Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck

by Michael Arnold

  Chapter 16

  “So, where do we go from here, Louis?” Molly asked once they were done with their breakfast.

  “I’m not sure. I wish I could find out what she is planning on doing to all these pets that she talked about,” Louis said.

  “I think she was bluffing, probably trying to scare you, Louis.”

  Louis shook his head. He believed what Edna told him. He believed her and he was persuaded that she hated him and possibly every animal she came in contact with.

  Suddenly, Louis’s concentration was broken. He looked in the direction of the noise. When he didn’t see anything, he decided to look for it. But then he felt a cold paw on his shoulder. “No, I think we…, umm, I think we should moved out of here, Louis,” Molly suggested.

  He didn’t give her an answer. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to follow Molly’s suggestion or follow his own instinct.

  “I am sure there is something up ahead, like food and shelter, Louis. We don’t have to stay here, especially if there may be danger here.”

  He still wasn’t persuaded and his quietness confirmed it.

  “Please, come on, Louis. There is better for us ahead. It doesn’t have to be here, but forward. Who knows; we may find clues about that mean, old woman,” Molly said.

  “Okay, you’re right. Come on then, let’s go.”

  The noise in the trees just didn’t get louder but it got closer. It would be minutes before they realized who and what the noise was.

  “Ugh, he don’t look too happy and if he finds out we’re following him, Hawk, ugh, he ain’t going to be any happy, is he?” Worm asked.

  “I thought we owe it to the dog to tell him that his friend is not doing too good. He is on a delivery truck.”

  “And since when do we start, ugh … being the keeper of a groundhog?” Worm asked.

  Hawk thought about it before he replied, “We are not, but if we are on the road to doing things right, then the best thing to do is to tell the dog that his friend is suffering from what appears to be depression.”

  “Ugh, I guess so. But what happens if we get too close to him and… And…”

  “And what, Worm? Whatever you are trying to say it wouldn’t hurt to spit it out.” At the words “spit it out,” he slapped Worm on the back. “Spit it out!”

  Worm stumbled off the tree limb and hit a patch of leaves below the tree. “What if that dog decides that he wants to ugh…, I don’t know, take his doggy angry out on us and eat us?”

  “We keep our distance from him is what we do, until we know he isn’t going to eat us. Since you’re so worried about getting eaten, come on, we have work to do.”

  The woodchuck could hear the yelling, then: “Oh my God I stunned you. I’m so sorry,” over and over again why he sat up high in a tree drinking his second bottle of Fruity Juicy. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I bet he didn’t know what hit him when, ha-ha-ha, when he felt the electricity hit him. Cheers to you, dumb delivery man and dumb lady in the store. I think I’ll drink to that,” the woodchuck said, taking another swig of the very strong drink. “This is the life, this is what…, what I been missing all my life…, Juicy, Fruity Juicy, juice,” he said as he tried his hardest to keep his balance. He didn’t take into consideration how long his life style of drinking Fruity Juicy would last, but he didn’t care. He was just concerned with the moment and that moment was the more Fruity Juicy he drank, the merrier he got.

  By now Kelly had heard that the Stun Duh was getting around the city and selling like hot cakes but to see the number of pets in her establishment adopted by people like Edna – who were working for Onree – made her feel a little uneasy. “This is really a lot more pets that we have set for adoption in the last three days than we have in the last month, Huel,” Kelly said.

  “Yes, you got that right. Adoption is on the rise. A hand clap for that, Kelly,” Huel said, his smile larger than the room in which they stood.

  Kelly was moved by the number of adoptions but there was something more to this whole thing. The Stun Duh guy; who exactly is he and where did he come from?

  “They seem to be coming in by the droves, Kelly. Don’t you want to meet some of the people who are adopting?” Huel asked Kelly.

  Her tight full lips didn’t let go of that smile. “I do want to meet some of the ones who are adopting here, Huel. You are right. And I will meet them. I don’t think this run of adoptions is going to end anytime soon. But I have something I have to check. I need to get a little information about next month’s inspection, but I am sure you will keep me posted, as you always do, with some of the strange people that we have come through to adopt,” Kelly said.

  “No problem, Kelly. I will let you know,” Huel replied, as he left Kelly’s office to return to the thick of the excitement, leaving her to her work.

  Awh, come on I know that it has to be some information about the man or the woman who created this Stun Duh. You have to be a person who dislikes animals to create something like this!

  Kelly looked at the pictures of the Stun Duh on the internet. Some pictures just showed the device and others showed people holding the device in a pointing gesture but it didn’t show the animals or the pets the electric charge was hitting.

  How can this be legal? Creating a device that is made purposely to hurt pets!

