Neighbor Kids

A Thursday Prompt story
© 2020 by Walter Reimer


Prompt: use


“GIT!”

The sight of the enraged homeowner, waving his cane in one paw, advancing on them caused the four younger furs to scatter and hightail it (literally, in the buck’s case) for the safety of the property line. The twin tabby kittens, the beagle pup and the whitetail fawn made it off the property with the elderly man hot on their heels.

He pulled up at the property line and shouted, “How many times I gotta tell you to stay off my property?”

From his haven on the other side of the sidewalk one of the kittens said, “You’re not doing anything on it.” His twin brother gave him a dig in the ribs with one elbow.

“Don’t matter,” the man rasped. “It’s my property, not yours. I’ll do what I want on my property,” and here he raised his cane, causing the beagle to back away a step and the fawn to flinch, “and when I say you stay off it, I mean it!” He turned his broad back on them and started back to his house, muttering under his breath.

The tabby kitten that had spoken up stuck his tongue out at the retreating back and said, “Let’s go.” The four friends followed his lead and headed back to his and his brother’s house, the fawn scuffing his hooves against the sidewalk dejectedly.

“Hey Mom!” the kitten’s brother called out as the four youngsters piled into the kitchen. “Is there any lemonade in the fridge?”

“Yes, Albert,” came a voice from the living room, and the kitten’s ears flattened. He and his brother James were identical twins, but somehow their mother always knew who was who. Their mother stepped into the kitchen as James opened the fridge, while the beagle and the fawn laid out glasses from a cupboard.

The woman leaned against the doorjamb and asked in a friendly tone, “And what trouble have you four been getting up to this morning?”

The fawn flinched. “We weren’t doing nothing,” he said.

“Jonny, it’s ‘We weren’t doing anything,’” the kittens’ mother corrected gently, “and you know better than to lie. Now, come on.”

The fawn looked at the beagle, who shrugged, and at the twins, who rolled their eyes. “We were over at Old Man Brock’s place.”

The mother gave an exasperated snort. “You four know you’re not supposed to go on his property,” she said, making a mental note to have Jack go over and apologize to the man after he got home from work.

“But Mom!” James said. “He’s got all sorts of neat stuff on his property! There’s a pond, an-and there’s an old car in the woods, and lots of room to play – “

“There’s even a garden,” Jonny put in, licking his lips.

“And he takes good care of it, doesn’t he?” the mother asked.

“Uh-huh.”

She raised a finger. “So if he tells you to stay off it, he means it. He’s doing things with it, and maybe he doesn’t want little paws and hooves tearing up his grass, or splashing in his pond, or,” and she gave Jonny a glance, “nibbling on his plants.”

“But he’s so mean,” the beagle said solemnly.

“Teddy,” the woman admonished gently, “when you get older you’ll realize that some badgers are just sett in their ways.”


end