“BEEF, PORK, AND CHICKEN. Would Nick like shrimp too?”

Exflibberaguil juggled several bowls of noodles in his arms. He hadn’t yet discovered baskets and shopping carts. As he reached to add another Styrofoam bowl to his arms, the pile toppled, sending the bowls rolling down the aisle.

This was not the first time it happened, but Exflibberaguil had a bad memory and kept on forgetting to bring bags. He groaned and begun the arduous task of picking them up.

“Er…excuse me…” he muttered to a large man. A bowl was stuck behind him.

The man didn’t move.

Exflibberaguil coughed, but the man didn’t seem to hear. Exflibberaguil looked up at the man’s face.

“Would you mind—” he began before stopping mid-sentence. This man looked strangely familiar. Exflibberaguil shook his head and cleared his throat. Memories were always so confusing. “Er, excuse me, would you mind moving a little to the right?” he repeated.

The bald man moved his head. Apparently he did recognize Exflibberaguil and glared. The glare completed the missing puzzle. Exflibberaguil knew who the man was.

“It’s you!” the man shouted with disbelief and contempt.

“Me? Yes me! Who? Do I know you?” Exflibberaguil blabbered nervously, abandoning the noodles and inching away. He laughed. “I mean, hello! It’s me! Goodbye! Who are you?”

“Bob Smith!” the man roared.

“Bob Smith? That you? I don’t recall—oh that’s right! I’m Bob Smith. Ha—what a name. I can’t remember it myself.”

The man’s stubbly beard twitched, and he stepped in the way of Exflibberaguil’s escape route. He did not look impressed with Exflibberaguil’s improvising.

“Ah—and you are? I think I remember you. Something like…Miles! Ha! I didn’t think I could remember your name. I have so many clients asking for their picture. But oh, wow! Miles, is it you?” Exflibberaguil stammered on, turning around and backing the other way. “I never thought we’d meet again! Well, nice seeing you. I have something urgent now—”

Miles stepped around Exflibberaguil and blocked the other route. Exflibberaguil, accepting that he had no chance of leaving early, heaved a big sigh. “Or we could talk. Talking’s good too.” Exflibberaguil squatted down and picked up the bowl of instant ramen that he had originally been aiming for. “Fancy meeting you here, of all places. Strange place to meet, considering your home is miles away. Almost in another state, I believe. What a coincidence, right?” Exflibberaguil laughed awkwardly.

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Miles glared harder, as if there was something he wanted Exflibberaguil to say first.

“Say, how’s Cosmo?” Exflibberaguil suggested. “How’s he doing? Did you bring him here on this road trip too?”

“I didn’t bring him; he brought me!” Miles yelled. “He escaped! Couldn’t get very far, but I had to tranquilize him. Now he would let me have no peace until we went his way. Gave me a map and made me follow it. I don’t even know how he knows when we’re going the wrong way, but he knows! It’s all your fault.”

“Woah, woah, woah. Let’s not make any assumptions here yet,” Exflibberaguil said, putting up his hands in surrender. “Look, Mister Miles, I apologize for what happened last time, but I don’t know why your rabbit would target me now. How should it know where I am? I’m just as confused as you are.”

“I don’t know why this is happened! I just know it has something to do with you, and that you assaulted my rabbit.”

“Oh, come on! That couldn’t be. I already apologize for last time, but would you let me go now? I didn’t harm your rabbit in any way. I’m just here to buy my instant noodles.” Exflibberaguil began walking away now, gathering the last of his noodles. “It was good to see you again, Miles. Goodbye!”

Exflibberaguil turned and moved away. As soon as he was out of Miles’s sight, he began running to the checkout with his noodles. Miles was big and dangerous, at least to Exflibberaguil. He was not about to make all the effort and fly to Driew only to have his life end in a Sodriew’s hands. The thought itself was embarrassing enough to make any respectable Mustela depressed for several weeks.

Finally, with his noodles secured in big plastic bags, Exflibberaguil headed out into the parking lot. He didn’t bring the trailer, of course. But he needed to see Cosmos.

It wasn’t hard to find Mile’s car. Not every car was a big red pickup with ginormous black wheels with an equally large brown rabbit in a cage in the back.

Exflibberaguil lugged his bags to the rabbit. The big tires made it difficult to see over the top of the pickup, but Exflibberaguil managed on tip-toe. He tried to glare intimidatingly at the rabbit, but he was at a disadvantage, being shorter than eye-level. He stepped on the Styrofoam bowls for a little extra height, though he could feel the bowls being crushed under his weight.

“I don’t know what your plotting, but you better stop wasting your efforts,” Exflibberaguil sneered, believing he sounded dangerous.

Cosmo glanced at him, uninterested and continued to eat his lettuce.

“I know you understand, you useless rabbit. You know, I really don’t know why you bother growing so big. The only purpose of your kind is just so there’s more meat to eat. Size is useless, you know that? Only makes you easier to hit with a knife or bullet.”

Cosmo didn’t both looking.

“Hey—listen to me when I’m talking! Look at me! Be respectful you little rodent! Yes, rodent! You’re no better than a rodent! Hey—look at me!” Exflibberaguil reached over and tapped the cage.

Cosmo didn’t even bat an eye. He continued to eat without flinching.

“Hey! Hey! You listening?” Exflibberaguil leaned over, almost into the back of the pickup. He poked his finger into the large holes of the cage, prodding Cosmo. “Hey!”

Cosmo twitched so Exflibberaguil kept on poking. “Yeah, that’s right. Be uncomfortable you disrespectful brat! You—”

In a blink of an eye, Cosmo turned around and bit Exflibberaguil’s finger.

Exflibberaguil toppled off his pile of ramen, crushing the bowls as he fell onto them. Great amount of blood spurted from his right index finger. He couldn’t tell if the top was attached or not. There was a great pain in his head. Perhaps he had hit his head against the pavement or some sort of curb.

He didn’t see anything after that. He could only feel the throbbing pain.