Her Tiny World

Chapter 13. The Borrower

Ben

As the first rays of sunlight broke through the treetops we took off. We couldn't waste a single minute. We fly through the forest back to the lake. I needed to get back there because there was nowhere else to go. When we arrived there there was no sign of humans around. A day before there were hundreds of them and now nothing. The ground was littered with crumpled, torn, and dirty things. The place was almost unrecognizable. That didn't feel right, the lake shouldn't be like this. That was so disrespectful, but they didn't care of course. I walked around and among those things trying to find anything that might lead me to her. I searched for everything I could, perhaps a clue to where he might have gone. These things are useless. None of them would get me anywhere. The sky was getting cloudy. It was going to rain soon. I needed to hurry, I needed to find something. Where do humans go? In the distance, two male humans dressed in similar clothes were picking those things up off the ground and throwing them into a big black bag. They walked side by side while talking. As they were getting closer I ran and climbed onto Lucky's back.

"Look how much garbage there is." The young man said. "Why don't people just throw it in the wastebasket?"

"They do this every year." The old man replied. "You'll get used to it, boy."

"I'm starting to regret applying for this job."

"Let's just finish this and get this garbage to the truck."

When they finished cleaning the place a light rain started to fall. Rain was a bad thing for us as a matter of survival, but it seemed to bother humans as well. They went to the thing they called a truck. It looked scary. They carried the garbage bags and threw them in the back of the truck. So the two unrolled a tarp over it.

They were humans so they were supposed to go to the same place every other humans went. At least I hoped so. The truck's window was half open so we could get through it. This was my real chance to find her. They were busy tying ropes so they wouldn't see us. Lucky flew fast and we got into the cab of the truck. We hid under papers and cloths that were thrown behind one of the seats and waited.

"Be quiet." I whispered to Lucky.

The two doors were opened and the humans got in. They sat down and started the thing. A deafening sound made me cover my ears and then we were moving. The lake was the farthest place from home I had ever been. I had no idea where we were going, but if they took me to where Mina was then it didn't matter. One of the giants reached out and pressed a button that lit up and then a voice from someone who was not there began to speak. What is this thing?

"I love this radio show." The youngest of them said. "Their playlist is fucking dope."

I tried to see where we were going through the big window, but I couldn't see anything but raindrops on the glass and trees rushing by. The sudden movements of the thing made me dizzy. If I had eaten something I would have thrown up. The rain started to get heavy and then everything on the other side of the window fogged up.

Then the young guy lit something that he took to his mouth. Smoke began to fill the place. The smell was horrible. It burned my nostrils and throat, and my eyes started to itch. I couldn't help myself and started coughing. I looked at him to see if he had noticed anything, but the sound of the thing moving, the radio show and the rain was too loud for him to hear me. Lucky shifted in place, shaking his head. I breathed in and out for air. We were suffocating.

"If you want to smoke at least open the window." The old man said.

"I was two weeks without this shit." He took the thing out of his mouth and put it out, tossing it into something. "Now I'm gonna have to deal with my mom pissing me off about anonymous junkies meetings." He sighed.