Photo by K.S. Brooks
Dr. Stanton had successfully transferred his intelligence into the body of a squirrel.
He realized that his whole human consciousness would not fit in a squirrel’s brain. It had neither the storage space nor the focus to accommodate his entire essence.
As a squirrel was the only subject at hand, he proceeded anyway. Stanton pared his memories down to the bare bits he would need to accomplish his mission. However, he forgot that the squirrel also needed some squirrel brain to make his squirrel body function properly. The result was that some of the mission-critical information did not make the transition.
All Stanton the squirrel could remember was that he needed to follow that woman down there.
In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture and/or the written prompt above. Do not include the prompt in your entry. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No political or religious entries, please.
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On Friday afternoon, the winner will be recognized as we post the winning entry along with the picture as a feature. Then, at year end, the winners will be featured in an anthology like this one. Best of luck to you all in your writing!
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Monogamy wasn’t the norm among squirrels. Stanton would never have discovered this if the experiment had not gone so wrong. The sparks, the explosions, the rattling of metal and the buzzing of electrical wires. After the incident, he had not been the same.
He had become Squirrel.
When he screamed, he shrieked.
When he ran, he hopped.
When he was hungry…was that a nut over there?
Stanton jumped over the tiny branches, his newfound tail providing an exquisite sense of balance.
He grabbed the nut, his stomach growling. And he saw her. Her red fur shone under the sun. Her almond eyes hypnotized him. And her tail. Oh! Her tail!
The courting ritual was instinctual, second nature. They danced, darted, jolted, bit each other tenderly.
They made love under the oak tree.
Maybe if he was still human he would have thought it wrong.
But they had children together. Two boys and one girl. They were so beautiful. As a human, Stanton would never have even considered marriage and fatherhood. No woman would have fallen for his enormous spectacles anyway. Humanity was nothing else but a vague memory, a fog better left forgotten.
That is, until that day.
Stanton was collecting nuts along the highway, the cars humming beside him.
His wife was there too, and to Stanton’s surprise, courting another male. He danced like Stanton had done and she loved him like she had loved Stanton.
A car passed by and Stanton couldn’t watch no more.
He jumped to the lower branches, in order to be closer to the woman. She glanced up into the tree when it shook. But he didn’t sense that she saw him. Dr. Stanton couldn’t shake the feeling that it felt wrong. He fought against an urge to pull away, to run from close proximity to the human.
It took all his will to keep the path as she approached the building. He knew he needed to catch her before she went inside, though he could not remember why. And then he reached the ground.
His nerves burned with fire and adrenalin, the oppressive openness without the tree to protect him, left him naked and alone. He saw everything through his peripheral vision, no predators but he still felt naked and alone. He scampered toward her legs. The power flowing through his nerves and bloodstream gave him a speed he never felt before.
Just as he reached her legs the world around him went dark. Light shone through a small window of the cage she dropped on him, then her eyes as she looked in on him.
“I didn’t think it would be this easy,” she said. “But you had to try out the formula, didn’t you?”
He hadn’t seen it. He couldn’t process it. The box she had held in her hands. She meant to catch him.
“Your research notes are now mine, Dr. Stanton.”
8:00- 8:05am
Three security guards race down the hallway in response to a prior self endangerment complaint.
The said perpetrator; one of the finest doctors at the facility was believed to have had a confrontational outburst with the head of department after being informed about the termination of his research.
“Open the door Doc, You need to calm down. Come out of the lab and lets talk” yelled one of the guards.
There weren’t any response from the doctor’s end just clunks of levers which were followed loud screams.
The worried guards pry the door open only to find the motionless body of the doctor on the floor.The name tag on his lab coat spells out “Doctor Stanton”.
7:48am
“My name is Doctor Stanton and if you are reading this,then i am non-existent. Some few years ago, we initiated an experiment that entailed the transfer of intelligence into animals.Our first try was a failure which resulted in me losing somebody dear.So this is me making it right. I’m not going to let them put waste to my hard-works”
8:06am
”i know him,rumors were he was once sociable and that everything changed after he lost his wife to one of his experiments.
No one knew why he kept his wife’s corpse after many years and also why he had then resorted to a squirrel pet for comfort.” said one of the guards”
” Look! two squirrels making love” exclaimed an on-looker
Wow, what happened? That was quite a ride.
Examining myself I saw fur…lots of fur. I guess the better question would be, what am I?
A squirrel! It can’t be true.
A few minutes ago I was in my lab preparing to transfer my intelligence into a drone prototype for a search mission. Someone has stolen my plans for a new weapon system and I must find them. Evidently a squirrel passed in front of the transfer ray, and I am inside its brain. This can’t be good. Besides that, I’m now up in a tree.
Hearing leaves rustle below I looked down and saw a woman. It was Natasha. I would recognize her anywhere; long slender legs, jet black hair, the way here lip curls up just right. Focus on the mission lover boy. Those days are long gone. She has to be the one who stole the plans. I’ve got to follow her and retrieve the disk before its too late.
Let me get down from this tree. Uh oh. I can’t move. The transfer signals are clear, but nothings moving. Oh no! I’ve been ensquirreled; too much information not enough room. I am frozen in this body, and now I’m helpless.
Maybe I can use my mental telepathy to call a friend. There is only one individual I could trust at a time like this. The line’s ringing. On the other end someone says, “hello.”
“Bullwinkle this is Dr. Rocky Stanton. I need your help.”