LateNightHacking Louis My Writing

Auth

(unfinished)
7-20-95

My neighbors a couple of trees away from me needed a babysitter. Mr. and Mrs. Tella wanted to spend an evening together. Unfortunately, their children were too young to leave unattended for long. I had always gotten along with the Tellas, so I volunteered to watch over the kids for the evening.

Sammy and Lindy really were well behaved, for little squirrels. I only had to haul them back into the nest four or five times. Lindy wanted to show me this new leaf she had found, and Sammy wanted to challenge the scrub jay that was sleeping a few branches up. I tried to show them how to fold a large leaf into a dragonfly, they weren't old enough to manage something that complex. They did manage to crumple the leaves into balls though, so we had a good time throwing them at each other. Lindy and I ganged up on Sammy and soon he was burried in pile of foliage. Then Sammy tripped me and the next thing I knew, I was the one who was buried.

By then, it was almost midnight and the kids were getting hungry. We had pine nuts for lunch, and a cricket each for desert. They were happy and full, and just like anybody in that state, they soon became sleepy. Deep in the nest, I settled them down for their naps. When Sammy finlly wrapped his tail over his head, I breathed a sigh of relief. They looked so peaceful lying there in the bottom of the nest curled up in the leaves. It was hard to believe how rambunctios they were when awake.

I decided I had earned a short break. I climbed out of the nest and walked along the branch that was right below the entrance. As I traveled, I breathed deeply of the fresh air. Soon I reached the end of the branch. The starry sky was magnificent. I found a cluster of leaves and sat down for a while. A shooting star streaked across the sky. For a while, I just watched those points of light. How could they have gotten so high? How did they stay there? They might even be able to see the whole forrest from up there. It was a rather incredible thought, almost more than I could imagine. After all, the forrest was practically boundless. I'd head stories from people who'd said they'd been to the edge, but I wasn't sure I believed them.

A moth fluttered by, and I grabbed it. It was a little sour but not bad. I sighed. I decided I had better be getting back before the kids woke up and came looking for me. I climbed out of my cradle of leaves and began to make my way back towards the center of the tree. What I saw there made me freeze in absolute terror.

There, sitting in the deep shadows near the trunk of the tree, was a bobcat.