Periwinkle the Panda

Periwinkle the Panda was having a good time. His mother was teaching him how to fight, and they were punching the fake tree planted in the middle of their cage. They were talking about last night’s football game, when suddenly, someone opened the door. “Dinner Time!” he yelled. They ran over to take the bamboo sticks out of his hand, and he jumped back. “I hate working with the pandas,” he said to his partner. “They’re big and scary.” “I don’t think they’re that bad,” his partner said. He replied, “Well, either way, we’re getting rid of them. The boss will never know.” Clueless, the pandas just sat there, eating and still talking about the football game.

            The Beijing Zoo was rather rich. A TV in each cage, lots of toys, and an overstock of food. Some were being tested on, like the pandas. They were seeing if they would act differently if they watched sports, drama, or comedy shows. The sports and comedy section stood out the most to them. Obviously, since they were talking about the football game, the watched sports. Interesting!

            That night, it was not calm. The wind was forcing the trees to scrape against the wall, and it was making Periwinkle scared.  It was raining rather hard, and it was not pleasant. That night, he had a dream. A dream the world of black and white became color. And all pandas were the glorious colors of the rainbow. If only it was like that in real life…

            Periwinkle woke up in a ball. He fell off his little panda bed and he was in a pile of long grass. He sat up, and he saw his mother sleeping. He started walking towards the food dish, sitting there, and waiting. About an hour later, the men came, and they fed the pandas. Periwinkle woke his mom up, and they enjoyed their meal. “Ready?” said the man. “No!” said his partner. “Let’s go.”

           Next thing they know, there’s a snare pole around Periwinkle’s mothers’ neck. She tried to break free, but there was nothing she could do. She was trapped. Periwinkle started to cry, “MOMMY!!!” She was tugged back, and with that, she smacked the man so hard, he fell to the ground. He didn’t let go. There was nothing she could do, and nothing Periwinkle could do.

            “Run!” She said. “Run, and don’t ever come back!”

            Periwinkle started to run, but saw nowhere to hide. There was an open door, and he crawled through. He ran until he could no more, and he found himself asleep on the floor of a bamboo forest. As he fell asleep, he couldn’t help but dream about his mother. Was she alright? Is she dead? Even worse, is she dead? Whatever happened, he couldn’t go back. Never.

            When he woke up, there was something very close to his face. He looked up, and saw another panda. “Mommy! You’re okay!” he happily screamed. He jumped up on the other panda, which now had a very confused facial expression.

            “What on earth are you talking about?” It was a female voice, but not his mother’s. He took a step back, also confused, now. “I’m Pinky! Not your mommy!” she said. Pinky looked at Periwinkle, who started to cry. “What’s wrong?”
            “My mommy is either in great pain, or dead.” He cried even harder at the thought, and couldn’t pull it together. How was he to survive on his own, knowing only the experience from his mother?

           “You can live with us, if you’d like!” Pinky offered. She ran off, signaling the ‘follow’ symbol. Unsure, Periwinkle slowly followed. “Come on!” she giggled.

           They walked through the forest for a very long time, talking about their lives, exchanging stories and such. They walked and walked, until they could no more. They found themselves lost, so they made a base and stayed there, never able to find anyone, or anything.

            They stayed there for their lives, eventually having kids and growing up to be one big happy family. But Periwinkle’s mother never left his heart.