I couldn’t decide which was worse, squirrels or baths.
When James brought Talia to play the following day, he immediately understood what had happened. We didn’t get to play with Talia that day, but once James returned her to the house, he introduced us to a new form of torture. Baths.
First, he separated the three of us. Apples and Pickles were leashed and taken outside to be hosed down. I still smelled of skunk, so my treatment was rougher. Baths were the devil, and no amount of money or fame would convince me otherwise.
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Nope. Forget that. You can’t trick me, stupid System.
James returned to the barn a few minutes later, Apples and Pickles still outside in the cold. I suppose he didn’t want me to spread the smell to my newly clean and fresh bunkmates.
“Alright, Charlie. Time to take care of that smell. Be a good boy and just hold still.”
Uhhh, no? I’m wise to your games, James. I let him know how I felt via [Herding Bark] and an unhealthy amount of indignant rage. My barking could stop the world, but it didn’t faze James in the least. He was such a good owner.
He approached slowly, leading with an open hand.
“Calm down, Charlie. It’s just a bath. It isn’t going to hurt you.”
Nah-uh. Nope. Nada. You keep that hose away from me, James. His languid approach and calming tone were placating, but I was no fool. He raised both hands in front of himself, as if he needed to defend from an attack.
“Look what I’ve got, buddy. Do you know what this is?”
He pulled out a jar of something from behind his back. It was tan and looked to be almost liquid, but not quite. When he twisted open the lid, the smell knocked me on my ass.
What was that? It smelled divine. I inched closer to get a better look. James stepped forward, almost within arm’s reach now.
I activated [Scan].
>>Scan Complete
>>Name: Peanut Butter
>>Class: Item
>>Level: N/A
>>The salty, sweet taste of nuts in a jar.
Oh. OH! The lure of earthy, nutty goodness was strong, but my will was stronger. James lunged forward, attempting to pin me to the ground. I dashed backward and made a break for the open barn door. No more tricks. It was time to settle this once and for all.
James fell into the pile of hay behind me as I made my escape. He grunted with exertion, but I had to be strong. Empathy would only aid my downfall. As I exited the barn, another notification popped up.
<
Freedom greeted me in the form of a light coating of snow and a gentle breeze from the north. Exiting the barn was only the first stop, however. I had to escape James, and he had more tools at his disposal than I did. I glanced over to Apples and Pickles, lamenting the fact that I couldn’t free them from their enslavement.
They were leashed separately against the wall of the barn. Each leash was slung through a door handle on opposite sides of the door. There wasn’t much I could do for them, with my lack of thumbs and all. At least without me in the barn, James could let them back inside, out of the cold winter air. I could see frost forming on their coats from the left over moisture of the bath.
I made my decision, and I had to stand by it. I took off down the path, looking back just in time to see James exiting the barn. His normally wavy hair was messy and had hay sticking out of it. It was a good look for him.
I needed a place to hide. If I could just last long enough for the smell to go away, James would have no reason to subject me to the frigid waters of purification. Skunk smell couldn’t last more than a couple days on its own, right?
I decided that the best place to hide would be in plain sight. They’d expect me to run off into the woods or into the milk-house, but I had a better idea. I would get lost in the sea of sheep.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Making my way out past the east fields and into the pastures, I tried to remember where the sheep were staying for the winter. I had found them in the fields rather easily in the fall, but now they would be inside somewhere.
There were only a handful of buildings on the farm, if you didn’t count the silos. There was the barn where Apples, Pickles, and I stayed, which doubled as hay storage. The milk-house and farmhouse were on the north end, almost a direct line north from the barn. The silos and wheat fields were on the east end. That left the west side fields and the horses stable.
Turning west, I realized I had explored little on this side of the farm. From the path, there were a few fields used for barley and the empty fields used to train the horses, but beyond that was a mystery to me.
As I approached the farm’s border fencing, out beyond the barley fields, I turned north and spotted my quarry. A building akin to a longhouse was situated right up against the western border, and the sheep were lazing around inside. Elated, I put on some speed and entered the open faced entrance before James could catch up with me.
As I entered the large wooden structure, two things became apparent. First, sheep were skittish around dogs. They all backed away and gave me plenty of space as soon as they realized I was there. And second, that my master plan was not exactly the smartest thing. I made the fatal mistake of pride, thinking I could outsmart James.
He loved the sheep, feeding them himself every day despite already being overworked. Today, he gave us a bath, forgoing the sheep feeding. But that meant that someone else had to do it.
JJ sat on a stool, not 10 feet away from me, brushing out one of the larger animals’ coats.
“Oh. Hey Charlie!”
I stood in stunned silence. They must have planned this from the very beginning. I was a fool to think I could outsmart as small as I could. Maybe JJ didn’t know it was bath day? Surely he was just taking over for his father and did not know what was going on outside the longhouse.
“Hey buddy, do you want a treat? I brought this for the sheep, but you look like you’ve had a rough one.”
