"Very funny, I see you guys down there. Do you know how long it took me to get up here?" Sammy was mad. Not a single one of those three so-called pals had even tried to follow him. And they had agreed to stick together, no matter where they traveled.

You see, these four snails were outcasts from their homes. They were special, albeit mutations. They could hear and speak. That freaked out everyone in their hometown. Nobody wanted to associate with them, so they all decided to strike out on their own.

"You know what, you guys? There's a whole pile of stuff to eat up here, and I'm going to enjoy myself while you sit there and laugh your heads off. How do you like them beans?"

That got their attention. Looking at each other, they suddenly realized they hadn't eaten anything since Sammy started up toward that food. They'd been traveling across a barren, grey, hard surface where they'd found nothing to eat. The sun had come up and gone down again and their last meal had been way before that.

Sherwood wiggled his antennae, hatching his plan to get some. He shouted to Sammy, "Hey, how's about biting off a few tidbits and dropping them for us to eat? That would be the neighborly thing to do. Did you ever think of that? We're all in a bind here, you know. What happened to 'share and share alike'? You're the one who brought that up in the discussion."

Steve and Sheldon chimed in simultaneously, "Ya, he's right. We're all friends, aren't we?"

"Ya, and who's doing all the foot work? You were all laughing at me yesterday for thinking it wouldn't be that long to get to this food. You said okay, we'll go. Now whose stomachs are growling? Not mine." Sammy couldn't get over their abandoning him.

"So, okay, we were stupid. What do you think is going to happen when we all die down here? You'll be alone." Sherwood was now making an honest plea. None of them wanted to die at that point. "You'll have no one to talk to, no one to hang around with; how's that going to feel? It's not like we have dozens of friends we can turn to if we happen to get mad off at each other. Geez, can't you get past a little mistake?"

Sammy mulled those facts over in his head, small as his head was. He came to the conclusion his abilities to hear and talk weren't the greatest. And he sure couldn't use them if they were dead.

He chewed his way through the upper part of the very blade he clung to, anxious to drop everything over the side of the flower pot he'd climbed.

Friends are friends, after all.
Author Notes
Enjoy! I loved this little snail. He has such personality!

Thanks, Jessla for the fantastic picture!
Artwork by Jessla on FanArtReview.com
Category: Children Fiction. Posted: July 21, 2008