Salvage Yard - Chapter 4

First Row: Skunky, Big Kitty, and Dozer

Second Row: Orange Kitty, Raccoon and Chickadee, and Little Kitty

Top: The Man  

C h a p t e r   4

Some time passed. The temperature went down and the sun had almost reached the tops of the trees.

There was an rumbling engine sound like the man's machines made, but from a different kind. Dozer raised his head again. He heard loud voices coming from in front of the house.

The man was talking loudly to someone. He never seemed able to just talk at a normal volume. The other man had a similar voice but softer and not as low pitched as the man's.

“Yeah...yeah... I had it ready for you. Trapped it right after we talked on the phone this morning. I thought for sure, you know, I'd be able to get it into the cahdboard box, but a dahn, crazy skunk showed up, right while I was shakin' the trap!! How often does THAT happen?? Ha!! I even tried to shoot it, cos it's probly diseased, you know, rabies. But I missed by about one inch! FIGUAHS!”

“Weeeeeell...” said the other man hesitantly “...I coulda really used that fifty bucks. The lady I get 'em for uses 'em fa mousin in her bahn. Hahd to find the feral ones these days. Theyah just too smaht. Woulda taken it so fah from heh, it'd nevah come back.”

“Oh, I know it!” said the man. “This one musta watched how I closed the lid. Somehow it let itself out. I'll get it again though, mahk my wurds! It watches me eat my breakfast juss 'bout every day...I'm gonna clean this yahd of all the the freeloadin crittahs.”

“OK,” said the other man. “Gimme a call when ya get it next time. And don't worry 'bout the cahdboard box, I'll just take the trap and retahn it to ya next day.”

“Right... See ya!”

“Bye!”

Dozer didn't have a clue what they were talking about. A little flute note sounded behind him on his house. “Chickadee!! Oh, it all worked out! Thanks so much!”

“Dozer, it was my pleasure. You are my dear friend and we've know each other for a few seasons now. Friends help each other. When one of them is trapped, the other one will risk her life to free her friend.” She turned to the side, and her mate flew in next to her.

Dozer smiled, “I would have rather spent the day listening to one of your stories.”

“Well, maybe I can talk to you for a little while before we head to the nest for the night?” Chickadee looked at her mate and they touched beaks.

The front door of the house closed hard, and the kitchen light came on through the back window. The sun was behind the trees, and the clouds in the sky were lighting it up in orange and pink wisps. Skunky walked up slowly from behind Dozer's dog house. He was much calmer now.

“Skunky!! Oh, Skunky you were very brave, my little friend!” Dozer's tail wagged, and Skunky knew that Dozer really meant it.

“Yes,” said Chickadee, “we were at a loss... we didn't know what to do. And then you came in and saved the day!”

“Oh, you guys...” Skunky proudly dug at the ground with his face turned away. “I wasn't scared until that loud sound came. Little Kitty tried to warn me before she got out. She said that the man had scary tools. Now I know what she meant. By the way, where is Raccoon? I think he is the real hero.”

“Oh, my protector likes to do his own thing most of the time,” answered Chickadee.

“Why doesn't he talk?” asked Skunky.

“He can't talk in a way we can understand. But he knows exactly what I'm saying to him. He's very smart.”

“Oh...” said Skunky. “That's weird; an animal that can't talk. I thought the man was the only one who didn't make any sense. If the man and his kind could only talk and understand language, then we could tell him that we don't like to be treated so badly. Then, I think the yard would be a nicer place for us all.”

Chickadee laughed and looked over at her mate. He ruffled his feathers and then giggled. “I can talk to their kind too,” she said.

“Them? You CAN?” Skunky perked up.

“Yes. But only when they are willing to listen.”

“Wow.” Skunky thought seriously about this. “Hey Dozer do you think the man will be coming after us again tonight?”

“Ha!” said Dozer. “No, the man drinks from his big bottle at night. Although... sometimes he comes out with the bottle and sits in that blue machine over there.” Dozer pointed his head in the direction of an old car sitting precariously on top of a pile of crushed ones. “He hooks up a big string to it, climbs in and listens to a loud sound in the front seat.”

“Loud sound?” asked Skunky.

“It's called 'music',” said Chickadee.

Dozer continued, “He sings along for a while and then he gets out, unhooks the big string and stumbles back inside the house.”

“Strange...” said Skunky.

“When I was just a pup, he used to ride in the blue machine. Way back then he had a mate.” Dozer looked off into the last light of setting sun.

“HE had a mate? Where is she now?”

