A Short Story: Ralphie's Way Home
“Walking and walking, it feels like I have been walking for hours,” Ralphie said to himself as he carefully set each padded black paw over each rock and crack in the road and continued moving forward. He looked up, but quickly away again from the blinding sun that was reflecting off of a tin garbage can.
“Am I ever gonna find my momma again?” Ralphie thought and let out a little meow that sounded like a soft and strangled cry that rose up from the bottom of his throat. He was in an alleyway, the same alley way he was born in when, somehow, he got separated from his mother and his sisters. “I am trying to be fierce and brave,” he thought, “ but I am not like my sisters, they are much braver than me. “ Soon, however, little Ralphie would realize that he was brave. Brave by simply putting one paw in front of another.
Soon Ralphie came upon a park in the city, the park had lots of statues, lots of flower beds that were constantly tended to and watered. He remembered where he had been not five minutes ago, an alleyway, buildings that stretched tall and rickety into the clouds, with deteriorating bricks that seemed as if they would tumble out of the building any moment. Tin garbage cans squatted beside each building and black staircases creeped along the bricks and met with clouds in the sky.
Ralphie walked across the road and set his paws on the soft, padded grass and he soon arrived onto the smooth concrete path that twisted and turned all throughout the park. Ralphie crossed the path and returned to the soft grass, “I like this spot best,” he thought. For the next couple moments, Ralph thought like the path, twisting and turning all over the park. He stepped around trees, rubbing their rough bark on his fur, he walked around trash cans, and flower beds. But in the end, he always came back to the soft grass.
At one point, little Ralphie came upon an area he liked. It was right off of the path, to the left a tall oak tree stretched tall into the sky, even taller than the buildings from before. Behind this, lay a cluster of flower beds, in each bed a different type of flower. Some of the flowers sat low and some stood a little taller. “The small ones like to talk with the ants and the crickets but the taller ones like to talk with the birds,” Ralphie thought to himself. And there was Ralphie, in between it all, and he sat on the soft green grass in front of the bricks that lined the flower beds and he watched. When any people went by he would step behind a brick if they saw him and most of the time they would just move on. But there was much Ralphie didn’t know about this spot at this point. He was too small to see what was on the other side of the flower beds and if he could I am not sure if he would leave. On the other side, just a few feet away, lay the main parking lot for the park—where people entered to go on a run, or a walk, or a picnic—and also, where families came with children who were not tired yet.
Ralphie had only been sitting in his little spot for a moment, when a family came lumbering past. It was a big family, some walked, some seemed to half walk and half crawl. They had messy hair and well worn clothes. Ralphie didn’t think they would notice him, they were too busy tumbling, and dancing, and occasionally admiring a cricket or a little line of ants. But one of them did, one that was not tumbling or anything else but was standing next to their mother and holding her hand. It was a little boy, he wore tan pants, a worn grey shirt, and a small pair of untied tennis shoes to fit his small feet. He was sucking his thumb and when he noticed Ralphie he pulled it out of his mouth and it made an odd suction sound. His mother, who had a baby strapped to her back, startled as he pulled his hand out of hers.
“What is it Micha?” She asked. The little boy didn’t say anything but he popped his thumb out of his mouth, pointed, and popped his thumb back into his mouth.
“Oh,” She exclaimed, “it’s a kitten.” She leaned down to Micha’s level and nearly touched her cheek with his, her cotton skirt brushing the ground and swaying in the wind.
“Do you want to go say hi, Micha?” He nodded in the way that little children do, with his belly protruding out, and ran forward to greet Ralphie.
Ralphie was caught off guard when the little boy came tumbling his way. He flipped his little body up onto the flower bed but he wasn’t quick enough. The little boy ran forward and grabbed Ralphie around his belly and hugged him to his cheek. Ralphie let out a little meow that rose from the bottom of his throat. Micha’s mother huried forward.
“Be careful,” she said as she took Ralphie out of his arms and set him down.
“Don’t hold him, just pet him when he is on the ground, alright Micha?” she said and she gave him a kiss on the forehead. By now all of the other kids had heard and they came running. In a moment the children had made a little circle around Ralphie and they sat around petting him and occasionally picking up his paws and dancing him around the little circle. Every time someone tried to pick him up their mother stopped them and Ralphie was thankful for that. He let out another shallow and terrified cry and couldn’t help thinking, “If my sisters were here I would be alright. They would bite and scratch and they would be okay.”
Soon though, it was over and the mother was gently saying, “No we can not take it home.” And they were back on their way, tumbling, and jumping along the path.
“I must hide better,” Ralphie thought and he licked his touched, petted, and kissed fur back down.
