Once upon a time a kitten requested an
audience with the High Snake, who every-
one knew was no fun but who had a line on
some mousie toys the kitten wanted and any-
way you have to meet the guy eventually if
you live in New Tusk or its environs, that's
what everyone said. ## So the kitten showed up
and dutifully remembered the names of everyone
it was introduced to until they threatened to in-
terfere with the liturgy of familiar deeds the
kitten had learned to impress the High Snake with
but anyway by then it was almost time. The Snake
never once looked the kitten in the eye but he
was cordial. "Getting named soon?" he asked the
kitten, who said, "Yes, I'll be seven weeks old
this Friday," with a smile on its face. ## It
took very little convincing; in fact, the
kitten's recital was stopped just after the
story about Grampa Bottle and the bees by the
Snake bouncing slightly in the way that they
do when very bored and calling for the kitten
to follow him. ## The path to the hoard of toys
went straight through town but it kept turning
and the kitten was soon confused. "If that's the
rabbit school then we'll hit the river if we go
any farther, won't we? Not the fake river, the real
one?" it asked. The High Snake just said "no" but
gave the kitten a moment to think about it while he
cooled off on some moss. ## The kitten purred in re-
cognition only one more time, when they passed a corner
that some of the frogs gathered at to gamble. The
kitten had tried it once and lose big but frogs
are either forgiving or very stupid, so it had
worked out. ## Beyond New Tusk's crowded streets
the kitten simply couldn't even start to keep
track of where they had gone. In another few
minutes they reached a cave. With difficulty
the kitten picked out its five favorite toys,
narrowed it down to two, then picked a green
one. "A good color," the Snake said as he count-
ed the remainder and flicked his tail in greet-
ing at a lone mole lounging against one wall. ##
On the way back the kitten wanted to know just what
it took to be like the High Snake, and the Snake said,
"Look,
if you got lost on the way out here you wouldn't last a
minute trying to run things in New Tusk. It's a snake's
world, always has been," but seeing the face the kitten
made at this he added, "Though I tell you what, once
you get a name come back and ask me again. Talk to
Bowler; I think you met him. I don't want to pro-
mise anything but I always did like cats so just let's see.
written for Peter Fawcett 8/14/03
Maybe Peter's words: purrrr, serpent, green, moss, zig zag. [It's 2008 and
I just found a piece of paper that had these on it in my fiction files. I
don't know if they were the original words or just my attempt to remember
(part of?) the list later, but I'm positive they had to do with this
story. The rest of this note was written in or around October 2003.]
---
I don't have any record or memory of Peter's words, except that one was
"slithery" or "wiggly" or something like that, which gave me the idea
for the format. I think the broken-open line with "Look" on it was a
mistake, but I do like the jump into the corner.
I didn't think hard enough about the effects of only having about 2/3 as
much space as usual to write in, so, while I shot for a simpler story
than I might have otherwise written, it still feels compressed in places
where I panicked.
This is one of many requests I got at Burning Man 2002 and held onto for
almost a year. Luckily, Peter was on the playa again this year and I got
to deliver the envelope in person, which made up for some of the
lateness (in my opinion).
- everything is by Aaron Mandel; please ask first if you're about to steal
something -
<< back to more fast custom fiction<<