Bettie and the Oom Transporter

My name is Bettie. My Flying Fur family and I live in deep, dark sleep places when the Oom ball is high in the sky. When the Oom ball disappears, we all fly out and go off on our own. We eat six-legged flyers and steal Oom food from their strange living poles. Some of us eat water sliders. When the Oom ball starts to come back, we go back to our deep, dark sleep places.

But we try to stay away from Ooms. Ooms make so many things, and they are too smart for us. Ooms usually let us alone if we stay in the deep, dark places and follow the old rules about staying away from Ooms. Some Flying Furs live behind slate hanging off the strange, not-natural Oom caves, but the old rules say that is not wise.

Recently, I had a very bad experience with an Oom not-natural cave. I was flying and singing one night, and I thought I heard the sing-back of a six-legged. I started to turn in the six-legged’s direction and increase my singing rhythm.

I don’t know what happened next. I heard a weird clicking sound; it was high and then it was low. I was in a trance and just couldn’t sing or pick up sing-back. The clicking got faster, and I lost the six-legged as I hit an opening in the side of a not-natural Oom cave.

I landed on the floor, and it was bright, so bright. I thought the Oom ball was coming up too early. I tried to sing, but the sing-back came back too many times.

In the stories of the old rules, they tell us that the not-natural Oom caves have many rooms with many different Oom objects. They also tell us that singing and sing-back don’t work and that there are too few openings to the natural from the not-natural Oom caves.

I used my wing-nails and began to drag myself across the floor. It was so much work. I came to a floor that was softer and even harder to dig my wing-nails into. I tried singing and sing-back, but this time there was no sing-back. It was like the Ooms made the not-natural cave of something that ate my song. That was scary to me because I’ve never been with my song.

It was darker, so I knew I still had time until the Oom ball reappeared. I didn’t see any Ooms, but the old stories said they were lying and cheating and often appeared without warning to hit us with Oom ball sticks.

I was still on the softer floor. I thought I had regained my singing and sing-back, but I got scared because I thought I heard an Oom. I rested a bit, and then started digging my wing-nails in for another ten paces.

All of sudden, an Oom was standing over me. It was big, and it was making a noise. It wasn’t a good noise, it wasn’t a song, it wasn’t a sing-back. I don’t what it was because it wasn’t even mentioned in the old rules that the Ooms could do this.

The Oom disappeared, but I could hear its noise horribly. It came back still making a noise. I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t on the floor any more. I was moving in the air and on a floor at the same time, but I wasn’t using my wings. The Oom noise kept going. I could have moved faster than this Oom, but I was too scared.

All of a sudden, the Oom made a magic opening in its non-natural cave to the natural, where there was no Oom ball or fake Oom ball. It was just dark. Suddenly I was moving faster and then I hit real earth. It all faded away.

When it faded back, I checked my wings, started my song, and used my sing-back to get back to my family’s deep, dark sleep place. I’m here now, resting. There is no song to tell my family my tale. And it might be for the best.

Facts embedded in the fiction come from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106693909.