  Kelly shook her head in utter disbelief. It took a few minutes before she found the owner’s name in connection with the Stun Duh. “Onree John Thomas, creator of the Stun Duh device.” Kelly was happy, happier than she did when she witnessed people coming in to adopt her pets.

  Onree Thomas; lets see what you are all about.

  It wasn’t until the walk to find better shelter and food that they could carry with them on their journey when Molly’s limp became noticeable. Louis thought that since Molly didn’t mention it he, too, wouldn’t mention it but when Molly started to favor her right back leg even more, Louis couldn’t go another step without saying something.

  “Molly, you’re limping, what’s wrong?”

  “I…, I’m okay, Louis. Thanks for asking.”

  Louis wasn’t buying that answer but if that’s what she said, then that is what he was going with. That’s when he saw several restaurants but what was more important was finding a safe place for food just as he and the woodchuck had near the shopping center.

  “What are you looking for, Louis?” Molly asked as they drew closer to the restaurants. Molly followed a short distance from Louis, when she saw a couple of patrons throwing a glance in their direction. “Are you sure this is the right place to go. We may need to turn back and find another way, Louis. Those people don’t look too happy,” Molly said.

  “Since when do people actually look happy? They are few and far between,” Louis replied. “I see some trees way up ahead by that store. I will deal with these people if it comes down to it.”

  “I think since we came here together, shouldn’t we stay together?”

  “Hey, I think there is a reward out for that dog,” Louis heard one of the patrons say.

  “I want you to run and not stop, head toward the wooded area, by that big building up ahead,” Louis urged.

  “But I don’t want to just, just…”

  “Go now, Molly, just in case they got something. I don’t want you to get hurt!’ Louis yelled.

  Molly took off running in the direction that Louis told her to go.

  “Well, what do you know, it’s the dog that has a big reward on its head,” the patron said as he walked closer and closer to Louis.

  The name of the store was Jenkins’s Nic-nakes. This store was the one where Edna and her husband went most of the time in their youth, but this was now the woodchuck’s new hang out spot. Late, late at night, when all of the workers had gone home, and all the customers had cleared the parking lot, the woodchuck had found a way inside Jenkins’s Nic-nakes through the chimney and to the aisle where his favorite types of Fruity Juicy were shelved. But after several ho
urs that turned into several days of straight drinking, the woodchuck found himself sick one morning.

  “Where am I? I don’t know where I am, I feel sick and I just want to throw up my guts,” the woodchuck said, wiping his mouth from the residue of grapes and Fruity Juicy that looked like dark chucks of red meat on his lips. I know they will find me and they will eat me when they do find me. “Well, by all means, if that is what you want to do, come on, here I am, eat me, I am all yours,” he yelled, as he stumbled around in the back of the store. He wanted to climb the trees and possibly hide, but he didn’t have the strength or the will anymore. I will just sit here until they get me and eat me. I hope they will make it fast, get it over with. I rather be eaten than caught by those crazy humans that dress up like me and Louis.

  “And…, oh yeah, speaking of Louis, where, where, wherever you are,” the woodchuck stuttered as he walked and tripped over his feet along the back area of Jenkins’s Nic-nakes. “We were best pals. We were comrades, friends. We were pals and I want you to know, buddy, that we are friends then friends again.” The woodchuck’s voice carried, carried loud enough for Molly to hear it when she got to the trees. “I wish you would have got your trash up before you decided that you was going to just walk away.”

  Molly hid behind some trees near the wall leading to the back of the store and then saw the fattest, dirtiest, tanked-up groundhog she had ever seen in her life.

  Sounds like he said “Louis” or am I hearing things? He can’t know Louis, can he? Molly thought.

  Time is of the essence. I can’t watch this crazy groundhog while Louis is probably out there fighting for his life, right? Molly’s words sounded as though she was trying to convince herself rather than anyone else. She couldn’t see anything from around the front of the store since she was near the trees right behind the back of Jenkins’s Nic-nakes. Quickly coming to the conclusion that the groundhog was a distraction and the name of “Louis” that she may have heard was just a mishap of her brain overcrowded with what she’d been through. As she decided to check on her new bow-wow friend, the groundhog started with his bizarre rhetoric again.

  “I’m going to lie here now. I’m finish, I’m done, I don’t want to fight anymore.” When he got the word ‘anymore’ out, he threw up all over the pavement. And with his next words, Molly couldn’t leave him there. She had to do something. “Louis, I know you don’t like the term ‘dog’ but that’s what you are, a stupid, self-centered dog that only cares about yourself. I think we both have something in common. I care about grapes and you care about yourself,” the groundhog said, falling over on his side.

