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The Tale of SodaPop: Part Two
4.6k Plays4 years ago
Part Two of SodaPop's solo adventure. In which there are many more bad squirrels. This is a single-narrator bonus story set after the events of episode 4 - and if you haven't listened to Part One yet, you should probably go back an episode.
A transcript of this episode is available here.
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CONTENT NOTES (for entire three-part story)
- Live dog and cat sounds
- Harm to wild animals
- Mild harm to humans
- Abandonment
- Confusion / disorientation
- Dread
- Inexplicable pain
CREDITS
Voice performers
- Archie as “SodaPop”
- Lulu as “Barn cat”
- Julie Saunders as “Narrator”
Production Crew
- Written, edited, and sound designed by Julie Saunders
- Cat wrangling by Seth Ellsworth
- “Believer Theme (Julie’s Melody)” composed by Aaron Ferenc
Music from Epidemic Sound
- “Endeavor,” by Jakob Ahlbom
- “Chapter 13,” by Nihoni
- “Lost Without You (Instrumental Version),” by Duty Division
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Transcript
00:00:16
Speaker
The
Sodapop's Grounding Tactics
00:00:18
Speaker
Tale of Sodapop Part 2 The Bad Squirrels
00:00:27
Speaker
Soda Pop keeps close to the Barn Cat. In the flood of interesting outdoor scents, it would be easy to lose her. He uses a similar tactic with Lara when she lets him wander without a leash, shooting a glance her way every time he finds himself distracted. The Barn Cat never seems to look back at him, though she occasionally flips an ear his
Reflections on Abandonment
00:00:46
Speaker
way.
00:00:46
Speaker
Because of his size and his fluffiness, people often assume that soda pop can't take care of himself. But he's been on his own before. He was barely older than a puppy when his first humans took him for a ride, set him on an unfamiliar street, and left him there. He barely remembers those humans, but he's pretty sure they were nice up until then. He doesn't know why they left him behind.
00:01:11
Speaker
It didn't seem like an accident. Those humans only had him for a little while, just long enough for him to grow from a fat baby into the leggy, athletic dog he is today. Maybe they only wanted a fat baby. Maybe they forgot that babies grow up.
00:01:27
Speaker
He learned a lot of things in that strange neighborhood. Where humans discard food, how water likes to pool, which animals are good for chasing, almost all of them, and which ought to be avoided. Mostly geese. By the time a human finally caught him and brought him to the city shelter, his hair had grown long and matted and he was even skinnier than he is now.
00:01:49
Speaker
They shaved him and fed him, and he slept in a strange concrete room with lots of stressed out dogs and nearby enclosures. He didn't mind that place, really.
A New Beginning at the Shelter
00:01:59
Speaker
It had nice humans in it. Humans are almost always nice to Sodapop. It was there that Sodapop finally met his human. He'd never had a person of his own before, not really. But this one walked into the shelter, smiled down at him, and he knew nothing could ever be the same.
00:02:17
Speaker
She took him to a little apartment on a quiet street in Portland. Laura lived there, too. She and Laura were happy, and he was glad because he seemed to make them even happier. The humans called him Sodapop because it made them laugh. He calls himself Nothing because he always knows who he is. He never learned his human's name for much the same reason. She was like the sun. You know it has a name, but you don't really have to use it. The sun is just there.
00:02:48
Speaker
Those happy days went on forever, at least as far as he could tell. Dogs experience lots of forevers. Time for them is slow and slippery, and they can live in a moment for as long as they want, provided nothing big changes, and nothing changed for Soda Pop and his people for a long, long time.
House Tensions Rise
00:03:08
Speaker
At some point, the humans started fighting. First a little here and there, then almost all the time. They weren't real fights, of course. More the kind of loud display that dogs use when they have a dispute but don't want to hurt each other. But they made the house feel tense, and that made Soda Pop worried. He started to feel like he had a stomach ache all the time. He clung to his human, but she started leaving the apartment at unexpected times, always without him, so that he only had Lara to be with.
00:03:38
Speaker
Lara was nice, but she didn't speak his language like his person did. His person knew all his looks and signals, every little change in his body language. Lara was much more difficult to communicate with. And she didn't play with the toys right. She didn't seem to care about toys at all in those days.