He let a few kernels of corn fall from his hand as he showed me the snack. I was rather hungry. Maybe I had enough time just for a few.
I approached hesitantly, still wary of the trap that James that laid earlier with the peanut butter. JJ shouldn’t know anything about that, though. He was just a nice kid, always looking out for the animals. Even if he named one of them Corn just the other day.
“There you go, buddy. You look hungry.”
He set the cornmeal down at his feet, not requiring me to get within range of being grabbed. That calmed my nerves somewhat, and I really was hungry.
I sniffed the offering just to make sure there was nothing untoward going on with it. It registered as normal cornmeal, fairly bland but ultimately filling. It was good to be eating some solid food for once.
About halfway through the snack, I felt a pair of large hands grab me and pin me to the ground. I wriggled and shook in protest, trying to get free.
“Gotcha! Jeez, you’re a fast one.”
The dulcet tones of James washed over me as I realized what had happened. This was planned all along! JJ had used the lure of food and trust to lull me into a sense of complacency while he waited for James to arrive. The two of them were so smart, I needed to be better prepared the next time I challenged them.
Feeling the cool metal of a chain slip over my head and tighten around my neck, I realized I would not get free. I was leashed and no matter how much I struggled, there was no getting out of this. I howled with righteous indignation at my treatment.
<
Well, at least something came out of all this. I lost out on the 100,000 Adoration from the System’s extremely obvious ploy earlier, but I would rather have my pride.
James guided me back to the barn, soothing and reassuring me it wouldn’t be that bad the entire way. The walk back took longer, as I couldn’t run at full speed and James didn’t bring the truck. Along the way, we got to know one another a bit better, at least.
“Look, Charlie. I know you don’t like baths, but you can’t just run around smelling like a skunk for a month before it finally wears off. We have things to do, and you need to not smell like a dumpster if you’re gonna play with Tali.”
Well, that made sense. I tilted my head to look at him for a moment, realizing he had the best intentions in mind. He looked down at me and our eyes met. At that moment, I thought maybe we understood each other a little better.
Then he sprayed me with the hose.
The icy chill of death passed over me, threatening to pull my soul to the river Styx with every drop. James wrapped my leash around the door handle of the barn, securing it to itself, so even if I tried, I wouldn’t get far.
Now that my coat was moistened, he rubbed baking soda into it. Once it was nice and lathered, he went to his truck and got a bottle of vinegar and poured it all over me. The smell was overpowering and as it reacted with the baking soda, it began to bubble and fizz. The sensation was rather nice, despite the horror of bathtime. Giving it a few minutes to react completely, James took a seat on the snowy ground next to me.
“You know, Charlie, there used to be a time when I was just like you. Young and precocious, I wanted to run and play and ignored what my parents wanted for me. I thought I knew better.”
He petted my head, helping to calm my fraying nerves.
“It wasn’t until after high-school that I realized they were right. I met a girl, oh maybe 20 years ago now, and I fell hard. I was a senior in high-school and she was a freshman in college.”
The petting continued as he stared out over the farmland. I hadn’t realized until just that moment how beautiful the view was.
“Well, we started seeing each other all the time. Around my sophomore year in college, she got pregnant. My schoolwork suffered, and she had to drop out to take care of the kid. James Junior was such a rambunctious child.”
I thought back to the last of my memories, to Elena. She had saved me from that life long ago. She was always the one to keep me focused on what was important, or at least what I thought was important at the time. There wasn’t time for girls. I needed to graduate and get a good job.
“Anyway, my parents were furious. My mother disowned me, my father threw me out of the house. The same house just up the drive there. It wasn’t until later that I realized why they were so angry. It wasn’t because of Ashley or JJ, it was because I hadn’t included them. I just showed up one day with a girl and a kid and they did not know.”
I tilted my head, listening intently at that point.
“It took about 5 years before I came to my senses and came back here asking for their trust back. I had made nothing of myself, despite finishing my economics degree. I worked at the local grocery store, just scraping by.”
My anger was rising. His own parents threw him out of the house with a newborn?
“When I came back, my father asked me what I had learned. I answered him honestly, that family was forever. No matter what they do, or the distance between them, family would always forgive family, because they were the one thing that mattered in this world.”
He still hadn’t turned to look at me, focused out beyond the fields and trees. In his own little world.
“He hugged me that day, the first time he hugged me in nearly 10 years. We both cried for what was lost and what was found. That was the day he taught me to be a farmer. It’s not the most glorious life, but it’s honest work and I get to come home to my family every night. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
When he finally turned to look at me, I could tell he was holding back tears. He didn’t seem like the kind of man that could open up easily, but out here on a chill winter’s day, he found a companion he could confide in. It was touching, and I respected him all the more for it.
I didn’t even mind that much when he went and got the hose. The water was still evil, and I still hated baths, but now I had a purpose to put myself through the horror and trauma of cold water.