Tails of Cabbit
And there was once a perfectly normal
man who, without reason, took
the form of a unknown creature which
appears to be a cat-rabbit
hybrid, or cabbit.
This strange occurence though,
did not seem strange as it should
be, for it was like any other
common everyday occurence,
like a setting sun or a cloud formation.
No one found it strange, or maybe just
that everyone was too occupied to
give a damn about anything.
So it was strange only to one person,
the one who was suddenly covered in furs, grew
a large-bushy feet, a long fluffy tail,
and a feet long, dangling cat ears.
He had a big-round belly too, fluffy too of course.
Really, the cabbit man was wondering
if there was anything weird going on,
for the mechanics of his days went
mostly unaltered. The days went the same,
before and after cabbit started
preferring carrots for dinner and
fishbones for snacks.
He walked to work as usual (or ran if he overslept).
He'd generally be ignored, and likewise ignore
everyone else. The few people he had to
mandatorily interact with did not report
any strange occurence, aside from the
coffee machine malfunctioning.
It's a tale to be only told to the cold winds
blowing where-ever the greener plains.
The only thing strange is the act, itself, of
asking people around if they have noticed something
strange about him.
Nothing has changed. Not a bit at all, reassured
himself the cabbit. It's still the same.
But things have changed, whether cabbit
acknowledge them or not. Cabbit action's
imperceptibly and gradually changed.
He grew less and less wary of what other people
think. He found it now easier to approach people.
He would find it impersonal for someone to remark
on his poor work performance or bad manners.
He's now less distracted on general stupidity of
people and more increasingly interested on rabbit burrows.
He wouldn't even dare resisting scratching
himself in front of people, women or not.
A nostalgic feeling reunited with him.
It was initially hard to interpret but cannot
be mistaken for something else. He can only
categorize feelings into two: happiness and sadness.
Happiness is anything that makes him feel better,
and sadness that is something that does not.
It's been long a time since felt this.
The reason for this is that
the meager politics of everyday life
and social status went outside the circle
of concerns of a 5'8 cabbit who
at this moment, was absentmindedly dreaming
of a fruit salad. He sat with most possible
laziness at his cubicle and tended to his fur
instead of his work.
And so the days went. And it went
some more. Some more days passed
until his coworkers unanimously agreed
that cabbit's attitude crossed
the border of tolerance.
Forget about culture fit, the clothes he
wears rarely fits, too large or too small.
Whatever, I didn't pick them, my mum
got them for me, defended cabbit as the
proper dress code was lectured to him.
He smells, one coworkers puts it bluntly.
Cabbit took pride is his musk, and thought otherwise.
He needs to shave a bit, remarked another one.
It's going to take him hours everyday
to keep himself clean-shaven. He'd
rather spend the time idling around.
He has been caught several times
listening to other people's converstation,
which is sort of an inversely figurative way of saying
that his ears get in the way. They are
just too loud, cabbit rebutted.
You're fired, concluded the boss.
Very well. It was for the benefit for
all the parties involved. Cabbit just
realized he didn't have any reason
to continue working in that place. Heck,
why even work in the first place?
So the epiphany descended upon cabbit's
realm of consciousness. He mulled
on a calm sunny evening while
lying on a sunbathed grass. He made
solid (twisted) points to himself denouncing the concept
of labor and it's detrimental effects
to mankind.
His arguments were sound,
but sadly inconceivable to the common kind,
such as his previous coworkers who were too lacking
to understand the idea of losing their mind
because frankly they likely
didn't have one to begin with.
He, for a short while, considered sharing
his 10-minute thesis to like-minded people
to bring about a change to the crippled world.
But he quickly perished the thought for
he now considers himself apart from the
doomed race of homo sapiens. A cabbit
is in no obligation to go around convincing
people that they are functioning below
the acceptable intellectual level
of a sentient entity.
Cabbit, from that remarkable day under the sun,
gave up all his goals and dreams in his life.
He will live his life without direction,
a happy, uncaged mammal that has no purpose
in life, except to live, to graze the evergreen garden.
Just as it should be. Heaven is not a tangible
place, it's a peaceful state of the mind.
So he embarked on his lifelong journey
to further explore this evergreenlasting pastures,
without the burden of guilt, disapointmnents
and expectations. He's in the middle
of a metrocity, but that didn't deter cabbit
from finding a greener grass.
Currently, he's in a park not
far from where he used to live, sitting alone
on a bench with a view of skycraping towers,
decorated with clouded teal skies.
Grasses smother his bushy feet as he idly
swings his feet back and forth.
His health has not degraded since
his unemployment for a week now. It has
in fact, improved greatly. He doesn't
eat as much as he did before but he is sufficiently
well-fed. The excess food he felt needed to consume
acted only as a replishment from
the damages incurred by the surrounding hostilities.
Cabbit's eye fixated on a distinct cloud
that took the shape of an idea in his mind.
No one should have to die of hunger.
