Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck

by Michael Arnold

  Chapter 8

  The road which Molly took was in fact new and it frightened her. I miss Fannie. I want to go home. I’m so scared out here; her mind confirming her feelings. Molly stood there in the middle of the dead-end street. She gazed at the trees on the right of her along with the dead-end sign surrounded by more trees. Then to the left of her was a steel railing and fence that separated the road from what was behind it. Curious, Molly walked slowly to the fence and peeked through the hole in it. The hole was narrow and tight so Molly couldn’t get a clear view of what was down, beyond the fence. She tried with relentless aggression to force her way through the hole of the fence, regardless of her muscular frame being too bulky to get through.

  That sounds like… That noise, it sounds like water, Molly thought. Her desire to get through the hole of the fence made more sense now. Her head and front legs were through the hole when a car horn, that didn’t want to let up, blared in Molly’s ears. With the same aggression to do the opposite of what she was doing, she forced herself out of the fence’s opening and back onto the street.

  “There you are. I knew I would find you. Come on, Kitty, come to me?” said a tall, slender boy with long, brown hair, who could be mistaken for a girl, if he didn’t speak. His voice was deep for his age and didn’t match his boyish face.

  Molly didn’t move. Her blue eyes didn’t just look at the boy, they examined him.

  “Come on, come to me. Don’t be scared. I am going to take you home with me. I have a nice place where you can sleep and play, and have fun.”

  “Billy, son, it looks scared. Come on, let’s go. If you want a cat that bad, we can go first thing tomorrow to the pet store and we can get you one that has all of its shots. That way you will know that it is a good one and not a stray.”

  Molly backed up, her bag of pills laying on the road a couple of feet from her.

  “Mom, they won’t be the same. This cat trusts me. Look at this cat. When I saw it up the road a few seconds ago, I could tell it was a Turkish Van breed!”

  “A Turkish what breed, Billy?”

  “Never mind, Mom, they don’t have these types of cats just lying around at the pet store, okay. These types of cats would cost you a fortune. I bet that someone lost it. I would be willing to bet Dad’s farm that someone lost this cat,” Billy said, drawing closer and closer to Molly.

  Molly saw that Billy was going to run at her – at least that’s what she thought – but any counter attack would have to be after she got her medicine.

  “Come on, Billy, back in the car. The cat is not going to come to you. You are like a stranger to it. I’m not going to stay out here all day while you’re trying to catch a stray cat,” Billy’s mother yelled from the open car door.

  “I wish you stop saying stray cat, Mom. What if it knows what you are saying? Jesus Christ, Mom. Have some respect for the cat, why don’t you?”

  “Well, you know how I feel about animals, especially cats. So if you do happen to get this cat, make sure it is totally away from me!”

  If Molly thought about allowing Billy to catch her and take her with him, that was off the table now. What Billy’s mother said were reopening Molly’s wounded feelings of being neglected and hurt. She ran toward the bag of pills which Billy ignored since his focus was capturing Molly the whole time. Billy was surprised; when he reached out to grab Molly, it was way too late.

  Molly grabbed the pills and ran as far back as she could.

  “What do you have in your mouth? Come on, come on, kitty, I want to get you out of here and bring you to my room. You will love it there.”

  “Billy, we have to go now. That cat is a stray cat. Apparently it doesn’t want to go with you or else it would have come to you already.”

  Yeah, Billy, you should listen to your mother. I don’t want to go with you or any human for that matter. You don’t seem like you would take good care of me like Fannie did. You probably would have me in a cage, just like they had me in that cruel place for us pets. You, humans, have no appreciation for us pets. You care nothing about us. So, I must go on. Although the offer is tempting to go with you, Billy, I will pass. I must go now.

  Molly found a bit of pleasure in her thoughts. She almost wanted to smile. He doesn’t need to know that we are just as mortal as he is. With that information he may possibly use it against all pets somehow. Molly weighed her option as quickly and precisely as possible.

