Karma was sulking, and the Black Fox had no idea why. She had tried tickling him, but that barely raised a smile. She tried offering him a biscuit, but he munched it so sadly that it brought a tear to her eye. She even wrapped him up in his favourite tartan scarf, the fuzzy, itchy one that he thought made him look bohemian. But he just buried his nose in the fabric and sniffed to himself. She watched as he slid deeper into his spirit ditch. ~What's the matter? Karma looked up at her. -Nothing, he sighed heavily. ~What's the matter? Karma shook his head. -Nothing. The fox clenched her teeth. ~I'm going to keep asking until you tell me. Karma whimpered. -I don't like me, he said finally. The Black Fox was thrown by the bluntness of his statement. ~Why? -Well... I'm cynical, I'm suspicious, I'm forgetful... I'm clingy... I don't like me. ~You're not that cynical. So what if you forget things? Karma shrugged. ~Since when have you not liked you? -Always. It's just... worse than usual. The black fox straightened his scarf gently. ~Did I ever tell you about the reasonable fleas? Karma shook his head. ~There was this dog, and he had fleas. He was grouchy because of these fleas, which was a shame. There wasn't many of them, and they travelled over his body cleaning his fur of dirt and seeds and so on. They were reasonable fleas, you see. It was only fair. The Black Fox licked Karma's ear. ~But the dog didnt notice this, and decided to get rid of these fleas. He went to the park and jumped into the river, and the fleas were washed away. He climbed out of the water and ran around, finally free of his fleas. He rolled around in the grass and splashed in the mud and finally went home. He curled up in a corner of the garden and went to sleep. When morning caem, the dog was nowhere to be seen. His owners searched the house for him, then searched the garden, but he had vanished. -So where was he? Karma pricked his ears up. ~The dog was in the garden. All that grass and mud he'd rolled in got caught up in his fur and, since there were no reasonable fleas to clear the seeds away, sprouted overnight. The dog had grass growing all over him, and looked like any other part of the garden. Finally he woke up and wandered into the house, trailing grass and mud all over the kitchen and scaring hell out of his owners. Karma sniggered. -What happened? ~Well, the dog couldn't roll around in the grass after that. And if he did, they'd give him a bath, and comb all his fur out, which he hated. -What about the fleas? The Black Fox flashed a funny little smile. ~Someone happened upon them... She flicked her tail amiably. ~Just because there are things about yourself that you don't like, it doesn't mean they're not important. They're a part of you. And I like you. Karma blushed bright orange and smiled. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+