Flash Fiction #4: The Class Pets

Note: You may recognize this story from days of yore.  I did some fictionalizing of the tale for my flash fiction class.  Please read it if you feel like it.

Standing around at Theo and Vincent's place. As in Van Gogh.  They'll probably be home soon. 

    Dwarf hamsters prefer to live alone, and I knew that, but for some reason I bought two. My class voted on names and because kids are not great at naming pets, the dwarf hamsters became known as Salt and Pepper. 

     From day one, Salt and Pepper fought viciously. Their tank was like a miniature Roman Colosseum. I feared that the kids would witness severed bloody hamster limbs stuck to the tank walls during the school day.

    After a week, I righted the problem by heading back to PetWorld for a second habitat set up - tank, cedar shavings, water bottle, running wheel, food bowl. 

     The kids sat near me on the rug for Salt's Moving Day. Salt lashed out when I reached into the tank. Bella saw my cowering fear and ran to the tank to grab up Salt. Salt did bite her, but the bite barely broke the skin. I loved Bella. The kid was fearless.

     I wanted to clean Pepper's tank to give her a new lease on life, so Bella put Pepper into the small pet carrier I had also purchased at PetWorld. Like Salt, Pepper put up a fuss, snarling and biting. I hoped Bella would not talk about the hamster bites with her parents. 

     With Salt safely in the carrier, I was ready to empty the tank when Bella whispered, "What is that?" "Please no," I prayed as I stared down at the red, bald, blind baby hamsters squirming in a twisty pile. We counted eight. I wanted to vomit. 

     The next morning, we discovered that Salt had also been pregnant and now had her own litter of seven. The kids were thrilled that we had seventeen class pets. 

     Back at PetWorld, I complained that they had sold me two pregnant hamsters, but the manager explained that they have a strict no return policy. 

     It took some time, but I found homes for the fifteen youngsters. I bought tanks for almost everyone who adopted a hamster, and bags of cedar shavings and wheels and water bottles, but I considered this money well spent. 

     Salt and Pepper, even in their own tanks, continued to bite and act hateful all year long. The kids loved them anyway, but I never warmed to them. When summer vacation approached, Anna Grubb's mom offered to take them off my hands. I gratefully supplied the Grubbs with extra bags of food and cedar shavings and a new hamster ball. 

     Room 200 has a tarantula named Harriet now. Peaceful and fascinating to watch, Harriet prefers to live alone.