Another Mess To Clean Up...

A great evil had swept through the forest leaving a mess in its wake. A mess that now had to be cleaned up, just like the mess before it, and just like the mess before that.

This type of thing happens here from time to time. Evil rises, makes a mess, and leaves. Then, the animals who were able to survive are left to make sense of it.

The evil is an old story for the animals of the forest. When it comes they all do their best to stay inside, to sidestep, to ignore it when they see it around. They soothe themselves that with each passing day the inevitable result of the evil in the air has not yet come to pass. When the evil gets truly bad, the animals hope their family and friends will be spared and at its worst, they hope that evil will only affect others and spare themselves.

Evil always rises in the same manner. It comes slowly at first, benign, light, even sometimes as fun, as a change from the norms that have been adhered to since the last mess that evil caused had been cleaned up. Once disguised, the evil infects. It infiltrates, it expands, it metastasizes. Before you know it, it’s all around.

The animals look away as it grows. Busy with their work and their careers and their lives. Chasing a promotion, going to a ballgame, seeking comfort. Deservedly so. Understandably so. But, all the while denying the oncoming darkness nipping at their heels. Assuming, that if one only continues to look ahead, the evil will not follow them. They will be spared.

But spared they cannot be, no one ever is. Evil is consuming. It will eventually visit your door too. It demands attention and will not be ignored.

Why not be more vigilant, you might ask the animals. It seems so easy. If it’s always the same, if you know it’s coming, just keep an eye out? Because evil has a long tail but a short memory. The lessons of evil may be learned. They may be learned well. But the memory of evil fades. The feeling of evil dulls. And when that memory has been just forgotten, when that feeling of evil in the air is gone... When you least expect it... Evil begins again.

So the animals continue on. They’ll clean up the mess. They’ll learn their lessons, and they'll hope to remember the moment, remember the feeling, a little longer this time.