I still can not believe that the rat is dead. Did he honestly believe me when I told him to bathe in his boiling cauldron of soup to make it extra sweet? What an imbecile! I thought that every animal was smart enough to not willingly get into a boiling vat. I was just trying to play a little prank on him. I never would have pulled this stunt if I knew that it would have killed him. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be in this predicament.
To make matters worse, his wife went on and told everyone that I was the murderer! How was she able to spin that lie about? Better question, how did she convince the king that I was to blame for this? He has all of his men out on the hunt for me as we speak. I do not know how to convince them otherwise without them trying to kill me. I tried telling them what really happened as they chased me out of town; they thought I was lying and that I was just trying to save my hide.
Why won't they listen to me? Nobody is taking me serious when I try to tell them what happened. The rat's wife is really pulling at everyone's heartstrings with her sob story. I do not know how I can possibly compete with that. Who would want to take my side after hearing that? I think they all have a grudge against me to begin with. Maybe my sarcasm rubbed them the wrong way? Nobody around here appreciates the art form that is comedy. Actually, maybe I do not need them after all. Why would I want to live around a bunch of stiffs that can not take a joke anyways? This could be a silver lining the more I think about it.
Living in the bush is not too bad now that I think about it. I do not have to live by the king's strict laws anymore; I am free to do as I please. I hope they stop their hunt for me soon though. I can not go out in the daytime without risking being spotted. Lucky for me, none of the king's lackeys can see good at night. It looks like I am going to have to stay on my nocturnal schedule until all of this blows over.
(bat)
Author's Note: This is based off of the story "Why the Bat Flies by Night." In the original story the bat tricks the rat into thinking that the best soup is made by bathing in it to make it extra sweet. The rat decides goes home and tells his wife about this, and he decides to make his own soup the same way. His wife later finds him dead in the boiling cauldron of soup. She tells the king what happened, and he quickly sends everyone out after the bat. The bat is only able to survive at night after this since everyone is hunting for him during the day.
I wanted to frame this story from the perspective of the bat immediately after everything unfolded. I also wanted to use him as a modern trickster by using comedy and playing jokes on people.
Bibliography: "Why the Bat Flies by Night" by Elphinstone Dayrell, from Nigerian Folk Stories (1910). Web Source: UN-Textbook.
Jamison, I thought this was a really interesting way of telling the story. I like that you told it from the bat's perspective, especially at the peak of the story when everything unfolded. Great job with the use of first person to really tell how the bat was feeling. I also like how you tried to develop the bat into a modern day trickster. Overall, I thought you did a really great job with this story!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you used the bat's direct thoughts to explain all what happened within the story. It really does a great job giving the reader an idea of what the bat was trying to accomplish when he told the rat to jump in the boiling soup. Just a heads up, your picture from pixabay is coming up as a caution picture that says no hotlinking. I think all you have to do is actually download the image first then upload it. I had the same problem at the beginning of the semester.
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