“I don't know. One day she just wasn't around anymore.” Dozer smiled as he continued to watch the sky. “Her name was May. She was the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. She had soft white skin, and light hair, so long... So long ago. She was very kind. She used to pull me up on her lap and scratch my neck. Her fingers were so delicate, and her voice... It was sweet, like Little Kitty's or, maybe like Chickadee's. I haven't thought about her for a long, long time.” He sighed and laid down.

Slinking out of the dark space right near the pile of crushed cars that they were looking at, came Little Kitty, followed by Orange Kitty.

Dozer rose to his feet and turned around and around. “Little Kitty, Little Kitty!!”

Orange Kitty came up next to her and they both stopped in front of Dozer's house.

Little Kitty was smiling intently with her eyes and purring loudly. “You all are the greatest friends I've ever had! You rescued me and I'll never forget it. Orange Kitty told me about the deal Dozer and Chickadee made, and I can assure you that I will NEVER eat another egg...or harm another bird either.”

“Same for me,” said Orange Kitty, “It's nothing but voles now. And Little Kitty gets some of Dozer's food too, of course.”

Above this odd gathering appeared a tiny star. The slight breeze had vanished and the world was quiet. There was a shared feeling among the animals present that something had been bent during the daylight. A piece of invisible wood maybe, or like a branch or a board. The energy at the bend point had grown until it could not be contained anymore and the wood broke, releasing that energy and allowing peace to temporarily fall over everything.

One by one, each animal laid down and settled into a relaxed state. They looked at each other and then at the trees, the small patches of snow that were left, the piles of metal, cars, tires, batteries... This was their home.

Slowly, gently, Chickadee began to speak quietly...

“When we were on our way back here, my mate said to me that the world was changing. At the time, I didn't know what he meant. But we birds – our kind – have been here in the world for a long time; longer than any of your kinds. When we speak to each other, there is no need to answer right away. We think much. We understand what a small movement means. We don't usually need to speak at all. THAT is why we sing.

“Way back, over the embankment, behind the rows of crushed metal machines, and past even the ones that have rusted away, there is an old water machine. It is tipped on its side. But it has a big fin like a fish, and a long white tree coming out of it. Strings hold the tree to the machine. And the whole thing is made of wood, not metal.

“Inside it; in one of the corners, I hatched with two of my siblings. Strewn across the ground around this machine were rectangular objects. And in these were what the man might call 'pages.' They are like leaves but they have pictures on them.

“My brothers and I would hop down to the ground after we learned how to fly and we would look at these pages. Mother Chickadee, before she left, explained that the man's kind learned about the world by looking at these pages. So we tried, too. We would flip them over and look at each one.

“Eventually my brothers left to make new nests. I saw all of them from time to time in our banditry, but I often lived alone back then. When the weather got cold in that first year, somehow I knew it would be time to store my food for the winter and I spent half my day finding good places to put the food and the other half studying the pages.

“One day I was flipping through the pages after my work was done and I saw a bunch of pictures that shocked me. They showed different animals of every kind. It was easy to see that they had changed over time from other animals and some were related, while others weren't anymore. This is why we have feathers, but you all have fur. You all are more closely related to each other than to me and my mate.”

They all looked around and giggled.

“NO WAY! I'm related to a DOG!” exclaimed Orange Kitty.

“Yeah,” said Dozer, “you are our less developed cousins!”

They all laughed, even Orange Kitty.

“Tell us more. Tell us why your mama left.”

“First I want to tell you the biggest secret of all. The man's kind used to be an animal like us. In many ways the man is still an animal. That's why I can speak to him if he would allow me, but he won't. He considers himself to be greater than us now, but he hasn't been around as long as we have.” Chickadee stopped and looked around.

Five sets of eyes were focused on her. No one said a word.

“Now to answer your question, Skunky...”

Little Kitty, Orange Kitty and Dozer seemed a bit uncomfortable and they looked at each other and then at other things.

Chickadee went on...

“Mamas don't usually stay with their babies forever, Skunky. Orange Kitty and Little Kitty are an exception.” She stopped.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Skunky looked puzzled.

“Skunky,” Little Kitty piped up, “Orange Kitty is my son. His father – Big Kitty – comes and goes, and I would too...but....when Orange Kitty lost that piece of his leg in the tool shed, he was still very young, and I decided to stay with him while he healed, to help him grow up strong. But we got along so well that we've stuck together. He doesn't need my help any more, but we help each other get by. In fact, if it weren't for him, who knows what would have happened to me today. I love him. We are a team.”

