Ratatoing Rewritten: Toings

Rodents Remorse

A few minutes, the rats left their homes. Carol emerged from the bushes and approached Marcel, as the staff waited behind somberly. She looked at him, and he realized that he's been caught. The bag of food was spilling out onto the ground next to him.

CAROL: "It was you."

MARCEL: "Carol.."

CAROL: "This WHOLE time, YOU were the one STEALING from the humans- YOU PUT ALL OF US IN DANGER!"

He looks at the ground in shame, then back at her.

CAROL: "It never had anything to do with Brie, did it?"

MARCEL: "I wasn't lying about that- she found me in the kitchen a-a-and she made me give her a cut I swear-!"

CAROL: "Stop." She put her paw up. "If that human was any smaller, everyone here would be dead."

The town watched with sorrowful expressions.

CAROL: "God, now I get it- the 'blackmail', the disappearing, the random change in behavior because you felt guilty! You felt guilty because you knew what you were doing was wrong and STILL you decided to keep doing it. And for what? For the cheddar- for the fame- so YOU could be the BEST RESTAURANT OUT THERE?!"

CAROL: "No maggots.." she laughs. "Well, guess what? You did it. You got what you wanted- you even tricked all of us into liking you." She raised both of her arms, gesturing at the kitchen staff.

CAROL: "But now everyone knows what a selfish, wealth obsessed rat you are."

CAROL: "And I can't wait to see the look on your face when you realize that there's no one left to love you."

Marcel looks at her sullenly, and Carol reads his expression.

CAROL: "There it is."

She turns around and leaves with the rest of the staff following her, and the town going back into their holes in the wall.

Marcel just stands there, realizing he's lost it all.

The next day, Marcel shows up to work, getting glares from everyone he sees. He tries to cover his face, but everyone knows who he is. The restaurant has way less customers than usual, and there are only about 3 full tables. It was a slow, miserable day for everyone there. And unlike their typical busy afternoons, it was very, very quiet.

By the end of the day, Marcel knew he couldn't go on like this. He had to at least try to make amends for his wrong doings. He sat in his office, thinking about what to say- what to do?

In the morning, Carol was the first to get to work, like always, but there was a note taped to the front that read "Closed for the day. Employees; please report to the wall", which referred to the end of the alleyway.

There, Marcel was standing on a few unstable pieces of torn up wood. There was already a crowd of rats watching him set up, and one by one, the staff came to see what was going on. Carol rolled her eyes, feeling that the hour long apology with tears wasn't going to cut it. Once he saw that everyone had arrived, he began to speak loudly and clearly.

MARCEL: "I've been stealing food from the humans ever since my father passed down his restaurant to me.

The crowd fills with whispers.