Why Is This Night Different?

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: G

Summary: (Complete) This story is about three critters appropriately named after our boys. It's sort of a sequel to The Cunning Escape in the Fan Fiction Library, but it will stand alone.

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Little Joe wanted to cry as he stared at the broken wheel. He stepped to one side of it and then to the other, hoping that it would miraculously fix itself. He even tried spinning it with his hands—but no dice.

It was good and broke.

He sighed. There would be no running today. Oh, he could race around the cage a bit and climb the walls—but that wasn’t the same.

The little pinto rat sighed again as he climbed onto the hammock that stretched across the center level of the cage. Then he snuggled up to his brother Hoss, who was nibbling on the remains of a blueberry-yogurt treat.

“What are you bothering with that wheel-thing for, Short-shanks?” Hoss asked.

Joe rolled his eyes. Hoss rarely ran on the wheel—he didn’t see the point of running around in circles. Maybe that aversion to exercise explained the fact that the big brown rat was getting so heavy.

“Don’t you ever just want to run, Hoss?” Joe demanded.

Hoss considered the question with a judicious twitch of his nose and then shook his head. “Nope. Can’t say that I ever do.”

Joe hopped impatiently and then quivered his whiskers. “Why doesn’t older brother do something? He’s supposed to be the smart one.”

Joe was talking nice and loud, to make sure that Adam heard him.

Adam, a well-groomed black rat, glanced down at him from his commanding position on the third level of the cage. “First of all,” he said calmly, “I don’t have the proper tools to fix the wheel. Second of all, even if I did I wouldn’t bother. Jenni will buy us a new one.”

“Jenni seems to have forgotten that we exist,” Joe said sullenly.

“No she hasn’t,” Hoss said, apparently moved to defend their human. “She fed us and gave us fresh water just this morning.”

“Yeah,” Joe agreed. “But she didn’t play with us, she didn’t pet us for long—heck, she didn’t even let Adam come out and sit on her shoulder.”

Usually the fact that Jenni showed such a marked preference for Adam was a sore spot with Joe. But today he would have been happy to see any of the three brothers out of the cage for a bit.

Besides, Joe knew why Adam got out most of all. He was content to sit on Jenni’s shoulder while she worked on her computer. Hoss always wanted to search for crumbs of food in the apartment while Joe was apt to try stupid things like chewing through the computer wires—or cardboard boxes, or the big envelopes on the desk or anything else in reach.

Joe smiled a little on that reflection. He knew that chewing through the wires was a bad idea—and he knew that it got Jenni crazy. But he couldn’t help himself. He had to see what was inside everything.

He also had a tendency to try to explore the apartment, making Jenni chase after him. That never went over well either.

Sometimes, though, Jenni would wear a shirt with a front pocket on it. Then Joe would snuggle up in the pocket and drift off to sleep. That was the only time he would stay out of trouble.

“Hoss is right,” Adam said knowingly, breaking into Joe’s thoughts. “She hasn’t forgotten us. She’s just busy preparing for tonight.”

Joe stared up at his older brother, puzzled. “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

“Tonight is the seder,” Adam explained. “I’m not sure if you remember from last year—”

But Joe did remember. He’d only been a tiny rat at this time last year, but he could remember how the apartment that Jenni and her friend Kelly shared filled up with people and how they lit candles and sat and talked and drank and laughed and sang—and ate.

Joe looked over toward Hoss, whose face was glowing in memory. He must be thinking about the food.

The rats were in Jenni’s bedroom, not in the room where the seder would be, but Jenni and Kelly would bring in leftovers late tonight when it was all over. And one of the things they would bring was the haroset. Joe knew that was Hoss’s favorite.

Joe vaguely remembered what Jenni had said about the stuff. “Here you go, guys! We usually eat this with bitter herbs, but you’ll probably like it alone. It represents the mortar that the Israelites used, back when we were slaves in Egypt, forced to build Pharoh’s cities.”

Jenni’s words meant nothing to the rats, but they all loved the sweet apple mixture.

But if Hoss liked the food best, Adam’s favorite part was the music. Joe remembered how excited Adam was last year when a skinny college kid with a big voice came in to visit the rats, singing some crazy song about a goat, a cat, a dog and a stick while he laughed with Jenni and Kelly. And after that, he pulled out a violin and went all around the apartment playing it.

But Joe’s favorite part wasn’t the food or the music. It was all the people who stopped by to say hello to the rats before the seder started or after it was over. The apartment was always crammed with people to sniff at and look cute for and coax treats out of.

Joe had no idea why the humans had this seder once a year—in fact, he’d bet that even Adam, with all his learning, didn’t really know what the celebration was all about. And Joe didn’t blame older brother—after all, they were all hampered by the fact that they couldn’t understand most human words. They understood their own names and some odds and ends, but not the language as a whole.

But that didn’t matter. They could still appreciate that it was a special night with food, music and good company. But tomorrow, when it was over, he’d have to find a way to remind Jenni to fix the broken wheel.

~The End~