Meteor-Gazing Squirrel
Cherry stood at the edge of the branch looking up into the darkening sky, he could feel the anxiety for what was going to happen tonight rising up in him, but it was a good sort of anxiety, he couldn't wait, and he just knew that by the time it ended, it would be the greatest thing ever.
He'd run all the calculations, speed, shape, mass, rotation of the Earth, atmospheric dissipation, all that mumbo-jumbo, and the results were conclusive, the small piece that remained of the meteor that was set to burn up in the atmosphere tonight, was going to land right here in this area - Cherry climbed down the tree and mapped out the ground in his head with his calculations - right about - he picked up a stick and drew a decent sized target on the ground - here.
Cherry sighed just thinking of what he could do with the space rock when it landed. Not everyday you gained a souvenir from out of this world, he knew it would be a special prize.
"Still expecting that meteor tonight?" Said a voice coming up behind him. Cherry turned around to see Sap and a couple other squirrel's come up. Among them was Selah. Cherry felt his heart grow light just by looking at her.
"Yeah," said Cherry, turning his attention quickly back to Sap, "Want to come watch it land?" He pointed to the target, emphasizing it's exact place of impact.
"Sure, if I have nothing better to do." Sap said. "Doubt you're right about this though, but we'll see." He looked at the others, "Come on guys, let's go, if we're lucky, the trees down by the river might still untouched."
As they scurried off to the river in their acorn collecting, Sellah stopped and took one last glance at Cherry, giving him a smile before she hurried after her brother.
Cherry felt his heart flutter. Every time he looked at her, he could feel it inside, tell that what she was going to witness tonight was going to be spectacular, that somehow, this meteor would just bring up in her special feelings for him that she couldn't even process. He didn't know how, but he could already feel the strings of destiny beginning to pull, and just the thought that she might be feeling special feelings about him tonight made him feel special feelings _he_couldn't even process. He wanted to giggle, they just felt so amusing, he didn't know why.
Hold it, he reminded himself, you don't want to rush into things. If she's going to feel..._he tried to suppress his tittering... _giggly feelings about you, then fine, but it has to be in her own time.
But he knew she was going to, he just knew, he just didn't know how.
As Cherry and a few other squirrels gathered around looking up at the night sky through the wide opening in the branches, Cherry couldn't help but feel the renewed excitement. A space rock, how special.
"Now remember everybody, stay away from the circle here, that's where the meteor's going to land. It's not going to be big enough to do real harm, as long as we stay out of the way."
Cherry looked at his target on the ground, standing as close as he dared, but not too close. As much as he hoped for a bullseye, he knew that even with his advanced calculations, that was a longshot. Anything could happen on the way down, and even the slightest miscalculation could send it far off target. But he was confident in his abilities. Taking into account the margin of error, as long as everything stayed on course, the piece of the meteor still should land somewhere in the circle.
"Look!" Selah suddenly cried, fascination in her voice, and there it was in the sky, a shooting star, the meteor entering the atmosphere, flashing through the sky one moment full of beauty, then winking out of sight. Cherry looked at Selah, warmed to witness such a wonderful event with her, the strings of destiny pulling them even closer to what was about to happen.
"Where did it go?" Sap asked. "I thought you said it'd land here."
Cherry looked at Sap patiently, "That was just it entering the atmosphere. It'll be long cooled down before it gets here. Just wait."
And so they waited.
And then they heard it, hurtling down from the sky, a dark speck in a darkness, nearly impossible to make out in the light, headed straight for them...
Headed straight for the target!
Cherry raised himself on his back legs, anticipation rising.
Make it...
And it hit.
BULLSEYE!
But Cherry only had time to momentarily celebrate his victory. For despite all his calculations, all the thought and energy he put into predicting where it would land, there was one small factor that Cherry failed to take into account.
Under the thin layer of dirt in which the target was sketched, the earth was hardpacked with rocks and roots, so that when the piece of space rock hit the earth, rather than penetrate the surface as expected...
It ricocheted.
Right at Cherry.
Before Cherry could even process what was happening, the chunk of space rock collided, smashing firmly...
Right where his legs connect.
Cherry still hadn't fully realized what happened when the pain hit him, full force.
He crumpled to the ground, whimpering slightly from the back of his throat, his mind still not fully comprehending the pain he was in.
