Final Moments

Yes. I wrote about squirrels again. All I'm saying is there are a lot of squirrels around here. Be glad I didn't take a photo of it and post it here.

I saw something driving home today that almost made me cry. It involved squirrels, so I could not be entirely sympathetic, but a little squirrel-sized piece of my heart did break. A freshly killed squirrel lay in the road, face down. It was not still twitching, but rather, very still, and seemed peaceful in its final repose. It was not yet flattened. Guts were not spilling out of its little slack mouth. It was your average non-graphic dead squirrel.

What was different was the living squirrel that repeatedly ran into the road, seemingly saddened and confused by its exceedingly sedentary compadre. The living squirrel kept darting up to the victim, looking nervously about, shooting back to the curb, then again sidling next to the body. I couldn’t help but imagine what the living squirrel would say, if I were speaking for it.

Alive Squirrel: “Hurry up, Joe! I think we can make it! Follow me!” Alive Squirrel sprints across the street, thinking Dead Squirrel is right behind. Alive Squirrel jumps on the curb. “Whew, Joe. We did it!” He says, panting hard, his palms resting on his squirrel thighs. Alive Squirrel looks over his shoulder and sees Dead Squirrel, in the road, dead. “Noooooo! Say it ain’t so, Joe! They got you! I can’t believe they got you!” Alive Squirrel tears at his fur, dropping to his knees. “Ah, damn you! Damn you all to hell!”

And scene.

Or maybe it was more like this.

Alive Squirrel: “Come on Mary. I think we can make it.” He runs in front, making it across the street to the curb. “See, Mary, I told you we could…Oh, Mary! My sweet Mary! Dear God in heaven, have you no mercy?” Alive Squirrel rushes back to Dead Squirrel’s side. “Mary, don’t leave me. Hang on, don’t leave the children. We need you, Mary, we all need you.” Alive Squirrel cradles Dead Squirrel’s head in his lap. “Don’t leave us. We can’t make it without you, Mary.” He shakes his fist at the sky. “Dear God, dear God, why hast thou forsaken me??”

And scene.

Here’s a third possibility.

Alive Squirrel: “Nuts! Nuts on the other side! Follow me! Nuts for everyone!” Alive Squirrel hurtles across the road. He makes it. Dead Squirrel doesn’t. And dies. Alive Squirrel looks back at his ex-fellow rodent, lying face down in the road. He skitters toward the body, poking it with his paw. “Nut? No, that’s no nut.” He looks up quickly, his shifty eyes on the nearby yard. “Oh, look, there’s a nut.” And he scampers away.

Like I said, I almost shed a tear. Sniff, sniff.