TRASH CAT LIT

Kelly Murashige

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The doodlebug is conducting a small teardown project, not unlike the building “remodeling” nearby.

Smaller than a human fingernail, and set to someday become an antlion lacewing, the doodlebug spends most of his time digging himself into a hole. One might think this makes him no different from the average socially awkward paper pusher, but in truth, he is not the corporate drone here.

Above ground, an office worker sits with her son, watching him suck up a mouthful of Capri-Sun. Her office has shut down during the “remodeling,” and her boss has just told her doesn’t believe in remote work. Until the renovations are complete, her job is simply “put on hold.”

She watches her son as the foil pouch grows skinny. A part of her worries she won’t be able to afford juice anymore. She won’t be able to afford anything at all.

The office building twenty feet away from the doodlebug’s home was once called Office CO-OP. Now that the hyphen has fallen off the sign, it is instead the Office COOP.

Though the hyphen’s tragic downfall is not what triggered the commercial building’s remodeling project, it was used as a scapegoat for some long-overdue changes. The remodeling is so extreme, in fact, some might even call it more of a demolition.

The doodlebug watches as a curious and well-intentioned ant reaches the crest of his homemade hole and promptly tumbles in. Her thin legs scrabble for purchase, but panic renders her efforts sloppy.

As the ant flounders, the doodlebug tosses grains of sand like a child on a playground. With each new spray of sand, he further destabilizes the walls of the pit. In a matter of seconds, the ant plummets back down.

The office worker peers up at the half-destroyed building, the sound of construction exacerbating her mounting headache. She imagines taking her son’s juice and downing the rest of it.

Then she imagines the juice is something stronger.

After snatching her up, the doodlebug injects her with his venom and drinks her skinny.

“Mommy,” the boy says. “I’m bored, and it’s hot.”

A sigh works its way up the woman’s throat. It’s July, and she couldn’t afford to send her son to summer fun.

She turns, her gaze catching on the nearby hole in the sand. Craning her neck, she takes a peek inside. She cannot see the doodlebug from here, but something about the pit unsettles her somehow. For a moment, she feels as if she is sinking.

The boy reaches out and rests a hand on her knee. He pats her twice, as if in reassurance.

She smiles and says, “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Lifting his hand from her knee, the boy tilts his empty Capri-Sun from side to side, light hitting the foil and bouncing back off.

“Mommy,” he says, “can I have more juice?”

She takes her son’s hand and helps him back up. “I’ll see what I can find.”

Back in the pit, the doodlebug tosses his drained prey aside. He is already thirsting for more.

Kelly’s prompts were: During a Building Remodel, Predator, Thirst

Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, Kelly Murashige is the author of the award-winning YA novels THE LOST SOULS OF BENZAITEN and THE YOMIGAERI TUNNEL and the upcoming adult novel MILKIVERSE (2027). Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net. She loves strange animals.

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