Squishy Possum - Writers Forum

Aurora Asha Ila · 07-01-2007, 03:33 AM

[I was bored at work.

No customers, so, i wrote a short story on the back of my ordering booklet.

Unfortunatly that's gone now,

so i cant re-write it word for word but it went something like this... ]

The possum looked down from the branches of an old gum, at the strange animals that rushed around below.

During the night all that the possum could see was the flurescent, lumonous light given off by their eyes.

They were large animals, that had a variety of different coloured skins, but all of them seemed to be furrless. They had a strange language too. Made up of high pitched ringing and honking sounds.

But the fact that most perplexed the possum was the animal's relationship with humans.

The possum stared at the street as one of the animals made a 'blip - blip' noise.
The possum almost keeled over when two humans opened the animal's ears and crawled into it's head.

'That animal must not be made up of squishy' thought the possum, standing on it's back legs and poking at it's belly.

As it sat back down, the possum noticed that the eyes of the animal had opened and it was purring.

Intent on finding out more about the strange animal, the possum decided to ask it some questions.

Carefully lifting its tail, the possum jumped...
and landed on the animal's nose.

'Excuse me... but what exactly are you?' asked the possum.
It didn't answer.
So the possum poked it on the nose.
'Ouch' thought the possum. 'That is definatly NOT squishy'

'HONK!'
'HOOOOOOONNNNK!'

'What does that mean?' wondered the possum.

'HOOOOOOONNNNK!'

'Perhaps it means get off?'

'HOOOOOOONNNNK!'

'Ok no need to get angry.'

The noise was begining to hurt the possums ears anyway, so it jumped off the animals nose, back into the gum tree.

The furrless honking animal roared at the possum and then ran off on it's strange round legs.

'How strange. And how very rude' thought the possum, and sauntered off, resolved, never to speak to another un-squishy again.

Truth-Teller · 07-01-2007, 04:03 AM

You're gonna need alot of work...

for us to enjoy your piece.

Aurora Asha Ila · 07-01-2007, 04:05 AM

It's just a bit of fun.

Funwriter · 07-01-2007, 06:55 PM

Get at it then and re-write it.. Write!

Mairi · 07-01-2007, 07:00 PM

I thought this was cute and inventive. It does need some definite work, but the seed is there.

A technical note, can a possum jump? I don't know much about possums, but I tend to picture them as waddling and kind of tubby in shape. I would be sure to keep the details consistent with traditional possum behavior, so you don't break the spell of the story.

Keep going--this is a promising start! And a lot of fun to read. (I bet you had fun writing it, too.)

Thanks for making me smile with this one!

Mairi

Aurora Asha Ila · 07-01-2007, 10:55 PM

Thanks Mairi.

And yes, possums can most definatly jump.

ive seen them do it. They are fat and waddly on the ground though, you are right. I also debated whether or not to make it a Sugar Glider...

Yes. The fun commences with the edit of this short repreive from everyday drudge and boredom.

Mairi · 07-01-2007, 11:07 PM

Hey, sugar gliders are cute! (Always wanted one, but afraid my cat would give it a heart attack.)

And I could definitely picture one jumping. But aren't they rather rare in the wild (correct my ignorance if I'm wrong about that)? Have you thought of using a squirrel? A nice plump squirrel perched in the tree shaking his tail and scolding the creatures below could be really funny.

Just a thought.

Keep us posted on how this turns out--I thought it was a great idea! (Inspiration strikes in the oddest places sometimes, doesn't it? And never when you have access to your writing supplies, lol. . .)

Mairi

Aurora Asha Ila · 07-02-2007, 09:32 PM

YES! Ive started lugging around a note-book wherever i go, just to jot down ideas. lol.

In Australia, possums are the equivalent to squirrels. There are lots of them and they are our annoying star personalities. But there arent as many of them here as there are in New-Zealand, where they are pests due to they're numbers.

I actually know didly squat about squirrels, so im convinced i couldnt pass it of with one. But ill definatly keep you up to date on how this one turns out.