one day

the turtle said to the squirrel

"i'm sure you'll find someone who loves you just as you are"

and some days the squirrel remembers this and feels very glad

because, every so often, the squirrel feels impossibly old

the squirrel has seen many places

from the redwood grove where he first met the striped chipmunk

to the depths of the desert where he almost died and was saved by a strange white bird with wings

the squirrel does not think of such places often in his forest

but every so often

when his friends chit-chatter about what they think it would be like to trill as the northern birds do, or begin humming a happy working tune

the squirrel remembers the the sweet song of the cockatiel

laborious days

learning

how to sing

and the long nights spent in the shadows of grass on a darkening field

at dusk

while the cockatiel sang

and sang again

and the salad of roots garnished with clover that he shared with all his friends on a faraway peninsula

which they could

never share again

because the tree of the roots was struck by lightning

every so often the squirrel thinks on all these things

and all the creatures he has met, from elephant to snake to groundhogs

and the squirrel looks at himself in the forest

struggling to make friends with the happy chirpy forest creatures that have never seen anything but sunlight and evergreens

watches them darting around, so at home

... and the squirrel remembers what his good friend the turtle said, and feels glad

today the squirrel met an awkward domo-kun

the domo-kun popped out of its den

and they said hello

and it lingered

just a bit

longer

than it should have

and the squirrel

paused

and

...

he didn't know why the domo-kun should make him pause

except that

he knew (or thought)

that the domo-kun was very kind.

when they first became acquainted

the domo-kun

would make it a point to cheer for the squirrel when the squirrels were having their squirrel races

the squirrel thought

this was because

the domo-kun noticed that there were not that many people cheering for the squirrel

and wanted to make sure he did not feel left out

and

the domo-kun

loved to hum

maybe it was only because the domo-kun reminded the squirrel of a time forever frozen in his mind at sunset

when all everybody ever wanted to do

was learn the cockatiel's song

...

the baboon next door hated the domo-kun

and the domo-kun didn't like the baboon very much either, the squirrel thought

but somehow

he felt

the domo-kun was kind at heart

the baboon was kind at heart also

but somehow

the domo-kun touched the squirrel

a tiny bit more

maybe because the domo-kun was not so loud

and did not always come scooping the squirrel up mid-scamper whenever he was nearby

to regale the squirrel with tales in the adventurous life of a baboon

who knows

all the squirrel knows is

he has met many creatures

and he will continue to meet many creatures

and he is glad to have friends like the turtle

and he hopes that one day perhaps

he will not feel so

nostalgic

but perhaps that is precisely what makes the squirrel who he is....