Swampy Bagel's Journey of Self-Discovery

Swampy Bagel was an oddity among rats, and not only because of his looks. He knew he didn’t fit in—no matter how many times he joined the laborious climb above ground to nose around in garbage cans and compost heaps, he never really felt like part of the tribe. His mother pooh-poohed the questions he asked her about his origins, saying he was her little Swampy and that was that, but he had always felt there should be more to life than scavenging, eating, mating and fighting. Something else. Something higher.

But until he found out what that might be, scavenging came highest on the list (with eating a close second), and that's what he was supposed to be doing tonight. He was part of the squad going up Above, chosen along with four other males to do something about the diminishing food supplies.

“Domeboy, you broke formation again,” Carrot Chunk, the squadron leader, snarled. "Get up here with me where I can keep an eye on you. And so help me, if you lag behind the way you did last time, I’ll leave you Above.”

The rougher members of Swampy’s tribe had given him the nickname "Domeboy" because the top of his head was so big, rising in an almost perfect half-circle above his eyes and his small round ears. No one else’s head looked like Swampy’s—everyone else including his mother had a small head that slanted back in a perfect wedge from a small wet nose, and round ears that stuck out just enough above the top of the skull.

Swampy sighed as he scuttled along the tunnel to the Outside. Maybe there would be something up there tonight that would give him a hint of excitement, a sense of purpose. And if not for himself, maybe he could find something that would please Pretty Stone.

Pretty Stone was a female who had been on Swampy's mind a lot lately. His mother had been suggesting that, much as she loved him, it was time he found a nest of his own. She had been sending coy looks toward a big male who looked like he could not only father a good-sized litter, but keep her well fed while she was nursing them. Maybe Pretty Stone would be interested in sharing a nest with him. If he could show he was a scavenger good enough to keep her and her brood healthy, maybe she wouldn't care about his domed head.

Thinking of nesting with Pretty Stone made him wonder once again about his own father. Swampy had been the only pup born to his mother at that time, which was very unusual, and he couldn't remember any male visiting while he was small. Once in a while a male would drop a morsel or two outside their burrow, calling out a friendly-enough greeting to his mother, but no male ever came in to watch, preening and boasting, while they ate what he had provided. Frequently his mother had gone out to forage for herself, leaving little Swampy to roll himself into a ball and burrow under the nest lining to keep warm till she got back.

"Domeboy!" Carrot Chunk's growl broke into Swampy's thoughts, startling him. Fresh, night-scented air flowed into his nostrils as he realized he had been about to walk past the leader and right out into the world Above without even sniffing for lurkers. Chunk cuffed him, two quick paw-slaps just behind his right ear. "Pay attention! You step out there without reconnoitering, you'll put us all in danger! Dogs, cats, hawks, anything could be out there! Don't you ever learn, boy?"

Swampy blinked his watering eyes while Chunk went on for awhile in the same vein and the other males rustled about him, impatiently waiting for the lecture to end.

Finally Breadcrust, a cocky youngster with pale gray fur, half-whispered from behind him, "Aw, Chunk shoulda let the domeboy go on out. A dog gets him, we don't hafta look at him any more."

Swampy's hackles rose and he twisted around to snap his teeth in Breadcrust's direction. "What you'd be looking at instead of me is some terrier digging his way down the burrow after our mothers and litters. I might be careless, but you're just plain stupid."

The other two males, Apple Core and his litter-mate Melon Rind, stifled surprised snickers. Carrot Chunk himself coughed quickly to hide a chuckle and hissed out, "Shut up! Breadcrust, you're point guard tonight for talking in formation again. Domeboy, I'm letting you off this time, but watch yourself."

Breadcrust slunk off into the dark, grumbling. The rest of the males filed out of the burrow as soon as they heard him give the brief squeak that was the all-clear, and soon they were scurrying across a dirt field, a place where humans gathered to eat and perform complicated rituals involving running, throwing balls and screaming. When the humans finished these rituals they threw tasty leftovers into a big bin in a shed with a handy gap in the wall.

Swampy gazed around as he traveled across the big open space. Night in a human city was never completely dark; he could see quite well in the light that poured from nearby buildings and the tall lamps that lined streets and alleys. There was a fence surrounding him, and flat white pieces of wood hung on the fence with shapes and lines on them in different colors. Sometimes Swampy felt the shapes had meaning, and if he could just have a peaceful moment to examine them he could figure out what it might be.