  Oh no! Poor groundhog. And he knows Louis. How do they know each other? Molly thought.

  “So you’re the mystery dog that everyone wants. What’s so special about you, dog?” the patron asked.

  Louis thought the best thing to do would be to run. He tried it but he was stop seconds into his flight.

  “Got you, this is one heck of a tazer,” the patron said. “It wasn’t one of Onree’s tazer but it did the job all the same. Louis felt the tingling in his muscles. Although the voltage wasn’t as powerful as Onree’s Stun Duh, the effect was just as damaging.

  “Is the dog dead?”

  “No, he isn’t dead. I just stunned him to cash in on the reward, that’s all,” the first patron said to the second one.

  Louis wasn’t going to strain to see what the first patron was going to do next. He could smell his eggs and bologna breath drawing closer and closer. He knew that patron number one was on his way to him.

  Louis was aching with pain but when he thought about the results of being caught with Molly left alone to defend herself, he pushed through the pain and got to his feet.

  “You stay right where you are. I am going to take you with me. If you decided you want to run off or attack me and my friend here, I’m going to give you another taze, and this time I’m not going to let up,” the first patron said.

  “We have to hurry up and get this dog out of here before someone sees what we are doing.”

  “It’s none of their business what we are doing. This dog attacked me and I am protecting myself. That’s what humans do against mean animals like this, remember that,” the first patron said.

  “So I’m supposed to stand here and let you do to me what you want to do to me which is hurt me? I don’t think so!” Louis said, as he ran at the first patron, catching him off guard. But Louis was way too slow in his reaction.

  The first patron raised the tazer then pressed the button. Louis didn’t waver one inch; he was ready to take the blast from the tazer. Even in taking the blast he was going to make some contact with at least one of the patrons. Louis saw the electricity ignite from the tazer, and then, out of the corner of his eye he saw wings, large black wings. When they came closer he recognized Hawk and Worm.

  “Now get the tazer, Worm,” Hawk yelled when Louis’s momentum ran him right smack dab in the middle of the first patron’s stomach. The patron fell backwards on the concrete ground. He held his stomach while Hawk assailed him with powerful pokes to his head and his hands. Worm went after the tazer that had slid several feet out of the patron’s hand.

  “Help, help! That killer bird is after me,” patron two yelled in a frenzy to get away from Worm. He then knocked other patrons down, who were leaving and going to the parking lot. “Please, birdie, I didn’t mean to, ummm… I was trying to just get the dog,” the first patron said.

  Louis stared at Hawk for a second and then said, “Thanks for your help.” As their attentions were on each other, the first patron was able to get to his feet and run. Hawk spread his wings and attempted to go after him.

  “No,” Louis yelled. He is harmless without that taser. “Let him run. We don’t want to stir up more than what we see out here. Where did you come from? And why did you help me, Hawk?”

  “That’s part of the treaty. Besides, you and the woodchuck are friends. I was worried about the little rascal. So when we came to check on him, I saw that you needed our help,” Hawk replied.

  “Wait a minute. You mean you came in to check on the woodchuck?” Louis asked.

  By that time Worm was coming back toward them, the entire parking lot at the store was in a frenzy. “Ugh…, I think we need to get out of here. Those rowdy people will be coming after ugh…, me soon. I’m sure one of them has a bird catcher.”

  “Wait a second; we are not going anywhere until you tell me where you’ve seen the woodchuck, Hawk.”

  “Hey, Louis I’m up here! I’m on my way down.”

  Louis watched Molly come down the tree. He gazed at Hawk, wondering if seeing the woodchuck was something he made up. But as she came down he saw the woodchuck in Molly’s mouth.

  “Woodchuck? It really is the woodchuck.”

  “You know him, Louis, but who are they?” she said, referring to Hawk and Worm.

  “She is ugh…, one foxy lady Hawk,” Worm whispered.

  “First, I know the woodchuck.” Louis paused. “We are…, we were friends and these two birds here are my friends – Hawk and Worm. They helped me out. If it wasn’t for them…, well, I needed them.”

  Molly looked Hawk and Worm over for a brief moment then her attention was on the woodchuck that lay before the four of them. “He smells like he drunk a whole container of fruit juice,” Louis said.

  He looked up at Hawk and Worm who were positioned on the ledge of the store about five feet from them.

  “It’s a little stronger than Fruit juice Louis,” Hawk said. “It’s what human drink to get tanked-up,” Wormed blurted out.

  Louis laughed. “So he is tanked up? That’s his problem? I think the best thing for him is get a lot of rest, not here, of course; he needs to be in a place where he is used to being and away from the…” Louis searched for a name for the beverage that had the woodchuck tanked-up.

