Juniper- (key phrase: "the down marking slime")

Everyone has heard the lore of humans transforming into howling, yipping, shaggy creatures every full moon. Juniper was a lovely girl with a rare condition. Her condition is different. Juniper has werewolf syndrome. She has thick, straight, dark brown “fur” that is four inches long covering her entire body. Juniper lives with her mother, who also is a human werewolf, deep in the United States’ Appalachian Mountains. The only world Juniper has ever known has been provided by her mother. Her mother has told her nothing of the outside world. Patricia, experienced the cruelty that normal human beings can inflict on people that are different from themselves. After years of staring, name calling, and physical abuse, Patricia decided to start shaving her whole body so she could fit in with everyone else. Under the curly, black “fur” was a beautiful woman that stopped men dead in their tracks, and made women green with envy. Patricia went wild with this different kind of attention she now received from people. Soon Patricia found herself pregnant. When she told the father about the baby to come, he left her immediately. Patricia finally made the decision that she would not make this baby, which was conceived in deceit and selfishness, endure the torture that she knew would surely encounter. Patricia decided to move to the old abandoned cabin that her grandfather built in the mountains. That way, she could raise the baby away from the harshness of the world. Sixteen years passed with Patricia and Juniper alone with the forest animals. Patricia wanted to rebel against Western teachings and philosophies so she did not teach her daughter letters, numbers, and so on. Patricia taught her daughter skills to survive in the wilderness. Patricia would take her daughter on trips through the woods to teach her the different types of animal tracks “ground markings of feet”, what plants could relieve a stomach ache “green stuff on ground make you feel good”, how to use mud “the down marking slime” and marks on trees and rocks to remember where a trap was laid to snare a rabbit. Patricia used the most practical, simplest, and animalistic terms to convey things to her daughter. Patricia felt as if she and her daughter were more animal than human because of the curse set upon them by genetics. But Patricia’s unwillingness to tell her daughter about what lay outside the evergreen and maple trees of their world would be the downfall of Patricia’s great plan of sheltering her daughter.
Patricia and Juniper were in the woods hunting with bow and arrow for deer, when suddenly there was a sound like thunder though there was no storm clouds in sight. Patricia knew this sound, and her heart skipped a beat with fear for what her daughter was about to discover. “Big boom, no storm clouds, why Mom”? Juniper said with a quizzical look upon her brow. “I don’t know. Scared. Go back home” replied Patricia hoping that this would dampen the child’s curiosity for this new sound that pierced her peaceful world. Patricia doubted that Juniper would give up so easily at finding the source of this sound. Juniper’s curiosity was very strong and she always wanted to know how things worked. Patricia believed that if Juniper had been raised like a normal child in school that she would have been the brightest in her class. “No. I go see big boom” and as Juniper was saying this to her mother, she dashed off down between the maple trees towards the sound of the “big boom”. In the past year when Juniper did not want to obey her mother, she would run to be alone. Patricia being at the age of forty could no longer keep up with her daughter. Even though she knew she couldn’t catch her daughter in a foot race, Patricia still tried with all her strength. She knew she needed to shield her daughter from the pain that the humans might soon inflict. Juniper pushed herself through the thickness of the brush to where she knew lay the safety of the of her beloved meadow. In this meadow she would frequently sit and imagine a companion other than her mother to which she might talk. As Juniper moved the last branch, her eyes saw a creature standing on two legs just like her. The creature had its back turned to her, bent over a dead deer. Juniper stood as still as she could, not knowing about this creature. As she stared with innocence and intelligence, Juniper could not help but notice that this creature resembled her in every way, except one. The creature had no fur. Juniper could hear her mother approaching behind her and decided to let her presence be known. She stepped forward into the sun lit meadow. At this same moment the hunter’s brother had arrived, gun in hand, from the other side of the meadow. When he looked up he thought that he saw a bear ready to attack his brother. A loud noise punctuated the peace just as Patricia reached the meadow and she knew something terrible had just happened. She could hear men’s voices yelling as she announced her presence. Patricia then moved into the meadow to find her daughter, her beloved Juniper, surrounded by a pool of warm, crimson blood on the meadow floor. Juniper was dead.

By:

Cinthea L. Comer