Chapter 122: Words on a Wall


Words that should not be forgotten.


The slender-looking raccoon stood there watching his two sons while they played along the riverbank, both of the ten-year-olds were bundled up in their heavy winter jackets to ward off the cold January wind which blew down the river. His oldest son Nicky was trying to get his littermate Freddie to skip stones across the surface of the slow-moving water but no matter how hard he tried, the other young raccoon just couldn't get the right spin on the stone to keep it from splashing and sinking into the brown water. While he contently watched the boys, the older raccoon had shoved his paws into the pockets of his black pea coat and gave a little shiver as yet another gust of wind ruffled his fur.

"Jake, it is hard to believe that we were ever that young," a taller lanky red fox said as he also watched the two younger raccoons playing as if the bitter winter cold did not bother them one bit. He too had put his paws into his own lime-green ski jacket and he had even pulled the jacket's hood over his reddish-brown ears.

"Wilde, you were never that young," Jake scoffed as he threw a grin at his best friend.

Instead of answering the raccoon's snide remark, the fox turned his attention to the nearby gaunt shell of a building, the hollow broken brick effigy was all that remained of what was once a grand textile mill where almost two generations ago, hundreds of workers had toiled to earn their daily wages. It now stood abandoned, an empty husk which was a sad reminder of when there were better times in the town before the owners had shuttered the mill to move their manufacturing overseas so they could exploit cheaper labor for greater profits. There were still patches of icy white snow from the previous week's blizzard on the ground, but the heart-shaped leaves of the hardy ivy remained dark green where its tendrils clung to the rusty red crumbling brick walls.

"When I was a child my father used to bring me down here," Jake suddenly said as he walked closer to the old brick wall, carefully stepping through the brown lifeless weeds so he could reach out his paw and touch the cold bricks. "I wonder if they are still here?"

"What is still here?" the fox asked as he joined his friend near the wall. "Just what are you talking about?"

"The words that someone had once spray-painted on the wall," the raccoon answered as he reached over and began to pull at some of the vines.

"There is plenty of old, and not so old, graffiti on this wall. Just what are you looking for?"

"The words, the ones my father would read to me when we came here." Jake was now frantically pulling even harder at the vines. "You can barely read them, but they are still here!" he jubilantly proclaimed as Nick joined in to help.

"Poppa, what are you doing?" Freddie asked as he and Nicky came over to see why the two adults were yanking at the overgrowth of ivy.

"What does that say?" Nicky asked when he saw the now badly faded words which had been sprayed in black onto the bricks so, so many years ago.

The older raccoon stepped back and just stared for a few moments at what remained of the writing, many of the words were now illegible but he still remembered them. Jake gave a sad smile as he quoted from memory what was written,

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

The raccoon became quiet for a few more moments while he continued to stare at what was left of the words on the wall. Finally, Jake looked over at his two sons who were standing next to his best friend. "Those words were said by a very wise preacher and they are still just as true today as when he said them all those many years ago to anyone who would listen," Tentatively he reached up and gently touched the wall again before he sighed. "I just wish that I had remembered them when I was younger."


These words are from Rev. Martin Luther King. Jr. and it is too bad that so many of us have forgotten his words today.