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102 pages

English

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Like Aesop's Fables and Orwell's Animal Farm, The Maze is populated with animal characters who, in their words and actions, reveal truths about human nature. In The Woods, a very popular, clever, and ambitious rat named Sniff-who commands a pack of deputy rats known as The Five-intends to replace the aging leader, Owl, when he retires on election day in two weeks. As a famous athlete of the air in his youth, Owl has established The Tradition of Wings. In his speeches to the animals, Sniff-an assistant to Owl but already acting as if he's the leader-promises to establish what he calls "The Kingdom of Sharing," in which rats will be "leaders" and all other animals will be "followers." Opposing Sniff's rise to power are two winged animals-a well-known poet hawk, Wing, and his studious friend, Butterfly-and Claws, a young, robust, and competitive squirrel. The central image of the story is a maze. Sniff has one built ostensibly for community recreation but actually to make money and to display rats' superiority as maze-runners. Other characters in this sometimes-humorous story include Spider, an architect; Snake, a "shady" character; Stub, a mole who assists Sniff; and Frog, an instructor of bug-catching. The Maze is not only about human nature but about animal life in general. It explores necessities of survival such as status and power, altruism and self-interest, the defense of territory, and the conquering of enemies through group cooperation.

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	30 novembre 2020
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781645756491
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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The Maze
A Fable
David Allan Evans
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-11-30
The Maze About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © 1: Once Upon a Time 2: Announcements 3: Uniqueness 4: A Letter from the Possums 5: Morning Maneuvers 6: A Difference of Opinion 7: Dream of the Week 8: A Collaboration 9: The Maze 10: Learning the Way 11: Opening Day 12: One Mad Squirrel 13: Grandpa Possum Tells a Story 14: Number Three’s Secrets 15: Maze Momentum 16: Prove It 17: “Closed for Repairs” 18: Respect vs. Affection 19: The Dream Machine 20: Two Lives 21: The Kingdom of Sharing 22: What Is a Sniff? 23: Delayed Response 24: Temptation 25: First Therapy Session 26: Claws Gets a Second Opinion 27: Yes Yes Yes 28: Report from The Crow 29: Second Therapy Session 30: To Leap or Not to Leap 31: Between Friends 32: What If? 33: Stub Rats on Sniff 34: Enter the Serpent 35: New Woods’ Election Notice 36: Owl’s Last Appearance; the Election 37: Coda: At the Edge of The Meadow
About the Author
David Allan Evans grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. He began college on a football scholarship, and by the time he graduated—majoring in English and minoring in Biology—he was writing poetry and fiction. His interest in literature and natural history began in his teens when his self-educated father recited Shakespeare and spoke often of Darwin and other great observers of animals. The author of nine collections of poems, he was a professor of English and writer in residence at South Dakota State University for many years, as well as a Fulbright Scholar, twice in China, and poet laureate of South Dakota for 14 years.
Dedication
For Jan, and for Shelly, David, and Kari
Copyright Information ©
David Allan Evans (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information
Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Evans, David Allan
The Maze
ISBN 9781645756477 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645756484 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645756491 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020909871
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
1: Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time, a famous old owl lived in a huge oak tree in the center of The Woods. His name was Owl, and he was the leader of all of the animals. In his younger years, he had been not only a great hunter but a superb athlete of the air. He was exceptionally agile—the most agile flier of all—and could swoop through the night without making the slightest sound. If a mouse could have heard him coming (and no mouse could) it would have heard something like the sound of the tiniest feather from the tiniest wren, falling.
And Owl was said to be rich. During his years as leader he had been signing autographs for a fee, and appearing at weekly events, called Appearances, that celebrated his greatness. These events, which took place every Friday evening after work, had become, over time, public meetings, attracting animals from all over The Woods. Recently, however, the old leader had announced his retirement. He would make only three more Appearances—the final one on election day, when a new leader will be chosen—and then fly away into retirement.
Though most of the animals were talkers, Owl’s words were few in number. And yet he was considered wise. “A quiet beak, a wise head” was a saying widely heard in The Woods. Another saying was: “Without words, a lightning bug’s flash says I am here ; without words, Owl’s flight says I am not here .”
Because Owl was so popular, most of the animals had an opinion about his quietness in flight, or terseness as a speaker.
