Fable

            In my fable, I am satirizing graffiti. There really is no point to it, and it degrades buildings and walls everywhere. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be tolerated and is a terrible way to treat someone’s community.

            Tommy Tomato snaked his way along the wall, spray paint canister in hand, under the dark cover of night. His destination was in sight, only a few painstaking feet ahead of him. Tommy Tomato now had to gather his courage, before making the mad dash to the other side of the kitchen. The protection of night and the refuge of shadows couldn’t extend across the wide open patch of tile. Holding his breath, and gripping his spray paint, he sprinted across the floor all the while praying the sentry’s keen eyes wouldn’t spot him. Before he knew it, Tommy almost collided with the wall of the other side, and was surrounded once more by the welcome shadows. Tommy leaned against the wall for support as he attempted to catch his breath. Wiping his brow, he secretly smiled to himself. Once more he outsmarted the guards. Once more he thwarted the system. And now, once more he will break the rules.

            Tommy raised his can to the wall and released the red paint inside. He guided the spray paint canister to transfer the picture in his head onto the wall, for all to see. His simple and meaningless thought will forever be plastered to the wall.

            Finished, Tommy set his can down and stepped back to examine his work, when the faint sounds of someone muttering bitterly reached Tommy’s ears. Fluffy was back sooner from his patrol sooner than Tommy had anticipated! Any second now, Fluffy will round the corner and catch Tommy red headed. Concealing his head with his head, Tommy retreated as fast as he possibly could back to the safety of the shadows.

             “What in the name of…” Fluffy stopped mid stride just as he turned the corner. He had seen the newly branded wall, and was wildly whirling his head around to see if the culprit was in sight.

            Tommy silently watched the scene from behind a cupboard. His heart was pounding, and his breathing was rugged gasps. Gulping air, he watched as Fluffy bent down to examine something. Curious, Tommy timidly peeked out of his cupboard to see what had caught Fluffy’s attention. It was his bright red, spray paint canister.

            As dawn neared, the food of the kitchen began to stir and awaken. The bananas yawned and stretched. The chips arouse from their beds and rubbed the sleep from their eyes. All seemed normal with nothing out of place, and all the crackers in their rows of packages. That is, until Mr. Whiskers spotted the bright red spray paint above his food bowl.

            “What monstrosity is this?” Mr. Whiskers demanded, mostly to himself for all of the foods were still doing their morning routines on the counter above. Mr. Pookie, however, heard and made his way across the wide space between the cabinets and Mr. Whisker’s precious food bowl.

            “Mr. Pookie! Do you see this disgrace?” Mr. Pookie, as soon as he saw the picture of a ketchup bottle with the words “Murderer!” right above it, understood Mr. Whisker’s annoyance. “The criminal has done it again! I demand to see the head of security! This has been going on for too long now and I won’t take any more of it! I will personally go after this felon myself if that’s what it will take to-”

            “Mr. Pookie!” Interrupted Fluffy for he couldn’t help but over hear the angry exchange of words. Taken aback to be so abruptly stopped in his speech by the head of security himself, Mr. Pookie quickly closed his gaping mouth. “You will be happy to hear, that we will soon have an arrest made. Evidence was left behind from the criminal and not even being conscience of it, he left the print of his palm on it.”

            “You mean to say, you know the person who did this, because of a hand print?” Mr. Pookie asked in awe.

            “Yes. Science is an amazing thing isn’t it?” Fluffy said, and walked away with his tail up high and handcuffs in his paw towards the circle of tomato boys off to the right. Seeing the head of security walking towards them, the boys stopped their conversation and stood up straighter. They eyed the handcuffs in Fluffy’s paw, each drawing their own conclusions. Everyone did but Tommy, however, for he knew who the handcuffs were for.

            “Tommy Tomato, I’m placing you under arrest for the defiling of public property. Please turn around and place your hands behind your back.” Tommy knew there was no escape, and no excuse he could give. He was busted. His friends where no help to Tommy either. All they did was shake their heads, knowing that Tommy had been playing a dangerous game, and he had dug the very hole he had just fallen in.

            Has Fluffy lead Tommy away, he couldn’t help asking him a question. “Tommy, why did you do it? What was the point of it all?”

            “I don’t know,” Tommy mumbled.

            “You ‘don’t know.’” Fluffy repeated. “There’s absolutely nothing that motivated you to break the rules, and run the risk of getting caught?”

            “I guess I just felt like it.” Tommy shrugged. “I thought it would be funny.”

            “The only thing amusing about it is that you thought you could get away with it.” Fluffy said to Tommy. “And I hope a drawing a picture of a ketchup bottle is worth the punishment.”