Then he started yowling, cradling himself on his knees with all his might. He couldn't take the pain, it was too much. He yowled his misery into the night, hardly even sure how he got here anymore, just of the excruciating pain he couldn't bear.
PAIN! PAIN! PAIN! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!
But it wouldn't. He was down for the count and there was nothing to bring him back up. He cried out his agony to the night with everything he had, but nothing brought him any relief just one continuous block of pain that overshadowed everything he ever was, so he stayed there folded delicately on the ground, moaning in helpless self-pity, the energy to continue to yowl drained all out of him.
Oh him, why him, it hurt too much for it to be him.
This was the strings of destiny he'd been hoping for?
And all the while, the other squirrels were standing around him, completely flabbergasted by the whole situation - This is not how they saw Cherry's special meteor event going. Out of all the other squirrels here, it was Cherry who'd been brought down, none of the others, just poor unfortunate him. The example of pure absurdity to them all. Selah just stood there watching completely speechless.
Well, Cherry had been right about another thing all right, Selah was seeing him with new special feelings she couldn't process right now, seeing him scrunched up on the ground, ears folded back, so cute and ridiculous, brought down so vulnerably in ways she never could be. It was so undignified to imagine, she never could dare think of an actual boy in this way before, especially one as smart and charming as Cherry. But here reality had put it right in front of her so that she couldn't not think of him in this way. How beautifully and stupidly made boys were that they could be brought down to such agonized cuteness due to an aspect of themselves that was so unspeakably embarrassing... She couldn't help but giggle to herself self-consciously in all her non-vulnerable girliness.
As Cherry continued to moan, Sap began to realize Cherry wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon, the party was over, and he'd already had his share of amusement for the night.
"Come on guys, I think we've seen enough for the night." He took one last look at Cherry, "Sorry Buddy, I'm sure that hurts."
He had no idea...
But as they scampered away, Selah stayed where she was. It felt awkward, but she knew she didn't want to abandon him. His pain made him cute, his cuteness made her want to watch out for him, so she just waited there for him to recover, thinking about how funny the whole situation was, trying to suppress her occasional giggles.
It took quite awhile, much longer than the time it had taken the rock to reach the earth from its entrance from the atmosphere - Wow, it must of really hurt, what must it feel like to be a bo- you know what, she didn't even want to know... But then... At first, his moaning began to calm, and eventually he fell quiet all except for the occasional whimper. At this point, Cherry was still hurting pretty bad, his pain was still at a max, he couldn't believe the pain he had went through earlier for it to have calmed down to this. He couldn't stand this, how he had ever managed to make it through earlier, he had no idea. He just wanted to lay crumpled up on this ground forever... and maybe he would.
And all the while, he was well aware of Selah watching him. The cute girl had been watching him in all his vulnerability all this time, he wanted to wail inside with embarrassment, but he was too busy wailing with pain. As much as he wanted to regain his composure in front of such a cute girl, his pain was too much to get past, his poor little male body too delicate to abandon his injury. Once more, he just moaned it all out. Before she could catch herself, this gave Selah another giggle. Immediately she threw a paw over her mouth.
"I'm sorry," she giggled again, "But it is kind of funny."
Finally, Cherry stood up, still hunched over on all four paws.
Cherry said nothing, he just searched the ground on shaky paws, well aware of the humiliating implications of his predicament. But as embarrassing as he knew this was, he began to see the amusement in the situation, and realize how giggly it must make her feel. It really was really cute.
Finally, Cherry found what he was looking for, at his back paws, right where it had fallen. Right under what it had hit.
In his front paws, he shakily picked up the space rock, and held it out to Selah. "Here, I wanted you to have it." He said, "I wanted to tell you, you are special. Just like a shooting star." Despite the pain and embarrassment, he could still feel that flutter inside him that he had first had when he had decided to give her the rock in the first place.
Selah's eyes glowed as he placed it in her paws, "Thank you," she stammered, but then she paused, "But shouldn't we wash it first," she hesitated, "it did hit your..." she really didn't know how to finish the statement.
Cherry turned red, "Yeah, we can try down by the river."
Weakly, she smiled at him, and once again he felt it in his heart, he just knew, Selah was special, and he would always cherish her for that.
Even if he was embarrassing in contrast to her, as he'd just found out.
So with that, they slowly headed for the river, him limping beside her.
Perhaps the strings of destiny did know what they were doing after all.