SHRUNK SKUNK

SHRUNK SKUNK
M.V. Montgomery

A wet skunk waddled across the carpet while my sister was cutting my hair. I may not have been thinking too clearly and grabbed a hair dryer and aimed the gun at the creature, which froze in its tracks. It arched like a cat, and I worried it was going to blast us with spray, but instead it appeared content to feel the warm air jets against its fur. I continued to aim the gun steadily, and before our eyes, the skunk shrunk down to the size of a mouse. Then it ran up the leg of the chair and onto my sister’s head, where it tightly gripped her hair. She shrieked, but I urged her to remain calm and then led her outdoors. There was a copse of ornamental bushes by the side of the front door; and, though in retrospect, it would have been wiser to travel a little farther away from the house, in all truth, my sister was fading fast. Yet she remained a trouper as I held her forearm and we waited. Sure enough, there came a small plopping noise as the tiny animal saw the bushes and plunged off my sister’s coif like a flying squirrel. I patted her on the back, reassuringly. She had had a rough go of it, to be sure, but hadn’t we dealt successfully with the skunk menace? My theme, you see, is cooperation.

©2012 This work is the property of the author.