No one shouldn't have to dedicate
their life hunting for food. It's a
law imposed by nature to
helpless creatures incapable
of constructing self-supporting,
maintenance-free systems
designed for survival.
Cabbit managed to hold himself
from being intoxicated by a familiar
feeling of irratation. He was, but
no longer, a human being. The mundane
matters no longer for cabbit.
Happiness is moderated selfishness
that doesn't encumber coexisting
lifeforms.
He gazed away from civilization
for the second time, and thought
about what to have for lunch.
He managed to save quite a bit
of fortune by living a spartan life.
He also sold all his modest possessions,
saving just a few spare clothes.
It'll be a while, a year or two,
before he starts worrying about food.
A week more passed and a pattern
of lifestyle emerged. Cabbit
abandoned the idea of staying
on a fixed location and calling
it home. It was too restrictive,
moreso for cabbit who was still
searching for the greener pastures.
The current season is temperamental,
so sleeping outdoors at night is
bearable--or very cozy in cabbit's
vocabulary.
He'd spend the night sleeping
in a park bench. His long ears
would protude lazily on his sides,
his belly, round and wide, face
the stars as he snores in
deep slumber.
On daytime, he spends the time searching
for another park to hang-out,
while looking out for supermarkets
to quench his thirst and hunger.
All other establishments are
just decorative monuments that
serve only to shade him from the mid-day heat.
On lucky times, the park he'd stay
on will have a nearby library, where
he could borrow books that
he would then leisurely read under
the afternoon shadow of a tree,
or at night at the glow of a streetlight.
Sometimes, the park he' stay
on will have a playground in it.
He would architect middling sand figures,
or he would drag himself down on a slide.
He stayed away from swings though,
those things made him feel sick.
In the absence of literary materials or
playgrounds, cabbit spends the day
just daydreaming or watching people.
In parks there would be children of ages,
and although he is part rabbit, people
labeled him as a predator. They see
the cat in him, he wondered. At times, he was
prematurely evicted from the park.
Cabbit learned his ways and kept his gaze
on other living things that are inviolable
to his presence.
During the first days of his adventure,
he changed his old ways of avoiding people.
He turned sociable and approached random people
at whim. He greeted a saleslady bystanding
on a vegetable section and asked what
her favorite vegetables are, and the
saleslady smiled back and convinced
cabbit to buy a cartful of expensive fruits.
A nice person, remarked the cabbit.
He took his extroversion to another level.
While he sat on a park once, he asked
a man in suit passing by how's
the weather. The man gave him a detailed
report that the rest of the day will be
sunny and partially cloudy. An
expression professionalism or caustic
remark, cabbit would never know.
Then it rained pretty hard afterwards, what
a damn liar. Cabbit thought that the man
was probably an amateur weatherman
for he did not make extensive use of
weasel words to make his claims
less strong and more true.
Mother nature sure held up, for the
rain lasted long and strong.
It was the first time cabbit encountered
rain since his journey. The shelters
he took for granted welcomed him without
discrimination, even with warning signs
of pets being forbidden.
He shook his sopping wet fur dry
on the front entrance of a hotel.
He took an empty seat in the lobby
and wiped himself futher dry.
Cabbit still hasn't given up all
things that are human.
He still wore clothes, and would
feel shame in not doing so.
You have much to learn, the idle cat
next to him said (he thinks).
He got up and went to the nearest bathroom.
The bathroom was well-maintained, as expected
of a multi-starred hotel. He took off his outer
clothing and placed them under a heater.
He eyes wandered around as he counted one
to my-clothes-are-now-dry (he assigned it a value of 900).
He met gaze with a fluffy bunny, who
was wearing a curious look. Cabbit was
staring at a mirror, although it took
him a while to realize that. It's
been weeks already since he last
met himself on a mirror.
"Who are you, what's your name?"
he interrogated the unclothed bunny on the mirror.
Cabbit took a portion of his finite time
to ponder the question.
In his mind, his name was John and
he worked as an administrative
aide at a community college.
In his words, "I am a free, unnamed creature
that need not artificial designations to
allude or be alluded to. I am a new
species that still has undiscovered
ecological functions."
His internal counter was halfway through,
still about several minutes until his clothes
are dry. He gazed out into the window.
Being alone, all cold and sober in a
mournful weather took cabbit
a brief memory trip back
to a thousand yesterdays.
His life was an uneventful one.
The remarkable memories were sadly unremarkable.
A lot of it was spending time with
animals. On memories that included
people in it, it was ...
His internal counter finished, and his clothes
were dry--his approximation surprisingly
accurate. Cabbit had second thoughts,
followed by third ones, fourth, fifth,
until the tenth one, where he decided
that clothes were just artefacts
from his former life. He has decided
to drop some human aspects.
The shame only lies to a cabbit
who has a need to clothe himself.
He left the bathroom barely clothed,
proud and erect.
Several seconds elapsed and steps taken,
two fully clothed personnels rushed to him,
seized him by the arms, and threw cabbit out
of the establishment.
