Coconut Grove Strange fruit

73° Early afternoon

Umi stared at it.

It was massive. The cat had never seen anything quite like it in her short life. A huge, green, plump thing had fallen into the grey sands of the beach from a tall tree. Its leaves were way up high. She peered at them, circling the tree, quite careful to avoid the big green ball. There was one more big green thing on the tree; she feared it, too, would fall, and she shifted about nervously, staring with wide blue eyes. That tree was not about to bomb her with a big green thing, of that she would make sure.

Hopping toward the green ball on the ground, she moved her head from side to side like an owl. She inched toward it as though approaching a steel trap, jumping slightly every time the ocean lapped a wave onto the sand noisily. At last, she was so close that she hazarded a nasty poke with her paw, claws extended. She jumped back, terrified of its potential revenge. When the thing did nothing, she repeated the experiment, poking it again. After the third time, the young puma grinned, and immediately launched herself onto the coconut.

Her claws slipped very nicely into the green husk of the fruit. It was extremely satisfying to gnaw on it and bunny kick at the husk, for she could feel the damage as she attacked it. Umi must have looked quite silly, kicking her back feet into the weird thing and biting at it, growling playfully.