He paused to take a closer look at one flat white board with shapes in colors of red and blue. An odd feeling came over him that this particular board had something important to tell him if he could only make sense of it. He didn't know how long he had been staring at it when a faint mechanical noise broke his concentration. Blinking, he glanced around and realized he was alone in the open field.

He crouched low, feeling horribly exposed. Where were the others? The only enclosed space was the shed, so he ran for it, picking up the others' scent as he went, and scurried into the gap in the wall without pause. In the same moment he felt the hard mesh under his feet, barreled into Carrot Chunk's broad backside and heard the slide of metal on metal as a gate dropped behind him.

"I figured it was too much to hope you'd gone for help," Chunk said tiredly. "Now there's nothing we can do but wait."

And wait they did, tantalized by the scents of hot dogs, popcorn and old watermelon on the other side of the cage, just out of reach. Finally, as Swampy began to make out Breadcrust's pale fur in the growing light from outside, the little group heard voices coming toward them, and a door big enough for humans opened in the side of the shed.

"Freddy!" a high voice said. "We got a whole bunch of them. Mr. Carson'll give us—lessee, one, two, three, four, five—twenty whole dollars for them." Two small humans squatted beside the cage, staring with bright eyes at the trapped rats.

The one named Freddy pointed at Swampy. "Lookit the one with the big head, Lu. I wonder if he's the one that ran away."

Carrot Chunk bared his teeth at them. "Wish I knew what they're saying," he whispered to the other rats. "Wish I knew what they wanted with us."

"Can't you tell, Chunk?" Swampy said. "They're talking about giving us to someone else. They're talking about getting dollars for us."

All the other rats stared at Swampy. Carrot Chunk said, "You know their talk, Domeboy? You understand them?"

"Well, yes," Swampy said. "I don't know how, but I do. The redheaded male is called Freddy. The other one is a female called Lu. They're both young ones."

"What's dollars?" Breadcrust asked.

"I don't know, but they seem excited at the possibility—Whoa!"

All the rats clutched at the mesh as Freddy picked up the cage by a handle in its roof and carried it out to a basket with wheels. Then he and Lu took turns pushing the basket away from the field and out along the sidewalk. Swampy marveled at the way the humans walked along openly under the sun, without trying to hide themselves or cover their tracks in any way. He tried to point this out to Carrot Chunk, but Chunk and the others refused to talk about it and just huddled together in one corner of the cage, hiding their faces from the outside world.

When the young humans got to a large building made of pale stone, they took the cage and went in. It was cool inside the building, and the young humans followed narrow ways lined with hard stuff that echoed under their steps. Eventually they got to a large square space and went in, greeting a male human who stopped what he was doing and came over to inspect the rats. Swampy snuggled up against Breadcrust, who was closest, and buried his head in his fur.

"We got five of them for you, Mr. Carson," Lu announced.

Freddy added, "Yeah, and one of them looks funny. He might be the one you lost last summer."

Mr. Carson's voice came from the other side of the cage from Swampy. "Oh, I doubt it, Freddy. That one was a specially-bred rat who had never been outside. He probably didn't live long in the wild. These are nice, healthy-looking specimens, though. Just what I need." He put down the cage and Swampy dared to peer up over Breadcrust's back.

The male human was half again as tall as the young ones, and Swampy had to crane his neck to see the male's whole body. Again, something about him was familiar, but Swampy couldn't tell what it was.

"Look, Mr. Carson, there he is. See what I mean?"

Mr. Carson turned and caught a glimpse of Swampy before he could duck back down. Before Swampy knew what was happening, the cage door opened and a large gloved hand got a grip on the loose skin at the back of his neck. He was lifted out to dangle, squealing, in front of the human's face.

"You're right, Freddy!" The human's voice, sharp with interest, boomed in Swampy's ears. "His coloring is similar to the other rats', but he looks a lot—a whole lot—like the one who got away. You two kids may have done me a bigger favor than you know!"

Chapter 1	Chapter 2
Chapter 3	Chapter 4
Chapter 5	Chapter 6
Chapter 7