Fiction, Ltd. Story #002

It has been a good time for clouds.

When our parents were rabbits and bears still walked the earth, two lop-
eared rebels named Month Of May and Practical Function convened to tear
it down and paint it black. The object of their depredations was the
Hoop Bridge, built by pigeons and humans in the year of the most recent
duststorm. Practical Function scratched behind his ear.

"What kind of damage would a good party do here? What about a bomb? I
want to leave my mark before I molt." Month Of May scratched her ear,
too. "I don't think we molt," she said. PF brushed some stickers out of
his fur and looked up at the clouds. One cloud in particular reminded
him of May. He watched it until it began looking like a hammer, then
dissipated entirely. That reminded him of May too.

Quiet made May uneasy. "Are there a lot of bears here? I could take on a
bear." "No bears," said PF, "not for months. Someone signed something.
Boxer's Girl, maybe, or Daydream. I was out of town." May had four bear
dots inked on her left hind foot, which was more than most people, and
three toes on her right hind foot, which was fewer than most people. PF
couldn't stand to hear her talk about bears.

"I invited some more of your friends," said May. "They were picnicking
just off the path I took here. You don't mind, do you?" "No, no problem.
Should we put the sound system here, or HERE? Is dusk too early for a
shindig at this time of year?" If you wanted details nailed down before
it went sky-high in those days, you called Practical Function. "I've got
this idea," he said, looking at the sky, "that we're going to molt soon.
You and I haven't seen everything."

The party went off and, two days later, May got her last bear. The
clouds never forgave them, though, and as they gave way to the world we
know and the clouds billowed out of the skies to set up their unkind
fiefdoms, the clouds have never forgiven us, either.

written for PF & Maia 8/30/01

PF and Maia chose five words each. Both picked "bunnies"; the other eight were "bear", "honey-laden", "ironic", "croquet", "metamorphosis", "clouds", "blanket" and "bridge". Boxer's Girl and Daydream got their names from Adrian and Deidre, both (like PF and Maia) part of the camp that puts out Piss Clear, the funnier and more useful of Black Rock City's two newspapers. Just naming rabbits was curiously satisfying, but the whole story got me excited to do more of these.

When PF typed up his copy to send me (I didn't have one), the word "molt" had been changed to "melt". The story makes more sense that way -- when I wrote it, I was totally unaware that rabbits molt. I thought only snakes did. Oops. Anyway, big thanks to him for mailing me this.

- everything is by Aaron Mandel; please ask first if you're about to steal something -

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