I can't seem to get back into it; probably should spend a few nights away from the internet, but I can't seem to do that. I'm gonna go home and write, later, I promise! Right now I'm suing the wifi at the local McD's...
Case in point- I need to go somewheres with this-
Charlotte's Rabbit
By Vincent L. Cleaver
"What'cha doin'?"
Bear looked up at the little girl, all of 5 or 6. He tried not to look too surprised, for this one didn't speak, and had shied away from everyone since they'd picked her up three day back. She was nearly out the door of the room, a safe distance with the door jamb between them. Protecting her from me, Bear thought, and his imagination filled in all the details.
The walking dead were not the worst thing in this world.
"Folding paper," Bear told her, glancing down. "Do you want me to make you an origami rabbit?"
"Yes, please," she chirped, almost too cheerful, and then added, "Rabbits are tasty."
"This one is pap-"
"I understand," she said quickly, but then looked scared and fled back a step. Something in Bear ached as he watched those wary eyes; those and the very top of her head was all that showed around the door jamb now. After a moment (after he didn't get angry, rather, but, oh, how very angry Bear was, just not at the little girl) the rest of her came back into view.
"My name is Charlotte."
"That's a good name," Bear commented, voice open and calm. He concentrated on the paper, and Charlotte, too, just not looking at her. Tricky, that. "So, do you know Charlotte's Web?"
"Uh-huh!" Her dirty, short brown curls shook as she nodded. Maybe we can get her bathed and in clean clothes tomorrow, Bear thought. They had broken a rule by not strip-searching her, when they brought her into the 'Traveling Circus'.
"Can you read?" Another nod. "We'll see if we can get it for you..." There was a bookstore nearby and he and Ski were going on a recovery expedition. Bear was looking forward to that.
The paper was from some files in the office of the garage where they were bedded down tonight. Just regular 11 by 8 1/2, it wasn't square like the original design called for, itself a modified water-bomb. "Most origami you fold from square paper, but see here, I've got the extra tucked away; where we lock the base of the rabbit, here, and in the ears, here..."
Bear added whiskers, eyes and a cotton-tail with a pen and showed her how to inflate the 3D bunny.
"Ooh!" Her eyes got big and she clapped her hands together, before covering her mouth and remembering fear. So damned afraid to give offense, Bear thought. Not afraid like that of the zombies, but scared to death of people...
"Show me, please?" Charlotte asked.
"Okay," Bear said, and took two more pieces of paper from the files. They made bunnies and ducks, dinosaurs and Japanese cranes until bed-time. It was one of the best evenings which Bear could remember spending in months. He remembered something his grandmother had said-
'Doing good is a blessing, and is its own just reward.'
He fell asleep thinking of her and on that, and not the one Ski had told him that morning-
"Death is lighter than a feather, and duty is heavier than a mountain."
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