Life.

A Story by Gracie Kilcoyne

My father wasn't the nicest bobcat. I was always afraid of him. We never had a nice relationship. I felt as though he didn't care much. I had always known him as a vicious cat, especially when he got drunk on badger blood. Badger was his favorite.

My father was very strict. He had an array of rules for us kids. There were 3 of us. The most important rule: Do whatever he said, and if you didn't.. Death would be the worst consequence. He said he couldn't have unloyal children. I was the youngest, so I did everything he demanded. I was born to follow the rules.

He never really got along with my mother, either. She was the sweetest bobcat in the family, always taking care of us, even if we disrespected her. She even cleaned us until the age of 10. Then, she told us, "I believe you are old enough. Now you must prove yourself responsible." We all knew what that meant - more chores. I was the most obedient, since I was the only one who actually appreciated my mother's hard work.

My brother's name was Bruno. He was the rowdiest. He was always breaking something. Silly Bruno. Crazy yet caring, Bruno was always looking for fun when there wasn't any. He always saw the bright side of things. Once in a while Bruno would back talk my parents. Bruno was only 8.

My sister's name was Lily. She was the angel. Always good and never disrespectful. Once I overheard her talking to her friend in her room. They were bad talking mother and father so I barged in and yelled at her. I got in trouble for it, but she never said anything bad about them again. Lily was only 10.

One day, my parents were in the kitchen working. Bruno had gone to his friend's house. Lily was in her room coloring. I was helping my parents. We were making my favorite meal - roasted woodchucks. There were 2 of them. They were letting me take a turn at cooking the woodchuck. So far I had seasoned it. Now I had to roast it.

I went outside to place the woodchuck over the bonfire. The fire was already blazing. Lily had also come outside. She decided that while I was using fire it was a great time to bother and distract me. She brought a few toys along as well. She was playing in the far corner of our yard, where there's a huge tree that conveys the perfect amount of shade. I continued setting up the woodchuck. The fire was only a few inches away from my fur. I could feel the pulsating heat. I heard Lily walk over to me even though my back was turned against her.

Then she said in her high pitched, curious voice, "Watcha doin, DanDan?"

I hate when she calls me that. She knows I prefer Danny. She's always trying to annoy me.

I replied, "Roasting a woodchuck for dinner. I think you'll like it. I added some spices and.."

I went off on my own train of thought as I fastened the woodchuck to the rope which would hang over the fire. I hadn't noticed that Lily moved herself to the other side of the bonfire. I couldn't see her when I realized she wasn't next to me anymore. The fire was blocking my view. My first thought? She fell in. I panicked. Then I realized I needed to keep calm and tell my mother. I ran into the house. I told her what could have happened. She didn't believe me. She calmly walked outside. Guess what we saw.

The first thing I saw was Lily, playing with her toys in the corner. I was very happy she was safe. Then I saw the other thing. I had to process what happened before I acted on it. My guess? Lily threw one of her toys into the fire. No. That wasn't right. I knew exactly what happened. Lily untied the woodchuck to get a bite. She let it fall into the fire since she had nothing for it to fall on. And the fire soared into the air. Now it was attacking our house. The flames had spread to our house.

Nobody cared about Lily anymore. It was the house. We had nothing to put out the fire. Mother's face suddenly became twisted in fear. I asked her what was wrong.

She told me, "Your father's on the top floor sleeping. We must get him out now!"

I immediately ran into the house, but the flames had blocked the stairway. Who knew what was happening above! I decided to climb up the side of the house and crawl in through a window. I ran outside. And there was my mother, comforting Lily. I went over to the side of the house and began to climb. It was quite a struggle. But once I made it to the window, I saw that the fire had not reached that floor yet. I sighed out of relief and tried to open the window. But just then, the flames reached me. They burned my lower body very badly. I kept struggling with the window until it finally burst open and my father awoke from the sound. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at me. I was struggling to climb into the house. I was burning up quickly and the smoke was getting to me. He sprinted over to the window. Everything was fading and eventually went black. The last thing I saw before I passed out was my father's paw reaching out to grab me.

He did care.

© 2014 Gracie Kilcoyne

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Edward G. Daniels

I initially thought "bobcat" was just slang....but as you progressed, I realized this was a "bobcat family" with human traits, emotions, and thoughts....very clever....pulled me in and I wanted to see what happened. I agree with the other reviews....your last short line says it all! Nice short story!