Title: Of Critters and Cacti (1/1)
By Cousin Tserisa (headpigeons@hotmail.com)
Time: Wednesday Morning
Place: CERK


Tserisa felt almost light in spirit.  Or perhaps that owed to the fact she
hadn't eaten for a while.    She made her way towards one of the office
kitchens -- little rooms on each floor with the necessary equipment for
making coffee or a snack -- and stuck a vegetarian frozen meal in the
microwave.

As it spun around and was subjected to doses of radiation, she considered
the events thus-far of the War.  Later in the day, a Cousinly Meeting was
scheduled.  It was with great relief that Tser had learned from Tok that
LaCroix was himself again, although approaching him with the garlic-free
tofu souvlaki had not been the most desirable of encounters.  She still felt
bad (so did LaCroix, apparently).  But LaCroix was LaCroix, and that was
what counted.

*Ding!*

Tser pulled the Pasta Parmesan out and pulled the plastic wrap back.  Quick
and delicious, just the way she liked it.  She stuck a fork in it, and began
to walk down the hall towards her room.  Ten feet away, she heard a crash
come from the closed door, and broke into a sprint.

Throwing open the door, she saw Wiggy bouncing around maniacally, in that
way ferrets do, making a low dooka-dook-dook sound, running into walls and
furniture and ricocheting off.

ChuChu, an African grey parrot, sang ("Nanananana woo!" -- her version of
the old Batman theme) and flapped around on an upturned drawer, which had
somehow been pulled out of the armoire and dumped a mix of black silk
blouses and long skirts.

Moses perched on the end of the bed, looking disdainful, and her thick pink
tongue darted out.  She turned her head to glare at the Cousinly Leader and
her so-called owner as she entered, orange eyes flashing.

Even Willoughby, Tser's lobster, rescued from certain death-by-boiling in
War 10, was sloshing around in his tank.

"What are you doing?!" Tser asked, her eyes darting from one critter to
another, panic rising in her chest.  [Breathe, Tser, breathe!] she told
herself.

Only Nick's cactus, stoic on an end table near the window, remained silent
and motionless.  Perhaps the other Cousinly Critters believed it was being
left out.  ChuChu let out an earsplitting squawk, Wiggy turned towards her
and bounced away backwards, into the table on which Nick's cactus perched,
Moses spun around, slamming into said table with her heavy whip-like tail,
and the whole thing began arching towards the ground.

"Aaaarrrrgh!"  The Cousinly leader dived, her skirt fluttering behind her.
Her meal went flying into the air and landed on the bed, splattering creamy
sauce across the black bedspread.  Tser hit the ground at the same time as
the end table, but somehow she'd intercepted the precious cactus in it's
downward trajectory before it crashed into the floor.

She stood up, breathing hard, clutching the desert plant's pot protectively,
and looking around at the Cousinly Critters, which were now silent, all
staring at her.  Willoughby waved his antennae.

"This cactus is precious!" she said breathlessly.  "Not to mention undead!
Don't you have any respect for your floran brethren?"

Wiggy let out a sad dooking sound and tried to burrow into Tser's boot, but
the tall, clunky footwear prevented him from sticking his cold nose to her
skin.  ChuChu fluffed her feathers and her eyes flashed.  "Uh oh, ChuChu?"
she asked.

"Uh oh is right," Tser grumbled, picking up the table and moving it to a
safer corner. She draped the top with a black silk scarf and set the cactus
upon it gingerly.  She turned back to her pets, smoothing her blouse.  "Be
careful. And leave the cactus alone!"

Moses glared.  A bit of sauce glistened on her scaley side.  The other pets
looked suitably chastened, but the velociraptor-wannabe looked angry.  For
the first time in the War, she slid off the bed -- and headed in a
determined manner out the door.

"Come back here!" Tser demanded.

But an iguana will do what it wanna.

# # #

--
Cousin Tserisa & the Cousinly Critters
- headpigeons@hotmail.com -
Cousin, Ratpacker 8:>X and CaddyWhack
FK Stuff: http://geocities.com/tserisa/
CaddyWhacks: http://velvetdragon.com/caddy/