While unevenly spread on the concrete floor,
his right cheek faced the ground and his eyes
fixed on a scenery he rarely witnessed.
It was the world, tilted on the side.
A twisted perception is an art in itself.
The strong smell of asphalt completed
the artistry.
He lay motionless, admiring the drizzling
sky over the monumental establishments.
He was uncomfortable for sure,
but he felt no urge to move or get up.
He should be angry and protest why he was thrown
out, but he instead just exhaled a sigh.
Cabbit has no cage to restrict movement,
he has all the freedom to decide his actions.
It is therefore, to his own preference,
that he lay on the ground while he
ponders what he should be doing next.
Then the entrance doors behind him opened,
a clothed arm stretched out and threw his clothes
to his side. It was gesture that was annotated with
words like freak, creep, or weirdo.
He regained his posture and put on his clothes.
A thought occured to him, although it was currently
untranslatable to his own natural language.
Something's not right. What isn't right?
Cabbit put on his clothes back as he tried
to settle himself an explanation of being wrong.
What isn't right is something which is wrong,
and in this case, letting himself catch a
cold in this almost freezing afternoon.
What isn't right is having people get affected
by cabbit's negligence to keep himself warm.
No, he was taken out because no unclothed animals
are allowed in the hotel.
He felt warmth underneath the clothes.
Cabbit thought, there are still good things human
to his kind. The drizzle stopped, but the sun
still cowered overneath a fold of thick clouds.
He started walking westwards, out of sheer whim.
An aroma from a nearby food stall starved him prematurely.
Hunger does not strike cabbit until there is food
within range. He was hungry, starving in fact.
It's been a while since cabbit felt desperate starvation
since his journey.
He casually walked to the stall with no regards
to the prior event.
Two please, cabbit said with an unsolicited smile.
The lady behind the stall made no movement that
indicates an acceptance of his cheeseburger order.
He displayed patience and perseverance as he
waited a bit more for the lady to react.
Cabbit's stomach churned some more.
His fur has grown about 1000 nanometers
before the snobby bitch made a movement.
She placed her feet on a stool and turned
a page of the book she's reading.
No further movement followed, aside from
her gum-chewing actions.
The burgers in the grill neared perfection.
He figured that it's probably some internal
company policy to have their feet up
while customers die of boredom.
He had it worse before. He waited
an hour with him just on the line
because he couldn't make his presence detectable.
Oh, that's right. He forgot to say hi.
"Hi. Can I order two cheeseburgers?
There's only one of me but I'm taking
two because I'm really starving right now.
And no mustard."
"What?" the lady finally acknowledging his presence.
He pointed to the burgers and raised two finger
signaling the quantity. Cabbit wonders
whether he still speaks his english correctly.
"Do you have money?" barked back the lady.
It appears that she's operating under the assumption
that cabbit has no money. He noted an occurence
of interspecies discrimination that he will
validate later on an idle afternoon.
"How much?" cabbit questioned an answer.
"Do you have money?" the lady said in
an increasing voice.
Cabbit took out money from his pocket,
money enough to buy a hundred burgers.
The gumchewing lady in moderately-stained apron
prepared the burger with suppressed hostility
against all things that placed her in a position
of making burgers in a sober afternoon, things
like her pathetic life and cabbit (mostly cabbit).
In due time, the order placed was done.
One burger and one icy cold soda.
Cabbit handed a whole bill, and the lady
took the cash and returned the change.
Cabbit took all three things on the stall that
rightly belongs to him and left. He didn't
bothered counting the change for he knew
that he was variably charged extra for
disturbing lady's reading time.
He has still hours to spend before sunfall
to search for a park to rest.
While he strolls westwards,
he took a bite off the burger followed
by a sip from his drink. Eating burger
while walking gave cabbit gave a unsual
experience that filled him with momentarily glee.
It didn't take long for cabbit to arrive at
a park, one that he never been to before.
Cabbit was, for all purposes, lost in thought
while he aimlessly walked around.
It only occured to him what he was
doing when he was already sitting
on a park bench.
He was replaying the scene that occured
at the burger stand. Cabbit realized how
he completely failed to communicate his intent
with the burger lady. He indeed wonders,
whether his voice system still supports
english.
From where cabbit sat and confused,
a human being sat on a park bench across from him.
It seems to be a highschool girl that seems
to be looking at nothing in particular.
"Do you understand me?" cabbit said in
an unrestrained, startling voice
while looking around the girl's face.
"No, I don't..." was the girl's response.
Her voice trailed away, along with
her circumstancial orientation. Her voice
was almost inaudible, but audible
enough for cabbit's long ears.
He was too confused, for the answer he
expected was either a "yes" or a nil.
"Do you understand me now?" cabbit said,
now in a mild voice. A church bell can be
heard from the distance, along with the noise of
a bunch of children playing around.
Cabbit met the girl's eyes.
"No. Not yet anyway" was the girl's reply.
Cabbit bit off the remains of his cheeseburger.