  “It’s called Fruity Juicy,” Hawk said, picking up one of the seven empty bottles that lay on the
ground.

  Louis shook his head in disbelief, but not without a smile.

  “Okay, they will find us soon if we don’t get out of here,” Louis said.

  “Where are we going to go, Louis, with all of them out there? We will surely be discovered, right?” Molly asked.

  “We have to get the woodchuck back home. That is where he belongs and that’s where I am going to take him,” Louis replied.

  “Ugh, he is going to be mad when he wakes up without his Juicy Fruity. You think I should take a bottle, so he could have it when he wakes?” Worm asked. “Oh I’m ugh, sorry,” Worm added when he got a weird stare down from Hawk, Molly and Louis.

  “And it’s called Fruity Juicy, Worm,” Hawk replied. “I know a quick and easy way to get back to the woodchuck’s burrows.”

  “I’m all ears. Take me to it,” Louis said.

  Hawk took them to a flat-bed train car, Molly and Louis reached the train car without too much difficulty; Molly holding the groundhog close to her body, keeping him warm and out of the cold air.

  “Thank you, Molly,” Louis said.

  “Thank you for what, Louis?”

  “For helping me. Without your help I couldn’t have done any of this,” Louis said.

  “You’re welcome again, but I feel the same way; without your help I don’t know where I would be right this second,” Molly said. She walked over to Louis with the woodchuck in her bosom and cuddled beside Louis.

  The CEO of the Animal shelter where Kelly worked was a hard man, unsmiling, always wearing this ireful grimace the last few times she saw him. She never understood why his attitude was that of an angry person when he was a wealthy man who was doing something positive in establishing the biggest shelter in all of the east coast in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was a giver to those who were less fortunate, and partner with Glazed Doughnuts, so that the employees of the animal shelter could have fresh, warm doughnuts every Friday. So, when she went to visit her father on her lunch break to see if he needed anything before she scurried off back to work, and he asked if everything was alright. She wanted to lie to him but she couldn’t.

  “Dad, I don’t want to worry you about my problems. I wanted to check and see if you wanted anything before I went back to work from lunch.”

  “No, baby girl, I think I’m alright, I got my pork skins and my soda pop but if you want to do something, why don’t you tell your old man what’s got my baby girl looking so sad this evening? You’re too pretty to have that ugly frown on your face,” Kelly’s father asked.

  “You wouldn’t understand, Dad,” Kelly replied.

  Her father was sitting on the couch, his legs crossed, with a mug in his hand that read “Top Dad” on the front of it. “Oh, you think because I don’t like pets if this is pet-related – which I believe it is – I wouldn’t understand. Is that what you’re saying, baby?”

  “Yeah, kinda of,” Kelly replied.

  Her father chuckled under his breath then took another sip of whatever it was in his Top Dad mug.

  “I don’t like pets, baby, but I love my daughter and whatever is bothering my daughter bothers me.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Kelly replied.

  “Did one of those dogs bite you or something while you were walking them?”

  “No, Dad.” Kelly was smiling now.

  “Oh, let me guess when you were cleaning one of the cat kennels, he scratched you on your pretty little head? Is that it, baby girl?”

  Now Kelly was really laughing.

  “Of course not, Dad, ha-ha-ha! What has gotten into you? You are too funny this afternoon,” Kelly said.

  “Now that’s the daughter I am use to seeing; the one who’s wearing that pretty smile that I am use to seeing and been seeing ever since you were a little girl.”

  “Oh, Daddy, you’re too much. Are you saying that because I’m your daughter and you want to make me smile or you really mean it from the bottom of your heart?”

  Kelly’s father uncrossed his legs, placed his drinking mug on one of the end tables that was holding the lamp next to the couch. His smile left as he stroked his beard lightly. “No, not at all, Kelly. I may joke sometimes but when it comes to serious matters like your feelings, it’s serious. Therefore, I am serious when it comes to things regarding your feelings,” her father said. “So to answer your question, I wasn’t just saying that; I meant it from the bottom of my heart. You are special to me and because you are, I want to try and say things that are going to help you, so if you are willing to tell me what’s on your mind, I am willing to hear you out. That’s what I am here for.”

  Kelly was a little reluctant to proceed with the conversation. She remembered past conversations concerning dogs and cats; they usually got so heated Kelly left angry and hurt and wouldn’t talk to her dad for several days. So she vowed that if the conversation got anywhere close to intense, she would find a way to cut it short.

  She started off by telling her father what he already knew which was that she loved pets, especially cats and dogs. He didn’t seem too interested. He turned to pick up his coffee mug, turning his head slightly to the left then scratched his beard. But the second she mentioned Onree John Thomas, she had his attention.