Sally and the Magic Skunk

"Miss Sally, are you on cocaine?" said the teacher after calling Sally up to her desk.

"Excuse me?" Sally replied with confusion.

"Answer the question." The teacher said authoritatively.

"No."

"Then explain this." The teacher barked while pointing down at her homework.

"Uh, it's the word 'because'."

"What is it doing at the beginning of the sentence?"

"Well, it's the answer to a question."

"Starting a sentence with 'because' is a hideous, appalling abomination."

"Why?"

"Because it is inelegant."

"I disagree and you just did it!"

The teacher gasped in disbelief. She yelled.

"I will not tolerate you pointing out my obvious stupidity! Write out 'I will not start sentences with 'because' 10,000 times!'"

Later, she went home and collapsed on her bed, her hand still sore from writing, when her father came in.

"School called and said you've been acting up lately." He said.

"I haven't. I just started a sentence with 'because'."

"It's more than that, they also said that you've been using the 'y' word."

"The y word?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"You should say 'yes' to teachers. Saying the word 'yeah' to an adult could harm the molecular integrity of the universe."

Her father left. She sighed. Then she heard a voice.

"You look like you could use a break."

Sally was startled. What was in her room? She turned around and saw a skunk. She had the usual reaction people had when they saw a skunk. She let out a scream and jumped up on her bed. But this was not an ordinary skunk. It stood up on two feet. It had an almost human expression on its face. Its tail was a little bit bigger than the rest of its body.

"Don't be alarmed." It said.

"I don't see how I could be anything else right now." She replied, in stunned disbelief.

"As you have probably guessed, I am not an ordinary skunk. I'm like your guardian angel. I saw your life was a little hectic, or 'stinky' if you will, so I thought I would give you a break."

"How?"

"With a little help from my magic spray."

"What?"

"A sniff of my magic spray will send you to different worlds."

"Like drugs?"

"Sort of, only it really takes you away!"

Sally was hesitant, to say the least. She didn't know what to make of recent events. It certainly was not something that her life skills class prepared her for. But she was tired of her life. She was tired of being punished for breaking what she saw as trivial rules. She was tired of having things decided for her.

"Okay." She said excitedly with a whiff of caution.

"Great!" the skunk replied before turning around and spraying a pink mist throughout her room from below his tail. The mist had a strong musty smell. It wasn't terrible, but it was strong and overwhelming. It made her dizzy. Then the mist cleared and she regained her composure.

She was in a different world. It was... not impressive. She stood on brown, jagged rocks. Around her she saw mostly barren desolation with an encampment of disheveled people moving rocks in the distance. The heat was almost unbearable from the raging sun.

"This is awful." She said.

"Hey, I like to try going to random places. They can't all be winners! That's the risk of being an explorer. Let's look around anyway, okay?" The skunk replied.

"Okay." She said reluctantly.

They walked over to the encampment. It was not far away, but the journey was still somewhat difficult due to the oppressive heat. They began to talk to a woman moving large bricks around.

"What are you doing?" Sally asked.

"I am building castles for Lord Baxter." The woman replied.

"Why?"

"To get water. Lord Baxter owns all the water here."

A guard came over with a small cup of water.

"You have worked for six hours straight. You have earned a gulp!"

She quickly gulped down the water.

"Six hours of labor for a gulp of water? You people are being ripped off!"

"Not at all." Said the guard. "Lord Baxter has built a society of freedom! If one wishes not to work for him, they are free to die of thirst!"

"That's absurd." Sally said. "What gives him the right to decide who does and doesn't get water?"

"He is the great manager and maintainer of the water." The guard replied.

"That's nonsense." Sally replied.

She picked up a bucket and filled it with water from the reservoir. She gave it to the woman laborer who was afraid to drink it, but whose thirst made her gulp it down vigorously. The guard gasped.

"That is theft of the Lord's water!" He exclaimed as he went to grab Sally. The skunk quickly sprayed him and he disappeared.

"Thank you." Sally said to the skunk.

"It's going to take me a while to make a new supply of spray. We're stuck here until then."

"Great..."

Sally, the skunk and the slave woman stared at another guard who was, predictably, angry.

"Run!" Sally yelled and the three did exactly that.

After a period of running, the guard deemed the pursuit no longer worthwhile and headed back.

"They'll have to come back if they want water." He said with a grin he hoped would somehow taunt them telepathically.

When the three stopped to catch their breath, the slave woman sighed.

"Now what am I going to do?" She yelled with exasperation. "I can't go back there and I don't know of any other water sources!"

"Maybe would could overthrow them?" Sally said with a smirk.

"Are you mocking me?" Said the slave woman, angrily.

"Not at all." Said Sally.

"We have no means to fight back!"

"Maybe we don't have to...""

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just go back and start drinking the water?"

"They'll kill us!"

"They can't kill all of you. They need you! It looks like they can't spare many. Besides, we can do it when my skunk friend gets his spray back, as kind of a fail safe."

"But we risk being stuck here longer!" said the skunk

"That's crazy!" said the slave woman.

"Come on," said Sally. "It only takes a small spark to start a fire..."

"That's... really pretentious." Said the skunk.

"Yeah..." concurred the slave woman.

The went back to the encampment. Sally took a sip from the reservoir with a cup made from her hands. The slave woman reluctantly followed suit as did the skunk. The guards and other slaves looked on in disbelief, until on guard spoke up.

"Stop right there!" the guard bellowed.

The gang of three continued what they were doing.

"I'm warning you!" the guard continued.

The gang of three continued what they were doing.

"That's it!" the guard yelled with his anger reaching the tipping point.

The guard struck Sally and the slave woman with one clean strike of his hand(the skunk was a bit too small a target to hit). They both felt a stinging pain, but before she fell, Sally yelled with her remaining strength.

"They need you!" She exclaimed.

As she lied on the ground, she realized that there may be some ambiguity there.

"To clarify," She explained. "The 'owner' of the water and his guards need you, the slaves. You slaves do not the 'owner' and his guards."

"Yeah, we got that." A slave man said in a somewhat exasperated tone.

But a stirring of sympathy began to develop in the slaves along with a strong feeling of anger and a new feeling that could be called "hope". One by one, they began to approach the water and drink.

"Halt!" Yelled a guard who walked over to strike one of the slaves. Several slaves were struck, but they kept drinking. After they all had a drink, they felt a new strength. They stared at the guards and Lord Baxter angrily. Baxter and the guards departed.

"Thank you." The former slave woman said to Sally.

"You guys did the work." Sally replied.

"Anyway, I got enough spray to return." The skunk informed Sally.

They said their goodbyes and left.