“Woooowwww...” said a breathless Skunky. They all braced themselves for what would come next and Skunky didn't disappoint them. “Then...my mama...she just did the normal thing by leaving? But why do I miss her so much?”

Little Kitty walked over by Skunky and laid down in front of him...

“Skunky, we knew your mama. She was the bravest of us all. Dozer liked her even if he didn't like us cats. We liked her even though she liked Dozer. Ha! You lost your mama a little bit too early. She should have been with you, at least up until now.

“Skunky, she had kits before you and they were taken away by a flood that filled up the old den. She went for years and years afterward, refusing to try to have more kits.

“Then one day she met her mate; your papa. He was just passing through, but she fell for him looks, stripe and stinker!”

Dozer, Orange Kitty and Skunky all laughed.

Little Kitty put her paw out and tenderly touched Skunky's foot. “Skunky, your mama, Lady, was my best friend, besides Orange Kitty. She got her head caught in a bottle back when we were both young and I helped pull it off of her. We were the only females in the yard, that I remember.

“Your mama didn't leave you, Skunky. She was...run over by a machine out on the road. I reached her before she passed in the Light. She asked me to look after you once you came out of the den. But even before that I would often go by and drop grubs and nuts and pieces of bread into the den so you could have a meal each day. I used to sit in front of the hole and watch you sleep.”

Skunky was silent. He simply couldn't process any of this. He put his chin down on the ground and sighed, “What does passing 'into the Light' mean?”

Chickadee floated down next to Skunky and began to speak...

“No animal lives in this world forever. We all are born, then raised by our mama's and papa's. When we are old enough we usually distance ourselves from our parents, so that we can be parents on our own.

“It is like the seasons. You have only known Winter cold so far in your young life and a little bit of Spring, but you are about to enjoy the greatest time of year: Summer.

“The trees all grow green leaves. And the grass becomes soft. The mud dries up and flowers poke up out of the ground to bloom into a host of shapes and colors. You won't have to just go into the trash can in the mornings. There will be bugs and fat worms in the ground to eat. The little stream beside the yard here, next to your den, flows with cool clean water over stones so round you can even pull them out and roll them down the hill. The sun stays up and grows high into the bright blue sky. And the nights are filled stars and with the sounds of smaller animals finding their mates.

“Years are filled with seasons. And seasons are filled with changes. You are very young and that is the funnest time of life! Many years will you live. After summer comes the golds, reds and browns of fall. It is a time of work for animals. We must prepare for the coming of Winter. You will see the sleeping of the world as it struggles through each Winter, then this time of spring will come again afterward, just like it did this year.

“When the years have been many, and the seasons have repeated so often that you no longer forget what is to come next, you will become old. Dozer's is the oldest of us all. He has seen a lot in his life. As he says, he is moving a bit slower.

“All that is meant to be experienced IS experienced. Something will happen to bring you to a place where you can't even move any more, something like what happened to your mama. At that time you will KNOW that it is about to become the Spring in a new kind of life. I have seen many animals when they are in this final state. I land next to them and they tell me what they're seeing. And for my part, I try to comfort them.

“There is a Light, brighter and warmer than the sun. It fills a place where things don't cast shadows. Colors fly and sing like birds. It is a place where there is nothing to fear. The dark spot in the middle of the eye gets big when it sees this place, and through your eyes you too will pass into it.”

“Wow...” said Skunky. “Thank you, Chickadee. Thank you, Little Kitty. I have much to think about...and look forward to. Mostly, I appreciate that you have been honest with me about my mama. Little Kitty, I actually think I remember you there outside my den. Yes...I remember. You are like my mama now.”

“I'm honored to be, Skunky,” said Little Kitty, and smiled deeply with her beautiful green eyes.

Skunky rose to his feet. “You are all my brothers and sisters, and my friends! I hope we stay together as long as we live here in this world!”

They all nodded in agreement.

Then a terrible sound crashed through the air. It came from the house. It was the sound of broken glass. They heard the man's voice grumbling, occasionally getting loud. He sang and then yelled something.

Dozer said, “I think it's time to go to our separate places. The man is probably going to come outside. I've seen this before.”

“Poor Dozer! You're chained up here!” said Skunky.

“Oh, I'll be OK. Just wish I'd been able to run around today...The man forgot all about me...again...” Then he half-smiled and walked into his dog house.

The cats said goodbye and went to their places to sleep. The birds took off to a tree near the crushed car pile.

And Skunky – feeling upbeat and optimistic – made his way down by the creek and into his warm den.