Hanging Around

Walter could smell the delicious apples behind the fence of Smith’s Orchard. He paced back and forth a dozen times before he crashed through the gate that kept him from this hearty temptation. Walter was a moose and had strayed from the other grazers. He was smaller than most of them and he usually was content with the leftovers from his fellow moose, but today he found his own paradise of food.

Actually, he was swimming in an ocean of fermented apples. There were so many he could have easily shared, but he had forgotten about the others and ate all the fallen apples. Walter staggered and fell more than once, however, his appetite wasn’t sated enough so he climbed to the first limb and ate more apples that dangled above his nose. The more he ate, the more he wanted. Walter never thought about how he would get down. Crazed by his appetite he went up another limb and gobbled more. Drunk on apples, Walter lost his footing. His front legs hooked over a weak branch. The back legs slid as he tried to gain purchase on the tree. He continued to struggle and his cries brought the owner out to see what the ruckus was about.

“Mary…get the camera. You won’t believe this,” the farmer yelled.

The other moose also heard the whining and gathered outside the fence. Some even came in through the broken gate to come to Walter’s aid. Mary was breathless but stood stock-still when she saw the drunken moose. Walter was hanging upside down, from one leg. His antlers, like wings brushed back and forth across the grass.

Walter's picture in the local newspaper made the apples very popular and the farmer rich. However, many a morning he found the local drunk hanging upside down eating into his profits.

Word Count: 283