Rura had a hard time getting a job in this new town. There weren’t many places to work to begin with. Greasy fast food was out of the question and everything else was in retail, or mechanical engineering. Still, they had to keep looking. Rura spent a couple of the afternoon at the outdoor cafeteria tables of a school that was shut down 2 years ago, leafing through the job listing catalogues they’d picked up. They’d been walking around with no one to talk to for hours and they were beyond restless. Eventually they started drawing little unintelligible pictures on the catalogue which eventually trailed off into jagged, violent scribble marks.

“Hehehehehehe” Rura giggled sinisterly as they got to the point of tearing the paper. As if that wasn’t enough, they then picked up the whole book and slammed it into their face a couple times! “I’M NEVER GONNA GET A JOB HEREEE!!!!!”, they roared before using their sharp teeth to rip a large piece of the corner pages out in a hyperactive explosion. The pieces fell out of their mouth and fluttered to the patches of grass below them.

The ruckus made the tree above them drop one of its pinecones on poor Rura’s head. They swung their fists and let out a loud groan. Then they ran around in what they called a “fury circle” before trying to run off, only slamming into the side of the building head-first. Their body went limp on impact and lay face-first on the ground. Did I deserve that?

They could just imagine Anaiyah, the girl version of themselves looking down at them where they lay. Her hands were on her hips being all like, “ Wow, I am even crazier than I was a year ago! No surprise, I guess.”

Rura picked up their head and moaned, “I’m not even that angry, I’m just exhausted of doing nothing!”

“I know! And now I’m doing the same thing I was all those years of being holed up in a room— talking to myself!” Anaiyah’s long brown locks got into her face again… and, oh look, a pretty tangled knot. “That’s what I get for not brushing then…” Then they glared back down at their furry self; or their “other” self, rather.

“I used to be perfectly fine with just sitting outside, why don’t we do that!”

“Because things have changed!” Rura retorted. It was like someone’s shoulder devil and shoulder angel were talking back to each other, competing for the right of way. “Simple things don’t make me happy anymore…” They stayed where they were, only propping their head up with their hand.

Anaiyah turned around to stare at the sky. The view of the sun behind some gentle clouds peeking through some spaces where they part calmed Anaiyah in some ways. “No… life got harder from when we were children. But still… memories of your life can be more beautiful than when you’ve actually lived it, you know what I mean?“

She wandered aimlessly around the little areas around the side of the buildings. They were some cobblestone walls they could walk along, or jump off of. Her feet scuffed the harsh ground of prickly grass and hard little pebbles. A simple brown birthmark on the bottom of her right foot in the shape of a paw print showed itself every time she lifted it to take another step. Rura seemed to disappear behind them and soon faded from consciousness. She hummed a little in a soft rising crescendo and fell down to a diminuendo. That repeated several times until words were brought to the tune. The wind joined in, blowing a soft breeze in to bring forth a calm summer atmosphere.

The song was one from very early childhood, a song she sung when desired freedom. It was meant for days like this. Now she uses it as meditation whenever she felt lonely.

Misty trees that regenerate their power

Quiet leaves and dewy flowers


Peace is made by the ones who stand firm

Polished, poised, but natural

A new brand of golden light in each term

Bringing new shades of color, each pastoral

She felt her fingernails scrape against a tree that she touched passing by. Looking at the thin gashes on the bark she realized it wasn’t her fingernails. Her left hand involuntarily transformed into the red claw identical to Rura’s. The black spires at the ends of her fingertips quietly clacked against each other every now and then. A quick thought returned her supple human flesh to that hand. She inhaled sharply.

Geez, some things never get easier to handle….