drabbles

runaway

Forrest dragged his feet from the post office all the way down Main to Snuffs Garage. It always smelled like oil and burnt rubber but it was home, for now. Forrest flattened his cat ears back against his head to duck under the leftmost garage door that was only open half way, "Snuff?" He called out loud enough to echo back at him in the empty shop. "Anybody?" He asked quieter, slinging his bag off of his shoulder and onto the floor and walked passed the current project car, jiggling the loose door knob to get into the backroom he currently called his bedroom, his home. The thin cat sighed and his breath rose in the air like a cloud in this cold, and he could smell rain. He almost caught his tail in the door as he shut it behind him before collapsing on his little makeshift hammock.
He didn't have any time to relax before his phone buzzed his back pocket repeatedly, but as he went to reach for it the garage door outside scratched open loudly and Snuff had obviously brought friends. A cacaphony of laughter and goofing off filled the entire building as the Coons settled into the garage for the night. Forrest sighed to himself and reached over his closet sized room to lock chainlock on his door, but to his dismay that alerted one of the Coons of his existence once again. "AYE BOYS! The Cats back in town!" A scrawny blonde raccoon named Butter howled outside of Forrests thin door. "You bring any food back today Forrest?" Another shouted, "how About any of that neat candy?" One of the younger kids yelled over the roar. But Forrest was numb to the chaos now, it was better than where he had been before, right?
"You jus fine, you can keep your cool under pressure" Forrest muttered to himself while connecting his headphones crispy wire to his phone and turning on the only audio book he had downloaded, something dreamy and long about adventures in a fantasy land. It wasn't something he could listen to forever but it drowned out the Coons nightly parties. Forrest listened to the authors soft voice describe beautiful landscapes as he tugged his jeans off and tried to fix the fur that was plastered flat from sweat, but eventually gave up and slumped back into the hammock, letting it swing back and forth slowly. But his phone was pestering him again, buzzing against his side again and again, finally he decided to look at it.
"Forrest you forgot your jacket at work today, and I'm gonna drop it by that garage you're always at later tonight, I have to talk to you."
"The Coons were very inviting but I didn't come inside, the long one said he'd get your coat back to you, but I was meaning to tell you that Mr. Snofflehogen was probably going to be letting a lot of us extra postal workers go next week."
"Profits are down y'know, not your fault, it's just one of the things that happens when we hire seasonal workers."
Forrest read text after text as his coworker tried to explain as nicely as possible that the postal service was cutting down sorters she to automation even at their little shop. Forrest tossed his shitty phone across his tiny room onto the window sill and stared at the ceiling knowing he only had enough money for food, rent wasn't an option this coming month, especially if he wasn't getting more than one last check.
He ripped his headphones off and stood from his hammock to look out his little clouded window at the highway rushing passed and felt like he wanted to, no needed to be anywhere else.
In a moment Forrest had grabbed his backpack and began frantically packing, his blanket, his phone, his pillow, the two outfits he owned and his work shirts, his belt and even ripped his hammock off the wall and rolled it up and tied it to his bag. He threw on his backpack and tore out of Snuffs Garage despite the screeching behind him of the Coons questioning; he broke into a run, a full on sprint, down the left side of main and into the newer part of downtown where the buildings stretched into the sky and people didn't even bat an eye to a twenty something year old in ratty clothes sprinting down the roads. Just another one of those feral street cats right? "Too many cats around these parts anyways," Snuff used to say, "das why all of them are down on their luck,"
But Forrest always sat back quietly, knowing someday he wouldn't be so unlucky, cause really it has nothing to do with luck.