No alteration or redistribution without permission

The double glass doors swing open and in walks a obviously depressed Bob. He crosses the white and black checkered floor over to the booth where Polly is still sleeping, sits down, and pokes Polly\x92s leg with his tail.

Bob (crossing his arms on the table): You awake?

Polly (jerking awake, startled, and wiping her lips with her arm): Gaa!

Bob: um...you ok?

Polly (looking up): Oh, yea I\x92m fine, just...(rolls her eyes) strange...dreams.

Bob (raises an eyebrow): Mind if I ask what?

Polly (smirking): Naa, you would enjoy it too much.

Bob (putting his muzzle on his folded arms): Yea....right...

Polly (concern in her voice): How about you? How\x92d your parents\x92 go?

Bob (closing his eyes): Drinking, yelling, don\x92t want to talk about it.

Polly (putting her paw on his arm, squeezing gently): I\x92m sorry.

Bob (shrugs): I\x92m pushing an elephant up the stairs, I\x92m tossing up punchlines that were never there, over my shoulder a piano falls, crashing to the ground. I\x92m breaking through, I\x92m bending spoons, I\x92m keeping flowers in full bloom, I\x92m looking for answers from the great beyond.

Polly: What?

Bob (sighs, shaking his head slightly): Nothing....I quote REM randomly.

Polly (looks down, moving her paw back): Oh...

...(looks up)...Hey! I know what\x92ll make you feel better.

Bob (opening his eyes and following Polly\x92s gaze, sees the mistletoe hanging above the booth, he looks back down and sees Polly looking at him seductively. He closes his eyes and turns his head so that now his cheek is resting on his arm) No.

Polly (giving a hurt look and crossing her arms): You certainly know how to make a lady feel wanted.

Bob (sighing, sits up with his paws in his lap): Fine. Knock yourself out.

Polly (smiling): Yay! (slides out of the booth and steps over to Bob. She leans in slowly and kisses him on the lips...then leans back slightly, popping his cheek lightly with her paw): You\x92re supposed to kiss back.

Bob (making a grunting sound): Fine, make me do all the hard work.

She leans in again, her lips pressing against his and his against hers. At this time Alex walks in and stops dead in his tracks, jaw slightly open. Bob and Polly continue to kiss until the little bell above the door rings, closing.

Bob (leaning back a bit, separating, wiping his lips): I think you went a little long.

Polly (turning around and smacking Bob in the face with her tail): Shut up. (As Bob spits out a mouthful of fur, she walks over and says hi to Alex): Hey, how\x92re you?

Alex (confused look): Um...what the hell was that? And can I get one too?

Polly (looking back at Bob, smirking) Me not kissing my guardian porn star...(looks back to Alex, still smirking): And no (punches him lightly in the shoulder).

Alex (rubbing his shoulder): Ow...and damn.

Polly (grinning and walking back to the counter): Oh you big wuss. You\x92re a bat, act scary.

Alex (walking towards Bob\x92s booth, still looking at Polly behind the counter): Yea, but I\x92m a fruit bat...I think that says enough.

Background laughter can be heard as Polly goes from the counter through the double doors into the kitchen. Alex sits down in the booth opposite Bob, who is just staring out into the parking lot.

Alex (settling into the seat, crossing his arms on the table) So...um...what was that?

Bob looks up and Alex follows his gaze.

Alex: Oh. (looks back down at Bob, who does the same to him): This doesn\x92t mean we have to, does it?

Bob (putting his head back down on his arms, sighing): No....You know, I\x92m glad at times I have dark fur.

Alex: Ok...I\x92ll bite, why?

Bob: I\x92m blushing like hell right now, that\x92s why.

Alex (smiles slightly, nodding): So how was your Christmas before we met up?

****

Samantha (setting food on the dining room table, looks over at Bob and squeezes his shoulder): You know I love you, right?

Bob (sitting at the table, looking at her out of the corner of his eye; in a monotone voice): Yea mom, I love you too.

Samantha smiles at him and walks back to the kitchen, stirring pots and lifting lids. She says hello to Julio as he walks into the room, he responds, and sits at the head of the table, saying hello to Bob. Samantha brings the rest of the food to the table and sits down herself, each take turns piling food on their plate and passing things to each other. Bob picks at his food but eats a little anyway, knowing in his gut something bad is going to happen.

Julio (in an annoyed tone, looking at Bob): You mow the lawn today?

Bob (putting down his fork and places his paws in his lap under the table, clenching them into fists): I don\x92t live here anymore.

Julio (stops eating, same annoyed tone): Oh, so you have to be told now?

Bob (lifting his head up a bit and casts his eyes off the table and onto Julio with a cold stare): You\x92re drunk, aren\x92t you?

Julio (sitting back, less annoyed now): It\x92s Christmas, I\x92m aloud to have a little.

Bob: Is that according to the AA charter?

Samantha (dropping her fork on her plate, looks over at Bob angrily): Do not talk to him like that!

Bob (still deadpan expression, rolls his to look at her, not moving his head): You\x92re defending him?

Samantha: We are the adults and you are the child, you do not talk to us like that!

