blows a dandelion all over town. One lone seed flies around and lands on the tracks of a subway rail. A saxophone reverberates. A white mouse is playing said sax. As animals pass, some of them drop some change in his case. A baboon was one of them, but he only drops one coin. The mouse stops playing and regards the coin with disgust. "A penny? How dare you?! I happened to study at the Lincoln School of Music!" (Then why are you performing on the side walk.)

"Sorry it's-it's all I got right now. Heh!" The baboon answers.

"Oh, is that so?" The mouse retorts sarcastically. He jumps down the stairs and grabs the baboon by the collar. "Alright, prove it, pal!"

"What?" The baboon asks, confused.

"Empty your pockets, right now!" The white mouse orders. The baboon drops to his knees and scrambles to comply with the order. The mouse checks everything that lands on the ground.

"Trying to find....trying to find..." The baboon pants out, obviously having trouble breathing.

"Wha-What is this ya got here? Whaddya smoke outta this?" the mouse snarkily asks.

"That's my inhaler." The poor animal answers, wheezing. A money clip, filled with bills, lands on the ground. The mouse grabs it, jumps back to his step and waves the clip around, like it is evidence in a court case.

"Ah ha! I knew it! You all saw it! You all saw it right here! The monkey lied!" The mouse calls out. Everyone around them gasps in shock.

"Wha....I forgot I had that....." The baboon stutters and clears his throat. The mouse takes a handful of dollars out and chunks the empty clip at its owner. "Ah!"

"And next time pick on someone ya own size! You bully." The wheezing baboon runs off as the mouse continues to play his sax.

"Yoink!" A blur zooms past the mouse and when it disappears, the bills are gone. "Wha-hey thief!"

The baboon's fur is tousled a bit, before checking his inside jacket pocket. He pulls out his money clip, filled yet again filled with bills. He looks around, but doesn't see anyone different. "Thank you." He says to the sky, hoping the animal will hear. The blur turns out to be Karla Klein.

"Hehehe." She snickers, watching from afar at the angry mouse. "Who's the real bully?" She clicks her heels, forcing the wheels back into their holder. She continues her way to the flower shop. As she enters the store, the smell of every different flower hits her at once. She moves gracefully to the usual location for (m/f/f) (mother's favorite flowers) when she notices a familiar song playing over the speaker.

"Remember when we said when we turned gray
when the children grow up and move away
we won't be sad, we'll be glad
for all the life we've had
and we'll remember when
Remember when
Remember when."

Karla finishes singing the song in her head and tears slowly trail down her cheeks. She instantly wipes them away and heads to the cash register.

"Did you find everything you were looking for?" The cashier asks.

"Yes." Karla answers, trying to sound normal.

"Seems like these flowers are popular. This is the third bouquet sold today."

"They're for my mom."

"Well I hope she loves them."

"Thanks." Karla takes her change and walks out. She heads out of town towards the cemetery. "Hey Momma." She says as she sits beside the tombstone. "I got these for you. Guess I wasn't the only one." She dryly chuckles looking at the other bouquets that are laying on top of the still upturned dirt. "Oh, uh so Dad bought a charm for me to have a part of you with me at all times." She holds up the charm around her neck. "Wouldn't you believe that it showed up on my birthday." She takes a breath, "I still miss you Momma. I hate that I was left with only a minor concussion, while you had the worst of it. I feel guilty that I made it through." She takes a shuttered breath. "You know I, uh, heard yours and Dad's song in the flower shop. I almost broke my promise to you."

The wind blows right into her face.

"I know, you tell me everytime I visit. I still blame myself and my love of singing with you for what happened."

The wind whips her fur to the side.

"You're right. Let me tell you what has been going on since I last visited you."