Ungrateful

 

She saw it sitting by the side of the road, fluffed up and pitiful looking.

She cursed under her breath. She had 100 things to do today, and this was not on the list.

As she found somewhere to turn around, she went over what steps would need to be taken and who would need to be contacted to deal with this.

She approached what would assuredly bite her, possibly claw her, and most likely pee on her.

Looking puzzled, then alarmed as she got closer, the barred owl shook himself off, blinked one slow imperious time, and flew away.

 

Ball

 

The little dog was having a fit.

He went outside with a flashlight to see what was upsetting it.

Shining the light in the direction the furry fury was facing; he didn’t see anything out of order.

There were tall grasses and weeds, a mess of sticks, and a bright red ball.

“What are you doing? That’s your own damn ball!” the man said in exasperation and went back to the door. “Come on in, now. It’s time for bed!”

With one last snarl, the tiny terrier turned around, peed in the general direction of the ball, and ran inside.

Be

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

She glared up at her grandmother, clearly disgusted by the question.

“I want to be tall. And I want to be strong. I want to help people who need help. I want to be kind.”

Grandmother pursed her lips disapprovingly, and said, “Well, maybe you can be a nurse, or a doctor or a policeman. Those are good things to be.”

Rolling her eyes, the girl said, “Those aren’t things to be. Those are things to do” and she hopped down off grandmother’s lap and went to read a book. 

Dogs

 

The sound of the dogfight erupted, shattering the silence of the night.

There was no telling what they were fighting over- it could be a shiny rock, or a very fine stick, or maybe one of them had found a little dead thing.

The two giant dogs were related, uncle and niece, and between them they were right around 300 pounds of big teeth and pure muscle.

It was quick, fierce, and over in less than twenty seconds.

The black velvet silence washed over everything again, and the two canines snuggled in for the night.

Dogs are better than humans.

Seaside

 

The Seaside Hotel sat in the center of the desert, surrounded by sand and depression.

Abandoned for over fifty years, rumors were that anyone who entered the Seaside never came out.

He stood in the parking lot, watching the “Vacancy” light flickering with no power to the building.

Shrugging, he entered the hotel.

Padding down the musty carpet of the single hallway, he read the signs on the rooms.

“Mediterranean, Caribbean, Bering, Adriatic, Tasman, Arabian, Aegean, Java.”

As the door to the Tasman Sea closed behind him, the scent of mimosa and call of a Butcherbird lingered in the hallway.

Wink

 

The forest was quiet.

Too quiet.

Her footsteps were silent on the pine straw carpet, and she startled when a twig snapped sharply behind her.

Turning quickly, she came face to face with a squirrel, lounging on a low branch. It stared into her eyes for a long moment, then slowly winked and vanished up the tree.

Facing back the way she was headed, a hummingbird zipped into her path and hovered at eye level for a long moment, before winking at her and disappearing with an insect-like buzzing.

Were they warning her, or threatening her?

She soon found out.

Done

 

He decided he was done.

His kids had their own lives, and his wife had her hobbies and projects.

He couldn’t get excited about hobbies and projects.

So, he went out into the backyard, dug a hole, and dropped into it.

For the next week, everyone tried to talk him out of the hole.

Finally, his 4-year-old granddaughter threw a book at him and said, “If you’re gonna die, at least read me a story first.”

He climbed out of the hole, dusted himself off, went into the house, put his granddaughter on his lap, and read her a story.