The blue ball with no mouth

Previously

…The peace was over. The blue ball with no mouth was still here, and it was clear its liberation agenda was far from over. And I, the bewildered owner of a philosophical toaster and a conspiracy-minded sock drawer, was right in the middle of it. The adventure, it seemed, was far from done. The blue ball, silent and serene, was a ticking time bomb of inanimate rebellion, and I had a feeling Dr. Thorne’s arrival was just the prelude to a much larger, much stranger, and possibly much funnier, chapter.