The Sad and Fluffy Tale with Stripes
One night I was reborn as a raccoon baby, in a soft, warm nest with my brothers and sisters. We kept each other warm with our bodies and our sweet breath, as we patiently waited for mom to come back from the night’s work. The darkness grew lighter and lighter and birds began to sing, as we realized with dread that mother may not come back The next night we went to look for her, and explore the world. We were hungry. There were five of us that morning, and I was the one who found mom. At the edge of our trees, there was a highway, with roaring machines moving at lightening-seeming speed, and a terrible smell. I wished I were back in the next with the soft smell of grass, feet, and mom. But she was smashed, of course. There on the terrible pavement of death, my mind couldn’t comprehend it. I slept for another day, in a dark corner, and then I was too hungry to stay dying of a broken heart. I could hear other raccoons out there, and I could smell food. We found free food on the back patio of a great mansion. It seemed like it was for us. We ate there, refusing to talk or think about mom, or the terrible place with foul smelling killing machines, and we slept and grew. Then one awful day, we came too early, and met the cat. The cat was one of us, wild, with no mother. But he was leaving marks, his smell on the rugs around the food, and he wouldn’t let us come eat. The food is for everyone, I said to him, hands calmly at my sides. No, it’s not! The cat hissed. It’s for meee! The humans (he pointed a black paw at the mansion), they put it here for me! Not you ugly little bears! We’re not bears, said my sister. Then one of the tall, hairless ones, the family, the humans! said the cat. They started banging an invisible wall between us. Tap tap tap tap! The cat ran away. The voices beyond the invisible wall, if they were voices, it was yelling. They didn’t want us there! The cat was right. I felt my heart break, and stopped loving the world. All of it’s amazing smells, tastes, and sounds. All for nothing, all for a hateful life of death, stink, and invisible walls. My brothers and sisters ran away, but I stayed and stared back at the things. They were waving, and still banging with a sharp sound, I felt frozen. But I also wanted to attack them. And I wanted the food that was ours to begin with. I wanted to live. I wanted to kill the cat, selfish bastard. I backed away without taking my eyes off the shapes and sounds at the invisible wall. We’ll have to find food somewhere else, I guess, also it was morning, and we were so tired. We went to bed hungry in a new nest that we made, farther down the street. But now that I know the sound of “highway,” I can always hear it. I’ll never think life is for fun, or pleasure, or rest, or return, anymore.