A Change is as Good as a Rest (3)
The first week was a pure nightmare and I, the narrator am surprised that none of them gave up. Each of them was prouder than the other and I suppose that is what maintained it.
Ms. Bunny thought she had got the best deal until she got a bad case of the runs. I guess it was due to the fact that she wasn´t used to only eating insects and her body flushed out the overdose of proteins. She dreamed of carrots at night and sometimes she even woke up with a lettuce leaf sticking out of her mouth. She must have been sleepwalking and sleep-eating by the look of things. She didn´t tell the others this.
Ms. Fox was in agony. Strawberries gave her some satisfaction as the colour of them reminded her of meat but the sweetness turned her stomach. She was hungry all the time. Being nocturnal she couldn´t break the habit of eating at night so she would creep into the farmer´s vegetable fields at night and try to fill her tummy. She was surprised once or twice to see Ms. Bunny there too, nibbling away on something green. She often mocked her for her lack of willpower. Ms. Bunny just ignored her.
Then one night in the vegetable patch Ms. Fox realised, after mocking Ms. Bunny that she ignored her because she was asleep. It dawned on her that she could easily have eaten Ms. Bunny right then and there, but she wasn´t in the habit of eating little animals she was on friendly terms with. She liked Ms. Bunny´s silliness.
The start of the second week was worse than the first. Ms. Fox got the runs too. Her body never ever had to try and digest so much fruit and so many vegetables. She was still hungry. Meanwhile Ms. Frog was wasting away. Hers was the most difficult task. She didn´t get the runs because she just didn´t eat. At first she had thought she had the easiest task. Catching flies couldn´t be more difficult than catching small animals. She started with small vermin such as shrews and mice. She would jump near them wait and then throw her tongue at them, trying to drag them towards her mouth. The response was humiliating.
“Hey, stop licking me!” yelled one shrew. “Get that slimy tongue of yours away!” shouted a mouse. They proved to be very contrary creatures.
She jumped on them and tried biting them with her toothless mouth. They just got annoyed and one or two even bit her rubbery legs.
“Leave murder to the professionals, even if you got classes from Ms. Fox you still couldn´t kill us.” said an old rat.