-- continued from 2/20 --

The hot winter passed pleasantly for Belle and the Beast. Belle thought of her as her dearest friend. The Beast dreamt of little but the beautiful Belle.

One night while Belle was showing her how to dance, the Beast stammered, "Belle, are you happy here - with me?"

"Yes," said Belle, but the Beast saw a trace of sadness in her eyes. Then Belle added, "If only I could see my father again, even for a minute."

"You can," the Beast said, handing her a magic mirror.

Belle gazed into it with wonder. She saw Bobby Ray trudging through the swamp. He looked frail and old. Even as she watched, her father collapsed in a heap.

"I must go to him!" Belle cried. "He may be dying."

"I release you," the beast said sadly. "But take the mirror. Then you will always have a way to remember me."

With the magic mirror to guide her, Belle soon found her father and brought him back to their trailer. But their happy reunion was cut short by a pounding at the door.

"We've come to take Bobby Ray to jail," announced Barney Fife, deputy of the town's police force.

"No!" Belle cried. "My father isn't using!"

Bobby Ray's friend Buck stepped forward. "Bobby Ray has been raving that you were imprisoned by a hideous beast," he said. "Only a strung-out man would tell such a tale."

"But it's true," Belle protested. She searched the angry crowd and saw Britney. "Britney!" she cried. "You know my father isn't using or selling. Tell them."

Britney told her that she might be able to calm the crowd - if Belle would promise to date her.

"Never!" Belle exclaimed. "And my father is not using. There really is a Beast and I can prove it. Look in the mirror and see."

The crowd looked at the Beast's reflection and grew frightened.

Britney was furious at Belle's refusal. "We must hunt down this savage animal!" she cried, stirring up the mob. "Who's with me?"

"We are!" answered the town's folk. They locked Belle and her father in the trailer and drove off to catch the Beast.

Luckily Chips, Mrs. Pott's son, had stowed away in Belle's fake Louis. He helped Belle and her father escape from the trailer.

By the time Belle reached the Beast's home, Britney and the Beast were in a mortal duel on the trailer roof. The Beast managed to knock Britney's umbrella from her hand, and there was nothing to stop her from killing Brit - nothing but the Beast's own humanity.

Britney screamed for mercy. The Beast granted it and turned away from her foe. At once, the ungrateful Britney rose up and plunged a knife into the Beast's back.

The Beast roared in pain, frightening Britney, who lost her footing and fell off the roof onto the gravel driveway below.

Belle flew to the Beast's side.

"You came back," the Beast said weakly. "At least I got to see you one last time."

"No! No!" Belle said, sobbing, as she kissed her.

"Please don't die...I love you."

At that instant the spell was broken, and in a shower of enchanted rain, the Beast became a gorgeous woman.

The trailor came alive with rejoicing as the young woman gathered Belle into her arms. Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, and Lumiere had not one doubt that the loving couple would live happily ever after.