  “Now, Billy, if you want a ride home…”

  “Alright, Mom, just a few more minutes. I think he really wants to come with me!”

  Did you say he? I’m no he. How dare you confuse me with that species?

  “I got you now, you little kitty.” Billy lunged at Molly as if he was going to tackle her.

  Molly ran in the opposite direction, back toward the trees, back toward the fence. Billy got hair and a face full of dirt and rocks.

  “God darn it, cat! Come here!”

  “Billy, leave that cat alone,” his mother yelled. She was out of the car now and beside herself.

  “You are my cat now. Get over here, kitty. Don’t make me come after you.” Billy’s voice sounded desperate and out of control, as his dirty face eyed Molly at the fence.

  What do I do? There is nowhere for me to go. I’m trapped. I can’t go back! Then it dawned on Molly how she could get out of there. If I can’t get beyond the fence through the hole, maybe there is a way I can get out on top of the rail. Quickly, Molly leaped through the thin bush and onto the rail. Beaming up at her, from feet below her, was water. It looked like an ocean to her.

  “Come here, cat,” Billy yelled as he reached both hands inside the bushes. “I feel him. There he is!”

  Molly pulled away. Scared but free, she jumped off the rail down more than fifteen feet into the water below.

  “I said, let go, Billy!”

  “Mom, you are such a pain in the butt. I had that cat in my hands. I could feel him and you had to go and mess everything up. Why did you do it, Mom? Why?” Billy said, crying and wiping the tears that fell from his cheeks.

  “I think, for now, and you are my witness, we have more than enough food to last for a while, at least through part of the coming winter. Wouldn’t you agree, Louis?”

  “Yes, I think you have enough food probably for the whole winter, Woodchuck,” Louis replied.

  The woodchuck was in awe. So much so that he stopped eating his grape. “I don’t quite get what you’re saying, although I hardly ever get what you’re saying. But that is beside the point. At least with the last statement you made, Louis, it may be possible that I can get a full understanding of what you are saying if you explained yourself perhaps?”

  Louis ignored him, got up from his laying and walked back to the bushes that led into the shopping area. The woodchuck followed him.

  “Is something bothering you, Louis? You seem to be a little frustrated about something. You don’t seem like the Louis I know and it’s worrying me,” the woodchuck said.

  “Is it worrying you or is it really scaring you, Woodchuck? Which one is it?”

  “I don’t understand why you are talking like this, Louis?” the woodchuck asked in reply to Louis’s loud, uneven voice.

  “I’m just asking a question, Woodchuck. What’s wrong with that?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that, Louis. And to answer your stupid question, it’s both. I’m worried and I’m scared. You’re scaring me with all of this new Louis stuff, alright. Now you know.”

  Louis inhaled then exhaled. “The last couple of hours I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. No, I take that back. I’ve been doing some thinking.”

  “Yeah, you better take it back, because the last couple of hours when I saw you, you were eating, and then when I saw you again, you were sleeping. I said to myself; can’t Louis make up his mind what he wants to do.”

  There wasn’t a smile, or a response of any kind that gave the woodchuck any indication that Louis was in the mood fo
r joking and laughing, and that made the woodchuck worry. “Sorry, Louis, go ahead. You said you have been thinking. I interrupted you. What have you been thinking?”

  “First, I want to say I really appreciate everything that you have done for me thus far, Woodchuck. Without your help I would still be chained up at the back of that house, in all that mud. Nor am I forgetting about the runs we went on to get food. I know you call it ‘maraud’ but to me it was a matter of survival, Woodchuck.”

  Louis bowed his head. His sunken eyes blinked rapidly. This is the right thing to do. Part of being a dog and not a puppy is making the best decisions. The decision that I believe I am going to make is one that I have to live with for the rest of my life. This decision is the one I have to speak about now.

  “The cat got your tongue or something, Louis. I’m not being smart; I’m just asking a question because I don’t know.” The woodchuck was calm, relaxed as he stood on his hind legs.

