location: Some where...

mood: pensive

music: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road -- Elton John

This is a story that I wrote for a freshman english class.

     My friend Sam was walking through a forest near a nuclear plant with radioactive runoff. Sam, being a whistling kind of person, began to whistle and paid no heed to the wildlife around him. As morning turned to early afternoon, Sam began to run out of band songs to whistle.

Sam was tired from walking as much as he did, so he found a fallen log that was covered with moss and fungus to sit upon. As he sat, he let the sounds of nature and fall press gently upon his ears. Sounds of birds, frogs, and other small creatures of the wood flowed towards him, along with the small swoosh of falling leaves. A small sigh of peace slipped unceremoniously from his lips to add to the natural sounds.

Sam’s amber eyes followed the trails of warm hued leaves. They were falling in arcs and twirls down to the cold, hard ground. The bark of the trees lay in patterns and colors, casting weird shadows amongst each other. The forest floor was carpeted with crimsons, gingers, golds, and auburns, the collection of fallen parts of trees.

The smell of fall was immeasurable in size, many different things contributing towards it. Decaying, rotting leaves and nuts, the smog forthcoming from the nuclear plant, and the fresh smells of overworked soil flowed stealthily in and out of Sam’s lungs. All of these were pleasant, save the pollution of the world, which was not natural to the forgiving mother earth.  Another sigh released itself from the grasp of Sam’s mouth, this of the sadness that was caused by the unforgiving man.

As suddenly as Sam had stopped whistling, the silent breeze that had once blown stopped, and all sound ceased. Sam surprised at this, stood and began to look lazily around for the cause of such unnatural silence. From the sky fell a brown acorn, with the small cap still attached, landing on Sam’s head and bouncing off with a small “bonk”.  Lifting his left hand to rub the spot the acorn had so rudely hit, he looked up to the canopy that he had neglected to search for the cause of silence. As he looked yet another acorn feel down from the never ending sky, this one hitting the left lens of the glasses that lay upon his head. Cursing, he searched more rapidly as another acorn fell and hit him upon the forehead, this time he saw the source of the falling acorns. It came from up high in an oak tree; at fault was a small furry mammal with a long bushy, gray tail, by the name of squirrel.

An idea formed in Sam’s head that would later prove to be fatal.  Picking up an acorn that had been thrown at him, with his dominant right hand; he pelted it up towards the mischievous squirrel. He followed through with the procedure a full six times before the squirrel began to bark furiously. Climbing down the tree at an amazing speed the squirrel barked more rapidly to his fellows. An alarming number of squirrels began to scurry down towards the ground, perhaps a total of fifty, and they circled around the distressed Sam.

A wild roar of barks and chirps arose from the mammals, reaching the ears that had registered the sounds of fall peaceful, in a defying sound. Reaching up to cover his ears, Sam watched silently as the squirrels began to move in stunning patterns. The largest squirrel, which was the one that had pelted Sam with the acorns that had created this mess, twitched out of the circle and towards Sam. Rising to his haunches, the squirrel looked around at the others that had gathered around it, causing them to end their loud barks. The lead mammal barked a simple but unpleasant command and charged towards Sam, wanting to cause as much physical pain as possible.

Sam turned and began to run hoping to either stall his death yet a little longer, or to make the squirrels bored of their pursuing. Weaving in and out of the trees, the squirrels kept at Sam’s fast pace. After a few minutes of continuous running Sam became tired, and slowed. Leaping, the lead squirrel landed upon the left leg of Sam and began to gnaw, causing sharp twinges of pain to rise up towards the brain, creating an unforgiving head ache. Another squirrel, not as big as the first, leapt upon Sam’s right leg and gnawed away creating another large amount of pain, leading Sam to fall to the ground. As the radioactive squirrels began to swarm about his body, Sam twitched in the final stages before death.

A light glow began to flow from Sam in radiant radioactive pulses. The breath and beating of the heart had ceased, leaving Sam’s body an empty bag that contained the soul of a confused person whom threw things at squirrels. The squirrels backed off and jumped around in complete and sheer ecstasy. Barks and “chicks” of sound filled the restful fall air that smelled of fore baying toxic waste.

Many years passed from the event till now, and the nuclear plant was shut down. Even after multiple storms and seasons, the radioactive measurement of the area is always higher than normal. The distressed squirrels have calmed slightly and are not as vicious and they once were, but if you walk in the forest, never throw things back towards the squirrels. Just leave them be and you should be fine and live unlike Sam, my friend.