Excerpt: Bounded

He was walking down what was supposed to be Fifth Avenue. He was confused. The street sign said that he was, in fact, on Fifth Avenue, but it most certainly did not look like the Fifth Avenue that he took on his daily commute. Where were all the police officers? Their numbers are supposed to be numerous, not non existent. He searched the crowd’s faces, noticing that he was the only one who seemed to be alarmed by the lack of officials. Everyone, even the familiar nameless faces, seemed undisturbed. They all just went about their regular business. Parents picking their young ones from school, other young school-aged kids racing each other to their homes. The middle school students trying to act chill, just sitting in the park talking with some of their friends, wanting to make it known that they were in no hurry to get back home. Because they were just that cool.
Then there was the high school kids. Some were idle outside of the school and parks, others were making their way back home, either with a couple of friends or by themselves. They were over the cool act and didn’t bother to try pull off such an appearance by doing nothing but sitting around after school. The people and their behavior haven’t changed. It was just the absence of the police officers. And it was because of that that Pittsburgh seemed to be a off colored. Like it was an odd, bright yellow. Not the obnoxious yellow that can leave on feeling blind and/or disgusted, but a relaxing yellow. A peaceful yellow. How could this be so? Sam wondered. How can the town possibly be so calm, in such order, without the police officers?
He scratched his head and slowly made his way forward, looking for anything that might give some clue as to what was happening. There was were some squirrels playing around one of the trees. Two of them chasing each other around the tree trunk, up and down, down and around, with a third one occasionally popping up to try to catch (or stop, Sam wasn’t sure) one of the other squirrels. A fourth looked upon from one of the tree’s branches. It looked at Sam curiously, distracted from the little game his three friends were playing.
Sam tried not to look at it but the squirrel’s stare was so intense that he could not find himself to look away. Sam couldn’t move, though he was certain he was telling his leg muscles to do so. Finally, he broke whatever sort of hold the furry creature had on him and started to walk away. Something light and fuzzy landed on his shoulder, startling him and causing him to jolt, shaking off whatever the thing was. He looked around, finding the source of the surprise at his feet. The squirrel that had been sitting on the tree branch had jumped from his perch and landed on Sam, and the thing was standing on the ground, shaking itself.
“Was that really necessary?” asked the agitated squirrel. “A simple shooing motion with your hand would have accomplished the same thing.”
OK, now I have officially lost it, thought Sam. A talking squirrel…yeah right. Note to self: next time, warm the sheets. Sam started to walk off, to continue his way back home, but the talking squirrel danced around his feet, tripping him up.
“What, did you think I landed on your shoulder for the fun of it? Or did you just assume that I lost my balance and used you and a catching net? Please boy, I have better balance than that, and jumping on humans isn’t exactly my idea of fun. No offense, of course.”
Sam tried desperately to wake himself up. This was too weird, even for him. But it was no use, he could not just jerk himself awake from this trippy landscape. OK fine, let the squirrel humor me. This could be entertaining…and maybe even possible material for my next blog entry. I’m sure that Geoff would get a riot out of this one.
“Alright squirrel, what do you want?”
“That’s Sir Bushy Tail, Gift of Gab to you, bud,” he answered. “And obviously I want to talk to you. Why else would I have jumped to my possible death just land on your shoulder,” he said.