She was finally brought into the community of scholarly
animals and received the special ancient skin which marked her maturation.
So Otter left Utah for the Deschutes River country of
Central Oregon, where the trout grow to twenty pounds. There she made a new burrow and became
part of another colony of learned animals. But something still tugged at her mind and heart. One night, she sent up another prayer
to her Spirit Guide. He appeared
in a cloud of smoke, coughing and wheezing.
“My doctor says I gotta cut down. So, what’s your question? It’s Otter, right?”
“Right. How
come I’ve completed my original task and still feel like I’ve got to complete
the quest? Wasn’t the quest a way
for me to stay and finish becoming a learned mammal? Shouldn’t that mental tug be gone by now?”
“Let’s see. I’m
in the wrong program here. Since
I’m a new guide they give me the stuff with no multitasking. So I’m having trouble with my RAM. Let’s see.” He looked at the screen.
“Says here your quest program is still running. Did you get the ears?”
“Says here your quest program is still running. Did you get the ears?”
“No, but I finished my . . . “
“Are you meshugah? Ears, baby, gotta be ears.”
“But I’ve left Utah.
I moved to Oregon. My
family has its own burrow now.”
“Burrow, shmurrow.
Are you telling me you don’t know your ears from a hole in the
ground? Bud a bing, bud a
boom. Look, I warned you – even
showed you the fine print. the
quest program links your amygdala to the visual cortex by an electro-chemical
pulse. Can’t be stopped till the
quest is finished. Get those ears,
bubalah. Then you can relax.”
“But . . .”
“No buts. You
agreed to the contract.” He looked
down at his wrist.
“Yikes. there’s a camel in
Germany wondering if it should be racing for the United Arab Emirates. Gotta go, kid.”
And he was gone.
Otter was disturbed.
The quest hunger was no longer helping her. What should she do? She decided to try once more and, if she failed, just learn
to live with the energy that kept turning her thoughts east. So Otter started strengthening her jaw
and sharpening her teeth in hopes that the fates would bring her face to face
with Cougar once again.
And, as all prayers are answered, so was this one. Otter and Cougar met at a great
gathering of learned beasts. Otter
surveyed the territory for a body of water. She thought that if she could just get Cougar into her element, she would be able to remove
his ears as he flailed his way to dry land. and so she invited him walking. She kept the conversation on the work that he was doing to
limit his awareness. Then she led
him along the banks of a white-capped river. As he walked, he dropped his head lower and lower so
that she could see the sunlight glowing pinkly through the membranes of his
ears.
She paused. He
paused. His heavy head extended
out over the chasm. Then Otter
leapt. Her jaw slammed onto one of
the ears, he forepaws grabbed the other, and she dropped like a stone to the
water below. Cougar, caught off
balance, also fell, scrambling through brush and pebbles, slipping into the
air. And the two bodies, the great
gray one and the small brown one, tumbled over and over each other toward the
water.
They hit with a great splash. But Cougar’s ears did not come off in Otter’s teeth. the impact of the water broke her
hold. Instantly, he gripped her
spine between his jaws and threw her at the bank. He came cat-paddling after.
They sat there coughing, spitting water, and staring at each
other.
Finally, Cougar spoke.
“So, we’re still dancing.”
“What?” said Otter.
“We’re still dancing.
I thought that you had given up.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our dance. You
try to get my ear. I toss you into
a tree. You ignore me. I tempt you. You forget your irritation. You try and get my ear. Our dance.”
She stared at him.
“You mean it was all an act?”
Cougar laughed, his cat’s face caught between anger and
hilarity. “Not an act. A dance. A co-constructed improvisation on shared themes, if you
will. Play. You’re a clever mammal. I thought you recognized the pattern.”
“But, but . . . I was really on a quest ot get your ears.”
Cougar licked the thick fur on his paws and smiled. then he growled. “You silly weasel. Would you think metaphorically for just
a moment? Hmmmm? Then you’d realize that you finished
your quest a long time ago.”
Otter bit her lip, surprising herself with the sharp prick
of her own teeth. Then she
smiled. “You mean I’ve always had
your ears.”
He put his great head down between his paws and turned it
upside down, looking for all the world like a giant sleepy kitten.
“MMMMM. but
that doesn’t mean we have to quit dancing.”
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