How Felicity lost her leg
"Mama, we're out of milk!"
Felicity looked up from her cookbook and found her six year old son Jack, a kangaroo joey, holding up the empty carton of rice milk. Nervously, she glanced at the clock.
9:47 pm.
Damn, most stores would be shut by now. No wait! there was that 7-Elephant at the end of the block. They were always open. But she couldn't leave Jack home alone, too much could happen in a half hour.
"Okay Jack, get your coat and we'll go get more."
Five minutes later Felicity and Jack were walking down the street, Jack hopping along, bouncing in and out of the puddles that never seemed to go away in the Rainforest District. They passed a group of young jaguars who stared after them.
"What the heck is a fox doing skulking in this part of town?" one asked his friends.
"And with a Kangaroo to boot?" said another.
"Bet they're looking for something to steal."
Felicity gritted her teeth and walked on, whistling twice to Jack. That was their code; one short whistle meant "all clear." two meant "Come here now." Jack immediately hopped over and took her paw. They were used to the slurs and whispers now, but that didn't make it hurt less.
The lights of the 7-Elephant were gleaming in the night when they were suddenly blocked by three hulking figures. The Jaguars had followed them.
"Hey lady, we don't know where you come from, but we suggest you get back there pronto. This ain't a place for foxes." the leader snarled. His two buddies sneered and bared their teeth viciously. Felicity paused and clutched Jacks paw tighter.
"Look, we don't want any trouble." she said, fighting to keep her voice even. "We're just going to buy some milk."
"Foxes don't buy milk." said the cat to the left. "They just steal."
"Mommy's never stolen a thing in her life!" Shouted Jack, thumping his long feet on the ground. "Stop picking on us and go away!" The panthers ignored him and advanced slowly.
"Let's show this fox what we do to thieves fellas." the leader growled. Felicity swallowed hard and made a snap decision.
"Run Jack!" she screamed, clutching his paw and dodging between the cats to run full pelt down the sidewalk. The jaguars gave chase, laughing and whooping. One of them was faster than the others and struck out with a paw, knocking Felicity to the ground and tearing her from Jack. Jack only made it a few steps more before he stopped and looked back. The cats were gathering around his mother, claws out and fangs bared. She looked at him through the forest of black legs, her eyes wide with terror. He moved to turn back and fight, not sure what a runty six year old joey could do against three full grown panthers-
"Jack, run! Get out of here!" Felicity barked before being cut off with a kick to the gut. Jack couldn't move. He stood, transfixed with horror as the jaguars beat his mother relentlessly. They clawed at her, shedding her clothes and leaving red gashed in their wake, Heavy feet came down on her tail, her head, her ribs, anywhere they could kick. A crack like a shotgun pierced the night as one of them curb stomped her shin, followed by an agonized screech.
"Hey! What's going on here?!" A sudden voice shouted out of the dark, making the jaguars pause in their assault. A large tiger was running towards them. "Get away from that lady! I'm calling the police!" The panthers scattered, leaving Felicity broken and bloody on the street. Jack bounded to his mother's side as she whimpered and twitched. She was covered in blood, staining the bricks of the street a dark red. The tiger who had saved them knelt at her side, his cellphone pressed to his ear.
"Don't worry ma'am, I'm calling an ambulance. Just stay with me, okay?"
The ride to the Hospital was even more terrifying than the attack for jack, the paramedics moving swiftly in the back of the ambulance, staunching bleeding wounds and trying to set the broken leg. They kept asking his mommy so many questions and couldn't they see how tired and hurt she was? Once they got to the Hospital, Jack was shunted off to a small brightly colored waiting room for children despite his pleas to stay with his mommy. A nurse said his mommy had to be 'worked on' to save her and she hugged him as he cried. Hours later, a doctor finally came to see him, bearing a juice box and a little sandwich. They said his mommy was badly hurt, that she needed to have an operation. he heard the word "Septic" and resolved to look up what it meant later.
It was a full two weeks before his mommy was let out of the hospital. He'd been allowed to stay with her in her room, the doctors bending the rules for the two animal family when they heard how he was adopted. Mommy wasn't the same anymore. Oh, she still smiled and laughed, but she couldn't hold his paw anymore. She had to keep both of hers on her new crutches she'd be using until her new leg was ready. Jack tried hard not to look at the empty space where her shin and foot once were as it made a sick tentacle of guilt roil in his belly. Felicity had to learn to do things all over again; how to walk, how to move around the apartment, how to get up when she fell down.
After that, Jack made a promise to himself:
He was never going to have another glass of milk at night again, No matter how bad his nightmares got…