Pepper was a skunk who ran away from his adopted family of possums. He ran away because his adopted dad used to hit him and blame him, instead of his punk possums kids. Pepper was a sweet skunk but rarely smelled like one since his vulgar older brothers scared him on a daily basis. It was no wonder he left: constant beatings and practical jokes at his expense wasn’t how he wanted to spend his youth.
Pepper had lost his mother to a truck driver speeding down his old pond view drive. His dad died a year earlier from spraying the wrong Texan on his ranch. Losing his mother and then living with ugly possums was more than he could bear.
Upon his first day of being an official runaway, he came across a Baptist Church. The minister found him sitting in the shade among the steps and the minister lifted his left boot and gave him a righteous kick to the curb. Pepper had only wanted shade but the minister only cared about what he was, not who he was. It was there Pepper decided to make his pilgrimage back home.
But rejection was all Pepper saw along the way home. Each time he sought refuge among a church, ministers and priest would throw Bibles and burning candles at him. Was it so much to ask to sit in the shade and talk it out with Jesus? It was tough being a skunk in the Bible belt of Texas.
Finally, Pepper made it back to where his furrow had been, but there wasn’t anything left of his home. After crying for endless hours, Pepper was spotted by Animal Control. Poor Pepper had never made any moral mistakes or poor judgments. He simply was always in the wrong place at the wrong time and truly down on his luck. It was there at the empty furrow he made peace with the life he was given and the death he didn’t choose. At least he would see his true parents again.
No comments:
Post a Comment