The road is paved with flat squirrels, which suffered from indecision. Getting to the other side was an objective, but not the goal. Staying alive and thriving is the plan.
Sometimes the squirrel gets to the other side, turns her head looking back reminiscing upon her memories with regret, realizing that she was mislead and never meant to cross the street alone. Her mind starts racing as she sees all of the traffic of chaos from bad decisions flashing before her eyes.
Lil Miss Wandering Eyes sees her friend watching her from across the busy lanes only disappearing as the cars drive by, but Mr. Playful Paws wouldn’t take his eyes of her. The volume of traffic seems to be increasing and she begins to realize that if she doesn’t return to him that she may never be able to get back and would never see him again.
The pressure is mounting as her paws edge forward onto the road, when suddenly a tire grazes the fur on her face. She is frozen in shock from the near miss and can see the tears rolling down her friend’s face, as he watches her indecision wreak havoc on their situation.
Realizing she is the source of their distance, their confusion and their separation, she makes another dart out into traffic towards him with her claws digging into the pavement. She dodges the speeding vehicles and makes it to the middle of the road exhausted huffing and puffing. She looks up at him and sees him standing on his hind legs with his front paws outreached screeching for her to stay put, that he is coming and he will get them to where they need to go.
Her insides begin to tremble. Not with fear, but rather her body is overtaken with remorse. Because it is now that she finally admits to herself that she is the guilty one. She understands that she is the one responsible for putting him at risk, that she has been the source of his pain, that his heart has always been true to her and that he would do whatever it takes to not only keep her alive, but to make her thrive.
It is getting dark. This is a time when normally he would be enjoying the sunset, watching as the universe paints the skies with pastel colors and streaks of hope for a brighter day tomorrow. But today, he is laser focused and determined to liberate his soulmate who went on a wayward adventure chasing new varieties of nuts that looked full of promise, but when she cracked them open they were empty shells and hollow as their false promises.
He, however, had been busy in her absence filling his den with winter forage and there was only one other squirrel in the forest that he would share his nuts. And right now, she was in peril.
They locked eyes. He could see the fear on her face with her whiskers twitching all about as the reality of the imminent threat of danger was unveiling quicker than she could comprehend. She closed her eyes and thought back to better days when she would have her head nestled upon his furry chest with their tails entwined in their shared den. Her heart slowed down and she began to smile as she opened her eyes and could see the determination shining from his rare blue eyes.
Time stood still, although the cars were still moving swiftly between them. He could clearly see the path that needed to be taken, although her spirit was still shaken. It seemed as though they were in luck. All they needed to do was to seize the moment to be reunited as the rest of the story has yet to be told.