  “No, the cat didn’t catch my tongue, Woodchuck. I hate cats and if there was one here, I probably would have his or her head,” Louis replied, laughter in his voice.

  “I don’t care for them that much either to be honest, but then again I don’t know, Louis. A cat may be able to say what’s on his mind and wouldn’t stall me out like it feels you are doing.”

  “It’s not that I’m stalling, Woodchuck. What I am about to tell you is very difficult for me to say, that’s all.”

  “Since when has something been hard for you to say, Louis? If it’s about grapes, Louis, I know I told you that I didn’t want your paws on my grapes, but if you would like some, we can talk about it.” Louis smiled. “Oh I see, it’s not the grapes. Hum, well, I know I said that those chips, those spicy ones made your breath smell horrible, and I don’t want to be around you when you eat them, Louis. So, if it’s bothering you that bad, go ahead, eat those horrible garlic chips around me.”

  “No, Woodchuck, that’s not it. None of it.”

  The woodchuck, such as he did whenever he confronted Louis, walked as close as he could to get to him. Then he stood on a rock and looked him in the eye. “Then what is it, Louis? What is it you have to tell me?”

  “I’m leaving, Woodchuck. My mind is here but my heart wants to be in a home around people who care for me, kids who want to run around with me. They throw a ball and I run to catch it, and I bring it back to them. I am a domestic pet, Woodchuck, and that’s where I belong.”

  With one grip the woodchuck held his throat. He swallowed hard as if he was choking. “I am having a hard time stomaching this, Louis. So bear with me.” Louis shot the woodchuck a curious glance.

  And just as Louis was making an attempt to walk through where there home was, and venture out into the shopping area, the woodchuck started to speak. “So you mean you’re leaving just for a little while and then you’re coming back, right? That’s what you’re saying, Louis? Or you mean you’re leaving as in ‘I’m going to get rid of your part of the food you and I got the other day’?”

  Louis took in a deep breath then exhaled. “Yes, woodchuck as in you going to have to get rid of all my food.”

  The woodchuck bowed his head, feeling the emotion of sadness coming on stronger than he had anticipated. “Louis, you know what it’s like out there. And yes, I agree, you are a domestic pet but what about…” Then as if he was lost for words for a second, he suddenly lifted his head, tears in his eyes, and said, “Us, you and I, our friendship, Louis, We are friends, right?” the woodchuck asked.

  Louis didn’t say anything right away. He hesitated. “Yes, of course, Woodchuck. Why wouldn’t we be?” The woodchuck didn’t answer. “Look, just because I want to make good on a decision that has already been in my heart before you so courageously rescued me, Woodchuck, which I do not take for granted, is it supposed to be a bad thing?”

  “I didn’t say it was a bad thing, Louis,” the woodchuck said in a soft and somewhat overwhelmed voice.

  “Then why even make a big to do about it with the friends and all? We are friends but you know, just as well as I do, Woodchuck, that somewhere down the road this would happen. Lighten up. You are a woodchuck and woodchucks make it on their own. Remember when I first met you, Woodchuck; you were by yourself, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, you’re right. When I met you, everything I did wasn’t just for me anymore; it was for you as well, not because I had to do it, but because you are my friend, Louis, and friends stick together no matter what.

  “Now then, if you are truly leaving, I suggest that you go ahead and go. Besides, it will be for your own good if you don’t want to see me cry, Louis.”

  Louis didn’t say anything. He felt as if he was a victim. He stayed long enough to see the woodchuck turned his back and walked to the burrow.

  Once the woodchuck knew that Louis was gone, he came back out.

  “Now since Louis is gone, I can cry.”

  Winter hadn’t made its appearance yet but the freezing water hitting Molly’s body didn’t feel any less than a cold day in the middle of winter. She yelled out as the cold water hit her thick coat of white fur and penetrated beneath her muscular skin. For a moment the cold of the water paralyzed all of her body functions, except for her mouth.