Soon he continued on. However, now he was much more careful to twist himself around the back of a tree when anyone came up the path. After a while, Ralphie came upon an area in the park that was filled with concrete that stretched across the ground for a while until the green grass returned but it still wasn’t a road. In the middle of the pale colored concrete was a small flight of steps that formed a circle and at the top of the steps was a statue of a little boy with a long sleeve green tunic on and he was playing some type of instrument. Ralphie jumped up each step and climbed a bit up the statue.
“Is the statue on fire?!” Ralphie thought, as he sprung, as fast as he could, off the statue and down the stairs from the burning hot statue. “This is such an odd world,” thought Ralphie. “There are sticky children, and statues that are not of fire but burn. But also, there's grass that's so green and squishy. There are tall trees that feel so nice to rub against and there are the most beautiful flower beds. And, somewhere, there’s my momma, waiting for me.” Ralphie told all these things to the ants and the crickets as he gazed up at the sky. “The clouds just keep changing. I wonder how that happens?” he asks a ladybug that landed on his paw.
Then Ralphie noticed the birds. Hundreds of them lined the telephone poles. Ralphie meowed up at them as a little hello but just as he did, one after one, the birds seemed to fall off of the telephone wire straight for him. He stood for a moment, not realizing that was happening, and watched the little birds fall off of the telephone wire, only to catch themselves and then circle over toward the circle of cement with a statue and a little cat in the middle. They started pecking and biting and grabbing at Ralphie sitting helplessly out in the open.
“Do they think I am food?” He asked no one in particular as he tried to escape while the birds continued to dive-bomb him. Slowly he moved off of the cement and to the opposite side from where he arrived, and finally away from the birds.
He flopped his tired body down on the grass and just lay there. He was hurt and tired and he just wanted to be able to stop walking, but he knew he had to keep moving, and he had to find his momma. So he lifted his tired head off of the grass and licked a little spot on his body that was red and raw.
In a moment he was up again, and walking along the grass, he knew that somehow he had to get back into the alleyway and find the buildings that touched the sky. That’s around where his mamma was when he lost her and that must be where she is now.
Now, he was on the other side of the street, and out of the park. He was heading the same direction that he came from and he was going as fast as a little cat could go.
He passed beautiful buildings- some tall and some short- although he wasn’t quite in the area where all the buildings reached up and touched the sky. He couldn’t really take it all in, he was barely noticing the buildings and places that he had passed. He had one destination on his mind.
Soon he arrived back where he started, and he entered the first alleyway he came upon. He walked through the alleyway, walked a little more, and found another. The sky was darkening fast, he was tempted to hide under a garage lid that leaned against a trash can and take a nap to let all his worries melt away in his dreams. He went under the lid but he ran into something, a family of rats scattered everywhere, almost like they were trying to get away from the remaining light of the day that was quickly sinking beneath the trees.
He took that as a sign that an alleyway was not a fit home for him, not unless his mother was there to keep the rats away at night. The reminder of his mother forced his little legs to move faster. He started meowing in hopes for a familiar call back at him through the silence of the night. His quiet voice echoed off the walls of the buildings. He wished and just kept moving.
Then, he heard it, a meow louder then his and, he knew. It was his mother. He went as fast as he could now, not paying attention to the broken glass that lined the alleyways or the acing in his little body. He just worried about moving quickly and following his mother's voice. He hurried out of the alley and into another, following that distinct voice and all the while responding with his own.
“Finally,” Ralphie said to himself as he ran to his mother underneath the stars.
“I missed you, dearie,” his mother told him when Ralphie was surrounded by his sisters and mother once again. Ralphie’s mother knew she needed to watch better. They didn’t reprimand him for getting behind, they didn’t wish him to be quicker in the future, and they didn’t ask him why.
They were only happy that, once again, they were together.
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I hoped you liked it, I had so much fun writing about an animal! The first fun thing about this story that I wanted the share is how I got inspiration. Recently, I got a new pop socket with a cat making a funny face on the back of it! The cat was already named Ralphie so naturally, I had to write a story about him. without further adieu here is Ralphie:
The statue mentioned in this story is not described clearly for two reasons. Reason one) Ralphie doesn't know how to describe the statue and even though this story is in the third person I wanted the readers not to know what Ralphie doesn't know. Reason two) It is a very interesting statue and I had a hard time figuring out how to describe it myself. However, it is a real statue! The statue mentioned is a statue of Peter Pan and you can find it in the Kensington Gardens in the UK! The park in the story is not, however, the Kensington Gardens and I would assume there are not apartment buildings just around the corner.
Here is the Peter Pan Statue:
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
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