A Sudden Change
00:03:57
Speaker
And then, one day, his human was gone. Soda Pop isn't sure exactly when. Dogs aren't good at noticing when things end. He remembers a long hug around that time, uncomfortable and tight. She didn't usually hold him like that, and he whined and struggled until she let him go. Her face was salty, and she sat on the floor for a long time while he tried to clean it off.
00:04:21
Speaker
He's not sure if that was the day she left her much earlier, though. She just wasn't at home for a long time. And then one day, Laura put all the things that smelled like her into boxes and sent them away. And then he knew.
00:04:38
Speaker
Things have been different since then. Not bad, different, just different. Lara is a fine human, and they've come to understand each other better over time. Sodapop loves her, but she's not the son. They both know that.
An Anxious Exploration
00:04:56
Speaker
Here in the woods, Soda Pop's nose begins to fill with that awful, sharp scent he got from the squirrels and from whatever was inside Jake's house. It gets stronger as the trees move closer together. He growls softly as it starts to block out other smells. The barn cat pauses and looks back at him, a long, appraising look. He can't say for sure, but she seems glad that he's uncomfortable here. He hopes that doesn't mean she's tricking him.
00:05:23
Speaker
Familiarity prickles at the back of Soda Pop's brain. He's been here before. Was the smell this strong that time? He can't remember clearly. He's pretty sure he came here with Laura and Jake, though. He'd found the sweater, then. It's scent piercing through this sharp mush like a beacon. But nothing smells like that now. It's all just bad.
00:05:44
Speaker
Sodapop pushes past the cat, through a little tangle of underbrush, and sees a large clearing full of dry, lifeless dirt. Yes, this is where he came with Lara. It's not a good place. As he steps up to the edge of the clearing, the sharp smell disappears. In fact, all smells disappear. Sodapop freezes. He sniffs intently. He smells nothing.
00:06:09
Speaker
You have to understand, there's always something to smell. Sometimes one scent masks another or a nose gets overwhelmed, but there's always something. Even when all the other senses fail, there's a scent. Except in this place, right now. The non-smell wraps around from all directions and soon he can't tell where he came from or where he's going. The forest might as well be empty. His own odor goes away. Maybe he's gone too.
00:06:38
Speaker
Sodapop begins to tremble. He doesn't know what to do. What do you do with the absence of things? Do you bark at it? Hide from it? It feels like if there's nothing to smell, then there's nothing he can do. The cat emerges from the brush somewhere in the middle of this little crisis.
Navigating the Scentless World
00:06:57
Speaker
When she sees Sodapop shaking, she lets out a soft, surprisingly high-pitched meow.
00:07:03
Speaker
The sound acts as an anchor, pulling soda pop back into the world. It's getting very dark now, but when he turns his head to the side, he can just see the cat's outline against the trees beside them. She might be the only real thing in the world.
00:07:21
Speaker
Soda Pop isn't quite sure what happens next. Maybe the cat, with her expanded pupils, can see more. He just notices that the dead dirt takes on a shifting, churning quality. Long, dark streaks appear like the fingers of a mole, seeking the best path. Then slowly, almost imperceptibly, something bulges toward the surface.
00:07:44
Speaker
He can't make out what it is, but it seems familiar somehow. He feels like he's trying to access an old, old memory. Something he never actually experienced, but has carried in his blood from his mother's mother's mother. A bit of knowledge that only lives in his oldest bones.
00:08:01
Speaker
Then suddenly, squirrels leap down from trees all around the dead clearing. He can't be sure, but they look like the bad squirrel from earlier. Fur a little too dark, eyes a little too bright. They chitter and weave, and to soda pop it feels like he's hearing them from underwater. As their paws hit the dirt, their scent disappears. Together with the darkness, this makes them nearly invisible to a dog like soda pop. He shivers again and whines softly under his breath.
00:08:30
Speaker
Beside him, the barn cat's tail twitches. The squirrels chatter and run in the dirt. Sodapop can only see shadows, but the ones he sees undulate strangely, as if the terrain is changing shape in front of him. All at once, he gets the feeling that the squirrels are doing something important here. The cat hisses softly, but he doesn't look away. There is something precious here, something that shouldn't be left of squirrels, if he can just get a little bit closer.
