Stuck in a Rut
It was mid-morning on a grey, nippy Tuesday, late-January. "Two decades? Really?" "Yup," Adelaide replied. The pink-furred bat was seated behind the library checkout desk. "Damn." A pause. "Since when? Since you met him or-" "Since we mated." "Do you...
Private Showing
"I told you we should've left earlier," Field said as they rounded the corner. The golden-furred harvest mouse shoved his sleek smartphone back into his blue jeans. Twelve noon. On the dot. "We barely made it!" His whiskers twitched. "We're right on...
Mousewife
“What if they ask what I do?" “What do you mean?" Fib replied. “Well … I can't say I'm a part-time dental receptionist." Meadow's whiskers twitched. _Could_ she? “Why not?" her mate asked, tilting his head in confusion. Sitting at a small, round...
Cold and Hot
“Hey, Addie. What ya doin' next Sunday? You and Field?" “I don't know," the pink-furred bat replied. It was a drizzly, grey morning in February, the day after the Super Bowl. And they were currently the only two people in the town library. (That they...
Workplace Romp
**SUNDAY** _Bzzt!_ Laying on his side in the dark, Baxter blindly slapped a paw at the bedside desk. _Bzzt!_ The otter almost knocked a lamp to the floor. Finally, eyes groggily opening, he secured his phone. He'd been dreaming about something but...
Party Animals
Ketchy shuffled back to the bedroom, eyes half-open. 7:04. In the _morning._ The bronze and silver-speckled fox squirrel sighed, flopping face-first onto her side of the bed. The alarm on her phone was set for 7:45. Gave her an hour to eat and...
Beaver Fever
"Welp! Another show in the books!" Mandy said. The palomino mare leaned toward her microphone. "What a week, huh?" "I think this was one of our better ones," a grey squirrel insisted, sitting a few feet away. "Weeks or shows?" "Why not both?" "You...
Twice as Mice
It was an October day, cloudy and grey. Blustery with a strong chance of rain by nightfall. Boldly colored leaves, orange, red, and russet, swirled up and down Main Street in the little town of Arcadia. Inside the big front window of the grocery...
Intermission
A draining sound. And the lights went out. And the picture stopped moving, the large screen going blank and dark. The whole theater dead save for those little, dim running lights on the floors of the aisles. A static-sounding voice came over the...
2.6 - Body Language
Three hours down. Three hours and fifty-five seconds. Three hours and ... ... nineteen to go? At least nineteen hours 'til the tempest passed, with the possibility that it might change speed and direction at any given time (based on the...
Snooze Button
Emerson was up before his alarm. When you were a farmer, you rose with the sun. Day after day, season after season. Call it instinct or muscle memory, but his body had developed a routine. The golden-furred harvest mouse yawned, fighting some...
Mutual Benefit
Ears swiveling at the 'easy listening' music being played over the store's intercom, Meadow stopped halfway down the brightly-lit, white-tiled aisle. _What song is this? This was on a movie soundtrack, wasn't it?_ Bordered on both sides by noodles,...