The Squirrel King

10 • Happiness?

The next day, Friday, my mother let me stay home, due to the pale look upon my face and my tired eyes. I didn't get any sleep, really. I hadn't planned on sleeping well so not very surprising.

My mother had told me to go lay back down in my room so I did as I was told. As I entered the space, a horrible stench hit me in the face like a wall. I looked at the box beside my bed and figured it came from there.

I wanted to bury the squirrels in a nice spot, like a flowery meadow. Since I'm not able to do that now, I'll just have to put it off until later. I shoved the box to the other side of my room. It didn't help the smell at all, so I stuck cotton balls in my nose. Only being able to breathe with my mouth is a lot better than smelling that odor.

I closed my eyes and began to drift off into sleep.

And then there was a loud bang that could be heard from downstairs. I woke up quickly and ran to find my mother.

She was standing in the kitchen picking up a heavy pot. I woke up because of a pot dropping. I sighed loudly and my mother finally noticed me. She put the pot back on the counter and started chuckling. My expression turned to confusion but that was cleared away when she pointed to her own nose. I probably look like a huge idiot with the cotton in my nose...

I began walking back upstairs after throwing the cotton away. I glanced at the clock and it was... 2:30?? I slept longer than I had hoped. I went back to the kitchen to tell my mother I'm going out for a little while. She agreed to let me go, only because I needed fresh air. I ran upstairs once again to prepare for my outing and grab the box

I hurried while doing everything, eager to look for pretty flowers. I yelled bye to my mom as I went out the door and started walking down my street. I really had no idea where I was going, I just assumed I'd arrive where I wanted sooner or later.

A little while later I noticed other people were crowding along the sidewalks. I guess it was time for the end of the school day when I left my house.

I turned left to go off the sidewalk onto a dirt path. There's probably something good at the end of the path. The walk took about 10 minutes until I arrived at a large hill. I prepared myself to walk up and began that travel as well.

It only took a minute or two to get to the top of hill. I stood looking over the amazing sight in front of me. I really did just walk anywhere and find what I wanted.

It was the perfect setting of flowers and happiness. I was so excited to sit in the middle of the flowers in peace, after doing what I had to do, of course. I ran the rest of the way down the hill and into the field of flowers.

I started searching for a small clearing to put these squirrels. Once I had found once, I pulled a gardening shovel out of the box. I begun digging a decent sized hole so I could fit all of them. It seemed deep enough, so I started placing each squirrel carefully in.

Just then, I heard a squeaking noise. I checked inside the box, making sure none were still alive. Obviously, none were. But I swear that squeak came from a squirrel.

I turned around and confirmed it was a squirrel. A certain little brown, white spotted squirrel on a familiar boy's shoulder.

Bennett smiled widely at me, "This is really sweet of you. Thanks." He said walking over next to me. He sat down on the opposite side of the hole from me. Then he grabbed a squirrel from the box and placed it neatly as I had done. I began doing it again too. We didn't speak the whole time, but we got it done quickly. Bennett covered the hole with dirt and I stuck the shovel behind it as a marker. Wouldn't wanna forget about this place.

I was still staring at the ground when Bennett grabbed my hand and pulled me into the flowers. He spun me around and I fell to the ground laughing. He fell onto the ground after me.

"Are you sick? Did I mess you up? Is that why you weren't at school today?" He suddenly came at me with questions.

"You're blaming yourself for that? No, don't mind it at all. I mean what happened yest-" He cut me off there.

"Don't talk about that. Let's completely erase those memories and start over. I want a happy start... and ending with you. So we don't have to talk about the squirrels anymore. I only have Jum-P with me now so it's best to move on. Let's forget what you learned about me yesterday. I'll forget what I learned about you.

So... hey, we know each other from school, how are you today?" Bennett held out his hand for me to shake it. I really didn't expect that from him at all...

I took his hand and shook it for a long while, "I was feeling a little bad before, but now that this is happening, I'm feeling refreshed and ready to be friends!"

"We can lay here and ask each other questions until you have to leave, that'll strengthen our... friendship, right?" He seemed a little reluctant on saying friendship but whatever.

"Ayyeah, that sounds like a fun time... Lets do it." I smiled back at him happily for the first time.

"Okay, cool. So lets start with..."

We spent hours learning new things about each other until we both went back to our homes. He also suggested that we meet at this place again tomorrow. I agreed to it, since I had a lot of fun today.

I'm so happy we got to start over.