  “This, this is so cold!” Her words gargled as they came out and blended with the water. The water tasted like salt as it flowed in and out of her mouth. Her little pink nose moved as Molly began to pick up a scent. She recognized that smell. It was the same smell that she hated when she was at home. The same smell that almost made her vomit if she didn’t get to the other side of the house. But she wasn’t at home anymore, so there was nowhere for Molly to escape. There was just cold lake water that extended as far as she could see.

  I have to go. If I don’t go, that smell of tuna is going to kill me, Molly thought. She managed to retrieve the bag of pills with her paw. She brought the wet plastic bag up to her mouth. I have to swim. I have to swim, if I want to get out of here. I have to start swimming now. Move your legs now, Molly, if you want to start swimming and if you want to get out of this cold water.

  Molly began to swim. There was nothing in front of her in back of her or on either side of her but water. She moved her front legs more than her hind legs, all in sync with one another, hoping to swim as fast as she could to get away from the smell that was very slowly fading, the farther up Molly swam. I don’t see anything. There must be something up ahead…, something, anything. I am scared.

  Molly’s thoughts of fear from being in the cold, icy water began to talk to her. You are not in good health, Molly. How do you think you are going to get out of this water? Don’t you feel your legs weakening as you swim?

  “Wow! That voice in my head sounds just like me. I must have a twin in my head!” Molly said out loud. “Yes, come to think about it, I do feel my legs weakening. It is my left back leg actually,” Molly replied to the voice in her head. Despite the voice, Molly continued to pedal her legs as fast and as hard as she could. That’s why Fannie and Elvin didn’t want you. They didn’t want you because you are sick. No one wants you, Molly. Not even Kelly at the shelter wanted you.

  “They did want me. They were coming back for me until I escaped. Yeah, they were going to come back for me. They are probably at the shelter now.”

  Don’t be so dumb, Molly. If they wanted you, if any of them wanted you, wouldn’t they have kept you, and not lead you to this?

  “The mean lady wanted me I think. She had her cage and all. Does that count?” Molly asked her thoughts, but this time they didn’t respond. Molly pushed harder through her weakness. The water current along with her swimming pushed her to nowhere. The more she saw nothing, the more she saw that her life was just a number, just a cat that lived to be hated and unwanted. What Molly did want at that particular moment was to release all the tears of accumulated hurt from her blue eyes. She wanted to be rid of the sadness that she was feeling and had felt in the last couple of days. “I don’t know if I s
hould cry here. My tears mixed with the water wouldn’t be a great mix for my eyes,” Molly whispered.

  There wasn’t anything that proved to Molly that she was drawing close to something, a board, a tree or land. Nothing was in sight until she heard something beyond her pedaling and the swish-swash of the water moving back and forth. What is that I hear? What is it? Molly searched for the sound she heard in the distance. She didn’t know where to look with the noise of the water and her own negative thoughts.

  Then she heard it again. The sound went droop. Then another, then another droop. Sounds like something is falling in the water. Is something coming after me? Molly swam harder as she listened for the droop sound again.

  Maybe I will stop swimming for a second so I could hear it. I can get a better and clearer hearing on where it is if I stop swimming, Molly thought. She stayed put in the middle of the lake. She had been right. Molly not only heard the droop sound, but she saw what caused it out of the corner of her eye. “I see it; it’s coming from over there,” she said, directing her attention to the left side of the lake. Her eyes grew bigger as the place that bordered the right side of the lake was a rocky ledge.

  “I see the rocks. What I heard was the wave lapping against the rock and the falling rocks in the lake.” Molly pushed and forced herself toward the falling rocks. Once there, as exhausted as she was, Molly dropped her bag of medicine and collapsed on the ledge. She didn’t know how and why some of the smaller rocks were falling from the top but at that point Molly didn’t care, she was hopeful that her weariness would finally abate for a while.