00:08:58
Speaker
As he lifts a paw to step into the dirt, the barn cat bites him on the tail hard. Soda Pop yelps and staggers backward into the brush. He whirls around to face the cat. Her hair is all on end, her tail puffed up to at least twice its size. She's not looking at him though. She's staring back at the clearing, her eyes wide. Soda Pop follows her gaze just in time to spot a line of dark squirrels.
Squirrels Defy Nature
00:09:23
Speaker
Heads all turned in his direction, bodies tensed for a fight.
00:09:29
Speaker
The cat sprints off into the bushes, away from this horrible place, and Soda Pop follows close behind her. Behind them, a chittering wail floats out of the squirrel mob, an eerie sound that only barely remembers it's supposed to be a rodent's cry.
00:09:44
Speaker
Forest smells rush back in, much to Soda Pop's relief. He knows the squirrels are close behind, dozens of them, the sharp scent arcing off them like lightning. He forces himself to focus on the cat, who's surprisingly agile given her bulk. She darts under bushes, springboards sideways off of tree trunks.
00:10:01
Speaker
There's no real strategy here, just a wild, frenzied race. Sodapop struggles to keep her in sight as he also bounces over logs, slips down through hollows, whooshes past the ferns. At the foot of an old Douglas fir tree, he spies a place where the dirt has fallen away from the roots, creating a small pocket.
00:10:19
Speaker
It may not be an escape, but it would leave him guarded on three sides if he has to make a stand. The barn cat clocks it too and they zip into it at nearly the same time. Their soft bodies wedge together into the back corner of the hollow. They're both breathing hard.
00:10:35
Speaker
Just then, they hear an owl. The sound stops the squirrels, who come to a halt and turn their glittering eyes toward the sky. Sodapop hears the owl shift its flight and prepare to dive. Maybe it doesn't know about bad squirrels. Maybe it thinks this mass of rodents will make an easy meal. Whatever its reason, it swoops.
00:10:58
Speaker
Instead of scattering, the squirrels turn their heads as one to watch the owl's descent. They're not afraid. If anything, they seem excited. Hungry. As the owl's claws come within range of its intended victim, the pack of squirrels screams. The weird rodents leap into the sky, climbing over each other in a squirming tower of tails and claws.
00:11:21
Speaker
In an instant, they swarm the owl, first pulling down its talons, then covering its entire body. There's a confusion of screams and growls, and then it's over. The owl is dead. Sodapop knows this is wrong. Squirrels don't hunt, and they certainly don't do it in packs.
00:11:39
Speaker
What's more, they definitely don't eat other animals. But these abominations don't hesitate. They fall upon their former predator and devour it. They eat every sinew, bone and feather. Within seconds, the owl is just gone.
Instincts in Question
00:11:58
Speaker
Sodapop wants to stay in his hiding spot forever, whining and shaking. But the barn cat taps him on the nose and then pads soundlessly out of their place and into the brush. Sodapop hesitates. Nothing about this makes sense. The owl should have taken a squirrel or missed it, and the other squirrels should run for cover. Sodapop should pick out a straggler and try to catch it himself. Or he should chase the squirrels off and see if there's any owl meat left.
00:12:25
Speaker
The sensible parts of him say that he can still fulfill this last part of the chain, but then maybe if squirrels don't act like squirrels, he shouldn't act like a dog. And so he turns away from prey, and prey of prey, and follows a cat into the tall grass.
Episode Wrap-Up
00:12:52
Speaker
Thank you for listening to The Tale of Sodapop Part 2. This episode was written, edited, and narrated by Julie Saunders. The role of Sodapop was played by Archie. The Barn Cat was played by Lulu. Music for this episode was provided by Epidemic Sound. Please see the show notes for all titles and composers.
00:13:13
Speaker
If you want the rest of the story right now, it's available at Patreon. That's patreon.com slash believerpodcast. Learn more about Patreon and other ways to support the show at believerpodcast.com slash support. Part three will be out next Tuesday. Until then, please take care of yourself. Your best is still ahead of you.