Bob (standing up out of his chair, his paws now in his pockets): Yea...this is familiar. So you\x92re planning on treating me as a little kid while he gets sloppy drunk every night and you just fight with everyone who doesn\x92t agree with you...some adults. (walks away towards the door, not looking back) I\x92m leaving...merry Christmas (walks out the door and into a cold wind, heading towards the bus stop).

Alex (arms folded across the table): Like I said, ho ho ho and all of that.

Bob, looking about ten times more depressed, grunts in agreement. He scoots over to the window-side of the seat, leaning his head against the large window overlooking the field beside the coffeehouse.

Alex (getting up): I\x92ve got some stuff to do, you going to be ok alone?

Bob nods, still looking out the window.

Alex waves a goodbye, Bob follows with his own half-assed wave as Alex leaves out the front door. All is quiet for about twenty minutes until Polly comes out of the kitchen to wipe off the counter at the bar. Bob turns his head slightly and reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the CD that Alex gave him, setting it at the end of the table with a taped note covering the front marked:

He scoots out of the booth and heads for the door, cursing under his breath as he hears the kitchen open.

Polly (wiping her paws off with a towel, slightly confused): Bob? You\x92re going? (She walks over to the booth as Bob turns his head, sighing and again cursing under his breath as she picks up the cd and reads the note. He looks back, watching as she comes toward him and stops beside him, smiling softly.) You didn\x92t have to, really. Heh...in fact, I didn\x92t think you really did.

Bob (grunts and looks at the floor): Yea...thanks...

Polly: Oh, that\x92s not what I meant...(reaches in her back pocket and hands him a small package, wrapped in brown paper) Here...I got you something too.

Bob (smirks slightly, his version of a smile, and unwraps the gift, cradling the contents in his paw): It\x92s...it\x92s a gold pen... (looks Polly in the eye).

Polly: Yea...well...after watching you write all those poems and stories on paper with pencil, I figured you needed a good pen at least...until you get yourself a computer.

Bob (widens his smirk a little): Heh...when I get a few thousand dollars to blow, you\x92ll be the first to know...

(He leans in slowly, wrapping his arms around Polly, hugging her): Thank you...

Polly (slightly stunned, but hugs back): Hey, thank you too...How did you know I liked Hedgecore?

Bob (shrugged, prolonging his hug with Polly, his muzzle resting on her shoulder): You\x92ll know it\x92s true...that you...are blessed and lucky...it\x92s true...that you...are touched by something that will grow and bloom...in you...

Polly (not breaking contact with Bob either, her muzzle resting on his shoulder) Hm?

Bob: I like 10,000 Maniacs too.

Polly (closing her eyes): Hm.

Bob breaks away slowly, his paws still sliding off Polly\x92s body as he looks her deep in the eyes. They stay that way for a few seconds, but Bob is the first to break away again. Sighing, a sad expression falls over his face, and again he looks toward the ground; silently, without a look or word, he exits, leaving Polly standing alone, clutching her gift.

***

Tara\x92s Christmas

A knock on her door forced her to sit up, still tired though, she did so reluctantly.

Tara (sighing): Come in... (She sat and watched the door open slowly, her eyes following her father as he entered her room and sat next to her on her bed.)

Ben (a brown and white furred tabby, outfitted in black slacks and a white button-up shirt, nervously rubs the back of his neck): How\x92re you, honey?

Tara (forcing a small smile): I\x92m fine, Dad.

Ben (still rubbing the back of his neck): Good...good...Just seeing. (Pats her leg and stands up, walking and trailing off) Good...good...

He really was a different person when he wasn\x92t on the drink: nervous, distracted, and sometimes just out and out weak; he was a slave to his wife sober, as she was to him when he was drunk. Tara was less than just in the middle of it, she was, and had been for a long time, off her parents radar almost completely. The day at church had not been her idea, but her mother insisted, or rather it was an unspoken command, that she attend as she had since she was born.

Tara watched her father pass through the door and down the hall, at that moment she decided to leave, for how long she didn\x92t know, she just had to leave. Rising off her bed, she changed, and made her way down the hall; passing the study, where her mother could be heard praying, past the master bedroom, where her father could be heard drinking, the glass and ice tinkling. She made her way out the front door and into her car, and in silence reversed and headed toward the highway.

Tara (flipping through the radio stations): Damn it...there has to be something on...sucks...blows...sucks...bites...old...crap...(the radio finally landed on something happy-sounding, even poppish; Tara swore she heard it before, and even surprised herself when she knew the words enough to sing with the chorus) Stand in the place where you live...now face north...think about direction, wonder why you haven\x92t now...stand in the place where you work...now face west...think about the place where you live...wonder why you haven\x92t before...(her thumbs patted her steering wheel in rhythm as she pulled into The Colombian. She had been hoping to talk to Polly, probably the only person she could call a friend that didn\x92t want something from her, instead, as she parked beside the coffeehouse, Thomas Boyland appeared at her driver-side window. Her mind went blank as she stepped out of her car, closing the door behind her.)

Thomas (leans over, holding himself up by a paw rested on Tara\x92s car, almost pinning her in): Wuzzup, baby?

Tara (just standing there smiling idiotically): Oh...nothing.

Thomas: Good...good...just seein\x92. Hey, I was just thinkin\x92, my old man gave me some money and I got a six-pack in my trunk, wanna party?

Tara (giggling, and in one word set the female\x92s movement back sixty years): Sure.