Owen F

HIBERNATION

Floating in a

Deep dark sleep

The cold winter

Holding the landscape

In a chokehold

I hibernate

The winter

Has come

And I am asleep

Waiting for

The snow and

Ice to recede

Freeing the land

And me

The warmth and

Light like a fishing

Pole with the promise

Of plentiful food

As bait on a hook

I take it and it

Pulls me out of the depths


LARRY


Larry was nervous. He was doing an orientation at Pitt. There were two kids watching him and writing stuff down in notebooks. He felt even more nervous as he followed the guide, orientation paper in his hand. He walked right past the table the two kids were at. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the two get up and begin to follow him. He felt relieved when they didn’t follow him into the elevator.


RITA

Rita was taking pictures of the orientation. She was a photography student. She had on a backpack with pokemon plush clips. She loved pokemon. She set the bag on the ground and thought of the picture as two kids with with blue notebooks walked past and sat at a table but she quickly let them fade into the background.


THE MILLIPEDE

I woke up this morning at the base of the giant rock. Today, I was going to climb it. I climbed all day. It was torture. No food, no water, just climbing. I knew the top was up there but I couldn’t see it.

It was midafternoon when the humans came. They came sliding down a rock, holding onto colorful vines like tough, overly fibrous roots. A few noticed me. I instantly froze, but they just stood there watching me and making grunting noises. Then, a human child came with a stick. It was a normal stick, like those on trees. He saw me and raised the stick. One of the humans that had been watching me turned and grabbed the one who had the stick by the wrist. They wrestled over it for a few seconds, and then the one holding the stick lunged forward, breaking the good one’s hold.

The stick smashed me painfully in the side. I lost my grip on the rock and fell. I curled up and hit the ground. That hurt, too.

Then, the good one scooped me up and tried to throw me on top. I hit the top of the rock, saw it, and started falling. The good human caught me and I couldn’t help it. The call of nature was too great. I urinated on his hand.

He didn’t notice and threw me onto the rock. The same thing happened, except that i missed his hand. I hit the ground hard. Pain. I bounced into the air and fell downhill, landing on another rock. Pain. I bounced downhill and landed among some leaves. Pain.

I stayed there shivering for the rest of the day. I knew only two things: I would climb that rock one day, and if I ever see another human again, it’ll be too soon.


The Effect of a Single Egg

“No, but you look like a chicken,” said the lady across the aisle from me.

“That’s an insult to chickens,” said the guy behind me. The lady across the aisle and the guy behind her were arguing over the possession of an egg. I don’t know why they cared about the egg so much, but the argument was happening and then the guy behind me joined the argument.

“Seriously, that is an insult to chickens,” he said, ”Apologise, now!”

The guy across the aisle said, “Yeah, apologise to me.”

The guy behind me stood, “I did not mean apologize to you, you vain arrogant scumbag, I meant the chickens,” he yelled.

The flight attendant came over and said, “Mr. Johnson, please sit down.”

“Not until she apologizes to chickens and he apologizes to me,” roared Mr. Johnson.

The flight attendant turned to the lady with pleading eyes, “Please just apologize Mrs. Gomez and you Mr. Simm.”

“No, we haven’t done anything wrong,” Mr. Simm yelled angrily.

“Actually, you brought an egg on a plane, that is illegal,” said the lady in front of me.

Mr. Simm turned to glare at her. “Please stay out of this Mrs. Delgado,” Said the flight attendant her eyes wide in desperation.

At that moment Mr. Johnson lunged at Mrs. Gomez. The flight attendant threw herself between them and was knocked to the ground. The egg, that had been the source of all this, fell and smashed into a bunch of gooey fragments. I knew that we were in for a long plane ride, filled with anger and yelling. I was right in the middle. And that was before the chicken escaped...