There was a hawk named Wing, an imposing, powerful flier who made a lucrative living as a writer, known mostly for his poetry. Wing had a ceaseless curiosity about all kinds of subjects: science, philosophy, and psychology, for instance. And he had plenty of opinions—often contrary to the daily drift of conversation in The Woods—which he never hesitated to express. He appreciated Owl’s graceful and silent flying, but regarding his terseness, he was known to have said, “Why should an owl or any animal speak if it has so little to say?”
Wing’s best friend was a butterfly named Butterfly, an advanced student of science and philosophy. Like Wing, she was very curious about life in The Woods, and spent much of her time observing, and formulating ideas and theories based on her observations. She would fly around in a seemingly erratic way, as if constantly wafted by a breeze, or perch on a branch, to read and/or make notes. Butterfly enjoyed her quick-flitting, ubiquitous life. Her opinion of Owl’s terseness was based on logic: since he was admired for his silence as a hunter, he assumed that he’d be admired for his silence in other matters.
A large, young, athletic, ambitious red squirrel named Claws lived in the highest branches of The Oak. At times bold, and at times diffident and naive, Claws was a mail carrier, and an aspiring poet. As to his opinion of his famous leader, he believed that because Owl had perfected at least one thing in his life—his silent flying—he deserved to be famous.
The best athlete of The Five—a pack of rat deputies—was Number Three, who would become a teacher and athletic trainer. He was quite independent, though also congenial and sociable, and had a strong need to excel and to encourage excellence in others. Number One was the head-rat of the pack, Number Two was an effective phrase-maker and announcer, and Number Four would become a part-time psychologist. All of The Five had a very favorable opinion of Owl.
The commander of The Five was Sniff, a thinly-built rat with a high-pitched, shrill voice and a habit of sniffing while talking to others (hence his name). Living beneath the spreading roots of The Oak, he was intelligent, self-assured, highly ambitious, and, after Owl, the most popular animal in The Woods. According to a well-known rumor, he had once been injured in a fight with a notorious fox. Sniff made his living as Owl’s spokes-rat, accountant, banker, business partner, speechwriter and speech coach. His overall opinion of Owl’s quietness and terseness was, understandably, very favorable.
Stub, a mole named for his stubby tail, was Sniff’s assistant. He was a very serious animal, a good worker, and had a vivid imagination. There was no reason for Stub not to have a positive opinion of Owl.
There was a chubby spider named Spider, an architect whose intricate web designs were widely admired. She liked to compare Owl’s silence in the air to a spider’s silent launching of filaments to start a web. For her, Owl was a master of what she called the “architecture of flight.” As for Owl’s terseness, Spider assumed that it was simply the result of a limited vocabulary.
Only 34 to 36 rabbit hops from The Oak, and close to The Meadow, there was The Pond, where a bullfrog named Frog lived. An instructor of bug-catching, Frog spent half of his life in the water and half on the bank, and so he had a double point of view about almost everything.
When one day he was asked, “What do you think of Owl’s silence as a flier?” Frog replied: “Good/bad.”
“Why is it good?” asked the questioner.
“Because being soundless enables him to survive easily as a hunter,” said Frog.
“And why is it bad?” asked the questioner.
“Because his prey can’t hear him coming, and so is easily trapped in his sharp talons, and eaten.”
A very long rat snake called Snake, who was said to make a living from shady dealings, probably wouldn’t have cared enough to have an opinion about Owl. The Crow, a brain scientist from The Isle of Crows, had once lived in The Woods and had been one of Owl’s friends. Grandma and Grandpa Possum, who were retired, thought very highly of Owl.
Fox (the one who had had the fight with Sniff) lived at the edge of The Woods. It was said by many that he didn’t have or need a job. Very few of the animals, if any, dared to get close enough to Fox to ask him what he thought of Owl.
Regardless of one’s opinion of the famous leader, there was one fact about him on which all of the animals agreed: though his aging wings had begun to clatter slightly, and he had begun to repeat himself, and could no longer swivel his head completely around on his majestic shoulders, he was still known as The Woods’ most distinguished embodiment of The Great Tradition of Wings.
It was an early Friday evening in the fall. A good-sized crowd—essentially the same one week after week—had gathered at The Oak for an Appearance. The first item of business was the collection. This evening the money would go to the Owl Retirement Fund. The Five moved through the crowd quickly with their collection cups. When they were finished, Number One took the money to The Hole, Owl’s home in The Oak.
After several more minutes, Owl stepped out of The Hole and was standing on The Big Limb, with his microphone, ready to speak to the applauding crowd below. In a rigid row in front, like sentries, stood The Five, their teeth showing. There were many other rats too, along with raccoons, porcupines, minks, frogs, sparrows, turtle doves in nearby trees, and a small flock of blackbirds hovering in the air over The O