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The Second Chance: Parts Two and Three

by vivienip

To make a long story short I'll put it this way--I ran away from the pound. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Day after day, eating the same food, playing with the broken toys in the cramped corridors, and awaiting day after day for the perfect owner to adopt us. To be honest, street life wasn't exactly better than life at the pound.

For the first few nights, I hid out and slept in different alleyways. My feet were sore and having numerous cuts and bruises, and nearly crying from the bitter cold, and my poor stomach growling away in hunger. I found some old, torn, beaten clothes in trash cans all along the street, but still they were clothes, and they still kept me warm.

The Soup Faerie was the only one who kept me alive with her wonderful bowls of soup. Oh, what delicious soup it was! I surely would have died if it were not for the kind affection of the Soup Faerie.

One day, I was wandering down main street, when I just happened to pass by the chocolate shop, a masked Lupe ran out from the shop, its arms full of stolen chocolate Chias. The owner yelled, "Stop, thief!" but the Lupe kept on running. It was my own unfortunate luck that the Lupe crashed right into me, dropping nearly all of the chocolate Chias but one. I lay on the ground, dazed, while the Lupe escaped with the remaining chocolate Chia. All I remember next was the owner of the chocolate shop, running out towards me. He said, "I've got you, there's no escaping now!" Then I blacked out.

***

When I awoke, I was in a jail cell, lying on a bed that was even harder than the street. I sat up, my head still throbbing slightly. "Can someone please let me out?" I called, rattling the cell door. "Hellooooo."

A police Grarrl looked up from the book he was reading. "Sorry, but no criminals get out."

"A criminal?" I repeated.

"That's right."

"I'm not a criminal," I pleaded.

"That's what they all say," the Grarrl replied. "The store owner said he saw you with his own two eyes stealing all the chocolate Chias and running out of the store."

"That wasn't me!" I insisted.

"That was some other Lupe! He crashed into me as he was making his escape, and he just kept on running! I would never in my whole life steal anything! Honest! No matter how hungry I was, I would never steal anything!!"

"Yes, yes, whatever," the Grarrl said once again. "That is what all criminals say when they are caught."

I slumped back into my cell. It was practically hopeless to try now. Everybody believed that I was a criminal. True, I did have a fancy for chocolate Chias, but then again, doesn't every Lupe go crazy for chocolate Chias? Just then, the door opened, and a high voice exclaimed, "I saw the whole robbery! It was another Lupe who did it!"

To be continued...