Stone Circle power over me

Charles looked into the water.

Why are my ears so big? he wondered to himself.

'Ugly', his mother had called him earlier that day, and then she had snapped at him until he left. There were a lot of things he didn't understand in the world. Actually, there was very little of the world that did make sense to Charles. His mother was the biggest mystery of all, because her behaviour did not seem to follow any lines and he never really learned anything from her. One day she would want him to leave, and another she would want him to come close. Sometimes she would cry and pull him close and cry into his fur and whisper shh, baby as if he was just a little puppy. That was what she often did after she had gotten really angry at him and snapped at him. It didn't make any sense.

Sometimes Charles did bad things just so his mother would get angry at him just so that she would hold him close and whisper sweet words into his ear afterwards. Just so that she would see him.

Charles made his way to one of the caches. He dug up something to eat, initially. But then he had eaten the food and he wanted to dig more, and so he dug again, and again. He had dug up several pieces of food that he knew he wasn't going to eat.

But somehow he just kept digging, waiting for his mother -- or for anyone -- to hold him close to her chest and whisper sweet words to him -- and dreading all the steps that happened before that.

this is a repost of an older thread because i like this post and didn't want it see go to waste - but dated for present time instead :)